The first month of the 10MillionWords project has come to an end. There were fifteen books added to the New York Times list of bestsellers in January. So far I have reviewed ten of the fifteen, though I’ve actually read thirteen of them. While the month began quietly (since publishers tend not to release books right at the time of the holidays) it has quickly picked up with an average of three books being added each week since then.

Here are the books I read and reviewed this month.

• The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
• All Things at Once by Mika Brzezinski
• Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
• Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert
• When the Game Was Ours by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson
• Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
• The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons
• Last Words by George Carlin
• The Imperial Cruise by James Bradley
• Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson

The five that I’ve not yet read or reviewed are:

• Anticancer by David Servan-Schreiber (not read)
• Evidence of the Afterlife by Jeffrey Long (read, review coming soon)
• Drive by Daniel Pink (read, review coming soon)
• Just Kids by Patti Smith (not read)
• A Bold, Fresh Piece of Humanity by Bill O’Reilly (read, review coming soon)

The reviews I’ve posted break down into the following categories (granting that these are rough groupings and that some books might fit into more than one category):

• Biography (4) – All Things at Once, Committed, Last Words, Stones into Schools
• Sports (3) – When the Game Was Ours, Born to Run, The Book of Basketball
• Medicine (1) – The Checklist Manifesto
• Politics (1) – Game Change
• History (1) – The Imperial Cruise

I am not the least bit surprised to see biography at the top of that list. I’m quite sure that I’ll be reading more biography than any other genre in the year to come.

Of the ten books I reviewed, I read eight of them on the Kindle and only two in hardcover (neither All Things at Once nor Game Change were available in e-book format). This is the most reading I’ve ever done on the Kindle and have to say that it’s largely been a very positive experience. Not only has it saved me a lot of money (just those eight books have likely saved me around $150) but it has also given me freedom to read when and where I’ve wanted. The Kindle has come a long way since the initial version and I’ve really become quite comfortable reading on it. Its limited note-taking and highlighting abilities mean that it still does not work very well for research books, but for reading of this kind, it functions very well.

I wish I could offer up a word count for the books I’ve read. It is much more difficult than you might think. If I can find a good way of tallying it up, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Beyond the books I read for the 10MillionWords project, I read three books for review at Challies.com: The Trellis and the Vine, A Father’s Gift and Dug Down Deep. I also read all or most of several books as research for my forthcoming book dealing with technology and read three books to offer up endorsements. So it has been a very “literary” month. Not surprisingly, I feel sometimes like my head is spinning a little bit. Nevertheless, I’ve enjoyed the vast majority of the reading I’ve done and am eagerly anticipating what February will bring.

It was an unexpectedly busy week on the bestseller lists. I was rather shocked to see that there were four(!) new titles added this week. That’s going to leave me with a lot of reading to do!

Debuting right at the top of the list is Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert who previously authored Eat, Pray, Love, a book that was on the list for a long, long time (though I didn’t ever read it). It’s interesting how often authors whose books appear on the list have been there in the past. It must be a lot easier to make it the second or third time. That makes good sense, I suppose.

Showing up at number three is the interestingly-titled The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. The one-sentence summary from the Times is: “Following checklists makes surgery safer and other activities more efficient, a doctor argues.” That doesn’t sound like it’s going to keep me turning pages all night. We’ll see.

At number nine is Drive by Daniel H. Pink. “What really motivates people is the quest for autonomy, mastery and purpose, not external rewards.” I would imagine there will be some interesting spiritual implications in that book. We will see.

And at number fourteen is Mika Brzezinski’s All Things at Once. “How the MSNBC newswoman combines being a wife, mother and journalist.” Just between you and me, I haven’t even heard of her before. I guess I’ll get to meet her in the pages of her book.

And that’s enough chatting. I’d better get reading.