2005 was the first year in which I tried to keep track of everything I read, and I have to say, it was a fun experiment. I think I’m going to keep it up.

I read a total of 123 books this year, 88 new and 35 re-reads. Some of those re-reads may have been re-read more than once this year, or may have been new reads and later in the year, re-reads. That works out to just over 10 per month, or 2.4 per week. That also averages 1.7 new and .7 re-read books per week.

November was my most prolific month; I read 17 books. I credit a week of vacation for that high point. July was the low point; I only read 7 unique books (although I did read the July-released Harry Potter book twice).  On a quarterly basis, I read more books in Q4 than in any other quarter — 39. But I read more new books in Q2 — 27.

66% of the books were by women authors or groups of authors including women; 36% men or groups including men. Only 2.4% of the books were by people of color.

By genre, the breakdown looks like this:

Young Adult: 39%
Literature (including mystery, SF, & fantasy): 33%
Essays/History/Biography/Memoir: 21%
Educational/Reference: 6%

Best New-to-Me Authors in 2005: Tamora Pierce, Susan Jane Gilman, Audrey Niffenegger, and Kaz Cooke

I was going to make a "stinkers" list too, but that’s just mean. If you read this regularly, you already know what I’ve hated this year. Or you can tell from the number of stars — there aren’t many 1 or 2 star reviews.

And at some point in the next couple of weeks, I’m going to archive the 2005 monthly lists somehow and probably make other changes to the format of the blog at the same time. My best guess is that I’ll do that in about 2 weeks, when Jill is out of town at a wedding for the weekend. (Her last trip before the baby comes!)