Books of 2015

Post here on any books you've finished or heard about or want to read. This will hopefully enhance the educational value of our forum.
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Gulliver
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Books of 2015

Post by Gulliver »

Hi.

Here is a summary of my readings from the past year.

All told I read 60 books in the year. That is two more books than last year. It was also 19,103 pages which is 1,381 pages more than last year. That is a lot of pages - luckily I mostly listen to audiobooks otherwise I could be at serious risk for some paper cuts statistically speaking.

The shortest book was Chu's Day at the Beach (32 pages) and the longest was The Goldsneech (773 pages). The average book was 324 pages.

I gave 10 books a perfect rating (up from 9 last year) and 4 received my lowest rating (2 stars).

I read 44 audiobooks, 17 in the Mom Book Club, and 2 in the Lee Book Club.

Since DJ complained last year about a lack of graphs, here are two for you this year DJ. One I made myself and tracks my progress over the year. Pretty consistent I think.

Image

The other is from goodreads and shows the publication date vs the date I read each book. Some years I only read books from the 2000's but I've mixed in a few older ones in the past few years.

Image

Enough with the math, here is what every bear came to see - my top 5 favorite books of 2015:

5) The Sculptor - it made me want to try sculpting myself until I realized I would have to get clay on my paws.

4) Neil Patrick Harris Choose Your Own Autiobiography. Neil read this book himself and it even included recordings from when he was a kid. Go, Neil, Go!

3) The Bone Clocks. You might sense a David Mitchell theme in this list. I like Holly. Horologists are pretty cool.

2) Slade House. This turned out 2 spooky 4 peaches but I found it hard to put down. It's good to be aware of what could happen if you go down an alley and find a strange door. Best not to open it.

1) The 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I did not know much about Dutch / Japanese trading from 1800 before reading this book. Now I could probably be a clerk just like Jacob.

Looks like David Mitchell has taken the top spot for the last two years. Can he do it again in 2016?
Answer: This character studied medicine, "knowing it would be useful in long voyages"

Question: Who is Gulliver?
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DJ
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Indeed!

Post by DJ »

The shortest book was Chu's Day at the Beach (32 pages)
32 pages? I've read menus that were longer than that. And you still get to count it as a book? Harrumph! I heard it even is mostly pictures.

That would be like me counting all the previews I saw as movies. In that case Lee and I saw a whole lot of movies this year - let me tell you!

But nice graphs, Gulliver. I guess...
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Nibs
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Many thanks!

Post by Nibs »

Wow, this post is so cool Gulliver!!

Thanks for doing this again and for collating all the stats. And thanks for making a graph this time!

What is that book from 1850 that you read in 2014? That's really cool to see the publish date, I never thought about looking at books that way.

I'm so impressed that the NPH book scored so high! Maybe Lee will read it to me soon!

What were the 2 books in the Lee book club? Her guess was Trigger Warning and Overture but perhaps she's wrong?

I will see if I can get Lee to read more and post some stats like this!

Thanks again, so awesome!
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Nibs
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2015 Book Report

Post by Nibs »

Ok we worked on putting together Lee's list for 2015 of books. Hoo hoooo!

BOOKS READ IN ORDER OF FAVORITES:
* Power of Now- Eckhart Tolle
* A Path with Heart (a reread) - Jack Kornfield
* The Three Marriages - David Whyte
* Self Compassion - Kristin Neff
* Undaunted Courage (a reread) - Stephen Ambrose
* The NeverEnding Story - Michael Ende
* A lot of National Geographic articles!
* Age of Ambition - Evan Osnos
* Rising Strong - Brene Brown
* City of Ember - Jeanne DuPrau
* The Man Who Loved China - Simon Winchester
* Yes Please - Amy Poehler


BOOKS PARTIALLY READ:
* Sandman Overture
* Trigger Warning
* Jurassic Park
* The Bone Clocks
* Without You (Rent book)
* Oil
* Alone on the Wall (Alex Honnold)

Hooooo, pretty pathetic! We might've missed a few.

Keep up the good work, Gulliver. We are glad you are setting a higher bar than we are.
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Nibs
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On the positive side

Post by Nibs »

Also… we read 12 books this year, and last year we only read 4!

So that is upward progress!!!

Keep it going!!
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Gulliver
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Good job Nibs

Post by Gulliver »

Hi Nibs.

Good job on your reading. It is important to remember that it is not the number of books read that matters, but how much of an impact what you do read has on your life.

The two Lee Book Club books were Trigger Warnings and Age of Ambition - I didn't count Sandschlop OverSchlop since I read it as separate issues instead of one book.

You asked about the 1850 book - it was 12 Years a Schlop.

In fact if you go to this link you can hover each point and find out the book's title:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/pub_year_graph/185473

I recommend checking it out.

Sorry you didn't like Amy Poehler's book so much...
Answer: This character studied medicine, "knowing it would be useful in long voyages"

Question: Who is Gulliver?
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