Book Geek

Before reading today's post, please make sure you click on the following and then read my post from October 1, entitled "Good Karma, Good Books". The response has been great! I, for one, have already gotten some great ideas for books to read from the people who have commented and entered my contest! Get a free book from me...who could resist?

To anyone who has doubted the extent of my geekiness, I would like to provide the following information. I started maniacally and obsessively keeping track of the books I read in 1997 when I was participating in an internet newsgroup called Book Nook. I kept track using an Excel spreadsheet which included the author's name, title, genre (F/N), referrer, date read, 1-10 rating and beginning in 2002 writing a brief comment or summary of the book. So, for example, I can tell you obscure things like that Amy has recommended 8% of the books I have read, while Bookmarks magazine has been the source of 5%. Entertainment Weekly has supplied me with 9% of my recommendations and Quail Ridge Books, the best independent bookstore in the world (an opinion I confirmed when I met a guy in Scotland who was from New England and lived in Texas and he told me he had been there and agreed) located in Raleigh, NC has given me 3%. (I encourage anyone who is a reader to click on the link to Quail Ridge Books and subscribe to their weekly e-mail newsletter and whenever possible support QRB or your equivalent independent bookstore.) And, for the record, Oprah (whose efforts to get people who don't read to read and people who do read to stretch and read things they might otherwise not tackle) has only been responsible for 6 books I read over the past 7 years...so take that Oprah...you're no Amy!!!!

OK, so back to my geekiness, here are my stats since I've been keeping track:

Year    Total Books Read    Total Fiction    % Fiction    Total Non-Fiction    % Non-Fiction
1997    78                              67                   86%                11                         14%
1998    75                              65                   87%                10                         13%
1999    56                              52                   93%                  4                           7%
2000    100                            84                   84%                16                          16%
2001    82                              70                   85%                12                          15%
2002    85                              63                   74%                22                          26%
2003    94                              59                   63%                35                          37%
2004    92                              53                   58%                39                          42%
2005    59                              40                   68%                19                          32%

TOTAL 721                         553                   77%             168                          23%

So generally we are seeing a trend over the years toward more non-fiction which might explain why I just added The Demon Under the Microscope, a book about sulfa and its impact on infectious diseases before the discovery of penicillin which was reviewed in last week's Entertainment Weekly, to my TBR (to be read) list. Believe me, in 1997, I probably wouldn't have even read that review!

And you are probably saying to yourself, as I did, what was the deal with 1999 and 2005? Why so few books? Well, my friends, 1999 was the year we moved from Florida to North Carolina and 2005 was when we moved from North Carolina to Florida. So clearly interstate moves have a significant impact on the quantity of my reading.

If I would give you one piece advice besides what to read (advice I will always give whether solicited or unsolicited), it would be to keep track of what you read and where you got the recommendation. Life is too short to read books you don't like....so learn what you like and learn who likes books that you like and listen to them. And if nothing else, it will keep you from making the mistake I made which was to read Girls' Poker Night TWICE and it sucked both times!

Di

Comments

[amy]

omg, i did that too! i BOUGHT the book "The Diagnosis" by Alan Lightman (thankfully in paperback) and read it, hating almost every word...it sounded so promising (While rushing to his office one warm summer morning, Bill Chalmers, a junior executive, realizes that he cannot remember where he is going or even who he is. All he remembers is the motto of his company: The maximum information in the minimum time." "When Bill's memory returns, "his head pounding, remembering too much," a strange numbness afflicts him, beginning as a tingling in his hands and gradually spreading over the rest of his body. As he attempts to find a diagnosis of his illness, he descends into a nightmare, enduring a blizzard of medical tests and specialists without conclusive results, the manic frenzy of his company, and a desperate wife who decides that he must be imagining his deteriorating condition.) and it SUCKED.

Cut to about two years later, I am in Barnes and Noble and...well, you can probably guess the rest. What's even worse is that as I started reading it, and hating it the second time, I simultaneously remembered that I had read and hated it before, and looked up and SAW THE FIRST BOOK SITTING ON MY BOOKSHELF. i know it was mocking me. i would have. now diane, if you'd be willing to set up the spreadsheet on my computer...

[Susan Helene Gottfried]

I keep a quick file in Word of what I've read over the past two years, but I've found the best source to be Bookcrossing.com -- but that's because I'm a little TOO addicted of a trader and like to pass my books along. Not only does BookCrossing let me keep a rough track of what I've read, it also lets me follow my books around the world.

When you're ready to let go, let me know and I'll hook you up. I've met some amazing people, a few of whom I use as my personal readers!

[Loredana]

Diane, I can't belive it! You read so much and I just read in the "toilet" (wich is not the mission of my life). But I've been keeping on my pc a report about any book that's passed in my hands, so I can say you read in 1 year the amount I did in my life! YOU'RE FANTASTIC!

[Di]

I just want to point out that Loredana is my e-mail pal from Italy....officially making this an "international" blog, but also explaining her syntax...English is her second language. I think she communicates great for someone who learned the language but never lived in an English speaking country. But sometimes we have to go back and forth on e-mails to try to figure out "expressions" that just don't translate.