Final Standings and the Most Read Books for Last Year's Cannonball Read 9

By Mswas Sawsm | Books | January 30, 2018 |

By Mswas Sawsm | Books | January 30, 2018 |

I’m sure Michelle Obama knows the definition, but Cannonball Read 9 was the year that made me go and look up a new word: "decuple." That’s the term for something that is ten-fold, and the reason I had to do so is that for the first time ever, Cannonball Read had a reviewer who read and reviewed FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY books in 2017. Audiobooks, coupled with stress reading, led vel veeter to the most books read in a year. You can read CBR’s interview of vel veeter and meet this speed demon.

But the first to 52, the winner of Cannonball Read 9, was Classic on February 9, 2017 with a review of Wolverine: Old Man Logan Vol. 3: The Last Ronin by Jeff Lemire. Classic would go on to rack up 89 reviews for CBR9, joining the 122 other people below who wrote at least one review last year. That is the highest number of actual reviewers ever.

We also had more Double Cannonballs (104+ books) this year than in prior years. But the stand out number is that in total, 123 Cannonballers reviewed 4,146 books. That’s 30% more than last year. In total, we’ve read nearly 25,000 books in AlabamaPink’s name since the beginning of CBR, and we’ve donated $3,000 to the American Cancer Society in her name. Check out what you can do to support Cannonball Read, and there’s still time to join the tenth anniversary Read and help make this year bigger and better. Then we’ll be cheering for you next year!

Overall CBR9 Stats:

Reviews: 4,146
Fiction: 3,258
Non-Fiction: 799
Total Pages Read: 1,285,000+

CBR9’s 10 Most Read Books:

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (13 reviews, 4.50 stars)
Life Moves Pretty Fast by Hadley Freeman (13 reviews, 3.20 stars) - Non-Fiction #CannonBookClub
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (12 reviews, 4.10 stars)
Pretty Face by Lucy Parker (12 reviews, 4.10 stars)
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher (12 reviews, 3.60 stars)
The Devourers by Indra Das (11 reviews, 2.40 stars) - Fantasy #CannonBookClub
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (10 reviews4.70 stars)
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly (9 reviews, 4.10 stars)
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware (9 reviews, 3.10 stars)
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (8 reviews, 4.30 stars)
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (8 reviews, 4.00 stars)
Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham (8 reviews, 3.60 stars)
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher (8 reviews, 4.10 stars)

CBR9’s 10 Most Read Authors:

J. D. Robb (62 reviews, 4.30 stars)
Stephen King (49 reviews, 4.10 stars)
J. K. Rowling (44 reviews, 4.30 stars)
Neil Gaiman (36 reviews, 4.20 stars)
Margaret Atwood (35 reviews, 3.90 stars)
Carrie Fisher (28 reviews, 3.70 stars)
Ben Aaronovitch (23 reviews, 4.00 stars)
Louise Penny (22 reviews, 4.20 stars)
Ursula K. Le Guin (22 reviews, 3.60 stars)
Agatha Christie (20 reviews, 3.50 stars)
Brandon Sanderson (20 reviews, 4.10 stars)

Author Interactions and Social Media

In 2017, Cannonball Read heard from over 25 authors on our blog or via the #CBR9 hashtag, including Rainbow Rowell, Peter David, Hadley Freeman, Anita Diamant and Neil A. Hogan. Check out #CBR10 for this year’s Cannonball Read Fan Mail.

CBR Volunteers

Not only does Cannonball Read have the most awesome reviewers, but a crew of talented and dedicated people have also stepped up to help out. From the Facebook page and CBR Book Chat Facebook Group, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram accounts, to the "Cannon Fodder" newsletter, we could not run as smoothly without them. New for 2018, we have resurrected the Cannonball Readers Goodreads group, so if you’re on that platform, head on over and link up. Thanks to Classic for the revival, and thanks also to Ale, ardaigle, Beth Ellen, Bothari43, Captain Tuttle, emmalita, faintingviolet, ingres77, katie71483, kdm, Malin, Mrs. Julien, Mrs Smith, scootsa1000, teresaelectro, The Mama, and yesknopemaybe for their time.

#CannonBookClubs

CBR9 had four book club discussions last year: Fantasy, Non-Fiction, Non-Western Literary Fiction, and a play: The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard, In Praise of Hatred by Khaled Khalifa,Life Moves Pretty Fast: The Lessons We Learned from Eighties Movies by Hadley Freeman, and The Devourers by Indra Das.

