Last year I did a post about reading stats, so of course I have to do it again. I don't think I'm going to finish another book in 2023, so this should be relatively accurate. Everyone should account for the fact that this 100% assumes my spreadsheet is correct, so....who knows?! Stephany sent me her spreadsheet template and I have been following it ever since, so blame her for the nitty-gritty details below. Feel free to skip this if the numbers bore you!
Total number of pages: 63,602 (5300/month) - If I take out audiobook pages, this number goes down to 56,715 pages.
Average star rating: 3.56/5
Format: I'm still mostly reading physical books because the ebook selection at our library isn't as robust as the physical book collection. I would love to mostly read ebooks but that is not meant to be.
Recommendation sources: I did not track who or where I got book recommendations from for all books because I frequently forget by the time I read the book and put in on the spreadsheet. However, for those that I did track, here are the biggest sources.
|
Genre |
Percentage |
Average star rating |
|
Romance |
26.4% (48
books) |
3.2 |
|
Fantasy |
24.7% (45
books) |
3.7 |
|
Contemporary
fiction |
12.1% (22
books) |
3.6 |
|
Historical
fiction |
12.1% (22
books) |
3.7 |
I read a lot of romance novels and I think the reason that the average is so much lower than other genres is because I carefully curate the other genres pretty carefully. I'm mostly reading fantasy that is on a list of best fantasy books, so it makes sense that those books are really good. Likewise, I don't actually love historical fiction, so I'm pretty careful that if I'm diving into one of those books, it's going to be something I like. I'm much more likely to just read any old romance novel, even if I end up being pretty harsh about it later.
Star rating breakdown (out of five stars):
*****************
You can seriously track my SAD with this, can't you? September through December is rough, my friends. I will rally in January with my new goals and the excitement of a new Pop Sugar Challenge, but there needs to be more light for me to love reading, I guess.
- Debut novels: 12.6%
- Part of a series: 36.3%
- 90.1% were written by women, 8.2% by men, and 1.5% by a woman/man pair
- Fewest number of pages: Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (63 pages - should this even be called a book?)
- Most number of pages: For the second year in a row a Robert Galbraith novel takes this category with The Running Grave (945 pages)
- Oldest: Leaves of Grass, first edition by Walt Whitman (1855)
- Newest: Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker (published 10/3/2023)
- Published in 2023: 12.6%
- DNF: 28 books this year, from a high of five in September to none in April and June
- LGBTQ+: 12.6% had main characters and/or authors who were not cishet and another 6.6% had some representation, but perhaps that wasn't the main character or main storyline. This could use some work on my part.
- Nonfiction: One of my goals has been to incorporate more non-fiction into my reading diet and I've read thirteen non-fiction books this year, which is great because I'm reading at least one a month. Yay!
I love stats and definitely keep them, but I don't pull my numbers until after the year is over usually (I am still hoping to finish one.more.book!) so you will get mine soon! I will be interested to see what my average rating is since I consider myself a harsh judge. However, I rarely give 2s (but do give 0s to DNFs so I am not sure if I will add that to the average or not). Do you add DNFs to your average rating? If so, what is the number? 0? 1? Please advise. :)
ReplyDeleteYou read a lot of books that were part of a series! I would have to look at my numbers, but off the top of my head I would guess that I maybe read one to three books, which will equate to about 1%! We shall see what the numbers tell. Is this because once you start you feel like you must finish all of them? If so, I get that. I actually do that with TV, where I wait for a long time before starting a series but then I have to watch all of them, so knowing myself, I often don't start. I have a bit of an all or none personality that way.
I do not rate DNFs at all. I simply have a tab on my spreadsheet for them where I notate when I stopped reading them. I don't even keep stats on how much I read of each one, although I do write on my blog the percentage at which I stopped reading.
DeleteI LOVE to read a book in a series. A lot of romance novels are part of a series, as are a lot of fantasy books. Since those are my two preferred genres, that explains why so many books I read are part of a series. I guess I should be more clear in my stats if it's the first book in a series or further down, but that seems like too many details! I'm not necessarily someone who HAS to read all the books in a series, particularly if I didn't care for the first book that much, but if I even sort of enjoy the first book in a series, I'll definitely go back for more.
