My Year in Review: 2021 Reading Stats

 

This is one of my favorite posts of the year. I often don’t even keep up with tracking book stats during the year, spending a few days updating my spreadsheet over winter break. That means that putting this post together is my first check-in on how I’ve been reading over the last year. It’s always fun to review what’s been going well and what  I might do better next year. And it’s also always fun to make lots of pretty plots 🙂

The Books

Last year, I made a real effort to read the books I owned and managed to get the percentage of books I read from the library down to 54% (reading one book I owned for every library book, instead of one for every two). This year, my book club and buddy reads were a higher percentage of my reading. I also did some mood reading, grabbing books I was excited about off the new nonfiction shelves. It was just so fun to be back in the library after last year! As a result, my library reading is back up to 2018 levels, with almost 2/3 of the books I read coming from the library.

Because of the same trends I mentioned above – more reading with friends, more grabbing books from the new nonfiction section – my book formats have started to look a little more like pre-COVID times. Last year, 17% of the books I read were ebooks and I read more paperbacks than hardbacks. This year, hardbacks outnumbered paperbacks again (more reading what’s new and shiny!). I still read quite a few ebooks, because sometimes that’s the only way I can get a book I particularly want.

Despite reading a lot of new books and books by new-to-me authors, only about a quarter of the books I read were author debuts. I think this is probably because both publisher hype and other reader’s opinions influence what I pick up. And I think both of those kinds of hype are more likely to be present for an author that readers already know and love.

As I mentioned above, I do tend to gravitate towards what’s new and shiny! 45% of the books I read came out in the last two years and 90% came out in the last decade(-ish). The 6% of my books read from the 1800s represent my intentional focus on Charlotte Bronte and include both her own books and a contemporary biography.

The biggest surprise for me in the genres I read is the number of books I categorized as contemporary fiction. I think a lot of those books came from participating in Roxane Gay’s book club at the beginning of the year. I have to admit that they mostly weren’t to my taste. Historical fiction is by far my most read fiction genre, with a little sci-fi and fantasy thrown in (mostly read with my husband). In Nonfiction, science, history, and sociology are the clear winners. That definitely reflects my interests. I need to think a little bit about how I define sociology (do I want more specific categories?) and how I divide medical from science nonfiction. I’m not sure I’ll keep these exact genres next year.

My nonfiction reading continues to trend upwards, at 62% this year compared to 57% last year. I think in the coming year, this might shift back a little, as I try to read more light fiction to bring some more joy to my reading. I love nonfiction, but I also think I’ve turned reading into a something I feel I should do to some extent. I love to learn things and I even like to make myself read things I think are important, but I’m not sure I’m striking quite the right balance. I’m not even going to plot my YA reading this year, which was 2%, the same as last year. I don’t anticipate that changing. I don’t enjoy YA as much anymore, so pick up only the most raved about books and only occasionally.

The Authors

As usual, I read far more books by women than by men. And as usual, I’ll guess that this is because I tend to read history and historical fiction about women. Those books tend to also be written by women. The lack a of a non-binary or any other options reflects my limited reading and an opportunity to read books by a more diverse group of authors next year.

The breakdown of my fiction vs nonfiction stats supports my hypothesis for why I read more books by women. Within fiction, I’m often picking up historical fiction about women. Within nonfiction, I’m sometimes specifically picking up books about women in science or history, but I’m also often picking up a book just because the subject sounds interesting.

The Ratings

Last year, I read both more 2 star reads and more 4 star reads than this year. I am trying to allow myself to be more critical of books I don’t like, so I’m happy to see that I’m still using the 1 and 2 star ratings. I almost never did when I first started blogging! Despite swapping my percentage of 3 vs 4 star reads compared to last year, I think my reading this year may actually have been better. I’m just getting a little pickier about what I consider a truly standout book. My percentage of 5 star reads is the same. It turns out that I hesitate more over 3 vs 4 star ratings. If something is a 5 star read, I’m certain of it.

The Publishers

Just like last year, about 10% of the books I read were from independent publishers. This isn’t something I work to achieve, so I’m glad this number is as high as it is. These are books from indie presses that are getting as much attention as anything from the big 5 4 however-many-they-are-now. It’s nice to know that this can still happen.

 

Last year, 46% of the books I read were from Penguin Random House. This may have been influenced by my choice to read books I owned, since I picked up a lot of books from Penguin Random House at prior ALA meetings. This year, Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, and W. W. Norton definitely dominated my reading. I’m quite surprised to see that only 4% of the books I read were from Simon & Schuster. It’s hard to say if this reflects who sends me books or who published books I’m interested in.

The Demographics

I made less of an effort to read books by people of color this past year and it shows. Last year, 42% of the books I read fell into this category. This year, only 15% did. A quick glance at wikipedia tells me that only 62% of the US population identified as white (and no other race) in 2020, so my numbers last year are far closer to what I’d like to see in my reading. I’ll have to get back to making an active effort to track this reading stat as the year progresses.

On the other hand, about 15% of the books I read where by or about LGBT+ characters. That matches population estimates I’ve heard for the US, so not too bad, but I wouldn’t mind bumping this number up a bit in the coming year as well. (As always, a caveat on these last two numbers, which is that I obviously have to guess at how people identify. They’re just general trackers for my reference, not definitive statements about any one person).

Conclusions

I’m typically not surprised by these stats, but I found a few surprises this year. I was unpleasantly surprised by how many of the books I read are by cis white women (ie people who demographically match me). I’d like to be getting perspectives that are more different from my own from my reading. I was also surprised by how many books I’d read in hardback. I prefer reading paperbacks, but I guess those shiny library books lured me in. Other than that, my results were pretty much as expected. My main takeaway is that if I want to read books by a wide variety of authors and read my own books, those are things I need to get back to doing more intentionally.

The post My Year in Review: 2021 Reading Stats appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Go to Source
Author: DoingDewey