Wow that far outweighs my number of about 47 (I think I miss recording them now and again)! Slinking away with tail between legs.......wig

My total read this year was 64, up from 47 last year. Carolyn, your 174 is amazing!

I can only remember 28, but at first I could only remember 10 -- so my memory may be faulty. It's been a very busy year, so 28 is probably close. I'm going to have to start keeping better track of my reads.

46 this year. Down from 51 last year. My goal for this year is to read 60.

PAM

My imprecise records say I read 24 books and listened to 26 books, for a total of 50. However, giving numbers has always bothered me a little because there is nothing to distinguish having listened to a 50-hour book vs. an 8-hour book or reading an 800-page book vs. a 300-page book. As I looked back over the books listened to and read, this was a very, very good book year for me.

I know I averaged two a week, so at least 104. But I agree with Frances-some were juvenile, which I could gobble up in a couple hours, others were tomes that took several days.

I read 90-something this year. I'm not a fast reader, though. I average one thick book, or 2 or 3 slim ones per week. If it's a big, thick door-stopper, it might take me a few weeks to finish.

I read 75 this year, which is down about 15 from last year. One thing I'm proud of about 2008 though is that I finally started ditching any book I'm not really getting into. Because of that, nearly all the books I read were ones I really, really enjoyed. That, for me, makes a great reading year!

I agree too with Frances, who posted that length and type of book has a big impact on numbers, too. On another on-line book group I belong to, a member read over 200 books. Which is amazing any way you look at it, but they were all either YA, mystery, or chick lit...and nearly all under 250 pages. Which is very different from the person who reads "only" 100 (!!) books, but reads mostly longer ones, or harder-to-read books, or the classics. I guess probably a fairer way to do it would be to keep track of number of pages read rather than total books (which some people on my other book groups have started to do). Although even then, you have some books that are just harder to read, and will take much longer than fluff.

Kelly

I never keep official track of how many works I read in a year. My guestimate would be that I average about 2 per week, or perhaps one and a half....

Only 30 I am afraid. It is amazing that some of you can read SO MANY books. I don't think I could even get past fifty!
I am a very slow reader. I also have the habit of pausing at certain points in a book to ponder things. Sometimes this can be ten minutes or more, lol. So a fair amount of time is spent ruminating.
I don't read mystries or chick lit, and most of what I read is over 300 pages. Maybe that has something to do with it.
CMK

Well, I AM retired. Chris, some of my pondering time turns into naps.

I read 153. They were, on average, 292 pages long. Some were much shorter, 78 were longer.

Although I read that many, I think it's quality that counts, not quantity. I would much rather read 10 good books than 100 bad ones.

Here is a link that might be useful: My reading stats for 2008

I don't know how many books I read in a typical year, but with our oh-so-exciting presidential election last year I found myself watching many hours more of television than I would normally do. In fact, most days we watched the news channels from dinnertime until bedtime, and most days we watched during lunch, as well. So my reading time was really diminished -- bedtime reading was about all I managed to do.

I've already noticed a definite uptick in my reading just since the holidays started ... and that's in spite of my love of the Wii Fit that I received as a Christmas gift.

Am impressive number Carolyn! If only I had taken your advice NOT to sack the servants I would have so much more time to read. ;-)
I probably only finish one book a week, although I usually have 2 or 3 on the go at the same time.

I do read fast. But I think you are selling mysteries short, cmk-the last one I read was over 500 pages, three narrators and many references to Austen. Don't tar them all with the same brush! They aren't all Colonel Mustard in the Library with a candelstick-although those can be great fun too!

I finished 78 and have some still in progress. I took a good month off from reading books for the election--only read blogs and newspapers. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Favorite books and reading stats

-carolyn, and sometimes they are so long one has to take a break for lunch!

-CC, I was just responding to what Kelly said about different types of books. Mysteries ARE exciting, and are page turners.
I don't doubt that there are a great many mystery novels that interesting, but they are just not my cup of tea. Maybe it comes from being read too many Nancy Drew books, lol!
CMK

With a few more books read between Christmas and New Year's, I ended up with 52 total. I was pleased with an average of a book a week. Someday, I'd like to reach 100, but I don't imagine it will be while I am working full-time and taking care of a toddler. :-)

I read 29 books in 2008.

