HOW KINDLE AFFECTED WHAT I READ LAST YEAR
This time last year, I resolved to keep faithful track of what I read, using Goodreads, so that I would be able to look back and reflect on what my reading had been like in the past twelve months. Cutting to the chase, while I did read, I failed on the keeping records part.
In many ways, 2011 was about loss and upheaval in our house. The sort of year where, had I been invited to guess in advance, I might have predicted would be good for reading. By which I would have really meant good for hiding under the duvet bingeing on books in self-defence. The reality was rather different. Both my attention span and patience were shot to pieces, and so, according to the available stats (collated my Kindle and Goodreads) I read thirteen novels, and filed two others on the ‘just not for me’ shelf this past year. These latter two were Trespass by Rose Tremain and 11.22.63 by Stephen King. In both cases, I am happy to concede the failings lie within me.
The list in full, in the order I read them, is:
1. Snowdrops by Andrew Miller
2. Deceptions by Rebecca Frayn
3. Naming the bones by Louise Welsh
4. True things about me by Deborah Kay Davies
5. Theft: A love story by Peter Carey
6. Trespass by Rose Tremain*
7. The City and the City by China Mieville
8. The Sense of an ending by Julian Barnes
9. The Summer without men by Siri Hustvedt
10. Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro
11. All that I am by Anna Funder
12. The Fear Index by Robert Harris
13. 11.22.63 by Stephen King*
14. Birdsong by Sebastien Faulks
15. Testimony by Anita Shreve
Before I started compiling, I felt certain my book of the year would be All that I am by Anna Funder. But then I saw Peter Carey’s Theft: A Love story sitting there at No. 5, and my heart soared at the sight of this old friend. It is without doubt my book of 2011.
A closer look at the list suggest I only read fiction this year, which I know is not the case. Although I can’t actually recall any titles to counter this at the time of writing (maybe I should resolve to keep better records next year…).
But more than anything, what is missing from this list is the massive effect KINDLE has had on my reading. For while it seems that I have only read thirteen novels on Kindle, I have no record of the rather larger number of novels I abandoned after reading the opening SAMPLES. For me, this has been the biggest change in my reading in 2011.
Where, in the past, I would order stacks of books based on word-of-mouth and inspiring reviews, now I send myself samples. Loads of them. Somehow, having so much choice available right on my own sofa has brought out the tyrant in me. I’ve become ruthless at deleting things I feel sure I would have bought had I been reading them standing in Waterstone’s. Each time it happens I feel a sense of quiet relief. Time and money saved with one thumb down. The corollary of this is a sort of literary cognitive dissonance which sets in. It’s as though by making a more informed decision up front, I have a lot more invested in enjoying the books I do buy. Or maybe I’m imagining it. 2012 will tell I suppose. Finding a way of tracking these things is one of my (probably destined to go unfulfilled) reading resolutions of 2012. But more on this later.
In the meantime, I’d be very interested to know what your favourite read of 2011 was, and what changes Kindle is having on your reading habit.
[…] This time last year, I sat down to try and work out what my ‘Book of the Year’ was, and realised that, as much as the books themselves, what really dominated my reading landscape in 2011 was the arrival of the Kindle sample in my life. […]