Tuesday 3 January 2012

End of year review 2011 - start of Cannonball IV

New year, new Cannonball Challenge. As reading and blogging 106 books became more of an ardous chore than something I actually enjoyed doing, I will start out by reading and blogging 52 this year. Depending on when I finish that accomplishment, I will then set a new goal for the rest of the year.

Due mostly to a very heavy workload, and more demands from my job than in previous years, 2011 was the year when I got less reading done than since I started keeping track of such things a few years ago.

In total I read 133 books.
I read 111 new books, I read 7 graphic novels/comics collections, and I reread only 15 books. This is a lot more than most people manage, but a lot less than I myself managed only the year before.

My goal for 2012 is therefore to try to limit the degree to which work seems to take over my life, so that I have more time to read, blog, socialize and otherwise do enjoyable things. Reading makes me happy, too much work makes me miserable - hence, it seems sensible to up the amount of the former, and manage my time better so I get less stressed by the latter.

I also attempted to make a Top 10 list of the best books I read in 2011, but it turned into a Top 13 list, as I had too many favourites. In alphabetical order, going by author, here are the reads of 2011 that I enjoyed the most:

The Peach Keeper - Sarah Addison Allen
Fate's Edge - Ilona Andrews
Chime - Franny Billingsley
The Black Hawk - Joanna Bourne
Heart of Steel - Meljean Brook
A Lady's Lesson in Scandal - Meredith Duran
What I Did for A Duke - Julie Anne Long
Unraveled - Courtney Milan
The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss
Attachments - Rainbow Rowell
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Shaffer/Annie Barrows
Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Laini Taylor

All the books were reviewed here on my blog in the past year, so if you're interested in reading a more detailed explanation of why I liked them, use the search function.

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