2018 Stats

Total books read- 138

Fiction- 61

Non-fiction- 70

fiction breakdown

YA-3

Fantasy/Sci-Fi- 26

J Fiction- 26

Picture Books- 1

Animals- 18

Classics- 1

Poetry- 2

non-fiction breakdown

Art- 5

Gardening/Food- 7

J Nonfiction- 4

Memoirs- 23

Nature- 11

Animals- 49

Other- 5

other formats

Short Stories- 4

Graphic Novels- 11

E-Books- 8

sources

Owned- 98

Public Library- 36

Borrowed from friend/relative- 3

Received from publisher/author- 1

re-reads- 4

abandoned books- 9

Notes: the numbers don't add up perfectly. Lots of titles span more than one category, for example, so this is just a rough idea of what my reading year looked like. I read a lot more fantasy/sci-fi this year- most of those were Animorphs books, short and fun. My interest in animals continues to be a major part of my reading, but I also picked up more memoirs this year than before. Fiction and Non-fiction was pretty even, and as in the past few years I read more books out of my own collection than from the library.

Some of the foreign places I visited in the pages: the Congo, Gombe, Haiti, Peru, India, Brazil, Antarctica, Great Britian, Namibia, Yemen, the island of Corfu, and several fantasy worlds.

Now for the best reads of the year. Fascinating book about bird life with gorgeous photographs: The Living Bird published by the Cornell lab of Ornithology.  Another favorite was also avian: The Parrot Who Owns Me by Joanna Burger, Very memorable for its thoughtfulness: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. A vivid novella I won't forget easy: Stickeen by John Muir, with some stunning nature writing and a small courageous dog. A very different kind of read for me was Trashed by Derf Backderf, graphic novel about working as a garbage collector. And I have to mention GoatMan. It was the weirdest book ever.

Great fiction: All the Little Live Things by Wallace Stegner. Must read me some more Stegner! Favorite graphic novel of the year: El Zoo Petrificado by Joris Chamblain. Look for the English version if you can. Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman, about a teen with mental illness, was very good. I also really liked The Mare by Mary Gaitskill, that one was hard to put down.

So many I can't name them all here. My 4/5- Great Book tag has more wonderful reads!