And good riddance really, I think everyone's hoping 2022 will be an improvement so fingers crossed. I'm just grateful for the joy of books and my blogging friends here who never cease to come and comment and cheer me up no end. Thank you to all of you.
Well, I read 88 books this year. So I'm nothing if not symmetrical. I feel like I should always aim for that. Let's see... 28 of those books were non-fiction, therefore 60 were fiction. That's ok, I'm happy with that. I read 51 books by female authors and 37 by male writers. Also ok about that. I like to be pretty much 50-50 so I was slightly off last year but not by heaps. Everyone's different, I personally like to get the male perspective on Life, the Universe and Everything, as well as the female.
One thing I 'always' want - even crave - is a journey around the world in books every single year. I'm not someone who craves actual travel but I need it in my reading. So where have I been this year? Well, all around the oceans of the world with Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, which was a joy and I intend to read more of those this year. I've explored underwater caves and underground in general several times. I've been to France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Ireland, Gibraltar, Russia, travelled the world by bike, experienced volcanoes twice, climbed mountains, been to Vermont, Texas, Arizona, California, and searched for missing people in American national parks.
All that and I still wonder if my reading is quite international enough. And that's because 39 of my books were set here in the UK and I honestly had not expected that. There are places I tend not to go very much, the Far East, Russia, The Middle East, Australia and New Zealand... that's a 'lot' of the world. My preferance seems to be to read books set here in the UK, in the USA and Canada, and Europe. So I need to shift my posterior out of its comfort zone, which is one of the reasons why I'm doing the Book Voyage challenge this year, to take me to places I don't normally go. (Actually, all that said, Four Cheeks to the Wind by Mary Bryant did take me to the Far East this year so perhaps the situation is not quite as dire as I think.)
Favourite books of the year. Well, the non-fiction has stayed with me longer this year so I'll feature those first.
The Cold Vanish by Jon Billman was one heck of a creepy journey around some of America's national parks. It read like fiction - I loved it.
Deep by James Nestor... another amazing journey around the world and into the deepest oceans.
Into the Planet by Jill Heinerth was an amazing exploration of something I knew nothing about - cave diving. Superb.
Honorable mentions:
Krakatoa by Simon Winchester
Watery Ways by Val Poore
Plum, Courgette and Green Bean Tart by Lisa Rose Wright
A Time to be in Earnest by P.D. James
The Volcano, Monserrat and Me by Lally Brown
A House in Sicily by Daphne Phelps
Sicilian Carousel by Lawrence Durrell
Chasing the Dream edited by Alison Sheldrake
40 Memorable Life Experiences edited by Robert Fear
Finding my Voice by Nadiya Hussain
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
All in all, I read some amazing non-fiction last year and definitely plan to do the same again this year... even more so hopefully.
So, I'm going to leave it at that because this post is already quite long. I will do fiction in another post.
Happy New Year to one and all, may your year be filled with excellent and wonderful books.
14 comments:
Happy New Year, Cath! Sounds like you had a great reading year and I'm glad for it. I'll watch for your 'best of' in fiction as that is more my taste. Have a good week and I'm hoping for good things or at least good reading in 2022!
Cath, what a great year you had. I LOVED how you really did some amazing travels and discoveries into unknown areas and topics through the books you chose. I read many more books by female authors than male but, I have no preference - it just always seems to go that way. Hoping 2022 in a wonderful year health and happiness-wise for you, husband and family. Read on my friend!
I'm like you, not so keen on actual travel, much prefer to stay at home and read about all the places! I would never be brave enough to go cave diving, but it sounds fascinating. You've added so many books to my own TBR this year!
Great year of reading, Cath! I love traveling through books, too, especially when I can't get on a plane and actually go somewhere myself. (Because I do like to travel, even though I really don't like flying!) I'm looking forward to see what fun books you find to read in 2022.
It sounds like you read what you want to read throughout the year, which is the best way to go. My main goal is to read books I have, and that could limit me in some ways. But still a good thing to do.
I plan to read more Aubrey and Maturin books this year also. At least one, preferably 2 or 3.
In my armchair travelling I already plan to do the European Challenge and the Japanese Literature Challenge, but I would like to read about more countries outside of those areas. We will see how well I do.
THE COLD VANISH is on my Best of 2021 list too. It was just such an interesting and memorable read!
