2016: The Year In Books

With another year coming to an end, it is time to take a look back at the 31 books I read over the past year, even with last year and tied for my highest total ever, surpassing the 27 books I read back in 1992.  Of those 31, 9 were non-fiction and, of the 22 novels, only 5 were TV show tie-ins.  Only 4 of the books came from the “to-read” drawer, and 8 were e-books.  I read over 11,000 pages, the most in 1 year since 1992 and my second straight year reaching the 9000 mark.

Once again, a majority of the books I read this year were by authors I’ve never read before. The 12 authors that I read for the first this year were:
Doug Wilson
Jennie Garth
Emily Heckman
J.K. Rowling
Jen Kirkman
Jack Ketchum
John Dean
Judy Greer
Jenny Lawson
Gary Dell’Abate
Anna Kendrick
Emily V. Gordon

There were 3 authors I read multiple titles from during 2016, the ghost writer for Richard Castle, Jeffery Deaver, and J.K. Rowling.

Only 2 of the books I read were released this year, while 5 of them were released last century.

Finally, the breakdown by month.  Vacations in March, November, and December certainly helped pad their totals a tad bit.

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Book 19 (of 52) – Furiously Happy

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things – Jenny Lawson

When you’ve been feeling down about life, what better book to read than a memoir from a certified crazy person.  Jenny Lawson is a professional blogger who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, OCD, ADD, depression, and an anxiety disorder.  In Furiously Happy, she details her struggle in living with those disorders and her attempts to overcome them and live a somewhat normal life.

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting from this book, but it certainly wasn’t what I got: an unflinching, if humorous, look at someone living with differing levels of mental illness.  I was not in the right frame of mind for such an exercise, though I don’t know when a good time would be.  If anything, it made me look deeper at my own situation and try to find a happy balance in my thoughts and feelings.