2016 book stats

Total books read- 85

Fiction- 46
Non-fiction- 39

fiction breakdown
YA- 3
Historical- 3
Fantasy- 8
J Fic- 15
Picture books- 2
Animals- 19
Classics- 5
Poetry- 1

non-fiction breakdown
Art- 5
Gardening- 5
J Non-fic- 15
Memoirs- 8
Nature- 11
Animals- 15
Other- 7

other formats
Short stories- 2
Graphic novels- 3

sources
Owned- 52
Library- 33
Review copies- 0
Borrowed from a friend- 2

re-reads- 2
abandoned books- 9

As usual, the numbers are a bit off (some fit into more than one category, and I read far more than two picture books with my five-year-old, but just noted the ones reviewed). The only pattern that surprises me is that (compared to total count) it seems I read fewer animal books this year, and more juvenile fic/non-fic than in other years.

It's always interesting to see how far afield my reading gets me. Not much, this time. Most of the books I read were set in the USA, a few even in my hometown! The bit of foreign settings I did get were from Scotland, Wales, rural England, Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Australia, Cameroon, Kenya and South Africa.

My favorites of the year were The Hidden Half of Nature and The Dragon of Og. In terms of art The Bird-King was inspiring and a feast for the imagination. Best animal book of the year was probably Inside of a Dog. Top reads that taught me about plants- Garden Secrets (very practical) My Weeds (incredibly useful and interesting) and Thoreau's Faith in a Seed.

Books I really appreciated even if they weren't actual favorites: American Girls was an eye-opening account of what teenagers experience with social media today. Set far in the past, The Inheritors was baffling and fascinating at the same time. In the opposite direction, The Time Machine presented some fantastic ideas of what the future might become. Those two really stretched me. Some classics I'm glad I finally read: Cry, the Beloved Country and How Green Was My Valley. And finally, there's Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour- I'm not sure how to classify this one. It feels like historical fiction to me, because the setting is over a hundred fifty years ago. But the author wrote it as a contemporary parody- it wasn't historical content for him!