My year in books.
Well it has been an abysmal year for blogging but despite this when I look back at my reading journal I can see that I read *lots* of books and that there were some real crackers in there.
Looking back through my journal I can also see the following stats...
- 66% of the books I read were by women
- 40 titles (14%) were books in translation
- 37 titles(13.5%) fell under the nature or travel writing genre
- 29 titles (10.5) were 'kidlit'
- 12 (4%) were books about books
I thought about doing a 'Top 23 for 2023' but realised that this would get out of hand quite quickly as the decade progressed so here are my top 10 fiction and my top 10 non-fiction for the past year
Fiction
An Astronomer in Love by Antoine Laurain (tr. Louise Rogers LaLaurie & Megan Jones) Gallic Books
Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris, Duckworth Books
Morgan Is My Name by Sophie Keetch, Oneworld Publications
In Memoriam by Alice Winn, Penguin Books
What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama (tr. Alison Watts), Transworld
Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa (tr, Alison Watts) Oneworld Publications
The Figurine by Victoria Hislop, Headline Publishing
The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai (tr, Jesse Kirkwood), Pan Macmillan
The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Miye Lee (tr. Sandy Joosun Lee), Headline Publishing
Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley, Transworld
Non Fiction
One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank, Profile
Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad by Daniel Finkelstein, Harper Collins
The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie, Vintage
All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley, Vintage
Venice by Cees Nooteboom (tr. Laura Watkinson), Quercus
The Six by Loren Grush, Virago
Femina by Janina Ramirez, Ebury
The Diary Keepers by Nina Siegal, Harper Collins
Portable Magic by Emma Smith, Penguin
Letter From New York by Helene Hanff, Manderley
Interesting to see how many translated books made the top 20 and also that the % of top books written by women is around the same as my overall yearly totals - and far higher if you count the female translators.
Anyhow here's hoping that 2024 is another good reading year - it has to be said the one I've started today has got off to a cracking start and taking me to a culture of stories I know nothing about...
No comments:
Post a Comment