And the total is...

The total number of books I read or listened to in 2013, that is..the total is 110. Yay, me?

I started keeping track in July 2003 for a lot of reasons--one reason being that I have trouble remembering the titles and authors of books.  I recently gave one of my co-teachers a hard time when our pop-quiz of the day consisted of two questions--1.  What is the title of the book you are reading?  and 2.  Who is the author?  At the time I was reading one of the horrible vampire books and had no clue what the name of it was or what the author's names are...I told him I would fail that quiz..I could tell about the plot, character, setting, similarities to other books (not their title or author though)...but couldn't recall title and author...

The first year I kept track only from July to December 31. I read 64 books--impressive, but I only had one child and one dog (still two cats, but they tend to be helpful towards reading, rather than destructive, right?).
 I ended 2013 by reading Crocodile on the Sandbank...and it was the first book I read in 2004. I ended that year by reading Vanish with the Rose to a 3 week old Boy...I only read 85 books that year...an average of 7 a month (ooh, statistics!).

I read 95 books in 2005...some to The Boy, since he was young enough not to argue.  Several Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters (easy reading, I'm telling you) and a few Dean Koontz.  I don't think I read those to The Boy though...

In 2006 my book club tried to expand our horizons and read several contemporary popular books, as well as a few "classics", like Madame Bovary.  I don't think I was appropriately scandalized.  That year The Girl started kindergarten and we buddy read many in The Littles Series, so that "upped my count" a little, but ending with "only" 81 books read that year.

The last Harry Potter book was published in 2007...so to get ready I re-read the whole series...that year I finished 103 books, including those Harry Potter and again a lot of buddy read books.

It looks like in 2008 I read (or re-read?) the Twilight books--ending the year by finishing 91 books.

I think that it was in 2009 the kids and I started listening to books on CD in the car.  We had listened to some before, on long trips, but this was the year after we moved and increased our commute...so that boots my reading a bit. I couldn't read to them while driving...but I could pop in a CD...we listened to all the Harry Potter books...despite the "warning" on the label saying that they were designed for kids ages 9 and up.  Oh, well.  Even with that "boost" I read only 63 books that year-- but it looks like there were a lot of new (to me books).  And those Harry books are long!

In 2010, I read 87 books, including A Girl of the Limberlost, just because I found it free on Kindle.

2011 was a "big" year--I read 118 books.  I think I joined a 2nd  book club that year though, so it pushed me a bit, right? I also read several on my Kindle while the family skied.  I would go up to the mountain with them, have breakfast, then read and drink coffee until lunch.  Sometimes one of the kids would stay with me for awhile while the other had a couple runs with Dad and sometimes I would spend the afternoon reading if no one stayed with me.

In 2012 I had to start a new notebook--the original was full!  For some of the same reasons as 2011, I read 121 books that year...now I feel like I didn't read enough last year.  We'll go with I'm reading books with more substance. Let's see what this year holds...