Entry tags:
reading in 2021
I've decided I'm going to start tracking my books read (and books TBR/wishlist) on a spreadsheet for 2022. I have found a handy template made by someone better than me at Excel, and tweaked it to better fit my needs. Maybe next year I will have some interesting stats!
For 2021, though, here's the reading wrap-up:
Total books read this year: 144
Nonfiction: 30
Books read posts: Jan-Feb | Mar-Apr | May-Jun | Jul-Aug | Sep-Oct | Nov-Dec
Series I finished this year:*
Nursery Crime Divisions by Jasper Fforde - read 1-2/2
Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden - read 2-3/3
The Divine Cities Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett - read 3/3
Princess Academy Trilogy Shannon Hale - read 1-3/3
Mysterious Benedict Society series by Tristain Lee Stewart - read 3-4/4
Big Bad Wolf series by Charlie Adhara - read 1-5/5
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells - read 6/6
Regency Faerie Tales by Olivia Atwater - read 1-3/3
Professor Turbotnytska mysteries by Maryla Szymiczkowa - read 1-2/2 (that are translated, anyway)
CU Hockey series by Eden Finley & Saxon James - read 3-5/5
*duologies don't count, I've decided, but two books available of an ongoing series do
Cnovels I read this year:
FOG - Man Man He Qi Duo
A Certain Someone - Mu Su Li
Your Scandals Are Way Cuter Than You - Mao Qiu Qiu
Webtoons I read this year:
Make Me Bark - SAGOLD
Inner Beauty - Fairytale
Here U Are - DJun
Under the cut is the books year in review meme, plus highlight the year's reading challenge.
I got bored of my questions from last year and borrowed![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
merit's instead! With two additions. :)
How many books read in 2021?
144
Fiction/Non-Fiction?
Fiction: 114
Non-Fiction: 30 - more than double what I read last year!
Male/Female authors?
Female: 73%
Male: 27%
Most books read by one author this year?
Five by Charlie Adhara, because there were five books in the Big Bad Wolf series! Otherwise, four each by Fredrik Backman, Eden Finley, and by P. Djeli Clark counting the shorter stories.
Favorite new author you discovered this year?
Fredrik Backman, emphatically. P. Djeli Clark, Rebecca Solnit, Freya Marske. Will keep an eye out of new Olivia Atwater, Ashlyn Kane, Ava Reid as well, though they haven't hit insta-read/insta-buy status yet.
Format?
Ebook/online: 55
Physical: 89
How many rereads?
4 only! Two Georgette Heyer, Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, and a reread of the newly rereleased Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho.
Any in translation?
18 (seven of which are cnovels/webtoons, and one of which is manga).
First book of 2021:
Make Me Bark webtoon by SAGOLD. (First novel being The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde.)
Last book of 2021:
Longshadow by Olivia Atwater.
First book you will finish in 2022:
The Winging It Holiday Special by Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James
Favorite?
Always a hard question. It's probably something by Fredrik Backman or Frances Hardinge, as they are two favorite authors from the year. Honestly given how much I was blown away by the prose and the worldbuilding and the deliciously complex relationships, I'll give it to Deeplight by Frances Hardinge. I just remember being overwhelmed with pleasure while reading it, which rarely happens.
Nonfiction shoutout to Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch because it is internet history that I am part of! Fascinating to learn about the eras of internet usage/adoption and corresponding culture, and the explanation on emoji usage as replacement for gestures made things click for me. Very nerdy and delightful, so much so that I'm considering purchasing a copy for myself to keep.
Least favorite?
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. Or The Floating Admiral by Dorothy L. Sayers and like 10 other authors in the Detection Club was as struggle to get through due to the constantly changing style from chapter to chapter, as well as the strung-together plot and racism.
Book I most wanted to love but didn't:
Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell frankly was not as good as the AO3 original story; I didn't mind the additional worldbuilding and politics, but it stripped away the time/nuance in developing the emotional beats of the relationship between the two leads. I didn't like them as much or see them as a good fit as much.
Longest time to finish?
Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day. It was hard to get into it and there was a nearly two week pause at one point.
Oldest?
Three Men in a Boat by Jerone K. Jerome, published in 1889.
Newest?
I read a lot of stuff published in 2021, but Oddball by Sarah Andersen was probably most recently published, in December.
Longest title?
Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudices that Shape What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt.
