Reading Wrap-Up for 2007
Well, here’s the final list for the year. I may finish reading Arthur and George and listening to All She Ever Wanted before the 31st, so I’ll add them if I do. Right now, the count stands at 111. It was a very good year, book-wise. I read a lot of five-star books. I guess that’s not surprising, since I re-read half of the Harry Potter series and completed my goal of reading all of Austen’s works. (Well, all that she finished anyway.) And there was a relatively small number of stinkers. I can give credit to that for very good suggestions from Michelle, my sisters, and my fellow book-bloggers.
As I look over the titles, I noticed a couple of things. I read more classics this year, and I enjoyed most of them. (A Man Called Thursday was a notable exception.) I also noticed that I need to read more non-fiction. I try to read one non-fiction work for every two fiction works, but I don’t think I succeeded. I’ll try for more non-fiction next year.
How did your reading year stack up? Were you pleased? If you compiled a list, either of what you read in 2007 or what you plan to read in 2008, please leave me a link – I love reading other people’s book lists.
Rating system:
1 star – Terrible
2 stars – Just Okay
3 stars – Good
4 stars – Very Good
5 stars – Brilliant, Wonderful, Excellent, Fabulous
5 star books:
Jane Eyre
Education of a Wandering Man
A Girl From Yamhill
An Irish Country Doctor
I Capture the Castle
Fahrenheit 451
The Collected Poems of Wendell Berry, 1957-1982
To America: Personal Reflections of an Historian
Eragon
To Kill a Mockingbird
That Distant Land: The Collected Stories
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
River Rising
Night
The Looking Glass Wars
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Emma
Sense and Sensibility
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Persuasion
One True Thing
Summer of Light
Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath
The Trouble with Poetry: and Other Poems
Number the Stars
Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself
Lost in a Good Book
The Road
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
The Cure
The Book Thief
All She Ever Wanted
4 star books:
The Duel
The Children of Men
Inkheart
The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction
Great American Women’s Fiction: Ten Unabridged Classics
Quaker Summer
Bridge to Terabithia
Super Mom Saves the World
My Own Two Feet: A Memoir
Take Joy: A Writer’s Guide to Loving the Craft
The Breakdown Lane
A Tale of Two Cities
The Confessions of Max Tivoli
I Went to Vassar For This?
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader
Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community: Eight Essays
The Living End
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
Return to Me
What the Dead Know
Echoes
The Copper Beech
The Turn of the Screw
Mansfield Park
In Search of Eden
The Eyre Affair
Sisterchicks in Gondolas
Interred With Their Bones
Austenland
The Camel Bookmobile
The Teacher’s Funeral : A Comedy in Three Parts
I’ll Watch the Moon
Rules
Nineteen Minutes
Abide with Me
post
Unnatural Causes
Kristin Lavransdatter II: The Wife
The Book Without Words
The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography
Inkspell
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
The Well of Lost Plots
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
The Warden
The Mother-Daughter Book Club
Jotham’s Journey: A Storybook for Advent
Arthur and George
3 star books:
Bibliotopia Or, Mr. Gilbar’s Book of Books & Catch-all of Literary Facts And Curiosities
An Irish Christmas Feast: The Best of John B. Keane
Proverbs and Sayings of Ireland
Skylight Confessions
Redemption
The Collected Works of Emily Dickinson – 3 stars
Writers on Writing, Volume II: More Collected Essays from The New York Times
The Nanny Diaries
The Tales of Chekhov, Volume 1
Immersed in Verse: An Informative, Slightly Irreverent & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet’s Life
The Dragon’s Eye: The Dragonology Chronicles, Volume 1
The Last Girls
Nerve Damage
Fondling Your Muse: Infallible Advice From a Published Author to the Writerly Aspirant
Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Love to Eat, Hate to Eat: Breaking the Bondage of Destructive Eating Habits
Plainsong
Northanger Abbey
The Jane Austen Book Club
The Traveler
To My Dearest Friends
Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within
Playing for Pizza
Enzymes and Your Health by Howard W. Fisher – 3 stars – related post
A Cold Day for Murder
On Chesil Beach
2 star books:
Happiness Sold Separately
Famous Writers School
Break No Bones
The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare
The Abstinence Teacher
Books I Started but Didn’t Finish:
Black Girl, White Girl
God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It
A Spot of Bother
Merry Christmas! I love your list. I think I’ll print it out as a reference for me when I have trouble thinking of books to read. You inspire me too, to take reading more seriously. Lately, I just have gotten away from reading as much as I used to.
I have to say though I thought the Jane Austen Book Club was just awful! I would have given it 1 or 2 stars. The only thing good about it was the appendix of quotes!
December 26th, 2007 at 5:46 amNice list! I wish I’d kept a list of everything I read last year … Maybe that will be a new practice this coming year.
December 26th, 2007 at 8:40 amWow! That is quite a list! I’ll be adding some of yours to my 2008 TBR list!
December 29th, 2007 at 6:50 amVisiting from Semicolon’s Saturday Review–
SmallWorld
Great list. I’ve read quite a few of the same books and have added some to my endless TBR list. I’ve enjoyed reading your reviews over the past year.
December 29th, 2007 at 12:23 pmI like how you organized the list by number of stars. I may start a new tradition on my blog this year! Thanks for the idea.
December 29th, 2007 at 12:29 pmFaith – I think it helped that I realized that The Jane Austen Book Club was not a plot-driven novel. It doesn’t have your typical beginning-middle-end structure – more of a “year in the life” character study. But I know many people who didn’t like it.
Sara – I really liked going through this list – ir brought back some good reading memories from earlier in the year. Without the list to remind me, then I’m afraid I’d just forget them all.
SmallWorld – thanks for stopping by!
Framed – I enjoy reading your reviews, too!
BookGal – that was new this year – I thought it would give me a quick reference when someone asks for a recommendation of a good book.
December 30th, 2007 at 9:33 amI really liked I Capture the Castle and RIver Rising, too. And I’m plannng to read The Looking Glass Wars soon. At least it’s on the list.
December 30th, 2007 at 3:32 pmI love your lists, Carrie. I have read more varied selections than ever before since I found you!
December 31st, 2007 at 4:05 pmThanks for sharing your list Carrie! I’m amazed you only have 3 books you started and didn’t finish. I have WAY too many to list!
My list is at http://booksandhooks.blogspot.com/2008/01/books-read-in-2007.html
Happy New Year!
January 1st, 2008 at 3:08 pmWow! I am really, really impressed. I know I read a lot of books during 2007, but regrettably, except for the ones I blogged about, I didn’t keep track of them. This inspires me to keep track in 2008!
By the way, other than the Bible, “Jane Eyre” is my favorite book, ever.
January 5th, 2008 at 7:09 pmSherry – I think you’ll like Looking Glass Wars.
Lawanda – glad to hear it!
Eileen – I was pretty lucky this year and almost all of the books I started were worth finishing.
Cindy – Jane Eyre was wonderful – I don’t know why I put off reading it for so long.
January 5th, 2008 at 7:28 pm[...] Gautami tripathy (Nightway)2. gautami tripathy (list of best books read in 2007)3. Carrie K. (Reading Wrap-up 2007)4. Barbara H. (List of books read in 2007)5. Moomin Light (favorite books of 2007)6. Semicolon (12 [...]
January 12th, 2008 at 4:23 pm