Reading Year in Review for 2016

I tried to find a post for my ‘word’ of 2016 but I guess I didn’t end up writing one. I decided my word would be ‘read‘ which seemed more actionable and doable than anything else. If I had chosen ‘run‘ I’m not so sure I would have been very successful. I have yet to figure out a word for 2017 but it may be a phrase instead.

So, here’s my round up of total number of books read for the year and what they were. I was aiming for about 25 books, approximately two a month; let’s see how I did!

In alpha by author:

1. The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron
2. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
3. Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors
4. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
5. A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows by Diana Gabaldon
6. The Space Between by Diana Gabaldon
7. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
8. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
9. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
10. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
11. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
12. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
13. Hiking the Florida Trail: 1,100 Miles, 78 Days, Two Pairs of Boots, and One Heck of an Adventure by Johnny Molloy
14. Me Before You by JoJo Moyes
15. The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
16. The Backyard Parables by Margaret Roach
17. The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz
18. Eligible by Curtis Sittenfield
19. Olive Kitteredge by Elizabeth Strout
20. On a Farther Shore by William Souder
21. The Florida Trail End to End: A Father and His Sons Two and a Half Year Adventure Hiking 1100 Miles Across Florida by Mike Umbarger
22. The Lady Elizabeth by Allison Weir
23. The Care and Management of Lies by Jaqueline Winspear

23, not bad! I probably started at least another 10 books that I either abandoned or put down in the middle of them. I will try to finish some of them next year.

Out of this list I’d say the top three books would be Big Magic, Fire Season, Lab Girl, and oh hell, a fourth book because I cannot leave it out, The Girl on the Train. 11/23 were non-fiction, 12/23 were fiction; I’m a little surprised at the nearly even split because I feel like I tend towards non-fiction these days but maybe I did make a decent effort for fiction.

Next year I would like to make the effort to read more of the books on my bookshelf as well as take the year to re-read the entire Anne of Green Gables series. It’s been a good while since I’ve done that and its time to bond with Anne again. Based on how this year went, I think what I averaged is plausible for next year, too. Some months I barely read anything and other months I read more than two books which evened that spread out. If I listen to more audiobooks instead of podcasts there’s a chance this could up the numbers a little more but we’ll see.

How about you? How much reading did you do? What was your favorite book(s) of the year?