100 per cent!

At the start of 2011 I set myself the rather ambitious-for-me goal to read 100 books during the following 12 months. I know that 100 books in a year, or around 2 a week, may not seem like a lot to some of my fellow book bloggers, but for me it was a big target – the previous year I’d read around 65-70 books, and that was the most I’d read in a year since I was a child. With a job that takes up around 60-70 hours a week, plus freelance writing and other commitments on top of that, most of my friends are bewildered that I manage to find time to read at all – so 100 books in a year seemed a big, worthy goal. It's not like I have a lot of leisure time to read. But I am a fast reader, and I do love it. And after all, even if I fell short, I’d probably end up reading more books than the previous year.

At the halfway mark last year (read post here) I was on track; exactly halfway with 50 books read. Things got even busier work-wise in the second part of 2011, so at times I fell behind the pace required, but a surge of reading in the final month or so as the holiday season kicked in led to me completing my challenge of 100 books read on 30 December 2011, with one day to spare.

Here's the full line-up (in some semblance of reading order):

• LAST CAR TO ELYSIAN FIELDS by James Lee Burke
• IN PLAIN SIGHT by CJ Box
• PROMISED LAND by David Hewson
• THE EXECUTIONER by Jay Bennett
• THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN by James Lee Burke
• BURIED ALIVE by J. A. Kerley
• BOUND by Vanda Symon
• STILL MISSING by Chevy Stevens
• SHATTER THE BONES by Stuart MacBride
• FOLLOW THE MONEY by Peter Corris
• BORDERLANDS by Brian McGilloway
• A POLITICAL AFFAIR by Andrew Porteous
• THE MOON & FARMER MCPHEE by Margaret Mahy
• THE SENTRY by Robert Crais
• HOLLYWOOD HILLS by Joseph Wambaugh
• FRIENDLY FIRE by Michael Wall
• SHAOLIN BURNING by Ant Sang
• LIVE WIRE by Harlan Coben
• YOU'RE NEXT by Gregg Hurwitz
• CANDIED CRIME by Dorte Jakobsen
• THE CRIME OF HUEY DUNSTAN by James McNeish
• LOVE YOU MORE by Lisa Gardner
• THE FIFTH WITNESS by Michael Connelly
• MIXED BLOOD by Roger Smith
• PAYBACK by Simon Kernick
• SHADOW SISTER by Simone van der Vlugt
• SMILING JACK by Ken Catran
• CURLY FROM SHIRLEY by Emma Pullar
• CITY OF BONES by Michael Connelly
• THE JANISSARY TREE by Jason Goodwin
• DROP SHOT by Harlan Coben
• BLACK WATER by T. Jefferson Parker
• THE ATHENIAN MURDERS by Jose Carlos Somoza
• NO OPPORTUNITY WASTED by Phil Keoghan
• CARTE BLANCHE by Jeffery Deaver
• IRON HOUSE by John Hart
• KILLING HOUR by Andrew Gross
• LIFE'S GOLDEN TICKET by Brendan Burchard
• BLEACHERS by John Grisham
• THE KILLING PLACE by Tess Gerritsen
• THE WRECKAGE by Michael Robotham
• MYSTERY by Jonathan Kellerman
• EXACERBYTE by Cat Connor
• IT'S NOT HOW GOOD YOU ARE, IT'S HOW GOOD YOU WANT TO BE by Paul Arden
• RED WOLF by Liza Marklund
• THEODORE BOONE: THE ADBUCTION by John Grisham
•  BACK OF BEYOND by CJ Box
• THE TROUBLED MAN by Henning Mankell
•  BY ANY MEANS by Ben Sanders
• LETHAL DELIVERIES by Kenn Benn
• TABOO by Casey Hill
• FAT BURNING KITCHEN by Mike Geary
• COLLECTING COOPER by Paul Cleave
• THE SILENT GIRL by Tess Gerritsen
• NGAIO MARSH: HER LIFE IN CRIME by Joanne Drayton
• GOOD AS DEAD by Mark Billingham
• SHELTER by Harlan Coben
• FLASH AND BONES by Kathy Reichs
• THE COLOR OF LAW by Mark Gimenez
• THE RIDGE by Michael Koryta
• CROSS FIRE by James Patterson
• THE DARK END OF THE STREET edited by Jonathan Santlofer and SJ Rozan
• RETRIBUTION by Val McDermid
• THE ACCIDENT by Linwood Barclay
• THE AFFAIR by Lee Child
• SIX SECONDS by Rick Mofina
• BITTERROOT by James Lee Burke
• A MAN YOU CAN BANK ON by Derek Hansen
• LUTHER: THE CALLING by Neil Cross
• LINE OF FIRE by John Lockyer
• THE LOCK ARTIST by Steve Hamilton
• TRACES OF RED by Paddy Richardson
• THE COURTSHIP GIFT by Julie Parsons
• SEIZURE by Kathy Reichs
• CITY OF THE DEAD by Sara Gran
• THE CYPRESS HOUSE by Michael Koryta
• CHAMPIONS by Anon
• THE DROP by Michael Connelly
• INSPECTOR SINGH INVESTIGATES: THE SINGAPORE SCHOOL OF VILLIANY by Shamini Flint
• FALLEN by Karin Slaughter
• RED MIST by Patricia Cornwell
• TORN APART by Peter Corris
• COMEBACK by Peter Corris
• MILKSHAKE by Matt Hammond
• EXPLOSIVE EIGHTEEN by Janet Evanovich
• BLOOD ROOTS by Michael Green
• THE THIRD RAIL by Michael Harvey
• COLD WIND by CJ Box
• BLOCKADE BILLY by Stephen King
• THE SNOWMAN by Jo Nesbo
• HEADHUNTERS by Jo Nesbo
• NEVER KNOWING by Chevy Stevens
• DEATH ON DEMAND by Paul Thomas
• JUNGLE DOCTOR by Paul White
• THE WOODS by Harlan Coben
• EDGE by Jeffery Deaver
• SENSELESS by Andrea Jutson
• TEN BIG ONES by Janet Evanovich
• THE MONSTER IN THE BOX by Ruth Rendell

