Statistics & Challenges & Lists, Oh My

Well, I read a lot. I think we've covered that. So, it's not a super surprise that I read 33 titles in January, and 35 in February. (Here's my list.)

I also like spreadsheets a lot, and as I mentioned before, I seem to add a new column to my reading spreadsheet every year or so. This year, my column was for format/narrator. So I can tell you the following (is your breath bated? I bet it's bated.):

• 18 paper books
• 20 electronic books (mostly Kindle)
• 30 audio books
• 25 different narrators for those audios
• 23 titles mentioned in the blog so far

Challenges!
What does a book blogger do for fun when she's not reading or blogging? Read other book blogger's blogs. (You envy my lifestyle. It's okay, you can admit it.) One thing a year or so of blogging has taught me is that there are a lot of reading challenges out there. One I've just finished is Beth Fish Read's "What's In A Name?" challenge. She came up with six categories of things that need to be in a book's title - topographical feature, something in the sky, creepy crawly, type of house, something you'd carry, and something from the calendar. My titles were Shelter Mountain, When Lightning Strikes, Tongues of Serpents, Safe House, Love in a Nutshell, and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. It was a lot of fun to participate, and to see what other participants are reading. Even if you're not a blogger yourself, check it out and think about joining in!

A second challenge I'm enjoying is the Speaking of Audiobooks listening challenge. They have a few different configurations for this, and since I'm voracious, I'm doing two versions of it.

For the Surprise by the Quarter track, I had to listen to two romances narrated by the winners of their 2011 poll. There were some great narrators to choose from. I listened to books read by Anne Flosnik, Davina Porter, Deanna Hurst, Franette Liebow, Renee Raudman, and Tanya Eby. I have my eye on a few of the other narrators, but my ears are only working for X number of hours per day, believe it or not.

The other track I'm following is the Listening to the Top Hits track, wherein I listen to twelve titles from their 2010 and 2011 best-of polls. So far I've managed two of those (To Die For by Linda Howard and Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie.) Onward!

My third challenge is from Teresa's Reading Corner, and it's also an audiobook challenge. This is purely quantity-based, with varying levels to strive towards. I picked the highest, which is 26+, and as careful readers of my stats already know, I've listened to 30 so far. Yay, me!

Teresa has a link to several other reading challenges for 2012, so poke around over there and find one that appeals to you. It's interesting to shape your reading choices around these challenges, and can bring you to some unexpected places.

Audio Crushes - narrators I love

I listen to as many - or more - books as I read. (How else could I consume in the neighborhood of 100,000 pages in a year?)  That being so, I end up following some narrators as much as I do some authors. When a series I really enjoy is narrated by a reader I really enjoy, so much the better! Never was that more the case than with Stieg Larrson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo novels as narrated by Simon Vance. 

Vance is my favorite narrator. If Anna Fields were still alive, it would probably be a tie, and if you haven't heard her work you should definitely check it out. (I first heard her reading the delightful novels of Susan Elizabeth Phillips, who I can probably blame for putting me on the path to so many romance books.) But based on volume, Simon Vance wins. Anyway, following his narration I also throughly enjoyed novelists Naomi Novik, Iain Piers, Tatiana de Rosnay, Christopher Priest, Dan Simmons, and Patrick O'Brian, among others. (Technically I knew about O'Brian already, since he and my husband Robert Cremins share an agent - shared, in O'Brian's case - but I'd never have picked them if it weren't for Vance reading them.)

There are others I enjoy nearly as much. Among them is Simon Prebble (if your name is Simon, you can read to me anytime, I suppose! Prebble reads me lots of historical romance, especially that of Stephanie Laurens, who I can blame for all the historical romance on my reading list.) Davinia Porter (especially for Alexander McCall Smith and Diana Gabaldon), Cassandra Campbell (Stephanie Bond's Body Mover Series, etc.), and Lisette Lecat (more Alexander McCall Smith, et. al.) also hang out at the top of my list of favorite readers.

So - there's my answer to the question I often get about narrators. If you want to get a start listening to books, and only know about Jim Dale (and if you don't know about Jim Dale, put him on your radar), look for these names and you will ditch your pre-conceived notions about having to have the pages to turn to really delve into and enjoy a book.