Final Standings and the Most Read Books for Last Year's Cannonball Read 11

By Mswas Sawsm | Books | January 29, 2020 |

By Mswas Sawsm | Books | January 29, 2020 |

Last year was the 11th year of Cannonball Read - that’s right, we are into our second decade of honoring the memory of the late, great Pajiban, AlabamaPink. CBR11 participants reviewed 5,349 books and raised $1,675 for the American Cancer Society. That brings our total donations for all of the Cannonball Reads to $6,600!

It was a wonderful year, filled with discussions of Good Omens and Sherlock Holmes and lots of book bingo boards. If you haven’t signed up yet for this year’s Cannonball Read, you have until Friday, Jan. 31. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, the servers at your favorite diner - the more the merrier! You get to read books and raise money to fight cancer - two great tastes that taste great together!

As far as the numbers for the year, the first Cannonballer to complete a Cannonball (52 books) in 2019 was vel veeter, with his review of The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles by Giorgio Bassani. He got there one month earlier than the year before, on January 25.  For the second year in a row, vel veeter also read and reviewed the most books  - 730! This Cannonball level is what’s called “Quattuordecuple,” 14 Cannonballs! I’ll tell you one other thing about our vel veeter, he’s a stress reader. So you can see why his reading is on the uptick these days. Check out an interview of vel veeter, where you can meet this voracious reader on the CBR group blog.

CBR11’s most popular books:

Top two:
1. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (20 reviews)
2. Becoming by Michelle Obama (17 reviews)

Tied for 3rd with 13 reviews each:
99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

Tied for 5th with 12 reviews each:
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
Normal People by Sally Rooney

Tied for 7th with 10 reviews each:
Severance by Ling Ma
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

Tied for 10th with 9 reviews each:
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in Silicon Valley by John Carreyrou
On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

CBR11’s Top 5 Most Read Authors:
1. Stephen King (54 reviews)
2. Agatha Christie (39 reviews)
3. Rainbow Rowell (35 reviews)
4. Taylor Jenkins Reid (32 reviews)
5. The writer/artist collective: CLAMP (28 reviews)

Author Interactions and Social Media
In 2019 Cannonball Read heard from over 25 authors, including Amanda Bouchet, Brad Ricca, Dr. Jen Gunter, Caleb Roehring, Karen M. McManus, Suleikha Snyder, Rainbow Rowell, and more. We are SWOONING! Check out #CBR12 for this year’s Cannonball Read Fan Mail.

CBR Volunteers
Cannonball Read could not run with out a crew of talented and dedicated people who have volunteered their time. From the Facebook page and CBR Book Chat Facebook Group, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram accounts, to the "Cannon Fodder" newsletter, we could not run as smoothly without them. Thanks to: Ale, ardaigle, Beth Ellen, Bothari43, Classic, emmalita, faintingviolet, getoffmylawnn, ingres77, katie71483, kdm, Malin, Mrs. Julien, Mrs Smith, scootsa1000, teresaelectro, The Mama, Walking Widdershins, and yesknopemaybe. If you have a talent you’d like to offer to help Cannonball Read, sign up for CBR12 and contact me.

#CannonBookClub
In 2019, #CannonBookClub was doubly nice, because we took two different books/characters and discussed them twice in four book club discussions. Good Omens, The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman made its way to TV screens around the world, so we read and discussed the the book and then the show. Faintingviolet and I did our very first Facebook Live event, which you can still view in our Facebook group.

We also read and discussed the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet. Then we took on Holmes retellings/adaptations. Cannonballers read many different Holmes-related titles, and wrote numerous reviews. Visit the discussion post to see what everyone chose.

Coming up for 2020: five years ago, we held the first #CannonBookClub group discussion of the popular 2014 novel, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. This year, Mandel’s next book is due to be released on March 9. So for CBR11, we’ll reread and discuss Station Eleven in March, and in the fall, we’ll discuss Mandel’s new book The Glass Hotel.  Pick up The Glass Hotel after its release date on March 24, 2020, and get ready to discuss this fall.

