For three years in a row, beginning in 2009, I’ve kept track of the books I’ve read. My goal is simple: read more books than the year before. I started with 26 in 2009, clocked 30 in 2010, and finished 38 last year.
I’d say that all of the books I finished in 2011 are good reads. (That’s mainly because I don’t balk at putting down a book I don’t find compelling in the first few chapters.) A lot of them are great books. But my favorites, by far, are the following:
- The Emerald Atlas
by John Stephens. Adventure, mystery and a fun way to travel through time.
- Moon Over Manifest
by Clare Vanderpool. Totally deserved its Newbery win.
- The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins. I read the trilogy, but this first book is my favorite.
- Mockingbird
by Kathryn Erskine. So much emotion on the page, from the point of view of a character who cannot express it.
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
by Ransom Riggs. Quirky and ingenious use of vintage photographs.
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret
by Brian Selznick. A work of art that drew me in, page after page.
My goal this year is to finish 40 books. That’s roughly 3 1/2 books per month. I think that’s doable. One of the benefits of reading more is developing the ability to read with a fair amount of speed. While I’ve always been a faster-than-average reader, setting a yearly goal has given me an additional motivation not to linger too long on a single page. Maybe I should add speed-reading to my goals for 2012.
