The OF Blog: Analysis of reads #401-500

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Analysis of reads #401-500

Yes, I read my 500th book of 2009 this afternoon.  While I don't have as much of a life outside of work and other commitments, I suppose some might be curious about the latest 100.  Here goes:


  • 20% of the reads were (co)written or (co)edited by women.  A slight drop from the previous 100
  • 7% of the reads were in French, by far the highest amount of fiction I have ever read in that language.  All were originally written in French, but only 1 was a SF work.
  • 2% of the works were in Italian, both part of a two-volume graphic novel by Sergio Toppi.  Excellent, by the way.
  • 23% of the books were either illustrated or graphic novels, by far the highest percentage ever for me.  Most of those were not genre-related, however.
  • 4% of the reads were in Portuguese, all but one being originally published in that language.
  • 1% each of the reads were in Serbian, Latin, and Romanian, with only the Romanian being a translation from the English original.
  • Only 9% were in Spanish, one of the lowest percentages for me in years.
  • 2% of the reads were continuations by other authors of books associated with now-dead writers.
  • 12% were re-reads.
  • No popes or other religious figures for this latest 100, though.
  • 11% were anthologies or collections that were not omnibuses. 
  • Only 1% were YA fiction, far lower than the norm for me.
  • 5% of the books were omnibuses published by Library of America and another 1% was an omnibus by another publisher.

That'll do for now.  Likely will post the past month's reading either late tonight or tomorrow sometime.  Looks like it'll approach 70 books read for the month of November alone.

2 comments:

Harry Markov said...

You also do French? Impressive. I am studying the language, but the tutor at the university drives me insane, so I am usually not in the mood to get into the material.

By the way, how many books have your written in a year? More than 1000?

Larry Nolen said...

I studied Latin, Spanish, and German when I was enrolled in university courses, plus I was around Haitian (French Creole) speakers for two years when I lived in Florida, plus almost half of English is just bad French, so when all that is combined, understanding written French is very easy. Not having as easy of a time learning Serbian in my spare time, since the structure of that language is different from the Romance or Germanic languages I know, but I'd imagine that it wouldn't take you much time to learn how to read in it, since I believe Bulgarian is closely related to it, right?

As for your question, it's late, so I don't quite understand what you're asking here. I have no desire to write books, if you'll recall, or at least no fiction books, that is.

 
Add to Technorati Favorites