Yes! It’s my annual stats post. Apologies if it’s not your thing, but analysing the numbers of what I read each year and comparing them to previous ones always flings up some interesting figures. I have kept a master spreadsheet since 2007.
This year I read more books than in any year since I used to commute by train to work (when I got through 3 or 4 books a week). 129 is my actual total this year – however … that did include quite a lot of shorter novels and novellas which is clear if I look at my chart of Books v Pages over the years …
So pages read are a better measure of how much I read? Perhaps, although of course, ignoring any discussion of quality vs quantity, that premise is not without its flaws too!
TARGET: Aim to keep up a good reading rate in 2015.
Moving on to date of publication.
This year I surpassed myself in the number of ‘Shiny New Books’ I read with 57% of them published this year (it was 42% last year).
TARGET: I really MUST try harder to read from my TBR in 2015 when not reading for Shiny!
One area of true success is reading more in translation.
I read 22 novels originally published in other languages this year.
Of those books published in English, I read more by UK authors this year than last at 58%. American authors accounted for 20% this year, 5% or so down on 2013.
TARGET: To keep up reading books in translation.
Last graph now – looking at categories. I didn’t read a lot of crime novels or thrillers this year, and slightly more Young Adult books – otherwise it is my usual mix, with Non-fiction remaining around the 10% mark.
I didn’t read a lot of crime novels or thrillers or classics this year, making up for them with slightly more Young Adult books – otherwise it is my usual mix, with non-fiction remaining around the 10% mark.
TARGET: Read a bit more non-fiction in 2015, but aim to read eclectically across a wide range of categories and genres as always.
Two last stats for you:
Male / Female Author Ratio – This year it’s 67:62 – ie 52% male, 48% female so very close after having been 70:30 last year. I never choose my reading based on gender, and this ratio goes up and down each year – so it doesn’t mean a lot in terms of my reading but I do follow it at year end in case a trend does start to appear!
And finally, a new stat – that of ‘New to me’ authors, complementing my post yesterday on my best finds of the year. I was amazed to find that 76 (approx 60%) of the books I read this year were by authors I’d not read before – and as you saw yesterday, I’ve discovered some fabulous ones to follow up.
That’s all folks! I’ll be back with book reviews in the New Year.
All the best for 2015!
Lovely sharing the year with you Annabel, I have spent many enjoyable reading hours ‘with’ you, both reading your blog and reading some books you have reviewed. Wishing you a fantastic 2015.
Thank you. All the best for 2015 too.
I’m fascinated by the ‘by pages’ summary – had never thought that I could capture this type of information too. Isn’t this time of year gloriously nerdy for book lovers?! Happy New Year, Annabel – all the best for 2015.
I confess to being a bookstats nerd – but all they really tell me is that I read pretty consistently from year to year – heh heh!
This is really interesting – I ended up reading more books by female authors this year even though I hadn’t deliberately been participating in #readwomen2014. I like the books vs pages comparison!
I find the pagecount ‘useful’ (i.e. interesting) as this year I read books as short as 50 and as long as The Goldfinch at 784 pages.
Excellent post ! Love the stats 🙂 Maybe I should try something similar next year.
It’s just a bit of fun and a nice way to clean the sheet for 2015. 🙂
That’s an interesting way to look at your reading, Annabel! I read more books this year than last, but I haven’t done a page count. Mind you, I did read some chunksters so it might be higher…. Happy New Year! 🙂
I read quite a few novellas in between the chunksters – so it’s a truer measure of how much I read, but it’s just for fun really. Happy New Year to you too. 🙂
How incredibly impressive — I am so not a stats person, and the thought of keeping a spreadsheet fills me with horror, but I do love reading things like this anyway!
The spreadsheet was the precursor of this blog – and I’ve maintained it ever since!
Always good to analyse reading habits, and though I’d never thought to quantify pages read it’s always interesting to see how much progress has been made in any given year!
My main, maybe only, reading goal in 2015 is as it’s been for the last few years — to review each book I read. Certainly sharpens the mind more than sticking to quotas, though there is nothing wrong with quotas per se of course!
I never set actual quotas, just vague directions to read in – which inevitably get waylaid! I too aim to review every book I read.
I gave up counting books and keeping stats, because I’m too obsessive and I wanted the time back, but this is fascinating!
My system is so long established now that it takes very little time to maintain and a quick sort through the data at year-end and I can redo the graphs etc with little effort.
I love posts like this. Those are really impressive numbers! Glad you had such a great year — see you in 2015!
Yay for stats and diverse reading! Happy new year, may there be many more new-to-you authors and excellent reads in 2015. 🙂
Wow! I’m surprised how high a percentage you had of new-to-you authors. I should track that for this year and see if my percentages are similar! (I’d have thought not? But who knows?)
I think I was definitely in a ‘try anything’ reading phase this year… we’ll see! 🙂
Congrats on the translations figures! I also plan to read more non-English books this year, but I’d like to read them in their original languages where I can (PT, FR, ES).
I wish I spoke another language well enough to do that (well I can muddle through some Latin – but that’s not the same!). Good luck with your foreign-reading too.