Books read in 2017

[luzula]

Since a couple of years back I keep a spreadsheet, partly because I enjoy navel-gazing statistics, partly to have an easily-accessible list in case I want to go back and see what I read, and partly to help me with reading goals. In 2016 my goal was to read fewer American books, in order to push myself to discover other authors. Mostly it resulted in reading more Scandinavian books. In 2017 my goal was to reread more books, which has been an excellent goal that I have enjoyed a lot. In 2018 my goal will be to read more non-fiction--there's lots of non-fiction on my list of books to check out, so I decided to run with that.

Total number of books read (including novel-length fic): 115
Up from 96 last year, no idea why. Maybe less fic reading?

Books by new-to-me authors: 47
Books by authors I'd read before: 68 (this is high because of my rereading goal, though I only reread 30 books so more than half are new books by familiar authors)

Book authors by gender (judged by name, so I guess people could've been misgendered)
Female authors: 68
Male authors: 38
I'm omitting books with lots of authors and ones where I had no idea about gender.

By language read in:
English: 82
Swedish: 31
A bit fewer in Swedish than last year, but then last year I was trying to read fewer American authors.

By original language:
English: 78
Swedish: 24
French: 3
Norwegian: 2
Italian: 1
Spanish: 1
Finnish: 1
German: 1
Chinese: 1

By author's country of origin:
USA: 52
Sweden: 23
UK: 21.5
Norway: 3
France: 3
Canada: 3
Finland: 1
Australia: 1
Poland: 1
Italy: 1
Peru: 1
Germany: 1
China: 1
Jamaica: 0.5
Here you can see the amount of American books bouncing up again; it was down to 31 last year. Interestingly, I'm still reading more Swedish books this year than I was before that year, so that seems to have been a lasting effect.

Genre (roughly; some were hard to categorize):
non-fiction: 26
fantasy: 26
SF: 26
historical: 21.5
YA: 12
romance: 5.5

Nine of the books were graphic novels.
69 out of the 89 fiction books passed the Bechdel test.
30 out of the 115 books were rereads.

Favorite new-to-me books in 2017, in no particular order:
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley (Understated historical M/M romance with intriguing worldbuilding and plot)
The Arrival by Shaun Tan (stunning graphic novel about immigration in a fantastical world)
The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300 BC and Why it Had to Be Reborn by Lucio Russo (about the scientific revolution in the Hellenistic world)
Defending the Earth by Murray Bookchin and Dave Foreman (dialogue between allies with ideological differences)
Known Associates by thingswithwings (amazing Captain America story with genderqueer Steve Rogers)
The Bull Calves by Naomi Mitchison (moving family drama set in 18th century Scotland, with wonderful language)
Reindeer Moon by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (historical novel set in the ice age)
Tillbaka till henne by Sara Lövestam (historical novel about Swedish lesbian suffragettes and about a present day woman who finds their letters)
Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly (delightful fantasy)
Daughter of Mystery and The Mystic Marriage by Heather Rose Jones (lesbian Ruritanian romance with excellent worldbuilding)
New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson (optimistic SF with political and environmental themes)
You Drive Through the Dust by dira (Generation Kill fic with psychic wolf bonds)
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (fantasy based on Russian fairy tale)
The Edge Between the Sand and the Stars by rain_sleet_snow (very good Rey-centric Star Wars fic, now jossed by TLJ)

Sorry, should maybe link to my reviews of them, but I have to go to bed now, and you can find them by journal search if you really want to...

Comments

[calvinahobbes]

I am so impressed with people who read way more books than I do. How do you manage it!?

I would love to read more non-fiction, but I have a terrible streak with them - I never finish. At some point they just begin to lull me to sleep, no matter how interesting I think they really are, and then I abandon them. It's weird.

I am still much too nervous about Known Associates to actually read it. I'm afraid of how much I will love it? Another thing about me that is weird.

[luzula]

Well, I do not watch any TV at all and very few movies? Also I don't have Facebook or a smart phone, and I have half an hour's uninterrupted reading time when I commute to and from work.

It took me years to read Known Associates as well, but that's more because I tend to save up things I'm looking forward to. (Go on and read it, it's so good! : ) )

[calvinahobbes]

That does explain it! What do you do if you are very tired? I find that when I'm very tired from working that's when I don't really have the brain cells to read and I always end up watching TV instead. But maybe that's because I just think of that as an option, and you don't.

I want to have time to get really invested in KA! I thought I would read it during my summer vacation, but then I wasn't in the mood for fic at all. Soooon!

[luzula]

This is maybe uncommon, but reading is much more easy and restful for me than watching TV. (Depending on the book, of course.)