Reading list and statistics for 2007

January (4NF, 4F)

• The Serpents of Harbledown, by Edward Marston
• From Jesus to Christianity : A History of the Early Church, by Thomas F. Madden (on CD)
• The Things You Get for Free, by Michael McGirr
• Snowbound, by Bill Pronzini
• Bill Bryson's African Diary, by Bill Bryson
• A Massive Swelling, by Cintra Wilson
• Close to Home, by Peter Robinson (on CD)
• The Wildcats of Exeter, by Edward Marston

February (2NF, 3F)

• Don't Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings, by Tyler Perry
• The Calling, by Catherine Whitney
• Child of My Heart, by Alice McDermott (on CD)
• Inexcusable, by Chris Lynch
• Skeleton Dance, by Aaron Elkins

March (3NF, 6F)

• The Foxes of Warwick, by Edward Marston
• Hunting Season, by Nevada Barr (on CD)
• No Good Deed, by Laura Lippman (on CD)
• 1,000 Common Delusions : And the Real Facts Behind Them by Christa Pöppelmann
• Pressed to Kill, by Dolores Johnson
• Washington Schlepped Here, by Christopher Buckley (on CD)
• The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog : and Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook, by Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz
• What's the Worst That Could Happen? by Donald Westlake
• Pale Kings and Princes, by Robert Parker

April (2NF, 4F)

• Kill Me, by Stephen White
• Mothers and Sons, by Colm Tóibín
• Inkspell, by Cornelia Funke (on CD)
• Jesus: His Life and Teachings, by Joseph F. Girzone (on CD)
• The Running of Beasts, by Bill Pronzini & Barry Malzberg
• Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog : The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences, by Kitty Burns Florey

May (1NF, 4F)

• Something Rotten, by Jasper Fforde (on CD)
• Midnight Cactus, by Bella Pollen
• Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet
• Games, by Bill Pronzini
• Figure of Hate, by Bernard Knight (on CD)

June (1NF, 3F)

• Sight Unseen, by Robert Goddard (on CD)
• Murder on the Leviathan, by Boris Akunin
• Inventing English, by Seth Lerer
• The Sudoku Murder, by Shelley Freydont

July (5F)

• Crusader's Cross, by James Lee Burke (on CD)
• The Lone and Level Sands, by A. David Lewis
• Faith : Stories (edited by C. Michael Curtis)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
• Undercurrent, by Bill Pronzini

August (3NF, 3F)

• Scandals, Vandals, and Da Vincis : A Gallery of Remarkable Art Tales, by Harvey Rachlin
• The Whitechapel Conspiracy, by Anne Perry (on CD)
• The Ever-Running Man, by Marcia Muller
• The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot : A New Look at Betrayer And Betrayed, by Bart Ehrman
• You Suck : A Love Story, by Christopher Moore
• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs

September (3NF, 5F)

• The Art of Detection, by Laurie R. King (on CD)
• The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
• Justice Denied, by J.A. Jance
• Dante and his Divine Comedy, by Timothy B. Shutt (on CD)
• Cinderella's Gold Slipper : Spiritual Symbolism in the Grimms' Tales, by Samuel D. Fohr
• Garbage Land : On the Secret Trail of Trash, by Elizabeth Royte
• The Quality of Life Report, by Meghan Daum
• Thursday Next : First Among Sequels, by Jasper Fforde

October (1NF, 7F)

• Turncoat, by Aaron Elkins
• Single Tree, by Gary D. Svee
• Twospot, by Bill Pronzini and Collin Wilcox
• Dark Sins, Dark Dreams (edited by Bary N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini)
• The Wanton Angel, by Edward Marston
• Group Improvisation, by Peter Gwinn
• Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade, by Diana Gabaldon
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling (on CD)

November (1NF, 2F)

• Beyond the Body Farm, by Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson
• What the Dead Know, by Laura Lippman
• The Owls of Gloucester, by Edward Marston

December (1NF, 7F)

• The Iliad, by Homer (on CD)
• The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson
• I've Got a Home in Glory Land, by Karolyn Smardz Frost
• The Man Who Wrote the Book, by Erik Tarloff
• The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards (on CD)
• Good Blood, by Aaron Elkins
• Sign of the Book, by John Dunning
• Bones to Ashes, by Kathy Reichs

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Like the last couple of years, I've done a compiled list of reading for 2007, beginning with a list of books that were memorable, not necessarily for their Literary Quality.

Most Memorable (not necessarily best, but stuck in my head)

Child of My Heart, by Alice McDermott
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
You Suck : A Love Story, by Christopher Moore
The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson

Best

Child of My Heart, by Alice McDermott
Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet
Midnight Cactus, by Bella Pollen
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriet Jacobs
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling
The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson

Least Memorable (otherwise known as "I read wha-at?")

The Calling, by Catherine Whitney
Washington Schlepped Here, by Christopher Buckley

5 Books (or Authors) Best Forgotten

Don't Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings, by Tyler Perry
Inexcusable, by Chris Lynch
The Sudoku Murder, by Shelley Freydont
Garbage Land : On the Secret Trail of Trash, by Elizabeth Royte
Single Tree, by Gary D. Svee

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Now for the statistics for the year:

number of books read in 2007: 75
number of books read in 2006: 77
number of books read in 2005: 127
number of books read in 2004: 102
number of books read in 2003: 100
number of books read in 2002: 118
number of books read in 2001: 83
number of books read in 2000: 128
TOTAL : 810

average read per year, over eight years: 101
average read per month: 6.25 (over seven years: 8.44)
average read per week: 1.44 (over seven years: 1.94)

number read in worst month: 3--November(in 2006: 4--tied April, May, June and August; in 2005: 5--January and June; in 2004: 0--July)

number read in best month: 9--March (in 2006: 11--January; in 2005: 21--February; in 2004: 12--June)

number of fiction: 53 (in 2006: 56; in 2005: 74; in 2004: 61)
number of non-fiction: 22 (in 2006: 21; in 2005: 53; in 2004: 41)

number of female authors: 24 (same as last year--how odd!)
number of male authors: 40 (2006: 33)
[discrepancies are due to multiple books read by one author,individual books by multiple authors--and edited books, which are not counted at all]