Friday, January 02, 2009

100 Book Challenge Results Show!

(cue the fancy music)

Before I let you know who won the contest, I am going to regale you with some fancy statistics from my 100 Book Challenge. I had so much fun maintaining the excel spreadsheet that I have to share its results.

Hardcover Books: 22%
Paperback Books: 78%

Fiction: 98%
Non-fiction: 2% (I'm sure my FIL is cringing with that one!)

And the genre breakdowns - now, this is not as cut and dry as the above categories - because you could have books that might be short stories and mysteries - or fantasy and romance all rolled up in one book. So, if a given book had multiple genre elements, I categorized them that way.

Urban Fantasy: 39%
Romance: 63%
Science Fiction: 7%
Historical Fiction: 5%
Short Stories: 10%
Mysteries: 13%
Fantasy: 11%
Futuristic: 10%
Paranormal: 6%
Werewolf: 7%
Vampire: 19%
Erotica: 13%
Comedy: 13%
Young Adult: 4%
Graphic Novels: 4%

Male Authors: 13%
Female Authors: 87%

Books borrowed from my friend Teri: 11%
Books borrowed from my local library: 57%

(This statistic is made sadder by the fact that our local libraries have cut 1.5 days from their open schedule and have frozen all new book buying as cost-cutting measures.)

And the drumroll, please...

In 2008, I read 112 books!

The winner of my little contest is my younger sister, Jaime, who was so close with a guess of 113. Email me and let me know how you want your $20 in book funds, and I will send it up to you.

Some more fun statistics -

Total Pages Read: 36,656 pages
Average book length: 327 pages
Most prolific month: October (I'm not sure why, however) with 14 books
Least prolific month: April (due to work and tax season) with 6 books

Most books read by one author (This ended up being a tie.)
  • J. R. Ward - 6 books
  • Lora Leigh - 6 books
Other authors with more than two books on the list
  • Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb - 5 books
  • Sherrilyn Kenyon - 4 books
  • MaryJanice Davidson - 4 books
  • Erin McCarthy - 3 books
  • Patricia Briggs - 3 books
  • Gena Showalter - 3 books
My Favourite Books from 2008
Books That Disappointed Me in 2008
The Book That Made Me Cry the Most
  • Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner (way to rip my heart out of my chest, Ms. Weiner!)
Shortest Novel I Read
Longest Novel I Read
  • Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon at 728 pages
There you go! I hope you have had as much fun with this as I have. Oh, and I should mention that of these 112 books, other than the Spiderwick Chronicles book, none of them are books that I read to Willow - if that was the case, this list would be two or three times longer. Willow herself has read over 200 books since school started in August - not bad for a first grader! If anyone would like a complete list of the books I read in 2008, please leave me a comment with an email address and I will send you the list.

I have since learned that there is a blog, J. Kaye's Book Blog, that is organizing a group challenge for 2009, and I encourage you all to try. I won't say reading 100 books in a year was an easy process - it was a challenge, after all - but think of all those books you have always wanted to read that you could catch up on!

15 comments:

tara said...

How fun. Congratulations on your successful challenge.

Anonymous said...

Congrats Joey, for being the over acheiver that you are, and to Jaime for having that horseshoe stuck up your you-know-what!

Beverly said...

I am in awe. You rock! When you get a chance, I'd love to see that list - bmlindeen (at) gmail (dot) com.

Bezzie said...

Hee hee!!! Your geeky nerdness in breaking it down amuses me to no end!! I love it!

Hmmm...now I'm wondering if I should keep track of the books I read a little more closely. But I'm with you--it would double if I counted the books I read with Chunky ;-)

Anonymous said...

Yeah for me.... What do you mean by book funds? How about you find me a copy of Neil Gailmans American Gods ( I have the first one but I believe there is a second.) Andrew would know!!!

Anonymous said...

the last comment was me, Jaimes!!!

Anonymous said...

Carl says you can do better with the non-fiction percentage. Tell me this though... were the NF ones knitting books?? Tell the truth Joey!

Anonymous said...

Oh wow! That is awesome! I love romance too, but didn't get to read much in 2008. Maybe I can change this in 2009. :)

ScrapperGalJen said...

I am in for 09! Care to share you spreadsheet layout? I am all about spreedsheets. Just thought I might learn from your wisdom:)

kemtee said...

Cool. Wow. That's a big honkin' number. There was a time and a place when I could have done that; now I'm just happy for the few I get to plow through!!

Congratufrigginlations!!! :-)

Batty said...

Wow, that's fantastic! Lack of non-fiction notwithstanding, you did great!

Unknown said...

Congrats to you! That's a lot of reading!!!

yarn4kalei said...

Congratulations! I would love a copy of the list of you get a chance. I enjoy reading your book reviews and have picked up several books based on your feedback. I have enjoyed every single one of them! Thanks!

Discoknits said...

Jo, you're an awesome reader !

I'd love your spreadsheet - maybe I'll keep track of my books this year too :0) I'm trying to read 20.
discoknits (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanks :0)

Pokemon said...

that is pretty awesome
ive read some of the ones on your list of favourites and i agree :)

http://www.azitaknits.blogspot.com