Much of my life can be measured in books. One summer, when I was twelve, I read one hundred and ten books over three months - it was a lonely summer, in some ways, but I didn’t notice. I’ve slowed down since then as my books have gotten longer and my life has filled with other joys. Still, I track my reading in part because I can divine truth about my inner life by my reading habits. It’s kind of like a tarot reading for reading.
I read 84 books in 2017. This is a record high as long as I’ve been tracking my yearly reading (obviously not including my prodigious childhood years). This has been a busy year, so I was surprised that I got so much reading done - I beat out 2015 by 1 book, and that year I spent working in a bookstore and living alone in the mountains. But then I got a good look at the format breakdown:
*Note that numbers don’t add up to 84 because I read some books in multiple formats simultaneously, switching between eBook and hardcover or audio and paperback.
Almost ¾ of the books I read were audiobooks! That’s a much larger percentage than I would have guessed, but it makes sense. Three factors drove those numbers way up this year. First, I started off the year with a series of hilarious memoirs by female comedians that were narrated by the authors - Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler, Carrie Fisher - and that got me into the audiobook habit.
The second two are linked. This year, I made the exciting and terrifying decision to move cities to go to graduate school (I start in September 2018!). The choice to go was a hard one, and both before and for months following the decision I was wracked with anxiety. It was hard to exist alone with my thoughts. Having a book to focus on as I drove, painted, worked out, walked, played Call of Duty became crucial if I wanted to enjoy what I was doing, or at least keep from succumbing to constant anxiety and tears.
You can see below that there are upticks in March, when I was waiting for acceptance letters, and in June, after I made my decision to go. I spent a lot of time during both those periods exploring D.C. on my own, walking through the city and discovering new places on random weekdays off.
Audiobooks have done almost as much for me as therapy.
I try to be conscious about my book choice. I aim for 50% books by female authors and 30% by authors of color. I did better this year about both but have yet to hit that 30%. I also try to read authors that are new to me and to shake it up if I find myself reading the same authors over and over. About half the authors I read this year were authors I'd never read before, and I only had a few 'repeat' authors over the course of the year.
Author numbers are hard to track because of anthologies that collect a bunch of authors, so typically if an anthology has any authors that meet any criteria, it gets counted as one entry in that category. So an anthology with 3 authors I’ve read before and 8 I haven’t is 1 ‘author’ in the ‘new’ category.
So how do I keep up this habit? Used book stores, partly, but mainly: libraries!
**Again, numbers don’t add up because of multiple copies.
February is library lovers month and I will take every opportunity to plug my own public library, Montgomery County Public Library, and public libraries in general! Guys, I am learning how to build a robot at my public library - playing around with circuits, programming, and 3D printing for free! My library also has an agreement with the surrounding counties from Maryland, Northern Virginia, and D.C. that residents in one county can have a library card in all the counties, so I have access to some excellent online catalogs. Anything I can’t get there I’ll get through UMD’s interlibrary loan service, delivered straight to my work mailbox. One of my favorite things to do when I’m exploring D.C. on a weekday is to check out a new library. Heck, I’m sitting in my library right now to write this. Everyone should go to the library!
And lastly, one of my favorite things is comparing my ratings to Goodreads to see exactly how much of a curmudgeon I am. I’m notoriously critical of what I read, so it’s unexpected to see that my average rating is lower - but a .6-point difference is huge even for me! In 2015 and 2016 it was only about .3. That’s driven by a lot more 1- and 2-star reviews, possibly because my general emotional valence was higher this year than other years - if I didn’t like a book, I really didn’t like it - and possibly because I still feel compelled to slog through every new Star Wars book even though they’re universally atrocious.
This was a hard year but a wonderful one, and I think that comes through in my reading. I discovered a new ‘use’ of reading in my audiobook habits, I read more than ever, and I’m a savvier library user now, too.
Do other people track their reading this extensively? I’d love to see anyone else’s numbers - especially how other people differ from that Goodreads mean!
