Midyear Reflections: January to June 2011

2011 has been an interesting reading year for me. It hasn't exactly been a predictable reading year either! Who could have really predicted that I'd fall in love with mysteries? That I'd become obsessed with authors like Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, and Dorothy Sayers? Who could have guessed that falling in love with a new genre would keep me away from reading middle grade and young adult novels? The good news is that I don't have regrets. I am ALL about reading what I want to read. And my blog reflects that to some degree. It has to be flexible, because I can't stay the same month after month, year after year.

So far, I've read 273 books this year. My lowest month was April with 31 books. My highest month was June with 56 books. Though three months have totals in the fifties (February, March, and June). 139 of those have been library books! 102 of those have been review copies. And 32 of those have been books I've bought myself. I expect to read fewer books in the second half of the year. Though I hope to still reach 365 by the end of the year.

While I kept track of my Bible reading last year, I didn't think to include it directly into my records. I am this year. In the first six months, I've read 307 books of the Bible! (Granted, Philemon, Jude, Obadiah, 2 John, and 3 John are only one chapter apiece. But for all the books that are only a couple of chapters long, there are books like Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Psalms. In other words, while there are some very short books of the Bible, there are also some long ones!)

I've read 144 books for Becky's Book Reviews. I've read 69 books for Young Readers. I've read 60 books for Operation Actually Read Bible. I added in my Bible reading, and the chart reflects my mostly balanced reading life! I am SO happy with these numbers, I am!!! For the first time in almost five years, I've found a way to balance my time with God with my reading time. Part of this was claiming some freedom...I didn't want to HAVE to read a certain number of books per week, per month for this blog. I needed the freedom to say this is my time, my life, I am going to read for me.

Favorite Authors discovered in the past six months:

Agatha Christie: The Mysterious Affair At Styles. Murder on the Orient Express. Murder at the Vicarage. A Miss Marple Mystery. The A.B.C. Murders. (Hercule Poirot). The Body in the Library. (Miss Marple). Five Little Pigs. (Hercule Poirot), A Murder is Announced. 4:50 From Paddington. Cards on the Table. Appointment with Death. At Bertram's Hotel. Cat Among the Pigeons. Sad Cypress. And Then There Were None. The Moving Finger. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. A Caribbean Mystery. The Big Four. Evil Under the Sun. Taken at the Flood. Dead Man's Folly. Nemesis.

Rex Stout: Black Orchids. Silent Speaker. Some Buried Caesar. The Golden Spiders. Death of a Doxy. Three at Wolfe's Door. Too Many Cooks. Fer-de-lance. 

Dorothy Sayers! Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness,  Unnatural Death, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. Strong Poison. Have His Carcase. Gaudy Night. 

Top Ten Books I've Read This Year (So Far)

Strong Poison. Dorothy L. Sayers. 1930/1995. HarperCollins. 272 pages.
Gaudy Night. Dorothy L. Sayers. 1936/1995. HarperCollins. 512 pages. 
The Moving Finger. Agatha Christie. 1942/2007. Black Dog & Leventhal. 208 pages.
Our Mutual Friend. Charles Dickens. 1864/1865. 880 pages.
Divergent. Veronica Roth. 2011. May 2011. HarperCollins. 496 pages.
Kinfolk. Pearl S. Buck. 1945/2004. Moyer Bell. 408 pages.  
Some Buried Caesar. Nero Wolfe Mystery. Rex Stout. 1938. Random House. 288 pages.
The Virginian. Owen Wister. 1902. Penguin Classics. 370 pages.
The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic. Jennifer Trafton. With illustrations by Brett Helquist. 2010. Penguin. 352 pages.
The Golden Spiders. Rex Stout. 1953. Random House. 206 pages.


© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews