Musings/Träumereien/Devaneios

And the year ends once again...

Without further ado, my crème-de-la-crème was the following:

(links on each image for my reviews regarding each book)

• What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe;
• Adrift in the Noösphere by Damien Broderick;  
• Feynman Tips on Physics by Feynman, Gottlieb and Leighton;
• After the Apocalypse: Stories by Maureen F. McHugh;
• Lamentation by J. Sansom;
• The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel;
• The Folding Knife by K.J Parker;
• Everyware:The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing by Adam Greenfield;
• The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups by Ron Rosenbaum;
• Medieval Shakespeare: Pasts and Presents by Ruth Morse, Helen Cooper, Peter Holland;
• World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters;
• How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig;
• Luther: The calling by Neil Cross
• Greg Egan by Karen Burnham;
• A Man: Klaus Klump by Gonçalo M. Tavares (trans. Rhett McNeil).

In the spirit of Science then, on to the numbers!

• Read at least 52 books (1 per week) – Check (71 read)
• Read at least 12 non-fiction books (1 per month) – Check (20 read)
• Read at least 12 Science Fiction books (1 per month) – Check (15 read)
• Read at least 24 Speculative Fiction books (2 per month) - Check (29 read)
• Read more on Physics and Computer Science – Check (5 of each read)
• Read at least 12 essay books (1 per month) – Failed (6 read)
• Read at least 12 fantasy books (1 per month) – Failed (0 read)
• Read more short-story collections – Failed (read only 2)
• Read more books published 2014 than books published in previous years - Failed (“2014”: 42.2%; “<2014”: 57.8%)
• Read the 2 volumes of Heinlein’s biography – Check
• Write a review for every book read – Check (71 books read; 71 reviews written)

Not bad altogether…

Books read in 2014: 71 (1.36 books read per week; 5.9 books read per month)

Fiction: 51 (71.8%)

 - Crime: 25

 - Science Fiction: 15

 - Historical: 1

 - Mainstream: 5

 - Horror: 4

 - Spy: 1

NB: Speculative Fiction = 15 + 4 = 29 (no Fantasy again…)

Non-Fiction: 20 (28.1%)

 - Biography: 2

 - Essay: 6

 - Physics: 5

 - Computer Science: 5

Collections of short stories: 2

Published in 2014: 30 (42.2%)

Published < 2014: 41 (57.8%)

Number of words written in the 71 reviews: 41728 (average 588 words per review)

Number of pages read: 21876 (421 pages per week; 1823 pages per month):

Reading Chart per Month (July and December with 10 books read):

My blog hits around the globe:

And only 71 books? In 2013 I read 91! Already the impact of having a little gadget on the way is making itself clear. But I did better at reading things published in 2014 than I'd feared, although I still felt quite a bit behind the curve there. I haven’t got high hopes for 2015 though, because the little gadget will make his appearance in the beginning of the year.

Goals for 2015:

Read more altogether, keep on reading my Rowse (my "Shakespeare in a Year" project will probably be still on hold), read more Dark Fiction, read more non-fiction, ... you get the drift...