Review of 2011 Reading

2011 was my first full year of blogging and keeping track of my reading on goodreads.com. I don't know how many books I normally read in a year, but I'm quite proud of the 70 books I read this year. According to goodreads, I read 29,074 pages! I don't know about anyone else, but that seems like a lot of pages!!

I've enjoyed blogging about the books I read this year, although I have fell incredibly behind in my reviews. The end of the semester and the holidays caught up to me and I broke out of the routine of posting about my books shortly after finishing. I want to start up again and finish up reviewing all the books I have left from 2011 and stay on track for 2012.

In terms of my 2011 book challenges, I succeeded rather well! I completed 4 book challenges. From goodreads, I originally challenged myself to read 50 books, but I read 70! Here are my other challenges along with the books I used to complete them:

2011 Chunkster Reading Challenge

I chose the highest level for this challenge- Mor-book-ly Obese - 8 books of 450 pages or more, 3 of which have to be over 750 pages.

 

Books Completed:

1. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - 1088 pages

2. The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova - 592 pages

3. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - 1037 pages

4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - 552 pages

5. Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood - 460 pages

6. The Iliad by Homer - 704 pages

7. The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin - 465 pages

8. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson - 515 pages

9. Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran - 464 pages

10. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky - 667 pages

11. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray - 680 pages

12. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson - 464 pages

13. Elizabeth I by Margaret George - 671 pages

14. Decision Points by George W. Bush - 497 pages

15. The Help by Kathryn Stockett - 544 pages

16. Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu - 528 pages

17. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - 521 pages

18. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - 465 pages

19. The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson - 503 pages

20. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson - 563 pages

21. The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - 752 pages

22. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton - 562 pages

23. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie - 625 pages

24. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson - 630 pages

25. Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV by Karleen Koen - 460 pages

 

 

Off the Shelf Challenge

 

I entered at the Trying level, which was to read 15 TBR books on my book shelves.

Books Completed:

1. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

2. The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories by Leo Tolstoy

3. Human by Michael Gazzaniga

4. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis

5. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

6. The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

7. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

8. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

9. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

10. The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

11. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

12. The Iliad by Homer

13. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky

14. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

15. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

16. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

17. The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

 

 

I entered the first level of this challenge- Master of Trivial Pursuit- which meant I had to read 1 to 3 non-fiction books, each from a different category.

 

Books Completed:
1. Human by Michael Gazzaniga - Science
2. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot - Science/Cultural Studies
3. The Tigress of Forli by Elizabeth Lev - History
4. Traveling with Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor - Travel/Memoir
5. Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution by Holly Tucker - Medical/History
6. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell - Science
7. Bossypants by Tina Fey - Memoir
8. You Are Not Your Brain by Jeffrey Schwartz and Rebecca Gladding - Science/Self-Help
9. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Barlett - Art
10. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson - History
11. Decision Points by George W. Bush - Memoir/Politics
12. Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch - Memoir
13. Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton - Memoir

14. Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard

15. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

16. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

 I exceeded my expectations in all of the challenges. Which means that I now have baseline to judge how I want to handle my book challenges for 2012 :)