The Year in Reading

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 30, 2006

I have long since recalled what prompted me to begin recording the books I read each year. Still, today marks the end of the tenth year. A decade of reading preserved for some reason. As a result, I decided to take a look at a few of the statistics before sharing my 2006 reading list.

First of all, I seem to be getting faster, as this year was a record: 73 books. Interestingly, from what I can tell, I read more after going back to work than when I was home. The train ride certainly has been helpful. As usual, I’ve sampled new authors and some different subject matter and found several books to be highly entertaining. Perhaps the two best newcomers of the year were Sweet & Low: A Family Story by Rich Cohen and The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont.

I’ve read 643 books in the last decade. Plus countless comic books, magazines, newspapers and the stray cereal box. Over the last decade, 25% of those books were Star Trek related titles which made sense given my contributions to the program and my keeping up with what many friends have been up to.

The top 10 most read authors breakdown as follows. Again, this makes sense given my friendship for several and my enjoyment of all the output. I excluded, by the way, titles edited by several of these people.

28-Peter David
23- Robert B. Parker
17-Michael Jan Friedman
14-Keith R. A. DeCandido
12-John Vornholt
11-Christie Golden
11-Max Allan Collins
11-Susan Wright
10-Greg Cox
9-David Baldacci
9-Greg Rucka

These days I continue to read much of the DC and Marvel output plus a handful of titles from other publishers. Each day I still read USA Today and the Connecticut Post plus parts of The New York Times. My magazine reading includes Time, The Week, Entertainment Weekly, Smithsonian, Starlog, Geek, Playboy, Premiere, Dreamwatch, Starburst, Sci-Fi Channel, Alter Ego, Back Issue, and the occasional one-off. None of this includes material read on websites throughout the World Wide Web.

That’s certainly plenty to keep one’s mind stimulated.

And now, a look at this year’s reading:

WAIT! There is more to read… read on »