2021 Reading in Review

DiscussionsCanadian Bookworms

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2021 Reading in Review

1LynnB
Jan 1, 2022, 8:31 am

So, any comments on your 2021 reading? Favourite reads? Let's do a "Year in Review" for Canadian Bookworms.

For the first time in many years, I didn't manage to read 120 books...only read 116 this year. My husband says that I've "got a life". I read 38% nonfiction, which is higher than my usual average of 1/3.

Favourites from this year: Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
Prisoner of Trebekistan by Bob Harris
The Beacon by Susan Hill
Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks

2rabbitprincess
Jan 1, 2022, 10:52 am

My reading was down significantly from last year, which I attribute to two massive reading slumps (in spring and fall). Pandemic brain did not enjoy reading in French, but it did enjoy Scottish crime fiction (the Lennox series by Craig Russell) and the American Mystery Classics that my library kindly provided.

Three Richard Wagamese books made my top 20 reads for the year: Indian Horse, A Perfect Likeness: Two Novellas, and Richard Wagamese Selected: What Comes from Spirit. I think I've found a new favourite author ;)

3LynnB
Jan 2, 2022, 9:02 am

>2 rabbitprincess:, I really liked Indian Horse, too!

4JenMDB
Jan 2, 2022, 9:56 am

Favourite Canadian books of 2021 was Fight Night by Miriam Toews.

I probably read less Canadian fiction last year than I ever have done before - mostly because I wanted to escape - either to a "foreign" setting or from an issue that requires empathy and action in my own country.

5Cecilturtle
Jan 2, 2022, 11:46 am

My top 3 were books I would not have thought I'd like so much:
Rien ne s'oppose à la nuit by Delphine de Vigan, a frantic autobiography focussed on her mother
4321 by Paul Auster, a 1000-page brick that I just sank into and was happy to not to come up from
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, which I found slow at first and then couldn't put down.

6rabbitprincess
Jan 2, 2022, 12:03 pm

>3 LynnB: I think my favourite of the three was Richard Wagamese Selected. I'm going to need my own copy of that one.

7LibraryCin
Jan 2, 2022, 6:17 pm

I had one Canadian author make my top 10 this year:
Woman in the Mists / Farley Mowat

But I also had one make my "dishonourable mentions" (only 2 stars, my lowest rating this year):
Late Nights on Air / Elizabeth Hay

8LibraryCin
Jan 2, 2022, 6:18 pm

Some of the stats I figured out:

Book Stats for 2021:
170 books
56,221 pages
= 330.7 pages / book (average)

Canadian authors: 23 out of 170 = 13.5%

I haven't looked at previous years, but I think I did not read as many Canadian authors this year. I would like to read more.

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