I read 84 books in 2017. This is a record high as long as I’ve been tracking my yearly reading (obviously not including my prodigious childhood years). This has been a busy year, so I was surprised that I got so much reading done - I beat out 2015 by 1 book, and that year I spent working in a bookstore and living alone in the mountains. But then I got a good look at the format breakdown:
Format:
| |
eBook
|
9
|
Audiobook
|
59
|
Paperback
|
11
|
Hardcover
|
4
|
eARC
|
2
|
*Note that numbers don’t add up to 84 because I read some books in multiple formats simultaneously, switching between eBook and hardcover or audio and paperback.
Almost ¾ of the books I read were audiobooks! That’s a much larger percentage than I would have guessed, but it makes sense. Three factors drove those numbers way up this year. First, I started off the year with a series of hilarious memoirs by female comedians that were narrated by the authors - Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler, Carrie Fisher - and that got me into the audiobook habit.
The second two are linked. This year, I made the exciting and terrifying decision to move cities to go to graduate school (I start in September 2018!). The choice to go was a hard one, and both before and for months following the decision I was wracked with anxiety. It was hard to exist alone with my thoughts. Having a book to focus on as I drove, painted, worked out, walked, played Call of Duty became crucial if I wanted to enjoy what I was doing, or at least keep from succumbing to constant anxiety and tears.
You can see below that there are upticks in March, when I was waiting for acceptance letters, and in June, after I made my decision to go. I spent a lot of time during both those periods exploring D.C. on my own, walking through the city and discovering new places on random weekdays off.
Audiobooks have done almost as much for me as therapy.
I try to be conscious about my book choice. I aim for 50% books by female authors and 30% by authors of color. I did better this year about both but have yet to hit that 30%. I also try to read authors that are new to me and to shake it up if I find myself reading the same authors over and over. About half the authors I read this year were authors I'd never read before, and I only had a few 'repeat' authors over the course of the year.
#POC
|
19
|
%POC
|
22.3
|
#F
|
49
|
%F
|
58.33
|
#POC or F
|
68
|
%POC or F
|
80.95
|
#New to me
|
42
|
#Unique
|
63
|
Author numbers are hard to track because of anthologies that collect a bunch of authors, so typically if an anthology has any authors that meet any criteria, it gets counted as one entry in that category. So an anthology with 3 authors I’ve read before and 8 I haven’t is 1 ‘author’ in the ‘new’ category.
So how do I keep up this habit? Used book stores, partly, but mainly: libraries!
Source:
| |
Library
|
50
|
Library (school)
|
2
|
Own (ebook)
|
2
|
Own (physical)
|
29
|
ARC/Galley
|
2
|
**Again, numbers don’t add up because of multiple copies.
February is library lovers month and I will take every opportunity to plug my own public library, Montgomery County Public Library, and public libraries in general! Guys, I am learning how to build a robot at my public library - playing around with circuits, programming, and 3D printing for free! My library also has an agreement with the surrounding counties from Maryland, Northern Virginia, and D.C. that residents in one county can have a library card in all the counties, so I have access to some excellent online catalogs. Anything I can’t get there I’ll get through UMD’s interlibrary loan service, delivered straight to my work mailbox. One of my favorite things to do when I’m exploring D.C. on a weekday is to check out a new library. Heck, I’m sitting in my library right now to write this. Everyone should go to the library!
And lastly, one of my favorite things is comparing my ratings to Goodreads to see exactly how much of a curmudgeon I am. I’m notoriously critical of what I read, so it’s unexpected to see that my average rating is lower - but a .6-point difference is huge even for me! In 2015 and 2016 it was only about .3. That’s driven by a lot more 1- and 2-star reviews, possibly because my general emotional valence was higher this year than other years - if I didn’t like a book, I really didn’t like it - and possibly because I still feel compelled to slog through every new Star Wars book even though they’re universally atrocious.
Ratings:
|
Me
|
Goodreads
|
1
|
9
|
0
|
2
|
13
|
0
|
3
|
19
|
48
|
4
|
21
|
36
|
5
|
20
|
0
|
Average:
|
3.365853659
|
3.908333333
|
Average difference:
|
-0.6226190476
| |
Median:
|
3.5
|
3.88
|
This was a hard year but a wonderful one, and I think that comes through in my reading. I discovered a new ‘use’ of reading in my audiobook habits, I read more than ever, and I’m a savvier library user now, too.
Do other people track their reading this extensively? I’d love to see anyone else’s numbers - especially how other people differ from that Goodreads mean!
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