2014 Wrap-up

It’s time for a wrap-up of the year. I’m feeling resistant to both best-of lists (I’m sick of them! although I’m not sick of yours, dear reader, and I am still going to do one of my own) and thinking in terms of years — does it matter that a year is ending, really? But still, I want to keep up my tradition of looking at reading stats for the year. So here goes:

• Books read: 78 (down from the previous three years, but that’s what having a toddler, a job, a bicycle, friends, and a strong desire to sleep will do to you)
• Audiobooks: 10 (up from the previous year’s 2. Audiobooks are a great way to keep reading even when you’re busy)
• eBooks: 18 (a little bit down from 2013)
• From library: 12 (This includes some library audiobooks and ebooks)
• Fiction: 53 (the exact same percentage as last year)
• Nonfiction: 23
• Poetry: 2 (up from last year — by 2)
• Essay collections: 9 (higher than last year)
• Biography/autobiography: 10
• Theory/criticism: 1
• Short story collections: 3 (same number as last year but a higher percentage)
• Mysteries: 8
• Graphic Novels: 1 (really a graphic memoir)
• Books in translation: 3 (down)
• Books by writers of color: 15 (up, both in terms of number and percentage. I worked at this one and can still do better)

Gender breakdown:

• Men: 21
• Women: 55 (a higher percentage than last year)
• Collections with men and women: 2

Nationalities:

• Americans: 57 (slightly higher than last year, which was already pretty high)
• British: 12
• One each by authors from Canada, Italy, Korea, Mozambique, New Zealand, Nigeria, and the Virgin Islands, plus two books with writers from more than one country.

Year of publication:

• 19th: 2
• First half of 20th century: 4
• Second half of 20th century: 15
• 2000-2009: 12
• 2010-2014: 45

So many super-contemporary authors! Even more than last year, and that number was pretty high. Ah, well. I’m just in a place where I want to read new and newish books. That may change in future years. In other trends, I haven’t read as many writers from countries other than the U.S. and the U.K. as I’d like, but I did read pretty diversely within those two countries. Not such a bad year! I’ll be back soon with my favorites of the year.