I always like to do a round up of some reading stats from the year – last year I somehow didn’t manage it until April, so I’m certainly doing rather better this year. What does this tell us about my new powers of efficiency and determination? Probably nothing, but let’s keep going.
Number of books read
A rather surprising 153! I usually read just over 100, so this was unexpected. Partly it’s because I did the 25 Books in 25 Days challenge, partly it’s because I’ve got more into audiobooks. And living alone continues to give me more reading time.
Male/female authors
I read 85 books by women and 68 books by men – i.e. about 55% by women. I think it’s usually around that number, or a bit higher – certainly I’ve always read more books by women than by men since I started doing these stats.
Fiction/non-fiction
97 fiction and 56 non-fiction (for a slightly deeper dive – 52 fiction by women, 45 fiction by men, 33 non-fiction by women, and 23 non-fiction by men). So – just over a third of the books I read were non-fiction, which is a lower percentage than last year. But still much higher than it would have been ten or so years ago.
Books in translation
I read six in translation last year, and eight in 2016 – this year I fell in the middle, with seven: The Reader on the 6.27 by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent (French), The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis (Greek), Silence in October by Jens Christian Grøndahl (Danish), Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto (Portuguese), The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (Czech), Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras (Spanish), and The Misunderstanding by Irène Némirovsky (French). Only one language repeated!
Most-read author
Nobody got above three this year – and on that level are Alan Ayckbourn, Margery Sharp, and Betty Macdonald.
Re-reads
Last year I re-read six books, and this year I re-read 11 – which might be the most of any year. Eight were for the ‘Tea or Books?’ podcast, two were children’s books, and one was for book group. Which goes to show that I seldom re-read adult books without a purpose.
Audio books
All the Betty Macdonalds and Alan Ayckbourns were audiobooks, and I listened to a whole bunch of others – 15 in total this year. (And yes, I do count them on my list if they’re unabridged.)
New-to-me authors
Usually about half the books I read are by authors I’ve not read previously – this year it was only 60 (i.e. 39%). Let’s say it’s because I’ve read nearly all the authors now (but, actually, I don’t know why this has changed.)
Shortest book title
Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala, with honourable mentions for Naked by David Sedaris, Sphinx by David Lindsay, and Little by Edward Carey.
Most disappointing book
There were a few duds, sadly and as usual, but I really disliked The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West. It’s left a horrible taste in my mouth, because the characters – and, in this case, seemingly the author – have such unpleasant opinions and ways of treating people.
Longest wait on the shelf
I’m really pleased I finally read The Pooh Perplex by Frederick C. Crews, which I bought around 2002. I wasn’t even an adult when I bought it! And I’m also so glad I waited to read it – this spoof of literary criticism and literary theories made a lot more sense post-degrees than it would have done beforehand.
Most confusing is-it-a-pun title
The internet was divided on whether or not The Plague and I by Betty Macdonald is intended to rhyme with The Egg and I. ‘Plague’ and ‘Egg’ don’t rhyme in British English. They might rhyme in American English. I asked the internet, and the internet could not answer.
Animals in book titles
There are always some! And this year there seem to be a lot of birds again… The Birds by Frank Baker, The Lark by E. Nesbit, Girl With Dove by Sally Bayley, Turtle Diary by Russell Hoban, The Cat’s Cradle Book by Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Shrimp and the Anemone by L.P. Hartley, Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver, Ride a Cockhorse by Raymond Kennedy, and, if we’re counting mythological animals, Albert the Dragon by Rosemary Weir and Sphinx by David Lindsay.
Strange things that happened in books this year
Birds started attacking and killing people, a magical garden appeared and disappeared, a fantastic contraption showed dreams, two schoolgirls turned into angels, a talking cat ruined a dinner party, a vegetarian dragon befriended a boy, someone was doomed to repeat the same day until they solved a murder, an author conjured his creations to life, voluntary mute twins started fires, and an artist impersonated his dead butler.
I always admire people who can pick out statistics – I’m rubbish at it. But well done on getting so many books read, and also for the gender bias! And I love the last paragraph and the idea of talking cat ruining the dinner party – I’m fond of talking cats…
You might well remember that cat, in the Chronicles of Clovis!
25 books in 25 days?!? Simon that’s insane LOL
Congrats on the great reading year!
Thank you sir!
Plague and egg? I think it depends on which American dialect because there are regional differences. In the west, “egg” rhymes with bag (or plague) but in the east it would rhyme with beg.
I think it’s the pronunciation of “plague” that confuses me! I know that you pronounce ‘Craig’ differently from us…
Now I’m so curious how you say these words. I said plague and egg (and Craig) out loud several times and they all seem to rhyme when I say them, so that’d be a Pacific Northwest American accent.
Nice! I’ve actually started keeping a spreadsheet this year, so disappointed was I that I could only give a total, F/NF and M/F writers!
Ha! Very efficient. I’m very old-school with mine – all handwritten!
Maybe plague rhymes with egg up north?
Anyway, another great year at Stuck in a Book:)
I do mine with graphs, like Annabookbel does, but as I said to Sue from Whispering Gums in a comment on mine, I don’t think it matters how we do our analyses, it’s the process of reflecting on what we do that is part of mindfulness about our reading. And since reading makes us who we are, that’s important, I think.
Lovely comment, Lisa :)
Just lovely reading this. I think I will add men and women fiction, and nonfiction. That’s an interesting one. Makes me happy that there are others in the world who love doing this. I never have any really disappointing ones because I quit if I don’t like them.
Thanks Nan! Like you, I’m happy to give up on books I’m not enjoying – my disappointments seem mostly books that I had to finish for podcast or book group!
Nice stats! Yes, the way I speak American English (west coast born and raised), plague and egg would rhyme.
I agree that audio books really does help bring up those numbers! I am a little picky about what books I choose to listen to but otherwise am really glad I got over my initial trepidation about listening to a book instead of reading it!
Glad to have found someone who rounds them! And I have taken to choosing books at least partly based on narrator, and it makes a lot of difference.
What a great summary!! I hadn’t even thought to look at how many new-to-me authors I’d read last year – was gobsmacked when I did the maths after reading your post and realised it was 94% (though perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised – 2018 was the year of making myself read through a list of books I “should” have read already). So, thanks for that insight, and everything else! ;)
It is a fun figure! I was surprised by how different mine was this year.