By Mswas Sawsm | Books | January 22, 2016 |
By Mswas Sawsm | Books | January 22, 2016 |
Yes, it’s true! David Bowie’s first answer in the Proust Questionnaire he took in 1998 was about his love of reading.
Cannonballers and other book-lovers around these parts will completely agree. 177 of them put their thoughts about books into the Cannonball Read (CBR) group blog in 2015 and 3,456 books later, crossed the finish line. Janniethestrange was the first to reach 52 books on March 25, 2015. and this year CBR7 featured the most prolific of them all, badkittyuno. With a QUINTUPLE Cannonball, that’s right, 260 reviews, she sure is one bad kitty. We bow to her book-fu!
By the Numbers
Thanks to ModernLove who painstakingly crunched CBR7 data, as of Dec 31, we had
3,465 total reviews (1,581 different authors and 2,603 different books,). Our average book was 3.7 stars, and here’s the breakdown:
5-stars: 651 books
4-stars: 1,352
3-stars: 871
2-stars: 267
1-star: 75
Most Reviewed Books
1. Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel - 25 reviews, 4.5 avg
2. The Martian, Andy Weir - 22 reviews, 4.5 avg
3. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins - 16 reviews, 3.6 avg
4. Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty - 15 reviews, 4.8 avg
5. Uprooted, Naomi Novik - 12 reviews, 4.3 avg
6. All The Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr - 10 reviews, 4.2 avg
7. Trade Me, Courtney Milan - 10 reviews, 3.9 avg
8. Carry On, Rainbow Rowell - 10 reviews, 4.2 avg
9. Why Not Me?, Mindy Kaling - 9 reviews, 4.2 avg
10. Armada, Ernest Cline - 9 reviews, 3.1 avg
11. The Royal We, Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan - 9 reviews, 4.0 avg
12. Furiously Happy, Jenny Lawson - 8 reviews, 4.75 avg
13. Ready Player One, Ernest Cline - 8 reviews, 4.75 avg
14. Dr. Mutter Marvels - 8 reviews, 4.5 avg
15. You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost), Felicia Day - 9 reviews, 3.9 avg
16. Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari - 8 reviews, 3.75 avg
Special Mention to Laline Paull’s The Bees, which was reviewed 5 times with a 4.8 average review, making it (from what I can tell) the highest rated book this year, along with Big Little Lies.
Most Reviewed Graphic Novel Series
Saga, Vol 1-4, Brian K Vaugh and Fiona Staples - 26 reviews, 4.7 avg
The Sandman series, Neil Gaiman - 13 reviews, 4.1 avg
Most Read Authors
1. Tessa Dare - 39 reviews, 3.6 avg
2. Neil Gaiman - 35 reviews (incld. co-writes), 3.9 avg.
3. Liane Moriarty - 34 reviews, 3.9 avg
4. Stephen King - 34 reviews (incld. co-writes), 3.9 avg
5. Courtney Milan - 30 reviews, 3.9 avg
6. Sir Terry Pratchett - 26 reviews, 3.6 avg
7. Rainbow Rowell - 25 reviews, 3.8 avg
8. Sarina Bowen - 21 reviews, 3.6 avg
9. Jojo Moyes - 20 reviews, 3.3 avg
10. Georges Simenon - 19 reviews, 4.4 avg
11. Barbara Pym - 17 reviews, 4.1 avg
12. Agatha Christie - 17 reviews, 3.4 avg
13. Diana Gabaldon - 17 reviews, 3.3 avg
14. Matt Fraction - 16 reviews (incld. co-writes), 4.2 avg
15. Terry Goodkind - 16 reviews, .8 avg
16. Cara Black - 15 reviews, 3.9 avg
17. Jo Nesbo - 15 reviews, 3.6 avg
18. Richard Kadrey - 14 reviews, 4.6 avg
19. Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham - 14 reviews, 4.1 avg
20. Gillian Flynn - 14 reviews, 4.0 avg
21. Tana French - 14 reviews, 3.9 avg
22. Julie Anne Long - 14 reviews, 3.8 avg
23. John Green - 14 reviews (incld. co-written books), 3.3 avg
24. Simon R. Green - 14 reviews, 2.2 avg
25. Brandon Sanderson - 13 reviews, 4.7 avg
And a special mention to Laurie Halse Anderson and Ta-Nehisi Coates, both with a perfect 5.0 in 3 reviews of their books.
Fighting Cancer and CBR8
In commemoration of the very first Cannonball Read, all revenue the site generates, after paying for website hosting, is donated to the American Cancer Society in the memory of AlabamaPink. Our fundraising efforts generated $435 in funds donated to the American Cancer Society last year, and it looks like unpaid revenue for the end of 2015 will make for a great donation early this year.
CBR8 kicked off on January 1, and registration is still open. Even if you don’t sign up, you can still participate in our upcoming book club. Under the helm of long time pajiban faintingviolet, voting for the first book title is under way and ends on Monday, January 25. Find out which Romance books are under consideration in her introductory post.
Find out just how much we raise, who’ll be the winner, and which reviews are the coolest by subscribing to the CBR newsletter. Under the helm of Bothari43, you’ll find out who’s close to 52, which authors commented on a group blog post or tweeted to us, or what son of an author clarified something about his father’s work, along with what you can do to help fundraise for our efforts.
Here’s how it all shook out for CBR7. My apologies for any inaccuracies (although remember you do need to update your own total.) Join us for CBR8, won’t you?
Quintuple Cannonball (260 Books!)
badkittyuno 260
Quadruple Cannonball (208+ books)
janniethestrange 230
bonnie 222
narfna 208
Triple Cannonball (156 books or more)
Prisco 156
Malin 156
Double Cannonball (104+ Books)
alwaysanswerb 115
Mrs. Julien 115
faintingviolet 104
Full Cannonball (52+ Books)
yesknopemaybe 94
Quorren 85
Caitlin_D 84
Lollygagger 63
The Chancellor 63
PattyKates 60
scootsa1000 60
Jenny S 60
emmalita 56
Sophia 56
Halbs 54
Melina 53
ElCicco 53
Captain Tuttle 52
TylerDFC 52
sabian30 52
Beth Ellen 52
NTE 52
The Mama 52
Valyruh 52
ModernLove 52
Half Cannonball (26+ Books)
ardaigle 32
Ale 30
ingres77 29
Lisa Bee 29
chatelaine 28
Zirza 27
Bothari43 26
mathildehoeg 26
SavageCats 26
kfishgirl 26
Caitlin 26
CoffeeShopReader 26
Quarter Cannonball (13+ Books)
Fiat.Luxury 25
Rachie3879 23
sistercoyote 22
McM 21
soapyme 19
DataAngel 16
genericwhitegirl 16
llp 16
Amanda 14
Shmookariah 13
crystalclear 13
Cannonballers who wrote between one and twelve reviews, listed alphabetically:
abby awesomeness
Alexis
AmySaysREAD
A.Winfree
BookNinja
coryo
DragonDreamsJen
Fofo
HillaryM
Jelinas
jesslla
kdm
KM Bezner
Lizbth
Loopyker
Mrs Smith Reads
NateS1973
Parker Jammstein
Annie
popcultureboy
Renton
Robyn Robotron
SE62
Siege
staramour
Travis_J_Smith
Find more excellent reviews at the Cannonball Read group blog, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.