I don't keep stats, just a list of books I've read. I haven't even looked at it to tally it up yet, because I know it'll be disappointing- I really didn't read much in November/December. But I'm making up for it now with my "book flood!" I love that your library tells you how much money you saved. And I love that you read 182 books this year!!!!! That's impressive.
ReplyDeleteYour book flood is so exciting! So many great books to look forward to!
DeleteI track nothing at this point other than the total number of books read. I think I'm at 72 (maybe 73) for 2023 which feels about right/typical for me!
ReplyDeleteI don't rate DNF, so it's likely about 5-10 books/year that I don't rate. I'm very, very stingy with 5 stars. I do wish Goodreads allowed for half stars because I sometimes give books 4 stars that really are 4.5 for me (but NOT 5 stars). Sigh. I feel slightly bad, but not really.
My last 5-star book was Remember Love by Cleo Wade. It's a book a poetry/short essays and I LOVED it.
The Comeback was 4.5 for me (found the middle part dragged a bit or it would have been 5/5), so thanks for that recommendation. I finished it last week and really enjoyed it!
I don't rate DNFs, either. I think I have a reputation as a stingy 5-star giver, but I don't think I'm stingy at all! I think you're stingier than me, right?
DeleteYes. I'm stingy. Too stingy? Maybe? But I have high expectations!!!
DeleteI haven't kept reading stats in a while, but I do have a loose list for this year that I'll post as soon as I finish rambling about it.
ReplyDeleteThe stats just tell me what I already knew: 2023 was a HOT year for books!
Yay! I loved reading all about your reading year. I think that if you prioritize reading as a hobby, there's so much great stuff out there!
DeleteI wish my library did that thing saying how much money you've saved - so cool! Only buying two books is very restrained. I read mostly from the library but I still buy books, for myself as well as for gifts.
ReplyDeleteI didn't track the number of books I bought as gifts this year, though - that's probably around a dozen. I'll track that for next year.
DeleteI LOVE that the library tells me how much money I've saved. As a taxpayer, it makes me feel like I'm 100% winning the tax game.
I only keep number of books read (I log them in goodreads). I do rate them. I think ratings are interesting. Also ratings according to referral would be interesting because then you'd be able to see which referrers reliably give you good books.
ReplyDeleteI only started keeping stats in 2022 because I was so jealous of other people's stats. I never even kept a list before that, so you're better off than I have been for most of my life!
DeleteBook stats are so so fun to read and learn about the way other people read. Thank you for sharing those. I am also a rather tough rater of books so my overall average is similar to yours with 3.6. If I give a half star I usually bump it up in ratings (on goodreads) as it helps the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't even rate on Goodreads! I just put it all here and leave it at that. I am not helping the authors at all!
DeleteI have a detailed spreadsheet that I use to track my reading that has similar stats to what you summarized. I get it from being a Sarah's Bookshelves Live patreon. I haven't put my stats together yet as i thought I might finish one last book on the 31st. So I will put together something similar in the next couple of weeks!
ReplyDeleteYes, I've heard about Sarah's infamous spreadsheet, but I'm too frugal to pay for it. Ha! I did actually finish another book on the 31st, but I just put it in my January stats because who cares really? I am looking forward to seeing your stats.
DeleteI'm so glad that you're still using and loving my spreadsheet! I love having a way to look back on YEARS of my reading life. From my Goodreads "Year in Books," my average rating was 3.8 so I gave a lot of 4/5 star ratings, I think! I'm looking going through the stats soon.
ReplyDeleteI can't thank you enough for the spreadsheet! This will be my third year using it, so I'm getting some pretty good time series data. I also like that you had a LGBT column and I keep that data, even though it's not a major area of focus for me. It's made me think that I should add another column for non-white/non-American perspectives, too. It turns out that I am a pretty standard white cishet reader and that's not awesome - I bet I'd read more diversely if I tracked it.
DeleteI have no reading stats to report, so yours and Stepany's are so impressive to me. I asked for more hours in the day for Christmas to do all the things I want to do, but alas, no such gift arrived.
ReplyDeleteI guess you're going to have to move to a different planet to get those extra hours!
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