Last year I had fun putting together some statistics about my reading year, so I thought I’d do it again. I won’t be finishing any books in the next few days, so the numbers won’t change.
- Books read: 70
- Fiction (of any length): 46
- Short story collections: 3
- Poetry collections: 4
- Nonfiction: 20
- Nonfiction books about books or reading: 9
- Books written by men: 33
- Books written by women: 34
- Books with multiple authors, male and female: 3
- Books in translation: 15
- Books in translation from Europe: 11
- Books by British authors: 26
- Books by American authors: 23
- Books from the first century AD: 1 (Seneca’s Letters)
- From the 17th century: 1 (Don Quixote)
- From the 18th century: 3
- From the 19th century: 7
- From the 20th century: 34 (first half: 12; second half: 22)
- From the 21st century: 24
- From the 20th or 21st century but about an earlier century: 7
- Books re-read: arguably 1 (I’d already read many of the poems in my collection of Keats’s poetry)
- Different books from authors I’d already read: 14
Of Books and Bicycles 
I love these sorts of reading statistics–it’s so interesting to see a pattern emerge in the books you choose. I plan on doing something similar, but I think I might finish a couple of books so am waiting (I’m cutting it close, though). You’ve read quite a few NF books (I bet I’ll have read less than 10!), as well as American authors and 20th century authors. I think my reading has not been very varied and I’d like to work on that next year (not that it matters really as long as you enjoy what you’re reading, right?, but variety is good, too). Do you have a favorites list, too?
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I like the reading statistics too — odd, since I hated stats in school.
I find it interesting that you’ve broken down the gender of the authors read. It’s something I don’t usually think about.
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I love your list Dorothy. I’m going to be doing something similar in a couple of days’ time – I’m just trying to finish a book or two first!
I’d also love to know which ones stood out for you, or which your favourites were.
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70 books! That’s above your average isn’t it? Very nice balance between men and women authors! Mine hasn’t turned out so balanced. I would be interested too to find out what your favorites from the year were.
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I’d like to see a favorites list, too!
I’m so impressed by the amount of nonfiction reading that you do, Dorothy. I’ve the tendency to start them, like them, but wander off leaving them partially finished.
I need to start my end-of-year stats.
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I’m always fascinated with reading statistics and the categories that can be observed that may or may not have been deliberate. The breaking down into centuries makes it even more interesting.
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I had so much fun ripping this one off you last year that I’ll be doing my own soon. You’ve got me beat in number of titles read. And seems I’d better add a “favorites” category (although I do that twice a year, so maybe I don’t need to).
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Danielle — in looking over my list of nonfiction books, I see that I really enjoyed most of them, but I’m not sure I could read a whole lot more than I do — I need to read them fairly slowly. But I do enjoy them! I do think enjoyment matters most, not meeting some criteria about what you “should” read.
Dark Orpheus — I don’t think about gender when I’m choosing a book, which is why I like to count it up at the end of the year, to see if there’s some kind of bias. This year shows there isn’t, although last year I read more books by women than men.
Charlotte — I’m looking forward to your post on the subject!
Stefanie — yeah, the numbers went up. I blame that on blogging 🙂
SFP — there are quite a few nonfiction books I read that I enjoy but wish weren’t quite as long … they don’t hold my interest as well as novels. I’m just stubborn about finishing them 🙂
Jenclair — I think of myself as someone who read books from earlier eras, but those stats show my contemporary bias!
Emily — I look forward to your post then! And do add a favorites section, even if there’s some repetition — it’s fun to read.
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Very fun! I think I remember your list last year as being an inspiration for keeping some similar stats this year, which I have incorporated into my end of year post. I wanted to keep track of books I started and didn’t finish, possibly as a motivation to stop this bad habit (I don’t usually quit books because I don’t like them, I just get distracted with other books), but I didn’t. I know it was several. I think I will keep track of that this coming year with the goal of keeping this in the single digits!
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