Another End of Year Survey

This is another end of year survey, this one from Caroline Bookbinder.

How many books read in 2011? Just 25

How many fiction and non fiction? Fiction: 14   Non-Fiction: 11  (assuming you consider poetry as fiction).

Male/Female author ratio? 9 male to 16 female, for almost a 1:2 ratio.

Favorite book of 2011? Snowdrop - A.D. Miller probably for fiction.  I liked a lot of non-fiction this year.  I'd probably include both For Us Surrender is Out of the Question: A Story From Burma's Never-Ending War - Mac McCelland and The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance - Elna Baker are among that for my favorite non-fiction books for this year.

Least favorite? 

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why? Oh, quite a few.  Often either I just put them down to read later or it just wasn't the right time to read them and I was focused elsewhere (either on other books or non-bookish things.) 

Oldest book read? As You Like It - William Shakespeare (c. 1599-1600)
Newest? K-On! published in the US in 2011) and Snowflakes - A.D. Miller (2011), and others.

Longest and shortest book titles? (not including subtitles)
Longest:  The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance - Elna Baker (if going by characters.  Tied with For Us Surrender is Out of the Question: A Story From Burma's Never-Ending War - Mac McCelland if going by words)
Shortest: Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad - Forugh Farrokhzad, translated by Sholeh Wolpé

Longest and shortest books?
Longest: East of the Sun - Julia Gregson (464)
Shortest: probably that would be Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi (96)

How many books from the library? A strong majority of them, actually.

Any translated books? Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi, translated by Anjali Singh
 The Novel Bookstore - Laurence Cosse
Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad - Forugh Farrokhzad, translated by Sholeh Wolpé
K-On! (vols. 1-3) - Kakifly

Most read author of the year, and how many books by that author? Kakifly, author of the manga K-On! (3)

Any re-reads? not really.  Just some audiobooks, like Harry Potter, Unfamiliar Fishes - Sarah Vowell, The Melinnioum Trillogy, Prep - Curtis Sittenfeld, but I also don't count re-reads in my list of books I read.

Favorite character of the year?  Both Elna Baker and Mac McCelland were among my favorites, but they also are real people and the authors of their respective books.  For fiction, maybe Masha from Snowdrops, just as one of the more interesting characters of the new books I've read.

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading? England, Morocco, India, Egypt, France, Netherlands, Austria, Canada, Iraq, Iran, China, Russia, Ukraine, Kingdom of Hawaii, Thailand, Burma/Mayamar, various kingdoms of Europe.

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation? Not including NPR, East of the Sun - Julia Gregson I heard about from Constance Reader. 

Which author was new to you in 2011 that you now want to read the entire works of? I really can't answer this, since I think of all of the new authors I read the ones that make me want to read the rest of their books usually are people who only have one book written!

Which books are you annoyed you didn’t read? I wanted to read more Shakespeare and finally tackle and finish a Jane Austen novel.  I wanted to finish The Devlin Diary, but didn't and wanted to read Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 but haven't gotten a chance to start it.

Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read? For Us Surrender is Out of the Question: A Story From Burma's Never-Ending War - Mac McCelland is one I've wanted to read for what feels like a year or two.