47.5
If you’ll recall, when we started this blog, my initial hare-brained scheme was that we would all get in on the wacky internet meme going around at that time – namely, we would each read 50 books in 2005 and write about them. I quickly realized that if I was to have any company here at all, that whole 50 books thing was going to have to go out the window. And it did. So while not really taking it very seriously, I decided to keep track of my books just to see how I would measure up against that arbitrary yardstick. It turns out if I could have squeezed in two-and-a-half more books, I would have been there. If you are interested, here is a link to my 2005 list of books read (not including the half that I couldn’t finish). I can’t imagine reading any more than I did this year. I have no idea what I typically read in a given year, but this felt like substantially more than average. That’s a good thing.
I was checking out some other blogs that I know were working on the 50 books thing, and it is remarkable how many books were read. For example, check out Jessamyn’s stats at Librarian.net. Eighty-six books. And that’s down from last year for her. Jessa at Bookslut hasn’t posted her list yet, but she was way up there months ago when she last posted a number of books read. Neal Pollock, who has a kid, made me feel a little better. He looked like he was going to be close when he last posted a number, and he’s a professional writer. Maybe I’m not such a slacker. (Update: Neal Pollack only made it to 49. I feel better somehow.)
I liked how Jessamyn organized her stats, so I am going to start organizing mine the same way. Here’s what I have for last year:
number of books read in 2005: 47
average read per month: 3.9
average read per week: 0.9
number read in worst month: data not collected
number read in best month: data not collected
percentage by male authors: 74
percentage by female authors: 26
fiction as percentage of total: 74
non-fiction as percentage of total: 26
percentage of total liked: 85
percentage of total ambivalent: 9
percentage of total disliked: 6
A few interesting pieces of info came out of that exercise. I seem to read what I like (or like what I read) most of the time. Good. I may want to try to find more books by women. I am pretty content with my ratio of fiction vs. non-fiction. I suspect that my numbers there will be similar next year.
What I have liked about the blogging experience so far is that I am giving my reading more thought, even though I tend to bounce around a lot as things strike my interest. As a result of the blog, I have thought more about the books as I read them, and they stay with me longer when I am finished reading them. In the past, I have finished a book and put it on the shelf while reaching for the next one. Now, there is the extra step of thinking about the book for a few days while I work on my post. Even if no one reads the post (not many people do) at least I have been made to think through an opinion that I can express to others about what I have read. And that’s been great.
I guess what I’m saying is that this has been a positive experience for me, sharing this book stuff with you guys over the past year. I’ve also enjoyed reading the stuff that the others on our blog team have posted. I got several great recommendations from my fellow contributors. Thanks for playing with me. I’ll renew our domain name, and I plan to be plugging away here in ‘06.
January 2, 2006 10:10 am 
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By Weezie, January 6, 2006 @ 8:31 am
DJ C, I read your posts (a lot of them, anyway). Maybe in ‘06 I’ll put up a few of my own. Already read one book this year — I’m off to a blistering pace.
By DJ Cayenne, January 7, 2006 @ 10:13 am
So you’ve completed a book, eh? Where’s the post on said books? If a book is read and it doesn’t fall in the forest, wait…