My Year
in Books
2018
Introduction
My reading has really ramped up in the past couple of years.
I keep track of books that I read on Goodreads, and also in the “Reminder Index of Important Entries” page in my Standard Memorandum which I turned into a book log.
Seeing the days I finished books at a glance was interesting, and it made me wonder more about my reading habits. How long were the books that I read? Did I read more books by male or female authors? How did my ratings of books compare to other readers on Goodreads? 🤔
I decided to put together some data on the books I finished in 2018 (I didn’t include books that I started and didn’t finish). What follows is some analysis on different aspects of my book reading.
Big disclaimer: I am not an expert in data analysis or books...this is just for fun! Please bear with me if things aren’t exactly scientific.
Books Read Per Month
I read 80 books in 2018. I read the most in November (11 books), and the fewest in June (3 books).
Book Format
I read most of my books as audiobooks on the Libby app. I can check them out from my library and listen to them on my phone. It’s awesome! Some consider this cheating, but I think it’s a great way to get some reading done while doing housework or on the road, and I’m not the only one who thinks so 🙃
Book Length
The longest book I read was Night Film by Marisha Pessl at 640 pages. The shortest was The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, just 45 pages.
I read a total of pages,
and my average book length was
335 pages.
Fiction vs. Nonfiction
I try to read a mixture of fiction and nonfiction, but I definitely leaned more towards the fiction side in 2018.
Fiction Genres
For fiction, my most-read categories were mystery and horror
Nonfiction Genres
In nonfiction, I read memoir and true crime the most
Date of Publication
Because I frequent the amazing NPR Book Concierge to learn about good books to read, I ended up reading a lot of recently published books. The most common publication year that I read was 2018, but I tried and mix it up with titles from the 19th and 20th centuries every now and then.
Male vs. Female Authors
My author gender breakdown was fairly even, but I read more books by male authors than female this year.
Most Read Author
My most read author of the year was Stephen King — I read 8 of his books this year.
