My year in stats

Soundtrack: Hold It Against Me by Britney Spears

(my most listened to song this year, statistically)

I adore music, and I adore books, but what I really, really adore, is statistics. I'm a full on stats nerd, so websites like last.fm and goodreads are my kryptonite. In a similar way to pinterest, I loose all track of time and 'waste' hours on them.

This is delightful little graphic of the books I read in 2011, a staggering 51 in total, and the star score I gave them. I did initially try to write a short review for each one, but once I hit my reading kick in the summer holidays (where I read a good half of my years total in about 2 months), I lost track unfortunately.

My favourite new read was The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, which I wasn't expecting to like half as much as I did - really fantastic and surprisingly moving. When I read that it was written from the point of view of a dog, I was skeptical to say the least, but I really think everyone should read it, it's that good! Hubby read it at my insistence and loved it too.

With both music and books, I have to admit, I'm more of a 'the-oldies-are-a-goodie' kind of girl, but I'm willing to give new things ago if I think they'll impress me. This year gone I've mostly been listening to old favourit's old and new albums, rather than much that is completely new to me.

My top 20 artists for this year feature my ever deepening obsession with The National, rediscovering my love for Dusty Springfield, enjoying the new Bon Iver, Britney Spears and Ryan Adams albums greatly and being overwhelmingly impressed with the Frank Ocean and Nicola Roberts debuts.

Other honorable mentions go to the new Wye Oak and PJ Harvey albums - both delights, and the Watch The Throne collab was er, 'off-the-hook', so to speak.

My taste is a bit wildly eclectic, but that's ok, I think pop, hip-hop, folk and electronica can all sit happily side by side in my music collection - the only thing I won't abide is jazz!

I'm not quite as in to films, but if anyone could recommend a similar website or programme for a quick and easy review/record keeping of films (I used lovefilm for this kind of thing when I had it, but I'm not sure you could sort or anything), please leave me a comment!

Happy New Year!