My First Annual Favorites Survey of 2006.
16 people completed the survey (12 US, 4 international).
Here are the results. Only unique responses are listed; if more than one person referenced the same work, the number at the end indicates frequency for that specific answer. More than one response was given to some questions.
1. Favorite fiction book of 2006
Straight Man, Richard Russo
Everyman by Philip Roth
The Birth House by Ami McKay
The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield (3)
Breakable You, Brian Morton
The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
Winter's Bone, Daniel Woodrell
Arthur and George, Julian Barnes
Lisey's Story, Stephen King
Dreamtigers, Jorge Luis Borges
Also Mentioned: Uses of Enchantment, no author cited. Uses of Enchantment, by Bruno Bettelheim, is the only book I found and it is non-fiction. Perhaps there is a fiction work with the same title?
2. Favorite non-fiction book of 2006
Me Talk Pretty Some Day, David Sedaris
Curse of the Narrows, Laura MacDonald
Devil's Teeth, Susan Casey
Sweet and Low: A Family Story, Rich Cohen
Marley and Me, John Grogan
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Blithe Tomato, Mike Madison,
Enrique's Journey, Sonia Nazario.
Assassination Vacation, Sarah Vowell
City of Falling Angels, John Berendt
The Mighty and the Almighty, Madeleine Albright
On Beauty and Being Just, Elaine Scarry
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan
How Reading Changed My Life, Anna Quindlen
3. Favorite book-related controversy
Critics vs. Book Bloggers (3)
Oprah no longer leading a book discussion.
Judith Reagan (3)
Frey-Gate (4)
The one about bibliographies in novels because it was so irrational.
One participant cited the Judith Reagan/OJ Simpson controversy as a dis-honorable mention!
4. Favorite Blog Post
Lima Stew and Blender Tuna Mousse: Unrescued Recipes, Lily at Bloglily.
BlogLily's Saying Farewell to Illness, Lily at Bloglily
The pitfalls of receiving free books, or how not to risk your book blogging credibility, Kimbofo at Reading Matters.
Pay it forward...and Win a Venator Survival Kit!, Colleen Gleason, For All the World To See.
Simply Wait, Patry Francis
interview with Patry Francis, Susan Henderson's LitPark
Race report; or, isn't it great when we all help each other out?, Dorothy, Of Books and Bicycles
"On Richard Russo's Straight Man", Litlove, Tales from the Reading Room
“Deliver Us From Thinking” Tim Sterne, Sarsaparilla
5. Favorite Daily Read
A Work in Progress (4)
P-S Shelf Life
Pesky Apostrophe (2)
SciFi Chick
One Whipped Mother
DoveGreyReader Scribbles, DovegreyReader
LitPark
The Hobgoblin of Little Minds, BikeProf
Bloglily, Lily (2)
Tales from the Reading Room, Litlove (3)
Box of Books, Ella
Of Books and Bicycles, Dorothy W.
Cam's Commentary, Cam
Telecommuter Talk, Emily
Metaxucafe
6. Favorite Group Blog or Blogging Community
A Curious Singularity
BlogHer
Pop Goes the Library
Metaxucafe (4)
The Slaves of Golconda (2)
The Valve
Two comments which didn't specifically list a group blog, but defintely refer to a community:
"Not sure I visit alot of group blogs. I use A Work in Progress as the hub and ...I consider all her blog links part of the book blogging community which is far and away my favorite."
"All of those bookbloggers listed above."
7. Favorite Blog Controversy
Critics vs Book Bloggers, summarized here (4)
Free Books at Reading Matters (3)
Anything to do with the romance blogs.
8. Favorite Commenter -- the one who makes the comments almost as great as the post (on your blog or others)
Kate S, Kate’s Book Blog
Litlove, Tales from the Reading Room (4)
Booklogged, A Reader’s Journal
Carl V., Stainless Steel Droppings
Dorothy, Of Books And Bicycles (cited as 'most dedicated commenter')
Danielle, A Work in Progress
Jay, Kill the Goat
9. Favorite Litblog-related Meme or Challenge
Cam’s Poetry Meme (3)
The Halloween Meme Em didn’t start it, but she loves a good meme. Here is her post.
The Summer Reading Challenge by the bookjunkie. (her new blog home).
Carl's RIP Challenge (3)
Litlove's Reading meme There was also this one, "The Aspirational Meme”
Five things you don't know about me. Cited because "it gives insights into my fellow bloggers". This one was everywhere.
Kate's Early Reading Memories meme, This originated with Kate.
One response to this question really made me laugh. It was this: "Yuck!"
The Participants:
Thanks to all who participated. It was fun reading and compiling the results. Only those who indicated in the comments that they had completed the survey are listed here. I lost some comments during blogger conversion recently, so if I missed your comment, please accept my apology for not listing you here. If you participated and are not listed, add your name in the comments section.
Imani at The Books of My Numberless Dreams
Carl V at Stainless Steel Droppings
Dorothy W at Of Books and Bicycles
Litlove at Tales from the Reading Room
Maggie, at Maggie Reads
29 December 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
9 comments:
And I never got around to doing this before the dealine, but thought it was a GREAT idea and hope you'll make it an annual event.
Meanwhile, I'm waiting for you to graph the books you read in 2006...
Wonderful work,Cam! I have to confess I didn't participate simply because, while I tried, I couldn't pick favorites for nearly any category, but then again, I've had a hard time focusing on anything lately with changing jobs and travel. Next year I will definitely participate!
How fun! Thanks so much for doing this Cam! I second Emily -- can we make this an annual event?
I Third Ms. Emily. It's a great annual event. (Or even semi-annual.) It got away from me this year, but I'll be sure to do it next time if you host. And I'm really, really flattered to have been mentioned in your survey. Half the people I know in real life suspect I'm spending all my time doing internet gambling or something equally suspect. Today, when I read your post, I wanted to say, come over here and look! Somebody liked my essay on Blender Tuna Mousse! But just saying that in my head made me realize I'll just have to keep how thrilled I am to myself, or they'll come and take my computer away.
Happy New Year Cam.
xo, Lily
Glad you got this up, I've been keeping an eye out for it! Hope you do it again next year and maybe get it up a bit earlier so that we can all cajole, push and prod others into participating.
The verdict seems to be that I should do this annually!
Carl, I think your suggestion is a good one. Starting earlier would be better. December gets so busy. It seemed like I barely had time to publicize this; I'm not surprised that some didn't have time to answer.
Lily, I don't think anyone would want to take your computer away because someone liked your essay on Blender Tuna Mousse, but it would be very suspect if you -- or one of your readers -- said that they liked Blender Tuna Mousse!
I'm constantly surprised that even one person stops by to read my blog, more so that 15 of you took the time to complete a questionnaire I devised. What an interesting, exhilarating experience blogging has been this year!
Happy New Years everyone!
I love seeing lists of books! It took me a while, but I just finished putting together a list of all the books I read in 2006: all 110 of them! This is more than double what I read in 2005, due to various factors (explained in more detail in the post). They're broken down into categories, and I denoted the ones that I liked the best. :)
http://www.zandria.us/archives/000925.html
I'm sorry--I meant to fill this out, but I have been very bad at keeping up with things lately! That's so nice that I am mentioned--thank you. It was a great idea, Cam!
Good Job!: )
Post a Comment