From page length perspective, Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.
Shortest title?
Shine by Jessica Jung lol.
Shortest reading length: Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells.
Book that most changed my perspective:
How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi really did reframe how to approach race/racism, slicing through the chaotic discourse for me, and where it is important to focus on antiracist policy (over personal feelings and identity). I also really lingered on Rebecca Solnit's essays, specifically her latest collection, Whose Story Is This?, which touches on why we shouldn't rely on heroes as well as the role of anger in serving or impeding our causes, among many other timely and relevant topics. I love her writing.
Book I learned the most from:
Call it a tie between the stories of bad behavior exposed in Bad Blood by John Carreyrou (Theranos) and Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe (Purdue Pharma), which were appalling, educational, and entertaining.
Book that was the trope-iest/most comforting:
The Secret Countess Eva Ibbotson for sure; very wish fulfillment Cinderella story. (The reread of Arabella and Frederica by Georgette Heyer too. Such comfort reads.)
Favorite character:
Murderous Maud probably edges out here just because she was such a delightfully practical elderly lady. But also some staples: Frederica from Heyer and Ilya & Shane from Heated Rivalry.
2021 FFA MEME READING CHALLENGE
General thoughts:
Wow, I read a lot. Pandemic escapism? Just getting more into the swing of things? I more than doubled my nonfiction reading from last year, so that's pretty cool. Figuring out what nonfiction works for me is fun, and makes learning about these things not a chore. Obviously an interesting topic helps (man vs. nature, bad pharma), but I do need it to be written engagingly -- and personal journeys through identity/race can also be deeply moving and instructive.
I would say I branched out more into literary fiction and sci-fi than in the past, where before I mostly stuck with my comfort genre reads: cozy mysteries, romances (regency and m/m), and fantasy (middle grade, YA, and adult). More short story compilations this year too, though those were still largely SFF or magical realism. It's nice to explore some of these familiar genres through different cultural lenses though -- like murder mysteries originally written in Polish or Swedish, SFF by a Black American author set in fantasy!Egypt, magical realism short stories from an Argentinian author, or retold myths and legends from Filipino lore.
I'm really glad that as an adult I'm expanding my reading horizons. There are many things I may not have loved but don't regret reading, and there are many more things I really enjoyed.
Anyway! Onward to 2022. These books coming out in 2022 are already on my To Be Read list:
-The Maid by Nita Prose (January 2022, mystery/thriller)
-Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan (January 2022, YA fantasy)
-The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (February 2022, YA fantasy)
-When I'm Gone, Look for Me in the East by Quan Berry (February 2022, Asian American lit)
-Disorientation - Elaine Hsieh Chou (March 2022, Asian American lit)
-The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang (March 2022, scifi/fantasy)
-Book of Night by Holly Black (May 2022, fantasy)
-Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe (June 2022, nonfiction)
-The City Inside by Samit Basu (June 2022, scifi/fantasy)
-Juniper and Thorn - Ava Reid (June 2022, fantasy)
...and yet more books on my To Be Read list: updated November 2021 and continually growing. It's all going to migrate to this new spreadsheet tracker, which is gonna be color coded and great! And hopefully contain everything in one place instead of, like, 10 notebooks and DW posts.
For 2021, though, here's the reading wrap-up:
Total books read this year: 144
Nonfiction: 30
Books read posts: Jan-Feb | Mar-Apr | May-Jun | Jul-Aug | Sep-Oct | Nov-Dec
Series I finished this year:*
Nursery Crime Divisions by Jasper Fforde - read 1-2/2
Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden - read 2-3/3
The Divine Cities Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett - read 3/3
Princess Academy Trilogy Shannon Hale - read 1-3/3
Mysterious Benedict Society series by Tristain Lee Stewart - read 3-4/4
Big Bad Wolf series by Charlie Adhara - read 1-5/5
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells - read 6/6
Regency Faerie Tales by Olivia Atwater - read 1-3/3
Professor Turbotnytska mysteries by Maryla Szymiczkowa - read 1-2/2 (that are translated, anyway)
CU Hockey series by Eden Finley & Saxon James - read 3-5/5
*duologies don't count, I've decided, but two books available of an ongoing series do
Cnovels I read this year:
FOG - Man Man He Qi Duo
A Certain Someone - Mu Su Li
Your Scandals Are Way Cuter Than You - Mao Qiu Qiu
Webtoons I read this year:
Make Me Bark - SAGOLD
Inner Beauty - Fairytale
Here U Are - DJun
Under the cut is the books year in review meme, plus highlight the year's reading challenge.
