2012 Reading by the Numbers


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I picked up the idea of analyzing some of my reading patterns over the year from other bloggers and I did it for the first time last year. So here you have it–more than you could ever hope to know about my reading in in this 2012 reading by the numbers post.

The Stats

My goal on Goodreads was 90 books for the year. After all, I read 104 last year, far surpassing my goal of 75. I didn’t make it. I’m hanging my head in shame. But if we could just factor in all the pages and pages and pages of protocols and training that I’ve had to read over the past 5 months in my new position at work, I’m sure my page count would blow away last year’s. My final count? 80 books read toward my goal of 90.

I listened to 14 audiobooks, down from last year as well. I don’t know what happened there, unless I just listened to longer ones.

I read 14 books on my nook, largely thanks to my penchant for reading ebooks on the cardio machines at the gym and because I actually read ebooks exclusively when we were on vacation.

I read 11 young adult books and 4 middle grade books. Those numbers were down quite a bit.

My longest book was Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry at 945 pages. I really think that if my copy of Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell had a font size larger than about 4, that would have won out, but it is what it is. I read four chunksters that were over 600 pages. I must have been feeling brave this year.

I read a total of 22,624 pages, down about 6000 from last year. With such an increase in audiobooks, which don’t count toward my pages, I don’t know how much that really means though.

I read 35 books by men and 45 books by women. Still fairly balanced.

Categories

The breakdown of the categories I read. I tried not to choose any re-reads as favorites. If I haven’t reviewed a book yet, I linked to a synopsis.

Audio

Read: 14
Favorite: The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon, read by Kate Reading

Banned/Challenged

Read: 5
Favorite: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Chick Lit

Read: 1
Favorite (not just by default–this made it into my top 10 for the year): Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie, read by Deanna Hurst

Classics

Read: 3
Favorite: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Contemporary Fiction

Read: 10
Favorite: The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon, read by Kate Reading

Ebooks

Read: 14
Favorite: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Fairy Tale

Read: 5
Favorite: Ice by Sarah Beth Durst

Fantasy

Read: 16
Favorite: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, read by Khristine Hvam

Graphic Novels

Read: 7
Favorite: Daytripper by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá

Historical Fiction

Read: 9
Favorite: Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran

Horror

Read: 3
Favorite: Carrie by Stephen King

Humor

Read: 4
Favorite: Four to Score by Janet Evanovich

Middle Grade

Read: 4
Favorite: Juniper Berry by M. P. Kozlowsky

Mystery

Read: 4
Favorite: Dog On It by Spencer Quinn

Nonfiction

Read: 12
Favorite: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Science Fiction

Read: 1
Favorite: Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey

Southern Lit

Read: 10
Favorite: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Young Adult

Read: 11
Favorite: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, read by Khristine Hvam

Reading Challenges

Southern Literature Challenge (hosted here)–10 books read with a goal of 4

Dewey Decimal Challenge (hosted here)–11 books read with a goal of 11.

Books in Translation (hosted here)–3 books read and a goal of 4.

Off the Shelf–18 books read, goal of 15

Audio Book–15 books read, goal of 12

Eclectic Reader–12 books read from 12 genres, as required

Europe–7 books read with a goal of 3

Immigrant Stories–3 books read with a goal of 1-3

2nds–11 books read with a goal of 6

Middle East–0 books read, open-ended goal. Mega-FAIL.

Not too shabby overall. I need to work on my own challenges a little more!


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2 Comments

  1. I did manage to finish my Southern Lit Challenge, only haven't gotten around to reviewing Cold Sassy Tree, the last of my commitment of three. Are you planning to organize it again this year?

  2. ACK. I hadn't considered the sex of the authors. I had 13 females and 41 males. That's horrible. Also I had two books by an author whose sex is a secret, but even if we assume that brings my count of female authors up to 15, it's still horrible. Something else for me to feel ashamed about in the reading year of 2012.

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