How many books read in 2010?
Around 75 - there are nearly 40 books blogged here, a couple still to get blog posts, and the other 35 relate to my studies. I've ignored books where I read only a chapter or two, and those I'm reading for the second time.
Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?
About one-third fiction, which - given the number of critical and historical works that I've read this year - is unsurprising.
Male/Female authors?
Only about 15 by male authors, which is less than I thought, but perhaps it is to be expected that the historians of feminism and theorists of feminist autobiography are women - Martin Pugh the honourable exception.
Favourite book read?
I can't pick favourites, but would particularly recommend Jane Robinson's Bluestockings, EMD's Mrs Harter, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping, and for pure self-indulgence Armistead Maupin's Mary Ann in Autumn.
Least favourite?
I really didn't like The Bolter, Frances Osborne's life of Idina Sackville. An opportunity wasted.
Oldest book read?
It is a tie between EMD's Zella Sees Herself and Clemence Dane's Regiment of Women, both published in 1917.
Newest?
Probably Mary Ann in Autumn, which is only just out.
Longest book title?
Of all the books I read, and to give a taste of my unblogged reading: Sidonie Smith's Subjectivity, identity, and the body: women's autobiographical practices in the twentieth century (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993). Of those blogged here, The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion in the Year 1764-1765.
Shortest title?
Probably Jill by EMD.
How many re-reads?
Around a dozen, I think - mostly for the purposes of study, and including The Well of Loneliness which is above and beyond the call of duty.
Most books read by one author this year?
E M Delafield takes that prize - I've now read all of her works, which included 10 novels and 2 volumes of short stories this year.
Any in translation?
By a Slow River by Philippe Claudel, and Tove Jansson's The True Deceiver. I also read, but didn't blog, Henning Mankell's Faceless Killers.
And how many of this year’s books were from the library?
I'd say around 50. I'm trying not to buy historical or critical works unless they are really essential, as I have two university libraries as well as the British Library at my disposal, and have no real excuse for doing so. I have added to my stock of copies of EMD's works, and have done well with secondhand bookshop finds this year, but book space here is getting ever tighter.
