2016 in Books

What a year. My 2016 was okay personally, but a disaster for humanity and the planet. I would, for the record, make that trade if I could.

Trying a new format this year! 


2016 reading stats

Books read: 99, of which 12 (12%) rereads
By gender: 13 (13%) by men, the rest by women or other genders
By race: 22 (22%) by poc, the rest by white authors
In translation: 3 (3%), not counting 2 (2%) in Japanese
Old books: 9 (9%), the rest acquired in 2016
New-to-me authors: 37 (37%)
New books: 26 (26%) published in 2016

…versus 2016 resolutions

1. Read 100 books
    Well, I read 99, which I'm proud of. This is the third-most I've read in the seven years I've been tracking, and I was only two books off my second-best count of 101 in 2010.

2. Read 50 physical books owned since 2014 or earlier
    Nine isn't a terrible start. Every little bit helps, right?

3. Read 25 books by authors of color.
    Welp, 22 instead of 25.

4. Read 10 books in translation.
   Three, which is a start.

5. Purchase no more than 52 books.
   I honestly have no idea about this because I didn't track it. I suspect I may be pushing pretty close to this if we count all the manga I bought in Japan last month.


General comments
A full 22% of my reading was consumed by two series in 2016, the Wimsey novels and the Young Wizards books (including the two short stories collected in Uptown Local; I've not yet read Interim Errantry 2.0). These books were great, which is good because I also read a lot of bad books this year: books I expected to love that I didn't (Wicked City by Alaya Dawn Johnson), books that everyone else loved which I came to hate as people continued to praise them (Updraft by Fran Wilde), and a lot of frankly mediocre books that I would have put down if I weren't reading them for the Sirens challenge (Glory O'Brien's History of the Future by A.S. King), some of which I hated so much I wound up skimming and so I didn't count in the spreadsheet (The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern).

I also haven't decided how/whether to count fanfic; I read several fics over 70K this year, which is a novel by any count. (Hint: these were all bedlamsbard's amazing Star Wars fics.) Counting those, I'd be at 101 for the year.


Best of 2016
A 10% selection rate is 9 books, so without further ado…

• Dorothy L. Sayers, Lord Peter Wimsey novels (all, especially Murder Must Advertise, The Nine Tailors, and Gaudy Night) (1922-37)
• Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules and The Swan Riders (2015-16)
• N. K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season (2016)
• C. S. Pacat, Captive Prince trilogy (2013-16)
• Yoon Ha Lee, Ninefox Gambit (2016)
• Sofia Samatar, The Winged Histories (2016)
• Noelle Stevenson et al, Lumberjanes vols. 1 & 2 (2015- )
• Diane Duane, The Young Wizards New Millennium Editions (all, especially Deep Wizardry and Wizard's Holiday) (1983- )

Yes, I'm cheating here, and I acknowledge this. But the books that I've listed together are, I think, better taken together than apart. AMA.


2017 Reading Resolutions

1. Read 105 books ==> a solid second-best ever
2. Read 25 physical books owned since 2016 or earlier
3. Read 25 books by authors of color
4. Read 10 books in translation
5. Read 15 books in Japanese ==> I have so much unread manga
6. Purchase no more than 52 books.
7. Read all the comics I've bought from Comixology and ECCC, the latter before ECCC 2017