2020 End of Year Wrap-Up and Stats

Posted January 3, 2021 / Uncategorized / 10 Comments

100 Books Read

This year sucked. Period. It’s the “worst” reading year I’ve had in a while. I reduced my goal from 120 to 100 books – no regrets – and still had to include cookbooks and other shorter books to meet it. I can’t figure out why my reading spreadsheet is telling me I read 102 books when I definitely didn’t, so enjoy these mostly-accurate charts and reading summaries from this garbage year.

Books Read

As usual, I read mostly contemporary this year. Just over 50% – not bad! I try to aim for under 50% but why not read what I love? I also include this as a very broad category, including romance. I’m also not surprised to see that mystery/thriller is next. I’ve been really trying to read more of those. Nonfiction is up a lot because I counted a ton of cookbooks 😉

I have to admit that I read a lot of egalleys. I request a bunch of books and frankly do a decent job of actually reading them. I’m not surprised that the mixed format category is a close second. Even if I read only a few chapters via audio, I still count it as a mix.

This one isn’t labeled – whoops – but 73% of my books were digital. I just prefer to read on my Kindle than bring around a physical copy, especially because I do a lot of reading in bed when the lights are out.

Most contemporary books fall in the 300 page category, so this isn’t super surprising. You can also see a large number in the category below it (200 page range) and the under 100 page category. I read a lot of novellas, comics, etc. this year.

I’m really glad I finally started tracking publisher stats. It’s pretty fascinating. Simon has always been one of my favorites so this isn’t surprising. Also not surprised that Hachette is up there – they publish some of my favorite books and are the home of Forever Romance, which I love.

I read a ton of review copies, as we’ve established. It looks like I’m also not terrible about reading books that I purchased! My library numbers are lower than usual because of COVID protocols, I’d guess.

 

Yup, again, a lot of reading on my Kindle. This is a mix of ebooks and egalleys. “Owned” is a category that includes my physical copies.

Woof, review copies coming in again. I also use this for gift card usage I think too.

I usually see high numbers in January because I try to start the year properly. I also see a good December because holiday books motivate me to read more, plus I’m trying to scramble to finish my challenge… this year at least. September is always low because I’m busy around my birthday and our anniversary. I was really just burnt out about everything this summer clearly.

Yup, I read a ton of books by women…

…and starring women! I also enjoy an ensemble cast when it comes up.

Wow, this is the first year adult overtook YA! I’m surprised. Just barely. I also read some more middle grade so that’s fun. I wonder if next year will trend the same way. I honestly think this is because I read a ton of review copies and tend to get more approvals for adult? I’m not sure.

This is definitely something that needs to be fixed. I’m glad that almost half of the books featured some level of diversity. “Limited” means maybe a few side characters were non-white, non-straight, etc.

I love reading series but I’m not surprised to see this one. I think I usually end up with more standalones overall. I did read some companion series so we’ll see how that continues into next year.

I very commonly give books four stars. I know my favorite authors, genres, plot points, etc. at this point in my reading and blogging life. I think I do a good job of reading within my comfort zone while toeing the line to expand my horizons. Really sad number of five star reads this year though…

This is a pretty looking chart! Totally equal! I started and completed an equal number of series, while I also read the same amount of middle books.

I got caught up to the newest release and completed series a good amount as well.

Acquisitions

Unsurprisingly, I got a lot of contemporary books this year. They’re my favorite after all. I kept with the trend of getting a decent amount of mystery books too. Yes, nonfiction = mostly cookbooks. Story of my 2020!

Wow, did I not receive a single physical ARC this year? That seems crazy. I know I got a few finished copies from Forever so maybe I put them in paperback. Either way, yes, a lot of egalleys thanks to Covid. I bought a decent amount of books this year too.

I love reading on my Kindle, what can I say? I did buy more physical books than usual too – I liked to get my favorite authors or just support indie sellers during this horrible time.

Hachette is definitely the big winner thanks to auto-approval on Netgalley… and the fact that I love all their books. I’m a big Penguin fan too. Simon is another big one.

A lot of review copies as we know. I’m glad I bought a good amount of books this year too. It shouldn’t take a global pandemic for me to buy from indie booksellers but in general, I just usually can’t buy a ton of books.

Gift cards, review copies, you know the drill here. I hope to buy more next year, even just Kindle books since I have zero physical shelf space.

I buy a lot of books with Christmas gift cards in January. Clearly I did a lot of book buying before the pandemic and then did more in June, August, October, and November when bookstores needed some help.

This is a fun one! It looks like I alternate a lot of the time. Some months I acquire more than I read, others I read more than I take in. I hope to be better about making this ratio look different… maybe read more than I bring in by a 2:1 ratio? More?

This lines up with the fact that I read more adult books than YA books too, I suppose.

10 responses to “2020 End of Year Wrap-Up and Stats

  1. I am seriously loving all these charts and graphs, Lauren! The data nerd in me is very happy 😀 The end of the year posts are my favorite to write and read because of all the long-term data. That “series breakdown” chart is so satisfying. I really need to actually finish series because it seems like I’ll start them or read the penultimate book, only to completely forget all about it. I haven’t figured out my 2021 resolutions yet so I’m thinking that needs to be one of them.

Leave a Reply

(Enter your URL then click here to include a link to one of your blog posts.)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.