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29 December 2006

Favorites of 2006: Survey Results

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

9 comments:

Emily Barton said...

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...

Anonymous said...

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!

Rebecca H. said...

How fun! Thanks so much for doing this Cam! I second Emily -- can we make this an annual event?

Anonymous said...

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

Carl V. Anderson said...

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.

Anne Camille said...

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!

Anonymous said...

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

Anonymous said...

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!

Anonymous said...

Good Job!: )