I got bored of my questions from last year and borrowed
merit's instead! With two additions. :)How many books read in 2021?
144
Fiction/Non-Fiction?
Fiction: 114
Non-Fiction: 30 - more than double what I read last year!
Male/Female authors?
Female: 73%
Male: 27%
Most books read by one author this year?
Five by Charlie Adhara, because there were five books in the Big Bad Wolf series! Otherwise, four each by Fredrik Backman, Eden Finley, and by P. Djeli Clark counting the shorter stories.
Favorite new author you discovered this year?
Fredrik Backman, emphatically. P. Djeli Clark, Rebecca Solnit, Freya Marske. Will keep an eye out of new Olivia Atwater, Ashlyn Kane, Ava Reid as well, though they haven't hit insta-read/insta-buy status yet.
Format?
Ebook/online: 55
Physical: 89
How many rereads?
4 only! Two Georgette Heyer, Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid, and a reread of the newly rereleased Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho.
Any in translation?
18 (seven of which are cnovels/webtoons, and one of which is manga).
First book of 2021:
Make Me Bark webtoon by SAGOLD. (First novel being The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde.)
Last book of 2021:
Longshadow by Olivia Atwater.
First book you will finish in 2022:
The Winging It Holiday Special by Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James
Favorite?
Always a hard question. It's probably something by Fredrik Backman or Frances Hardinge, as they are two favorite authors from the year. Honestly given how much I was blown away by the prose and the worldbuilding and the deliciously complex relationships, I'll give it to Deeplight by Frances Hardinge. I just remember being overwhelmed with pleasure while reading it, which rarely happens.
Nonfiction shoutout to Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch because it is internet history that I am part of! Fascinating to learn about the eras of internet usage/adoption and corresponding culture, and the explanation on emoji usage as replacement for gestures made things click for me. Very nerdy and delightful, so much so that I'm considering purchasing a copy for myself to keep.
Least favorite?
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. Or The Floating Admiral by Dorothy L. Sayers and like 10 other authors in the Detection Club was as struggle to get through due to the constantly changing style from chapter to chapter, as well as the strung-together plot and racism.
Book I most wanted to love but didn't:
Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell frankly was not as good as the AO3 original story; I didn't mind the additional worldbuilding and politics, but it stripped away the time/nuance in developing the emotional beats of the relationship between the two leads. I didn't like them as much or see them as a good fit as much.
Longest time to finish?
Death at Greenway by Lori Rader-Day. It was hard to get into it and there was a nearly two week pause at one point.
Oldest?
Three Men in a Boat by Jerone K. Jerome, published in 1889.
Newest?
I read a lot of stuff published in 2021, but Oddball by Sarah Andersen was probably most recently published, in December.
Longest title?
Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudices that Shape What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt.
From page length perspective, Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.
Shortest title?
Shine by Jessica Jung lol.
Shortest reading length: Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells.
Book that most changed my perspective:
How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi really did reframe how to approach race/racism, slicing through the chaotic discourse for me, and where it is important to focus on antiracist policy (over personal feelings and identity). I also really lingered on Rebecca Solnit's essays, specifically her latest collection, Whose Story Is This?, which touches on why we shouldn't rely on heroes as well as the role of anger in serving or impeding our causes, among many other timely and relevant topics. I love her writing.
Book I learned the most from:
Call it a tie between the stories of bad behavior exposed in Bad Blood by John Carreyrou (Theranos) and Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe (Purdue Pharma), which were appalling, educational, and entertaining.
Book that was the trope-iest/most comforting:
The Secret Countess Eva Ibbotson for sure; very wish fulfillment Cinderella story. (The reread of Arabella and Frederica by Georgette Heyer too. Such comfort reads.)
Favorite character:
Murderous Maud probably edges out here just because she was such a delightfully practical elderly lady. But also some staples: Frederica from Heyer and Ilya & Shane from Heated Rivalry.
2021 FFA MEME READING CHALLENGE
JAN | The Pandemic Year - A medical thriller, or a book about medicine
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou - The story of Theranos. Hot damn, it was hard to feel bad for anyone in this book except for the average person relying on these blood tests for health decisions and some of the employees who were trying to do good. Really interested in seeing the verdict of this ongoing court case.
