I always say this, but this post really is my favourite of the year! The master spreadsheet is still going strong. I love playing with all the data, mining it for nuggets of information that will tell me if my reading habits have changed. In truth, they bobble along generally, but there are some general trends, I think. Without further ado, here are the charts (accurate to 25 December).
Books & Pages Through the Ages
Shock! Horror! I put my Goodreads target back to 125 this year, and it’s looking as if I won’t quite make it by the end of the month, I’m currently at 120 – but, ‘Am I bovvered?’ – emphatically, NO!
In general, I’ve been much busier this year and had both less time to read and was correspondingly more tired too. Both conspired to drop that headline number. Although my average page count per book read is up by ten per book over the last few years.
Where the Books Came From
My percentage of review copies is up. I blame a) Anne Cater of Random Tours, b) Orenda Books, and c) Corylus books for that – I’ve taken part in loads of their blog tours with a lot of brilliant world noir in particular in that mix – and loved it all! Thank you so much.
Despite no series readalongs this year, I’ve made an effort to read more from my TBR for all challenges and reading weeks/months etc, and as you’ll see from my previous post there were lots of them. The main change though is that I’ve managed to read fewer books purchased this year too – (not stopped me buying them though, and this year’s new purchases are next year’s TBR!!!)
Year of Original Publication
All those review copies have upped the published in 2023 total hugely! Nuff said.
Book Origins
I read books by authors of 26 different nationalities this year, four fewer that 2022, with first books by authors from Uruguay. They comprise 14 different languages; interestingly none of those written in Spanish were from Spain. Again all five Nordic countries feature strongly. My total books read in translation was down a bit to 26% from a high of 31% last year.
Book Genres, Publishers and Miscellaneous
- Author Gender: Although I’ve given up graphing these stats, male authors outweighed women slightly this year, and I read one novel by a trans author.
- Crime Thrillers and Spy novels up a lot – from 31 to 49! Quite a lot of Nordic Noir in there again. Spec & SF: 3. Horror: 1.
- Graphic novels – none this year. Poetry just the one. Must try harder on this front.
- Non-Fiction: in total I read 20 books which at 17% is down on last year’s 23%, half the number of memoirs making most of the difference.
- Publishers: I’ve read a lot more indie publishers again, although it is getting harder to separate out the indies from all the new imprints from the big conglomerates. Faber show up well as usual with 8 titles and Orenda with 10, Pushkin Press with 6 titles.
- Multiples: Just 2 at 2 titles apiece for Beryl Bainbridge and Claire Keegan.
- Re-Reads: 3, including Ishiguro’s Folio Society edition of The Buried Giant.
- New to Me: 69, ie 58%.
…And Finally
A few more fun stats for you…
- Longest books read – The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk at 531 pages in hardback (more in paperback), and The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd Robinson at 547 pages.
- Shortest book read –So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan at 64 well-spaced pages.
- Most viewed post from whenever – STILL Return to Wigtown, with 2080 views this year, 9776 lifetime views.
- Most viewed 2023 book review – Forgotten on Sunday by Valérie Perrin, which I read in #WITMonth.
- Most viewed post from 2023 – Reading the Decades: 1950s with 3572 views
And some recurring motifs in book titles…
- Body Parts & Functions: Bellies, Bleeding, Blood, Hand, Heart, Skin
- Buildings and Contents: Cellar, Chaise-Longue, House (x2), Institution, Museum (x2), Parlour, Residence, Study
- Colours & Textiles: Black, Chestnut, Corduroy, Polka Dot, Suit (x2)
- Flora & Fauna; Environment: Beaver, Birds, Chestnut, Creek, Dirt, Egg, Human (x2), Rainforests, River (x2), Viper, World.
- Forenames: Atalanta, Cary, David, Enid, Eros, Evie, Isaac, Morgan, Nica, Peter, Psyche, Rosaline.
- Occupations & Activities: Assassin, Astronaut, Astronomer, Deceiver, Housekeeper, Prince (x2), Prophet, Soldier (x2), Spy, Tailor, Tinker, Traitor, Translator, Weatherman.
- Real Places: Acapulco, Geneva, Kuwait, London.
- STEM: Data, Divide, Measures, Numbers, Seven, Square, Star, Sun, Technology, Thirty, Weights,
- States of Mind & Emotions: Beautiful, Buried, Dead, Fear, Forgotten, Perfect, Shining, Shy.
- Supernatural: Ghost, Phantom, Spirit
- Times, Weather & Seasons: Autumn, Darkness, Day (x2), Sun, Sunday, Wind.
Wow, I love the stat about where they’re from & languages!! That’s interresting
Brilliant post! That Wigtown stat makes me smile every year.
Your geographic range of authors is impressive. I didn’t do as well on that score this year – hoping to do better year when I plan to embark on a new African reading project
Ooh, an African reading project. I did much better last year when our Book Group were following the Great Jubilee Read – loads of African modern classics in there.
I shall have to take a closer look at the list – there are some countries I know are going to be tough to find anything in English
Always love your stats post I read 125 books this year given I finish the book I’m half through before Sunday and that take my page total 28000 I’ve read books from 30 countries and Greenland was a new one this year
Thanks Stu. Uruguay was my new country this year. Interesting that most non-English books are fairly short compared with English books – your 28k words and 125 books = 224 pages average. My 33k and 120 books = 276 average. I wholly approve of shorter books!!! Read more in translation…
Sure it just down cost of translation makes shorter novels appeal more to get translated although have been a few large novels this years
I always love this geeky (in the best way!) post each year. The graphs are so impressive and the book title trivia is good fun. It’s fantastic that over a quarter of your reading is in translation! I haven’t crunched my numbers yet but my percentage for that is usually abysmal — around 6-7%. Would you ever consider tracking your BIPOC and LGBTQ reads?
I am still loving reading in translation, esp European and South American authors – I should try harder with Asian, and African authors (although many of the latter write in English). I’ve only read 8 titles by BIPOC authors this year. I do keep a track of that one, plus trans/binary which I mentioned under gender, but I don’t really a point in separating out lesbian and gay authors though – even if they were readily identifiable.
Wow, great statistics, just don’t know how you do it. Very interesting. I think I have to extend my own poor statistics this time. I like the statistics on author nationalities. I want to read more from countries outside my own area and English speaking countries in 2024. They tend to be the majority of books.
Great stats. Today I realised to my horror I missed two books off my spreadsheet, and when I added them in my stats changed so I feel I’m going to have to redo my own stats post!
No-one will notice, and you have the correct figures, so don’t worry!