2016: My Year in Reading

Oh, 2016. You were a record-breaking year for me. I have been tracking the books I've read since 2011, and my old record was 109 books in one year. This year, I completed 111. 

I also competed in a reading challenge with my good friend Ingrid over at Getting Lost in the Stacks. Ingrid set up a very challenging 2016 list of book topics. Click here to see the topic list. Obviously, Ingrid set it up to light my hair on fire. I'm happy to report that at this moment, I've completed 111 books this year. Crazy, I know, but I have. However, I have NOT completed the challenge-I still have three topics left to complete...and they are NOT going to be finished in the next two days. I'm okay with that. I started December with 19 books left to read, so I put a decent dent into my goal. :)

Here's my list of books read for the challenge: 

READING CHALLENGE 2016
LIGHT: 13
Non-fiction about science	The Story of the Human Body
That someone told you “changed their life”	Becoming Marta
Published in 2016	Girl Waits with Gun
A food memoir	Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
A play	Pygmalion
Over 100 years old	The Awakening
Over 500 pages	All the Light We Cannot See
With a main character with a mental illness	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Written by a comedian	Modern Romance
Originally published the year you were born	The BFG
Non-fiction about a religion not your own	Islam, A Short History
Less than 100 pages	The Old Man and the Sea
With a one word title	George
AVID: 13
A BIOGRAPHY OR AUTOBIOGRAPHY	Why Not Me?
A MYSTERY	Career of Evil
BASED ON A NON "WESTERNIZED" FAIRY TALE	Beauty
WRITTEN BY AN AFRICAN	Purple Hibiscus
A GRAPHIC NOVEL	Nimona
ABOUT A ROAD TRIP	paper towns
SET IN A COUNTRY NOT YOUR OWN	A Kiss at Midnight
SET IN YOUR HOME STATE	A Rogue in Texas
WITH A WOMAN’S NAME IN THE TITLE	Esperanza Rising
WITH A CHARACTER WHO HAS YOUR NAME	Dancing with the Devil and Other Stories from Beyond
ABOUT AN ANIMAL	Four Fish
SET IN AUSTRALIA	Three Wishes
A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER	Waiting
COMMITTED: 26
About music or a musician	Life, by Keith Richards
A dystopian novel	The Maze Runner
A current New York Times Bestseller	The Martian
A satire	Catch 22
A collection of poems	A night without armor
With an ugly cover	The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers
Translated to English	1Q84
Targeted at the opposite gender	Everything Bad Is Good For You
By or about a Greek philosopher	Meditations
Takes place in a desert	The Heretic Queen
An epistolary novel	Last Days of Summer
That makes you sad	The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
That changed your opinion on a topic	How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk
With bad reviews	Slaughterhouse-Five
With a number in the title	Size 12 Is Not Fat
Set in a place you’ve always wanted to visit	The Other Daughter
One you started but never finished	Darwin's Devices
A Pulitzer Prize winner	Olive Kitteridge
With non-human character	Aftermath
Self-published	Eulalia's Story
Set during a holiday	Labor Day
Film or tv tie in	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
You pretend you’ve read it (but haven’t)	Catcher in the Rye
From the library	The Thirteenth Earl
Time travel	The Time Machine
Political memoir	I Am Malala
OBSESSED: 49
WRITTEN BY A RUSSIAN	Doctor Zhivago
ABOUT A MARTYR	Bonhoeffer
RECOMMENDED BY A PARENT	The Bible
TAKES PLACE DURING WINTER	The Call of the Wild
BIOGRAPHY OF A WORLD LEADER	Long Walk to Freedom
SELF-IMPROVEMENT	The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
THAT REMINDS YOU OF HOME	Brownsville
ABOUT A COWBOY	The Emmitt Zone
AN AUDIOBOOK	The Resurrection Casket
A BANNED BOOK	Mein Kampf
WRITTEN BY AN ACTOR	Love Life
BY OR ABOUT SHAKESPEARE	The Lodger Shakespeare
WITH A PROTAGONIST WHO HAS YOUR OCCUPATION	Emily and Einstein
ABOUT A CULTURE YOU’RE UNFAMILIAR WITH	A Passage to India
WRITTEN FROM THE LOSING SIDE’S PERSPECTIVE	All's Quiet on the Western Front
WITH A BEAUTIFUL COVER	The Nest
SOMETHING “EVERYONE” HAS READ BUT YOU	A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
TOLD FROM A CHILD’S PERSPECTIVE	Pigeon English
WITH MULTIPLE TIMELINES	The Mapmaker's Children
WRITTEN BY A CRIMINAL	Catch Me If You Can
WRITTEN BY A ‘LOCAL’ AUTHOR	Old Creole Days
MODERN RETELLING OF A CLASSIC	GREAT
NARRATED BY THE ‘BAD GUY’	The Picture of Dorian Gray
AN ALTERNATE HISTORY	The Man in the High Castle
EROTIC NOVEL	My American Duchess
SCIENTIFICALLY ACCURATE COMIC	Vampirella
A NOVEL WITH RECIPES IN IT	Cream Puff Murder
ABOUT A TOPIC YOU’RE AFRAID OF	Twelve years a slave
BY OR ABOUT A WORLD EXPLORER	Schooner to the Southern Oceans
ABOUT A CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC	Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow
BASED ON A GAME	The Force Unleashed II
CONTAINING BULLYING	City of Mirrors
WRITTEN BY A FICTIONAL CHARACTER	Flowers from the Storm
ABOUT A PLAGUE	The Years of Rice and Salt
A TRILOGY THAT HASN’T BECOME A MOVIE OR TV SHOW	Potent Pleasures, Midnight Pleasures, Enchanting Pleasures
WRITTEN BY SOMEONE UNDER 20 YEARS OLD	How to Talk to Girls
NON-FICTION ABOUT ALCOHOL	Wine & War
WRITTEN BY SOMEONE OVER 65	Still Foolin' 'Em: Where I've Been, Where I'm Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys
SET PREDOMINANTLY UNDERGROUND OR UNDERWATER	The War Below
TAKES PLACE IN ASIA	The Good Earth
A MICROHISTORY	Hillbilly Elegy
SET IN A STEAMPUNK UNIVERSE	Manners and Mutiny
A BOOK WITHOUT CHAPTERS	We Need to Talk About Kevin
THAT YOU ORIGINALLY READ IN MIDDLE SCHOOL	The Raven
AbOUT AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE	Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS	Gumbo Tales
WITH MAGIC	Demon Mistress
ABOUT A CURRENT HUMANITARIAN CONCERN	The Book of Unknown Americans
WRITTEN BY A FIRST TIME AUTHOR	The Bookstore