FEB | Macavity/Ratigan - A genre you normally wouldn't read
The Guest List by Lucy Foley - Modern thriller/mystery where I prefer British Golden Age stuff or cozy mysteries. I hated almost everyone in this book, figured out the twist halfway through, and wish there had been more murders.
MAR | 100+ Comments of Terror - A book set in the Arctic, or a book about an expedition
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo - There was an expedition to search for the tigers, briefly! Then they found them. Lovely.
APR | Sexy John Oliver Rat - A book about animals, or a book with a character called Oliver or Olivia
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome Powell - Famously known for the dog, also in the boat. I might have enjoyed this more if I could better visualize the English countryside and the Thames.
MAY | A Feud in Wolf Kink Erotica - A book involving wolves, the legal system, or ripped from the headlines
The Wolf at the Door by Charlie Adhara - Werewolf cops!
JUN | Showerhead Wank - A comedy of manners, an etiquette manual, or a book where someone wanks or has sex
Miss Manners Minds Your Business by Judith Martin - Etiquette in the workplace.
JUL | My Shithead is What You Are! - A book with profanity in it, or a book about themes of censorship
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman - He's a grouchy old man who wants to be left alone.
AUG | Yep, Still Indoors - A book involving travel, or being stuck in one place
How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang - Lots of traveling through the Western U.S. during the 1800s gold rush.
SEP | Socktopus, Maybe? - A book where someone has a secret identity, or a book about aquatic animals
Miss Billings Treads the Boards by Carla Kelly - He was a secret earl, and she was not the governess.
OCT | Politics is Sequestered - A book involving politics or politicians
Tommy Cabot Was Here by Cat Sebastian - His whole family's politicians.
NOV | It's Canon in Spanish - A book originally written in Spanish, or set in Latin America
Things We Lost in the Fire by Marian Enriquez - Lovely set of sociopolitical short stories featuring magical realism and horror.
DEC | Apple is a One Syllable Word - A book about language/linguistics/etc., or a book with a two syllable title
The Subversive Copy Editor by Carol Fisher Saller - How to maintain good working relationships as a copy editor, and how to approach language and style.
General thoughts:
Wow, I read a lot. Pandemic escapism? Just getting more into the swing of things? I more than doubled my nonfiction reading from last year, so that's pretty cool. Figuring out what nonfiction works for me is fun, and makes learning about these things not a chore. Obviously an interesting topic helps (man vs. nature, bad pharma), but I do need it to be written engagingly -- and personal journeys through identity/race can also be deeply moving and instructive.
I would say I branched out more into literary fiction and sci-fi than in the past, where before I mostly stuck with my comfort genre reads: cozy mysteries, romances (regency and m/m), and fantasy (middle grade, YA, and adult). More short story compilations this year too, though those were still largely SFF or magical realism. It's nice to explore some of these familiar genres through different cultural lenses though -- like murder mysteries originally written in Polish or Swedish, SFF by a Black American author set in fantasy!Egypt, magical realism short stories from an Argentinian author, or retold myths and legends from Filipino lore.
I'm really glad that as an adult I'm expanding my reading horizons. There are many things I may not have loved but don't regret reading, and there are many more things I really enjoyed.
Anyway! Onward to 2022. These books coming out in 2022 are already on my To Be Read list:
-The Maid by Nita Prose (January 2022, mystery/thriller)
-Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan (January 2022, YA fantasy)
-The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh (February 2022, YA fantasy)
-When I'm Gone, Look for Me in the East by Quan Berry (February 2022, Asian American lit)
-Disorientation - Elaine Hsieh Chou (March 2022, Asian American lit)
-The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang (March 2022, scifi/fantasy)
-Book of Night by Holly Black (May 2022, fantasy)
-Rogues by Patrick Radden Keefe (June 2022, nonfiction)
-The City Inside by Samit Basu (June 2022, scifi/fantasy)
-Juniper and Thorn - Ava Reid (June 2022, fantasy)
...and yet more books on my To Be Read list: updated November 2021 and continually growing. It's all going to migrate to this new spreadsheet tracker, which is gonna be color coded and great! And hopefully contain everything in one place instead of, like, 10 notebooks and DW posts.