CBR11 Book Bingo Reading Challenge
By the end of the CBR11 Book Bingo Reading Challenge, there were 49 players, 34 had at least one bingo and 16 completed their bingo card. CBR11 Bingo resulted in 729 reviews over 4 months. A big congratulations goes out to the Bingo Raffle winner: CarrieJay! We’ll definitely be bingoing again this year, so join up for this fun reading challenge.

Donations and More Thanks
The mission of Cannonball Read is to donate to the American Cancer Society in memory of AlabamaPink, Pajiba’s fierce warrior queen, in the fight against cancer. In 2019, Cannonball Read 11 donated $1,675 bringing our total donations to $6,600. Thanks to everyone who donated! If you’d like to support Cannonball Read in its efforts to stick it to cancer, one book at a time, there are several ways you can donate.

Quattuordecuple Cannonball (728+)
vel veeter 730

Decuple Cannonball (520+)
BlackRaven 550

Sextuple Cannonball (312+)
Classic 331

Quintuple Cannonball (260+)
badkittyuno 261

Triple Cannonball (156+)
narfna 162

Double Cannonball (104+)
Jake 140
Caitlin_D 121
Jen K 109
Malin 106
lowercasesee 105

Full Cannonball (52+) - 23 people
octothorp 97
Emmalita 95
CoffeeShopReader 82
Manimama 74
Chris 72
crystalclear 70
Dome’Loki 69
cosbrarian 68
blauracke 67
faintingviolet 64
ElCicco 60
Wanderlustful 59
Carriejay 56
Leedock 56
Sophia 56
kella 55
KimMiE" 54
kfishgirl 54
ardaigle 53
scootsa1000 52
ASKReviews 52
Halbs 52
thewheelbarrow 52

Half Cannonball (26+) - 24 people
TheShitWizard 49
jeverett15 46
yesknopemaybe 43
Ale 42
The Chancellor 40
lumenatrix 40
Lisa Bee 38
teresaelectro 32
allisonata 31
Bea Pants 31
Jenny S 28
kittenkong42 28
sistercoyote 28
Caesar’s Wife 28
ingres77 28
ClaireBadger 27
andtheIToldYouSos 26
Ellesfena 26
alwaysanswerb 26
Bothari43 26
LittlePlat 26
Dusty Highway 25
Zirza 25
J 25

Quarter Cannonball (13+) - 17 people
ctkat1 21
tillie 20
MrsLangdonAlger 20
KatSings 20
MarkAbaddon 19
CaribbeanClaire 18
Rachel 18
prisco 17
Tracy 15
Aquillia 14
jomidi 13
Debcapsfan 13
Moonlight Reader 13
Mikki Blu 13
Mrs. Julien 13

And the 60 Cannonballers who wrote between one and twelve reviews, listed alphabetically:
1000Oysters
Alexis
alphabootoo
Amanda
baxlala
Beth Ellen
Blingle Bells
BookNinja
borisanne
bronte1848
BunchesOfBecky
Cabinderada
Caitycat
CDK
Chloe Silverado
CosmoNewanda
daffadowndilly
Danar the Barbarian
DataAngel
denesteak
elderberrywine
esme
Fiat.Luxury
FyreHaar
getoffmylawnn
GoAllieGo
Griever0823
Interrodroid3000
janet snakehole
janetfaust
JenCanRead
katie71483
KCRinYYC
KM Bezner
KStar
LadyStardust
LanierHgts
M Martin
Mad Max Fury Road Generator
MarTeaNi
melanir
Melina
Mrs Smith Reads
Nannerbears
NewlyWest
Niki
NoNeinNyet
noodlestein’s danger tits
NTE
Nyx
pluiedenovembre
PulpoPerdida
RecurringExtra
Shibuyama
Siege
The Mama
thegirlwhogotoverit
tikkersweet
TwopFan
WanderingLaMancha
Warren Oates
xoxoxoe

If any of the authors or books listed here sound intriguing, consider joining Cannonball Read 12. Open registration ends on Friday January 31, so head on over to the sign-up form. And if you’re reading this after the 31st and still want in, drop me a line and we’ll get you on the books, literally.

(Header photo of Koichi Wakata from Story Time From Space, where astronauts read popular children’s books from space. )