I have updated my spreadsheet and only have a few holes that I should bother to fill in if I would only remember upon wandering back upstairs to where I’ve just moved the books.
On my goal to read 100, I’m a bit far off tack. Only 37 so far (but my 38th is 2/3 through) and this counts the 3 that I DNF-ed. (DNF’d? or is this actually redundant since the D stands for the past tense ‘did’? reading Alphabet Juice has its consequences.) I actually hope to get back and finish two of those DNFs. Someday. Is there a challenge out there in book-blog-land to go back and attempt completion of books we failed to complete?
I’ve read over 10,000 pages – this is new for me to track so I can’t compare. If I round up Twilight’s pages to 500, I can say that I read 2 books with at least that many pages. (I gave up on The Pillars of the Earth and give ‘too long’ as my excuse.) Ratio to female to male authors is 21 to 16. Only two books were my second time to read that author (Margaret Atwood, or third, in the case of Kazuo Ishiguro). Thirteen books were nonfiction. Twenty-six books were either set in US or written by Americans – I have a ‘country’ category but this is ambiguous to me already – did I mean the author’s ‘home’ country or setting for the story? In the case of Tana French, I have this in the bucket: US/UK/Dublin. Other countries listed are Japan, Sweden, Iran, South Africa, UK and Canada. One book labeled ‘Feminist’, two ‘African American’, one ‘Vampire’.
Twenty-five books published between 2000 and now, seven from the decade prior, the remainder: 1899, 1908, 1937, 1970(2).
For most of the novels I applied this vague label: ‘Contemporary Fiction.’ Only a few have ‘Historical Fiction’ labels. Five say YA – new category for me, I believe. One graphic novel, two classics, one thriller, one travelogue. I’ve branched out but not too far on that branch, huh?
My Challenge Tally:
Four books for the Dewey Challenge: Anne of Green Gables, Persepolis, Looking for Alaska, Note To Self (mini-challenge)
Two books for the Stalking Chartroose Challenge: The Remains of the Day and Popular Music from Vittula
Four books for the Science Challenge: The Orchid Thief, Mauve, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Thunderstruck
I didn’t specifically sign up for the Diversity Challenge, but these might count: Their Eyes Were Watching God and A Lesson Before Dying. Perhaps also, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
I’ve read ZERO for the World Citizen Challenge and am not even sure I have any books IN HOUSE for this! 
I need to revisit the suggestions.
I realize that this is not in a super dooper readable format but at least it’s done. whew. Let’s read 7 books a month for the rest of the year! Woo hoo!! I also hereby commit to adding some of this tracking to each review post to facilitate the upkeep and accuracy. Here’s to goals, big and small and written down.
oh my goodness gracious, you keep quite detailed records! I may have to go back and do something similar with mine! I was shooting for 50 books this year and finished my 55th on 6/30 so I can either coast the rest of the year or shoot for 100 and try to get thru more of my TBR pile. I’m starting to worrry that I’m thinking too much about it and taking some of the fun out which I really don’t want to happen.
oh Lisa, I do not! I attempt to. In fact, for awhile, I forgot to include WHEN I read a book! I think creating the spreadsheet at startup was fun but it’s NOT fun to keep it uptodate. What I like best is that I strive to read a variety of books and I think I accomplish this.
You are right about ‘thinking too much takes the fun out of it’ which is why I love to join challenges but do a dismal job of working the challenge…
I love your stats. Improving my female to male authors ratio is definitely my main goal for the second half of the year. And I’m behind on the World Citizen Challenge too, and on a few others
Must work on that.
I do find that ‘usually’ the books I finish quickly are written by women. Maybe I should track my stats on start to finish time. ugh.
I’m impressed with all the things you managed to keep track of!!! I love your variety, too! I really want to check my challenge progress now that the year’s half over, but I have to admit that I’m a little bit afraid to.
It’s so hard to decide whether to go with setting or author nationality! Isn’t it? French is Irish, isn’t she?
I can give you some recs if you need them for the World Citizen Challenge (obviously), but there’s absolutely no pressure!
I don’t keep a spreadsheet, I just go up and down my ‘Books Read’ list checking to see what books fall into what categories, LOL. I probably should have done a check on my year-long challenges to, but I forgot. I think I’m doing fine except for the My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge, which I wasn’t good at last year either. I won’t be joining it again!
Eva, I was thinking that I read in the back of the book that she was American but all I can find online is that she grew up in the US AND Ireland AND Malawi AND Italy. She’s a citizen of the world.
and yes, thank you, you always have the BEST suggestions and will revisit soon.
I am still off on my counts between the spreadsheet and the page here. I need to print it off again and see what I’m missing where. so frustrating!
great progress, I like your analysis. Read any memoir for World Citizen challenge, that would take care of one category. Don’t your boat books count for this challenge?
Violet, the only memoir I have in house is Gregory Peck. I suppose he filmed movies all over the world? ha. No, wait, I do have My Detachment by Tracy Kidder which is about the war. Hmmmm. I also have a travel book by A.A. Gill so I might try these in July.
You are way more dedicated than I am with this spreadsheet stuff. I have no idea how many I’ve read so far or how many pages, and heaven forbid I had to figure out the female author to male author ratio.
more power to you…keep up the good work and you’ll reach you goal of reading 100 books.
Well, you are more dedicated in your wonderful blog presentation! By the way, I thought of you and will send you an email…
I am sucking at the WC challenge as well. The first book I started didn’t get thrown at the wall (because it was massive and would ahve made a dent) but it came close because of the arrogance of the writer. I must try again soon.