In 2016 I recorded my reading in a small, green, hardbacked notebook decorated with pink roses. I have no idea where I got it from but I remember liking it because it closed with a strip of elastic to keep the pages together – I always choose notebooks which do that now. I recorded 425 books read and because I did some analysis on the figures for the year which I entered in some spare pages at the end of the book I know that 40% of them were read on my Kindle which shows how much it had become my preferred way of reading.
The first book which I read in the year was Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff which I was given as an advance reader copy before publication by Amazon. It’s an American literary fiction title which details a relationship first from the point of view of a man and then from the point of view of his female partner – they have very different views on what is happening. I didn’t really enjoy it despite its critical success.
The last book that I read in the year was The Company of Shadows by Ruth Newman. It’s a suspense story about a woman who finds out that her husband is not dead as she thought. I confess that I can remember nothing at all about the story and as I don’t own the book and have no others by this author it appears that I didn’t particularly enjoy it.
During 2016 I gave up my NetGalley reading which was quite a relief as I had definitely let my greed for new titles get in the way of my common sense and I was never going to be able to read and review all the books I had downloaded on my Kindle in a time that would benefit the writer.
I also notice that during the year I subscribed to Kindle Unlimited for a few months. I am not sure what was going through my head at this time but suspect that I was lured by a discount or possibly clicked the wrong button on the Amazon site. The scheme allows you to download and read unlimited numbers of electronic books from a huge selection. The problem is, of course, that very well-known and recent books are rarely available this way which isn’t a particular issue unless, like me, you already have many, many books waiting to be read. It’s a good scheme but it wasn’t appropriate for me – it’s like having a huge library available to you on your Kindle.
I now have the figures to show that only 7% of my reading was non-fiction and I note that I read a lot of modern classics during the year and books which are becoming modern classics. These included My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrente which I am planning to reread, The Shipping News by Annie Proulx which I loved, The Camomile Lawn by Mary Wesley which I found very shallow, The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West which was heartbreaking, The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt which I hated, A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley which I thought was brilliant, The Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett which began my love for his novels, Kim by Rudyard Kiplingwhich is one of my very favourite books, Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther which is an interesting period piece, Jazz by Toni Morrison which is not my favourite of hers, and East of Eden by John Steinbeck which I found harrowing but gripping. Certainly plenty of good reading there.
Anne Is Reading 