Could you sum up your nomination for your Most Memorable Book of the Year in a brief, 60 second voice note? If you could, then perhaps you entered Cape Talk Radio’s Book Club competition which announced the winning entries yesterday. Dictating a brief summary put readers in the running for a 15 book hamper to the winning entry.
I listened to the selection of entries which revealed a mainly female readership, only three men entered their choicess. Perhaps Cape Talk edited the entries, but I would guess that women form the bulk of our national readership. I’ve noticed the same phenomenon on Facebook reading group pages, nearly all the posts are from women.
The winning entry came from a woman who nominated Rise, by Siya Kolisi ( the Springbok rugby captain). No surprise, because South Africa is sports mad, and rugby mad in particular. Categories were limited to kids’ books, Sports Books, non-fiction, fiction .
Sports: that’s one of the genres I never read: I read widely, but I do exclude Romance and Horror, plus I tend to avoid historicals, and I seldom read crime.
At this time of year there are lists galore and posts by the dozen on the theme: Best Book/s of 2021. I read many of them, always interested in other people’s choices and reviews . In fact, I post my own annual Best Books of the Year on my blog.
I keep a running list of Best Reads throughout the year, but its difficult to cut it down to the best Ten Books. Many readers opt for this number, which is illogical, given our 12 month calendar system. Maybe December is a bad month, too much shopping and partying, and perhaps in the height of summer, even dedicated readers go outdoors.
I refuse to set annual Reading Target. Reading is not a competitive sport, for goodness sake! According to my Book Journal I read 103 books in 2021. Consulting my tatty Journal, via Stone Age technology, i.e. pen and paper – Excel spreadsheets continue to elude me – I totted up the totals and carried out a rough (very rough!) survey.
My reading was predominantly Fiction, with a small non-Fiction component, consisting mainly of Memoir and Nature writing. Otherwise it was Fiction all the way. Horror, Sport and Romance didn’t get a look in, but General novels and Literary novels featured large.
I read far too many cozy mysteries, plus more SF than in previous years, and I lay the blame squarely on the pandemic.
Because I read for pleasure and entertainment, this earnest analysis doesn’t matter one little bit. I read some spectacular books this year, which will be listed in my next post. Watch this space.
THE BOOKSMITH 