Taking a look at a few trends in my 2011 reading:

Crime fiction: at the halfway point, 44 of the 50 books (88 per cent) I’d read fell into the crime/mystery/thriller category. At the time, I thought that was perhaps a little high. Interestingly the percentage was exactly the same in the second half, with another 44 of the 50 final books being crime/thriller fiction. I think I will need to lower that this year – not so much to read less crime, but read more widely overall.

New Zealand authors: at the halfway point, 10 of the 50 books were by New Zealanders. In the second half it was similar – nine of the final 50, so keeping at about 20 per cent overall. Not bad, though perhaps could be a little higher.

Female authors: one thing I didn’t discuss in my halfway post, but was pointed out by a couple of others, was that I had a low percentage of female authors (10 out of 50, or 20 per cent). This hadn’t previously been a problem for me, as I’m always keen to read good writing regardless of who the writer was. But it did alert me to perhaps some unconscious decisions I’d been making, so I hoped to improve this in the second half, which I did – 18 out of my final 50 books were written by female authors (36 per cent), bringing my overall total up to 29 per cent for the year.

Countries: I read books from authors from New Zealand, Australia, the United States, South Africa, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Denmark, Spain, Ireland, Norway, and Singapore. So not a bad spread.

New-to-me authors: at the halfway point I’d read 27 new-to-me authors in 2011, and by the end of the year I’d added another 14 (I’d also read more books from some of the new-to-me authors from the first half), for a total of 41 new-to-me authors for the year.

Multiple readings: at the halfway point I’d read multiple books in 2011 by James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben and John Grisham (neither of the latter’s were his usual legal thrillers). By the end of the year I’d also read multiple books during the year from Tess Gerritsen, Peter Corris, Michael Koryta, CJ Box, Kathy Reichs, Jo Nesbo, and Janet Evanovich.

I'd love to read your comments and feedback on my reading list for 2011.