2020 in books
Jan. 1st, 2021 01:57 pm2019 meme
How many books read in 2019: In an unexpected continued downward trend, a mere 83. Maybe it was that I listened to so many podcasts?
Fiction:Nonfiction:Other breakdown:
Nonfiction (both academic and otherwise): 43
Other (mixed content lit mags, lyric poetry, ??): 5
Fiction (novels, novellas, short stories, narrative poetry, playscripts): 30 - and absolutely none of them eaudiobooks (that's definitely where the podcasts won)
Demographic breakdown of authors:
15 by solo male authors/editors or collaborating all-male teams: 33
15 assorted (including mixed gender editing teams, nonbinary solo authors or editors, men editing medieval women authors, etc): 8
Which leaves works by solo or collaborating female authors, or headed up by female editors: 43 (some fuzziness as usual; I counted Bornstein her and Jack Monroe above, but conceivably they both might have preferred the other way around)
I did less well on POC/ethnic minority authors this year (under 20%), AND fewer authors I know to be trans/nonbinary/some flavour of genderqueer (the latter surprised me, but because I count stats by lead editor not contributing author for collections like QueerStories, that's how it shakes out).
Not a good year for reading goals or even vague intentions, all round. Ho hum.
Favourite Book Read, subdivided:
Non-fiction for personal interest: I only have five to choose from here, and none of them I utterly loved. I think Bornstein's 'Gender Outlaw' wins, because while the memoir/analytic parts weren't outstanding the playscript included WAS, absolutely.
Academic reading: That's a difficult choice, as I have a fair few Chaucer adaptations to deal with as well as secondary lit. I think Spengler's 'Literary Spin-Offs' book has the biggest impact on me, Harris' 'Obscene Pedagogies' was the most fun non-fiction, and 'Sometimes We Tell The Truth' the most fun adaptation.
Fiction for fun: Lots of things I liked but didn't astoundingly love, again. I think Nina Maclaughlin's Wake, Siren might have packed the biggest punch.
Least Favourite: Jost's 'Chaucer's Humour' was the most tedious, but it WAS useful. I think my final read of the year, Kwana Jackson's 'Real Men Knit' might be my lowest rated of the year, but it feels off to say it's my least favourite - I haven't sorted out my review yet because the warmth and draw-in factor was so strong compared to, well, the messy execution.
Oldest book read: Excluding primary sources for work, I guess that would be one of the Shakespeare plays for read-throughs hosted by![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wildeabandon. Excluding the early modern plays, it might have been Heidi.
Newest book read: I think that's Slippery Creatures, by KJ Charles. Seems to be the only 2020 release I read!
Longest Book Title: I think that's 'The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book'
Shortest Title: Seems to be 'Heidi'.
How many re-reads? Well, my books read count just went up when I discovered I hadn't logged a bunch of primary source re-reads, including the Canterbury Damn Tales themselves. Twelve re-reads, it turns out. Two of those were re-reads *within* the year (Ibn Battutah and Patience Agbabi).
Most books read by one author in the year?: That would be Geoffrey bloody Chaucer.
Any in translation? Only academic primary sources this year.
How many were from the library? 27, which is more than last year but also far fewer than I have actually BORROWED from the library.
How many books read in 2019: In an unexpected continued downward trend, a mere 83. Maybe it was that I listened to so many podcasts?
Fiction:Nonfiction:Other breakdown:
Nonfiction (both academic and otherwise): 43
Other (mixed content lit mags, lyric poetry, ??): 5
Fiction (novels, novellas, short stories, narrative poetry, playscripts): 30 - and absolutely none of them eaudiobooks (that's definitely where the podcasts won)
Demographic breakdown of authors:
15 by solo male authors/editors or collaborating all-male teams: 33
15 assorted (including mixed gender editing teams, nonbinary solo authors or editors, men editing medieval women authors, etc): 8
Which leaves works by solo or collaborating female authors, or headed up by female editors: 43 (some fuzziness as usual; I counted Bornstein her and Jack Monroe above, but conceivably they both might have preferred the other way around)
I did less well on POC/ethnic minority authors this year (under 20%), AND fewer authors I know to be trans/nonbinary/some flavour of genderqueer (the latter surprised me, but because I count stats by lead editor not contributing author for collections like QueerStories, that's how it shakes out).
Not a good year for reading goals or even vague intentions, all round. Ho hum.
Favourite Book Read, subdivided:
Non-fiction for personal interest: I only have five to choose from here, and none of them I utterly loved. I think Bornstein's 'Gender Outlaw' wins, because while the memoir/analytic parts weren't outstanding the playscript included WAS, absolutely.
Academic reading: That's a difficult choice, as I have a fair few Chaucer adaptations to deal with as well as secondary lit. I think Spengler's 'Literary Spin-Offs' book has the biggest impact on me, Harris' 'Obscene Pedagogies' was the most fun non-fiction, and 'Sometimes We Tell The Truth' the most fun adaptation.
Fiction for fun: Lots of things I liked but didn't astoundingly love, again. I think Nina Maclaughlin's Wake, Siren might have packed the biggest punch.
Least Favourite: Jost's 'Chaucer's Humour' was the most tedious, but it WAS useful. I think my final read of the year, Kwana Jackson's 'Real Men Knit' might be my lowest rated of the year, but it feels off to say it's my least favourite - I haven't sorted out my review yet because the warmth and draw-in factor was so strong compared to, well, the messy execution.
Oldest book read: Excluding primary sources for work, I guess that would be one of the Shakespeare plays for read-throughs hosted by
wildeabandon. Excluding the early modern plays, it might have been Heidi.Newest book read: I think that's Slippery Creatures, by KJ Charles. Seems to be the only 2020 release I read!
Longest Book Title: I think that's 'The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book'
Shortest Title: Seems to be 'Heidi'.
How many re-reads? Well, my books read count just went up when I discovered I hadn't logged a bunch of primary source re-reads, including the Canterbury Damn Tales themselves. Twelve re-reads, it turns out. Two of those were re-reads *within* the year (Ibn Battutah and Patience Agbabi).
Most books read by one author in the year?: That would be Geoffrey bloody Chaucer.
Any in translation? Only academic primary sources this year.
How many were from the library? 27, which is more than last year but also far fewer than I have actually BORROWED from the library.