Make 2012 the Year You Resolve to Read More Books.

2nd January 2012

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Make 2012 the Year You Resolve to Read More Books.

Matt Mullin Books Read in 2011

In 2011 my New Years Resolution was to keep track of all the books I read in print. I’d initially planned to write a small paragraph about each with a family member so I could share them at the end of December, but that’s not particularly easy thing to do when you finish a book on a full 4 train. But just tracking your books is a wonderful contrivance to remind yourself to read, even when work, games, or packed trains get in the way.

If you haven’t made a reading resolution yet, I really encourage you to give it a try. If you read mostly in print (as I did in 2011), clear out a bookshelf or a space to pile the books up. I found that having the a totem in my room acted as a helpful reminder to always have a book in my bag. That stack will give you a better sense of what you like in your reading (for me, it’s novels. The ratio is 34:1 in the fiction vs non-fiction category).

If you read in both print and ebook, try using GoodReads to track your reading. The barcode scanner on their iPhone app lets you easily port your print titles to your profile.

If you read exclusively in ebook, consider Kobo, as you can use Reading Life to track your pages, hours read, and more.

My reading preferences and top 10 of the year below the break.

Things I noticed about what I gravitate towards in 2011:

1. Sad Irish folk: There’s nothing quite like a bleak, oppressive Irish landscape to get a title up to the top of my queue, either in rural West Ireland or a neighborhood in Brooklyn. More guilt! More institutionalization! More repressive family!

2. Tough prose: I didn’t realize it until today, but I read predominately male authors in 2011. I’m planning on changing that in 2012, with The Hunger Games at the top of my TBR shelf (this time on my Nook Touch), but from Chandler to Murakami to Greene, the writers that kept me going back for one more title were the ones with a reputation for being tough and spare.

3. Speculative weirdness: The books that kept me thinking in 2011 started with an interesting premise (How about Hundred Years of Solitude in Canada? What if you mixed Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler?), and built a beautiful literary novel on top. I’m always on the hunt for more books like that.

Here are my top 10 of 2011:

Galore, Michael Crummey (Other Press)

Gods Without Men, Hari Kunzro (ARC, Knopf)

The White Mary, Kira Salak (Picador)

The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco (Harcourt)

Homer & Langley, E.L. Doctorow (Random House)

Right Ho, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse (Overlook Press)

Gun, with Occasional Music, Jonathan Lethem (Harcourt)

The Long Goodbye, Raymond Chandler (Vintage Crime)

The End of the Affair, Graham Greene (Penguin) *

On Canaan’s Side, Sebastian Barry (Viking)

* The End of the Affair was the lowest rated title on BN.com on this list. Here’s what one 1-star reviewer had to say about it:

“I only read this book because it was required summer reading for all incoming 11th graders in my school. It looked like an okay book at first, but when I started reading it, it couldn’t keep my attention. All I got from it was that Bendrix hated Henry and Sarah, but then he loved Sarah too. B-O-R-I-N-G! I don’t get why so many people were raving about this book. Even Shakespeare writes better than Graham Greene! There are definitely better books than this. You just have to look a bit.”

Tagged: Books in 2011 New Years Resolution