The first #CannonBookClub of 2018 will be A Wrinkle in Time, in honor of the movie being released in March. We’re moving to a two-day discussion this year, so if you can’t make it on Friday February 23, 2018, join us on Saturday February 24. Find your childhood copy or download the Kindle version, and get reading! You don’t have to be registered for CBR10 to make your opinions known about any of the #CannonBookClub books. But there’s still time to sign up, so consider doing both.

Donations and More Thanks

In 2017, Cannonball Read 9 donated $860 to the American Cancer Society bringing our total donations in AlabamaPink’s name to $3,000! You can help out our efforts by donating, or just by visiting our site. We do pay to keep the lights on first, and website hosting bills are looming. Thanks to everyone who has donated in the past!

Sink your teeth into the final standings of 2017’s Cannonball Read 9. And if you have different numbers from CBR9 compared to the list below, please get in touch with me.

Decuple Cannonball (10 whole Cannonballs)
vel veeter 520

Quadruple Cannonball (208+)
badkittyuno 228

Triple Cannonball (156+)
bonnie 157

Double Cannonball (104+)
Caitlin_D 144
narfna 134
Malin 130
emmalita 122
Lollygagger 104
Mikki Blu 104

Whole Cannonball (52+) - 15 people
Classic 89
melanir 88
ingres77 77
faintingviolet 75
Halbs 66
scootsa1000 65
TheShitWizard 62
The Chancellor 60
kfishgirl 59
CoffeeShopReader 58
Ellesfena 57
ElCicco 53
Sophia 52
alwaysanswerb 52
borisanne 52

Half Cannonball (26+) - 23 people
mathildehoeg 50
octothorp 49
Ealbrecht 42
J 42
sabian30 41
Blingle Bells 39
kella 36
ardaigle 34
crystalclear 33
Beth Ellen 32
readerlu 32
Rachie3879 32
Jenny S 31
Ale 30
yesknopemaybe 29
Gracey the Giant 29
Mrs. Julien 28
Dome’Loki 27
Mrs Dilemma 27
The Mama 26
KimMiE" 26
Aquillia 26
Lisa Bee 26

Quarter Cannonball (13+ ) - 23 people
jeverett15 25
Lane 25
Ellepkay 25
Melina 24
Bothari43 24
Caitlin 23
sistercoyote 20
Julie 20
Lipton 20
Lindzgrl 19
Emperor Cupcake 18
genericwhitegirl 16
Orleanas 15
postcardsandbooks 15
lumenatrix 15
JCoppercorn 14
PattyKates 14
llp 13
pluiedenovembre 13
reginadelmar 13
teresaelectro 13
TylerDFC 13
esme 13

And the 53 Cannonballers who wrote between one and twelve reviews, listed alphabetically
*I AM* NotTheOne 
Alix 
Amanda 
ArchaeoKelly 
BabyBearStrikesBack 
baxlala 
Bea Pants 
blackboardmonitor 
BlackRabbit 
BookNinja 
bunnybean 
camilaputz 
caragwapa 
ChainedVase 
CosmoNewanda 
DataAngel 
Debcapsfan 
DeliriousNM 
denesteak 
Doctor Douche 
Eli5 
Elyria 
expandingbookshelf 
Fiat.Luxury 
Frankenfine 
Frankiethrowup 
FyreHaar 
janetfaust 
Jayne Fury 
jesslla 
jimofthelowercase 
kdm 
Kiasha 
Kitkat 
KM Bezner 
Krieger_clone 
LabcoatRetriever 
LadyCatsalot 
LadyStardust 
lahistoriadelmundo 
lgesin 
Mim 
MisterRobit 
SandyLemons 
sarah_jwh 
Selkie72 
Shaman 
Siege 
The Doubtful Guest
thewheelbarrow 
Travis_J_Smith 
Valtaga Dee 
Zirza 

Thanks to everyone who participated and helped make CBR9 such a great year. If you haven’t gotten a chance to pop over and read some of the reviews, please do. The community that’s grown up around Cannonball Read is so honest, funny, open, and encouraging, it’s such a great tribute to AlabamaPink. I’m so happy to see the encouraging comments and notes to people writing their very first posts or asking questions. It’s our friendly little corner of the internet, and I hope you visit and sign up.