The yellow highlighted books are the ones I haven't read. I'm currently working on The Years of Rice and Salt. I'm only one chapter in, though, so I doubt I'll get it done before year's end.

Also, a disclaimer: Several of the books were audiobooks. I spend about an hour in traffic every day, so I listened to books instead of the radio. A great side effect of listening to audiobooks is that it helps you stop messing with your phone while driving. :)

Yes, some of the books were very easy. (I'm looking at you, How to Talk to Girls and The BFG.) There were some I despised (Demon Mistress and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which I'm only picking on because I want the next book in the Song of Fire and Ice series). There were sad ones (We Need to Talk About Kevin), funny ones (Modern Romance), and books full of hope (Esperanza Rising). Of course, there were many that I absolutely loved: Hillbilly Elegy, Wine and War, The Martian, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Story of the Human Body). 

Overall, I'm very glad I participated in this challenge. I read things I never would have considered, and I opened my eyes a bit to new genres. I discovered I'm actually rather fond of autobiographies, particularly when they're read by the authors. I also like history much more than I thought I did. Read any of the non-fiction on my list. They're well worth the time.

So, thank you, 2016. It was a great year for reading. I look forward to next year's challenge: whittle down my current reading list to less than 20 books. It's currently at about 60, so it should be doable. Buuuut...I think Ingrid has another challenge up her sleeve, and though I swore to myself I wouldn't do another complicated challenge, I probably will. Just because I love books.