Annual Personal Metrics: 2012 Book List

I read just under 56 books in 2012. That's about the same reading pace that I maintained in 2011. Of the total, all but two were fiction. Most were borrowed from the Lewes Public Library.

Here is the list:

2011 Metrics: Reading

I read 54 books during 2011, down from my totals the last few years, but not drastically so. In fact, I think a prime reason for the lower number was the fact that I read all five of the novels that make up George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire collection. These thick novels took up nearly two months of reading time this year; they are long but ultimately satisfying reads.

I also dove back into the 20 novels of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series this year. I started at the end of August with Master and Commander. As we start 2012, I am about to finish The Hundred Days, the 19th in the series. I am reading this series straight through, without leaving O'Brian's 19th-Century. I've done this before and have read some of these novels three or four times. I still thoroughly enjoy them.

Of the rest of the books I read this year, only one was non-fiction - Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars.

though I am happy to say I own the entire Aubrey/Maturin series, most of the rest of what I read this past year were from the Lewes Public Library. I remain a strong supporter of my library.

I also read two books by relatives in 2011. My nephew, whose nom de plume/guerre is Magpie Killjoy, wrote an interactive novel called What Lies Beneath the Clock Tower.

Descend into the depths of the undercity and embroil yourself in the political struggles of colonialist gnomes and indigenous goblins. Fly in air balloons, drink mysterious and pleasant cocktails, smoke opium with the dregs of gnomish society. Or dream and speak of liberation for all the races. Fall in love and abscond into the caverns. It's up to you, because this is an adventure of your own choosing.

And my fifth cousin's wife, Donna Gruber Adair, wrote a slightly fictionalized  account of the westward movement of Benjamin Adair, my paternal grandfather's paternal grandmother's brother.  The book, An American Odyssey, includes my great-great-grandfather JB Mahaffie, a founding settler, with the Adairs, of Olathe, Kansas.

As you can see, I enjoy reading. I am a fan of fiction and treasure the fact that I can entire other worlds and different times through the pages of a novel.

2011 Metrics: Golf

I managed to get out and play golf 20 times in 2011, playing at least once each month from April through (absurdly enough) the very last day of December. I played mostly in Delaware but a few times in the "mar" portion of Delmarva (Maryland) and once in Washington DC.


View Golf in 2011 in a larger map

I'm happy to report that my game, while still not very good, is no longer quite so embarrassing. I broke 100 (my goal for the year) in June at East Potomac Park, at Haines Point in DC. This was part of a memorable weekend of golf with my friends Andy and Rich; our wives teamed up to give us tickets to the US Open in Potomac, Maryland. We played on Friday and then watched our betters play on Saturday and Sunday.

While I spread my game up and down the state, my "home course" has been Old Landing Golf club, outside of Rehoboth Beach. I played there eight times in 2011. Old landing is where I often go for a solo, contemplative practice round. It's not the greatest course in the world, but it is laid back, pleasant, inexpensive, and near by.

I hope to play at least as much golf in 2012. I spent time on golf courses with all of my golf friends in 2011, I hope to continue that trend and expand that circle.

2011 Metrics: Automotive

We drove our 2008 Toyota Scion a total of 17,450.4 miles in the last year, burning 542.58 gallons of gas for an average of 32.2 miles per gallon. That's more miles than we drove it in either 2009 or 2010. Our average miles per gallon has been about the same since we first started driving the Scion in 2008.

Our best mileage of the year, 36.9 miles per gallon, was in early September, when I logged a day's worth of highway driving from Lewes to Villanova to pick up daughter #1 and then to Upper Marlboro, MD, for our nephew's wedding. Our worst, 29.5 mpg, was the last week of the year, when I was driving only short hops from home to my vanpool meeting spot.

We spent $1,878.72 on gasoline for the Scion in 2011. Gas prices we found averaged $3.50 over the year, with a low of $3.03 per gallon at the start of the year and a high of $3.94 in early May.

These metrics are for the period December 31, 2010 through mid-day today. They are from my gas mileage log, a Google spreadsheet. I also track gas mileage using Matt Haughey's fuelly.com.

2010 Metrics: Reading

I read 60 books in 2010, down a bit from my reading totals in 2008 and 2009.

All but two of the books I read were fiction, the exceptions being The Blind Side, by Michael Lewis, and Craig Ferguson's outstanding memoir American on Purpose. I like fiction. I read for entertainment and escape and I usually choose fiction.

As my word cloud of authors shows, I read a few folks more than once last year. I read three by Chris Knopf, who writes anti-hero mysteries set in Southampton. I like the off-beat nature of his characters and the fact that he sets his stories in a beach resort, often off-season. It rings bells for me. I also read three of Neil Gaiman's books. All of these I had read before. Mr. Gaiman is a personal favorite.

Among those I read twice was Jack Kerouac, who appealed to me this past fall for some reason. I really enjoyed travelling back to his time.

As usual, most of the books I read in 2010 came from the Lewes Public Library. Forty-seven -- 78% -- were library books and thirteen -- 22% -- I either bought or borrowed from family members.

2010 Metrics: Gas Mileage

Over the last year, we drove our 2008 Toyota Scion a total of 15,407.2 miles, down a bit from 2009's total of 16,737.6 miles. Over the year, we burned 481.27 gallons of gas, averaging 32 miles per gallon. The gas cost us $1,313.19; or $2.72 per gallon on average. By contrast, I paid $3.02 for a gallon today.

Gas mileage varied more this year than last.The best we did was between September 5 and September 22, when we averaged 35.6 miles per gallon. Most of that was highway driving -- to and from the airport for travel to the 2010 NSGIC conference.

Two time periods were tied for worst gas mileage, at 29.2 mpg. One was between January 28 and February 3, when it was fairly cold (with a little snow). The other low-point came immediately following the high-point. Between September 22 and October 5 we also averaged 29.2 mpg, but I have no idea why.

The metrics above are for the period between December 31, 2009 and December 31, 2010. They are derived from my gas mileage log, which is maintained as a Google spreadsheet. I also record mileage using Matt Haughey's fuelly.com, which tells me that my long-term average mileage -- since the summer of 2008 --  has been 32.1 miles per gallon.

2009 Metrics: A Slow Blogging Year

There's no question; 2009 was a slow year for blogging for me. I posted only 142 times during 2009, the lowest annual total in my blogging history.

I averaged just 11.8 posts per month in 2009. The most active month was August, when we traveled to Hawaii and had lots to write about. That month I managed 22 posts. The slowest months were April, October, and December, in which I posted only seven times.

By contrast, my chattiest year was 2005 -- my first full year of blogging -- when I posted 272 times. Looking back at that year, though, I think it is safe to say that many of those posts were short and externally-referenced -- links to other places. This is the sort of thing that I now handle with posts to my Twitter account or to Facebook.

I've started an effort to try to increase my blogging this year, but we'll see.