Reading 2024 - Books 11-15

 Reading has continued in 2024 with five more books read. A book of short stories, a book of poetry, a guide to the Galaxy, a book of mystery and suspense, and a non-fiction book about BONK.

Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

This book was published in 1953.

This book has been on my shelf for a very long time. I think I may got it from my dad's collection after he died but I am not sure. I finally decided to read it.  It was a good read but most of the short stories were almost like glimpses of a scene from a bigger story, with no beginning or ending. I think because Salinger was the writer in the book I just read, Shoeless Joe, it made me want to see what he could do.

I think I read The Catcher in the Rye in HS, so this is my second book by Salinger. I give the book a 2.0 (Good).

Dearly by Margaret Atwood

A new poetry book by Atwood published in 2020.

This was a book recommended for me by Goodreads. I am a fan of her novels but this is the first poetry book I have read in a long time. She is a great poet. I got the book out of the library, and I scanned a few of my favorite poems before returning it.

This was the sixth book I have read by Atwood. I give it a 3.0 (Great).

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

This well-loved science fiction novel was published in 1979, the year I graduated from University of Vermont.

This was #25 on my bucket list and is the 68th book added to the list. My feeling is that I should have read this forty years ago, when I was younger, I think I would have liked it more than I did.

My first book by Adams, and probably will be my last. I give it a 2.5 (Good to Great).

Spiraled by Kendra Elliot

Published in 2015.

I started reading Kendra Elliot on a B&N spontaneous buy. It was the fifth book in a six book series called the Callahan & McLane series. Since I enjoyed the first so much I have also read the first two books in the series. This book, Spiraled, was number three in the series. I have also purchased the paperbacks #4 and $6 to finish the series. The books take place in Oregon where Mason Callahan is a Detective and Ava McLane is a FBI Special Agent. They solve crimes together and also are a couple.

So this is the fourth book I have read by Kendra. I give it a 2.5 (Good to Great).

Bonk by Mary Roach

This non-fiction book was published in 2008.

So I have read Stiff, Grunt, Packing for Mars, Spook, Fuzz, Gulp, and now Bonk. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex is a book by American popular science writer Mary Roach. It follows the winding history of science and its exploration of human sexuality, going back as far as Aristotle and finally ending with recent discoveries about the origination and anatomy of the female orgasm. Throughout, Mary Roach provides a humorous and often very personal view—both as a participant and observer—of humans, scientists, animals, and sex machines. 

This is the seventh book I have read by Roach. I give it a 2.0 (Good). I already knew everything.


As I have mentioned in past posts, I started using Goodreads back in 2018. It helps me find new books to read, see reviews from friends who also use it, get notifications of new books, offers of free books, follow favorite authors, and of course my favorite, it keeps statistics...

This is the number of books I have read by year...


This is the number of pages I have read by year. For this stat to be correctly tabulated, I have to make sure I have the correct edition of the book. Some older books have 100s of editions. The page count can vary a lot, just by what typeface they use.

My best year was 2020 with 15,948 pages. Looks like 16,000 is a good future goal. That is averaging about 44 pages a day. But I have an extra day this year...



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