Here we are at the end of another year, which means it's time to gather all the statistics! Half of the fun of this yearly wrap-up post is charts and graphs, but I just don't have time to make that happen this year, unfortunately. Ah, well. Here are the numbers in all their glory, with my top reads of the year below!

Books read: 137
Pages read: 33,597
Audiobooks: 12%
Fiction: 68%
Nonfiction: 32%
Male authors: 35%
Female authors: 65%
Books I owned: 26%
Books from the library: 74%
Set in the United States: 41%
Set in Europe: 22%
Set elsewhere in the world: ​21%
Set in a fictional place:​ 15%

Favorite fiction books: The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter
Favorite nonfiction book: Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom by Deborah Yaffe
Favorite children's book: Krakens and Lies by Tui & Kari Sutherland
Favorite young adult book: ​Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger
Favorite series:​ The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

So a couple of weeks ago, I posted about finishing my reading challenges for 2016. One of those challenges was to read the books I bought this year. I marveled at the fact that I had only bought 23 books in 2016, which was way under the amount I normally buy. Of course, I had only read 8 of them, but that was enough to surpass my minimum percentage of 20% to complete the challenge.

And then. . . a Christian bookstore near me was going out of business, so they had really good sales. And I visited the wonderful bookstore by my mom's house when we were there for Christmas. Suffice it to say that I have no longer bought just 23 books in 2016.

I'm coming clean and confessing my splurge to all of you. But I'm also still counting my Read the Books You Buy Challenge as complete for this year. My percentage has dropped, and I won't be able to read enough books to get it back up by the end of the year. I guess I'll just count buying these books with no pressure as a Christmas present to myself. 'Tis the season, right?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I certainly did. It was fun to watch my little guy open his presents. He was way more interested in the wrapping paper than what was actually inside. I love that it takes so little to entertain him! (And why did I spend money on presents again?)

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler (Absolutely fascinating!)
The Iliad by Homer (I'm done!)
A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert (If you've ever read a Little House book, you should read this!)

Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica by Sara Wheeler (This will probably be the last Circumreading the World book I get to in 2016. That makes nine out of twelve. I will read the last three in January (I hope), just maybe not right away.)

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (Rereading a favorite for my first book of the year for 2017!)

Premise of the book: Peter Hessler spent two years teaching English literature at a teachers' college in Fuling, China, as part of the Peace Corps. Fuling is at the convergence of the Wu and Yangtze Rivers, in an area which was scheduled to be partly flooded by the building of the Three Gorges Dam shortly after Hessler's time there. River Town gives a picture of China in the late 1990s, as well as what it was like to be an American in a small town.

I did indeed complete all six of the challenges I signed up for this year, and I'm rather surprised at how well I did. I had no idea how my reading life was going to change once I had my baby in April, so I didn't sign up for as many challenges as I usually do. Now that I'm gathering a list of challenges I want to try in 2017, I have a feeling I'm going to have an even harder time reining myself in than I did this year.

​Here is round two of the challenges I completed this year!

Okay, so I just barely made this one. I was really hoping I would do better. It's my goal to get a couple more books of my Circumreading the World journey read by the end of the year, so the number may go up by a couple. This is definitely one I'll try again next year and hopefully work even harder at!

​January: ​Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder
February: ​Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
March: ​Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
April: ​On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder
May: On the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
June: ​The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
July: Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
August: These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
September: The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
October: ​On the Way Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder
November: ​West from Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder
December:​ A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert

I petered out on the reviewing part, but at least I read them all! This is the first time I've read the Little House books, and I'm so glad I finally did. What took me so long?

So, um, yeah. I read a lot more nonfiction than I was anticipating. Next year, I'll set my goal a bit higher for this challenge!

Less than a week until Christmas! Are you ready? I have a couple more gifts to buy and all of them to wrap, but other than that, I'm good. The wonders of online shopping have put me ahead of schedule this year! ;​)

Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey Through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber (I learned a lot from this book.)

