The Ruthena Book Awards of 2011

For the past two years, I've been trying to keep a general list of the books I've read (or mostly read - let's be honest, grad student people) and the movies I watched. I completely failed on the movies-side in 2011, since I just watched so many in November and December that I forgot to write down (or perhaps was ashamed to write down...). But I was more faithful about books. So here are some stats (and awards, because I love awards) for you:

I read about 60 books in 2011.

7 of those were the Harry Potter series. Oh, and I read The Tales of Beedle the Bard. :)

THE SERIES CATEGORY: Other series or sets of books I read for the first time include the Percy Jackson books (loved them!), about five books by Patrick F. McManus (so funny!), the first Erin Hunter series (which I started when I was about 13; yikes, that was ten years ago), and the five biographical novels by James Herriot (a delightful series which I highly recommend to anyone).

And the award for Best Series goes to...

Seriously, have you read them? (For those of you who never will - and I used to be one of you - I highly recommend Percy Jackson and James Herriot)

THE POPULAR CATEGORY: Popular books I read were Mockingjay, Eat Pray Love (and the sequel - Committed), He's Just Not That Into You, The Help, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and We Bought a Zoo.
And Ruth's Rave Review goes to...

This book also wins my favorite book/movie combination of the year award. I miss being a Southern girl!

THE SNOB CATEGORY: Books which I am proud to say that I have now officially read include Sense and Sensibility (I know! How is it possible that I hadn't read it before?), The Book Thief (finally - I got it for my birthday last year, you know), Frankenstein (I read it AND wrote a paper on it, so there), The Outsiders, and The Catcher in the Rye (no worries of saying "when he catches the rye" now when someone asks me my favorite part).

And the MUST-READ book award goes to...

I don't even know what you've heard about this book, but it's all true.

THE TRIED AND TRUE CATEGORY: These are the books I read out of devotion to the previous efforts of the authors. Pure Drivel (Steve Martin), The Rogue Crew (Brian Jacques), What Dreams May Come (Richard Matheson), The Genius Files (Dan Gutman), A Tale of Two Castles (Gail Carson Levine), Everfound (Neal Shusterman).

And the You've Done it Again award goes to...

It's not every author whose final book you can become enthralled in even though you started the trilogy a year ago.

Honorable mentions to Pure Drivel and The Rogue Crew (I love you, Brian Jacques!). And for those of you who care, the biggest disappointment goes to A Tale of Two Castles, which went from dull to duller to dullest.


THE NONFICTION CATEGORY: I did a bad job keeping track of the nonfiction I read, but among them were Act like a Lady, Think like a Man, Plato and a Platypus walk into a Bar, The Ridiculous Race, and Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. I didn't care enough about any of these books to merit giving them an award, but the Plato and a Platypus book is pretty clever. And hilarious.


THE EH WHATEVER CATEGORY: These are the books I read with low expectations. Howl’s Moving Castle, Wickham's Diary, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

And the EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS award goes to...

I want to ramp this book up to the MUST READ category for every female.

Books I read with high expectations: The Maze Runner, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

And the award for the book most undeserving in my opinion of these high expectations goes to...

I was interested in the beginning, exhausted by the middle, and just relieved to be finished by the end.

And finally, the only (unless I read another one and forgot to record it) book I re-read during the year: As the Ward Turns by Joni Hilton. If you're LDS and haven't read these books, you are missing out on some hilarious inside jokes. Matthew tells me they're even funnier if you listen to them on tape. I'll have to try that on our next road trip. Any good book recommendations for 2012? I'd love to hear them!