I'm the same—I tend to read books set in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. I signed up for an Aussie Author challenge this year because I do like books set in Australia as well. Other than that, I don't tend to travel much in books. I need to broaden my horizons a little, so I'll be watching to see where else you go to see if I need to follow :)
Happy New Year, Cath!
I love the idea of your armchair travels, Cath, and I'll look forward to seeing where you go on your challenge. I haven't done a rundown of all the books I've read, but I wanted to tell you I'm reading Sicilian Carousel now, which you recommended. I need to check up on some of your other recommendations as well. There's one you might like for your travel challenge, and that's Along the Enchanted Way by William Blacker. It's about his time in Romania. I enjoyed it immensely. Oh and thank you kindly for the mention. That is very kind!
Kay: Thank you. Yes, I'll get to my favourite fiction reads asap. It's not been a good week for us so I'll be a couple more days yet.
Diane: I think the travel aspect is one of the most important aspects of reading for me. I don't have a preferance for male or female authors either... I know some people really do... so it's always quite interesting to see how the proportions have worked out every year. Thank you for your good wishes for this year. It's been a bad start here but hopefully it's now onwards and upwards.
Jeane: Yes, travelling by armchair is a sight more comfortable than some modes of travelling the world. Other people can experience the discomfort for us. LOL
Lark: I'm not madly keen on flying either but I tolerate it to get somewhere nice. At the moment it UK holidays only though and not many of those. Role on Spring when hopefully it'll be possible to get away.
Tracy: Yes, I want to read some of the books I've had for a while too. I've picked out a few and shelved them as that seems to work for me every year.
Yes, I'm aiming for a couple more Aubrey/Maturin books this year too.
I'll be very interested to see where you go for the European challenge. I still haven't decided whether or not to do that one yet. Better hurry up and make up my mind!
Susan: I think The Cold Vanish has been universally popular with all that have read it. It was like reading a fiction book to be honest, I was completely gripped!
I'll be very interested to see what you read for the Aussie challenge. I could easily be tempted by that as I know I miss out on a lot of good authors by not reading many books from that country.
Val: I hope you're enjoying The Sicilian Carousel. I plan to read a couple more books by Lawrence Durrell this year... well that's the idea anyway.
I have Along the Enchanted Way on my Kindle and will be reading it sometime this year. My pleasure re the honorable mention. :-)
Armchair traveling can be great and it is funny how a particular place can capture one's interest. Having just been to Provence, I am having a hard time connecting the Provence I saw with the Peter Mayle and other writers' Provence.
I have always loved books about the British Raj in India. I know now that they are not at all PC and the characters are often rude or inconsiderate to the Indians. I suppose The Jewel in the Crown promoted this interest but I probably had read a few even before that aired (one of the few times where the television was better than the books, in my opinion).
I haven't read any of these but your description of The Cold Vanish when you read it was quite memorable!
When I looked back through my Goodreads challenge for 2021, I had actually travelled to quite a few new locations, so I was more than happy. I don't mind if the highest percentage are home-based stories and I never even think to compare the stats on the number of female versus male authors read!
I do have quite a few Australian friends on Goodreads, so I did sort of make a silent promise to myself that I would try and read more books by Australian authors and I see that you visited my post for the first one, Laura Elizabeth Woollett, so now I am going to have to keep count of them.
With my current reading I am in WWII Germany and sailing in a yacht off the coastline of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, before heading out across the North Sea, via the Dutch coastline, to Scotland!
Neither of us are in a rush to ever contemplate air travel again, so 'armchair traveller' I need to be from now on! :)
Yvonne: I think it's probably normal to read a lot of books from your home country but I'm such an armchair traveller that I wasn't expecting my UK books to be so high. I don't normally count the gender of the authors I read either but a number of other people do it and I was curious.
Good luck reading more Australian authors.
Your current book is sounding rather interesting, what is it?
Yes, we're in the same boat over air travel so armchairs it is from now on. At least we'll be comfy!
Constance: It must be quite interesting for you to compare your actual experience of Provence with the one you read about in books. Perhaps it's because you saw the tourist version of the area whereas they saw it all year round, warts and all.
I've read one or two books about the British Raj but it's a subject I ought to read much more about. There are certainly plenty of books to discover.
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