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler (This is one of the best I've read yet for my Circumreading the World venture!)
The Iliad by Homer (92%!! So close!)

A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert (I'm taking a short break from travel narratives to finish up the Little House Read-Along!)

Premise of the book: Nicholas Jubber travels through Iran and Afghanistan, as well as some countries of Central Asia, in an effort to see what life is like there today. In looking at the present, however, he discovers how much the past Persian culture is still a part of everyday lives in these countries - especially (and surprisingly) the epic poem Shahnameh​ written in the eleventh century.

General thoughts on the book:​ It took me a little while to get into this book. To begin with, it seems like Jubber was just interested in the hidden drinking and parties of Iran. But once he began focusing on the Shahnameh and its echoes in modern Iranian culture, I was really drawn into the picture he was creating. This book turned out to be a fascinating look at Iran and Afghanistan, and I applaud his courage in the experiences he had to write it - traveling even into the center of the Taliban region of Afghanistan. If you're looking for insight into both the past and present of this area of the world, then you would find what you're looking for in this book.

'Tis the season for finishing up reading challenges. I participated in 6 challenges this year, which is way less than usual but slightly more than I originally planned. I'm pleased to say that I have completed all of them! Three of them, I'm even still making progress on, so I'll put those "challenge complete" posts up later in the month. Here are the three I've completed so far​.

​Books Bought in 2016
1.  Cress by Marissa Meyer (read in February)
2. All the Stars in the Heavens by Adriana Trigiani (read in February)
3. In Scotland Again by H.V. Morton
4. The Greater Journey by David McCullough
5. Glitter & Glue by Kelly Corrigan (read in April)
6. Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics by Chris Grabenstein (read in July)
​7. Winter by Marissa Meyer (read in April)
8. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
9. Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin
10. A Hilltop in Tuscany by Stephanie Grace Whitson (read in October)
11.  Cross Country by Robert Sullivan
12. The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure
13. On Looking by Alexandra Horowitz
14. Irresistible North by Andrea Di Robilant (read in November)
15. The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde
16. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne (read in August)
17. Chronicles of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
18. Further Chronicles of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
19. A Hope Undaunted by Julie Lessman
​20. A Heart Revealed by Julie Lessman
21. City of Dreams by Beverly Swerling
22. Sylvester by Georgette Heyer
​23. The Highlander's Last Song by George MacDonald

Percentage Read:​ 35%

This is the most effective thing I've found yet to curb my book buying. I bought 23 books in 2016?? That's a third of what I bought in 2015, and a fifth of what I bought in 2014. Apparently my solution to keeping my percentage within the goal range was not to read more books, but to buy less. Hey, whatever works, right?

1.  Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (3 points)
2. The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander (2 points)
​3. On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder (2 points)
4. By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder (2 points)
5. The High King by Lloyd Alexander (3 points)
​6. The Giver by Lois Lowry (3 points)
​7. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (2 points)
8. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (3 points)
​9. Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (2 points)
10. These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (2 points)
11.  Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (3 points)
12. Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (3 points)
​13. Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (3 points)
​
Point Total:​ ​33

Snow day today!! Of course, since I'm not teaching this year, that doesn't mean quite as much as usual. But it does mean everything outdoors is beautifully covered in white, and there's still some snow coming down. Maybe I'll get a little time today during naptime to read and drink some hot chocolate. . .​

Walking the Bible: A Journey by Land Through the Five Books of Moses by Bruce Feiler (My list of random facts from this one went up on Friday. It's a fascinating read!)

Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah's Beard: A Journey through the Inside-Out Worlds of Iran and Afghanistan by Nicholas Jubber (My knowledge of the Middle East is shamefully spotty, so I'm enjoying the chance to learn something new through this book.)
The Iliad by Homer (This is an awfully violent book. Did you know that? I certainly didn't.)

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler (Next stop, China!)