I thought it would be fun to have a look at my reading stats, the amount of books I’ve read over the year, breakdown of male to female authors, physical, ebook and audio book break down and things related to genres. As well as that, I’ll also have a look over my 2014 Reading Resolutions and see how well I did.
Fiction to Non-Fiction Breakdown
So I read nearly double the amount of fiction books, which surprised me really as I thought I read maybe 60:40 fiction to non-fiction. Not that I’m not pleased with this, I am. I think I find non-fiction books more time consuming, mainly because I want to absorb the information properly so I read a bit more slowly to make sure I take it all in.
Physical Book vs E-Books vs Audio Books
So physical books are just ahead! Even if you counted the ebooks and audio books together, I still read more physical books. Again, I’m surprised at the amount of ebooks, I thought it would be a little less. But once again, I’m not displeased with this, in fact the number might be higher once 2015 is up now that I have a Kindle. As for audio books, I do feel like this could improve a small bit. I tend to listen to podcasts a lot more when I’m walking to and from work, though in the past I have read audiobooks this way and have enjoyed it.
Male vs Female Authors
This one I’m not surprised by really. Not that I consciously try to read more female authors but seven out of 10 of my top 10 books of the year were female authors.
Non-Fiction Breakdown
So this is my breakdown of the non-fiction books I read. I classified science and history as any books that have some form of history behind them (like Just My Type), anything based on science and anything that fell under psychology and the likes. For memoir and biographies I included classic biographies such as Mary Berry’s Recipe For Life, memoirs such as Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster, Marjane Satrapi’s three graphic stories and stunt journalism tales like Move Along Please by Mark Mason and A Slice of Britain by Caroline Taggart. For the last category, I put in the two Magpie series books I read, Because I Said So! and As Right as Rain. I’m sure there are books that could cross over categories but that’s the way I did them! I should really do a fiction breakdown but I’m a bit lazy to wade through everything and try classify them!
Some other interesting things were
-33 Books borrowed from the library
-5 Graphic Novels Read
-14 NetGalley reviews (if I’ve counted right!)
-If my calculations are correct, I only read 6 books of mine this year. Which is dreadful as I definitely acquired more than 6 this year! That’s not even taking into account the books I got for Christmas either. Or the ebooks!
Which brings me to last years Reading Resolutions
1. Reduce amount of books I own to read
Nope nope nope! Did not happen
2. Read more diversely
Oh, I had such hopes and saved so many books on Goodreads. But I did NOT succeed in this, not even a tiny bit.
3. Try more genres I’m not so keen on
I think I did ok with this. I tried more audio books (which I suppose is more a medium than genre), I read some graphic novels and tried some more thrillers. As for non-fiction, I tried some books from more of an art section, but failed with the sports and politics.
4. Appreciate Irish Authors
YES! One I did complete. I dedicated the entire month of March to reading only Irish authors and only authors I hadn’t read before. It was great really and I continued to read some more Irish authors, though not as consciously as I did in March.
5. Read a book randomly picked from 1001 Books to Read Before You Die
Completely slipped my mind really
6. Judge a book by it’s cover and read it
Yes and no. I was really drawn to the cover of The Art of Baking, that’s what caught my interest at first. And I bought Alphabetical by Michael Rosen as I loved the cover but I have yet to read it.
7. Read To Kill a Mockingbird
No, yet again a big fat no.
8. Do BookTubeathon and complete challenges
I read partake but didn’t finish it, I had just started work and it was too much for me at the time. Didn’t do the Christmas one either even though that would have suited really.
Not a massive success but honestly while I like to set these challenges and try and achieve them, I don’t get upset if I don’t, because at the end of the day I’m still reading and enjoying it and that’s the main thing. I will be doing a new Resolutions post in the next few days though!
I rarely set book challenges aside from the goodreads one. I failed that miserably last year! I think it depends on circumstances too so I wouldn't be hard on yourself about it. You can add them to the top of your list this year and I'm sure you'll accomplish a heap of them!
ReplyDeleteI didn't even think of putting the Goodreads one in! My goal was 30, then 50, then 70. Hit 77, so not too bad. Ya, I was reading loads before I started working again, then it slowed down. So I don't think anyone who works should be too hard on themselves when it comes to reading challenges. And yes, clearly I agree with your last point, as To Kill a Mockingbird is on my list again this year!!
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