I read 117 books last year but some of these were graphic novels (i.e. quick reads - not necessarily "easy" reading, but quick all the same) and some were kid novels (like the "Little House" series). Looking over the list, I feel satisfied that it was a good mix of hard and easy books, fiction and non-fiction, and it was, overall, a good year for reading. Here's to a good reading year ahead.

One of my goals is to read the extremely long books (like ...And Ladies of the Club etc) so that might affect my overall numbers for 2009. We'll see.

Wow, I am really impressed with some of your number counts! Last year was the first year that I actually started keeping track of the books I read (I got the idea from a friend). We had a friendly competition about who could read more books in a year (she won). I ended up with only 45 books read in 2008, but my New Year's Resolution was to read at least 46 in 2009. A much easier resolution in my mind than losing 10 pounds!

netla and pages turned, I am amazed and impressed with the blogs you have both created. Wow.

PAM

Thank you, Pam. I enjoy writing it and it makes me really think about the books I read and why I enjoyed or didn't enjoy them.

cmk-oh, I know-it was just the way you said >I don't read mystries or chick lit, and most of what I read is over 300 pages. Maybe that has something to do with it.It just struck me funny.

Netla, I read the list of mysteries in your TBR list. Do some of them come from a list called something like "Best Mystery of the Year for the Last 50 Years"? I ask because I once had such a list and found almost all the books at the library, all bound in similar binding. Most of them were very good; some I would disagree with as being the "best" of a particular year.

Very funny, Vee. You might like to know I hired all those servants for myself. The cost of their commute is dreadful.

Carolyn, the TBR mysteries are a mixture of two best crime/mystery lists, one from the British Crime WriterÂs Association and the other from the Mystery Writers of America. The British list purports to contain the 100 best mysteries up to 1990 and the American one the best crime novels up to 1995. There is quite a bit of overlap - I think all in all 30 or 40-something books. I set myself a challenge to read the ones I hadn't already read, as and when I can get them.

I finished with a total count of 175 books for the year. This total includes books read and books listened to. Of those, 56 were audiobooks and 22 were nonfiction which both take me more time to get through. It also includes re-reads.
I just checked back to last year and find that my count is less for this year. Last year I made it to 189 books, 41 of which were audio and 30 were nonfiction.

(I only count the ones that I finish, not the ones that I don't make it through)

All of the 29 books I read in 2008 were audiobooks (Talking Books, actually).

Since others have posted links to their books blogs, I'll post the link to mine, where I'm "wordswordswords":

Here is a link that might be useful: wordswordswords comments on some books

jwttrans -

I have just spent a pleasant half an hour reading your reading blog and enjoyed it tremendously. I also got some good new recommendations from it. Thanks for posting it. It made my morning and my TBR pile improve immensely!

Golly, I have no idea how many books I read in 2008. I know I read at least 24 (for my 2 book groups) but I also read "unassigned" books, and I can't even guess how many others--one a month? Two? Now I'll have to start keeping a record.

lemonhead101, you made my day. It's really nice to know that someone reads my posts here--and that you even looked at my books blog.

No problem - now I have bookmarked it and will be reading it on a regular basis. I love a good book blog so good job.

I keep track on goodreads, but my yearly record-keeping is somewhat hit or miss. I am trying to add in books I read in the past, all the way back (very very far) to my childhood, as I remember them. I'm also in a race with DD to see how many books we can list-her TBR list is much longer than mine-my mystery list is dizzying!
When I look back, I find I was sometimes overenthusiatic with the ratings I gave when I first started listing-so I am slowly going back and trying to tone it down.
I also discovered that some goodreads users do "blanket friend requesting" so I learned to be discriminating about who I added to my list...otherwise the updates are overwhelming.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cece's goodreads

Cece - I do Goodreads, too. I've tried to go back and find books I've read in the past, but I'm sure I've missed many. It's fun to look back, though, and see what I've read. My DD also using Goodreads, but she doesn't update very often. I go through phases - forgetting to update; then I remember and add several books.

I read 61 books in 2008, and 16,341 pages. That's low for me, both in total books and average # of pages per book. I attribute a lot of that to changes at work (which eventually led to our location closing and my current unemployment) that messed with my reading time during breaks.

Breaking it down further, I read 33 fiction, 10 mystery, 14 non-fiction, and 4 biography/memoir. And I read far more during the fall and winter months than in summer, but that's always true for me.