Sunday, January 09, 2022

Sunday Salon: 2021 in review


I do love a good graph, so it's always fun when we get to the end of a reading year and we look back to see what the patterns of our reading year are in graphical form.



In 2021 I set my Goodreads challenge total at 75, which unfortunately I didn't reach. I ended up with 53 books for the year, which I am happy with. It basically means I am tracking at a book a week. Gone are the heady reading years where I read more than 200 books in a year but this feels more balanced. And that is what I am striving for now in my life. In fact, balance is my word of the year for 2022! The biggest thing I need to balance is between work and home, but there are also a lot of things happening this year so there will be plenty of other things that I need to remember balance if I am not going to exhaust myself.





Anyway, enough about 2022. Let's focus back on the reading stats for 2021. There are a few surprises in amongst them, and then there are some expected results. The first of those is my tendency to read new books rather than back list. The oldest book I read was published in 1996, and that was a reread of Hogfather by Terry Pratchett.





Genre wise, there are no surprises that my reading is dominated by historical fiction, contemporary fiction and contemporary romance. If you had of told me 5 years ago that I would have a year when I would only read romance with a contemporary setting, I would have laughed. Back in the day I read all historical romance with an occasional contemporary set novel. These days, it's turned around completely. One thing that is slightly surprising it is that I read 4 sci-fi novels. I am generally not a sci-fi reader, but 3 of the Murderbot books in quick succession helped fill this number out!






My best reading month was August. Not sure why I got more reading done in that month, but I did!






One of the things that have changed for me over the last couple of years is the way that I read. If we look back a few years, most of my reading would have been paper books, then audio and then finally the occasional e-book. However, that has completely swapped around with the vast majority of my reads being digital this year. The fact that I only finished 3 audiobooks is representative of the fact that I spent most of my year working at home.





Some other stats:


I read 25 new to me authors in 2021, which is 47%. I think that is a good thing, but it also means I am not getting through many backlist books from authors I have already read. So I guess there are pros and cons both ways.


The authors who I did read multiple books by were Maggie Christensen with 6 books, Viola Shipman, Martha Wells and Ella Carey with 3 each and Susanna Kearsley and Maisie Thomas with 2 books.



I don't do a lot of rereads. This year I reread two books. One was The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley, one of my all time favourite books, and the other was The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett. It is interesting that both of these were audiobooks that I listened to.



As always my reading is always skewed to read a lot more women authors than men. This year was no exception with 49 books by female authors and only 4 by males. However, 3 of those books were by Viola Shipman, who writes names under his grandmother's name, so if we were just looking at names, it would be one male author.



Another skew that I have in my reading is towards Australian authors. This year I read 41% of my reads were by Australian authors, which is a pretty big portion. I don't really see this changing.



The last graph I wanted to share is for ratings. My go to rating of a book I enjoyed is 4 out of 5 and this is once again reflected in the gradings for the year.




These were the four books that I gave 5/5 to!





The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (review) and 

The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer







The Dressmakers of Yarrandarah Prison by Meredith Jaffe (review) and 

The Cartographer's Secret by Tea Cooper



I was going to add some Storygraph stats but they aren't really complete. Must do better on that this year. I also think this post is long enough without more!



So there is it is....my 2021 reading year in review!






30 comments:

  1. I'm listening to The Rose Code. I found out that you can edit your book challenge on Goodreads and change the number of books you say you want to read. I didn't reach my goal, so I changed the goal to the number of books I actually read. Is that cheating?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have edited that number before to increase it but not to reduce it.

      Delete
  2. Your stats are very interesting! You make it look so easy to present and track those numbers. Nice job! All but one of your 5 rating books are on my TBR list - and they will be moving up that list! Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a spreadsheet that I have been using for years ow, and then I am using very simple graphs. Can't do anything fancy.

      Delete
  3. I love your charts. This year is the first year I have used spreadsheets and graphs. A blogger friend sent me to a Book Riot book log. I'm enjoying using it.

    I tend to prefer women authors over men authors, but I do tend to read more men authors now than I did in the past.

    Thanks especially for sharing your favorites. I always write down favorites of others as they generally work well for me, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a spreadsheet that I have been keeping for years which records the above information. I should look at the Book Riot one but it seems more complicated than mine which could be a good thing or a bad thing

      Delete
  4. I like a good graph too!
    Your ratings one is interesting, I didn't graph that, but I bet mine would look pretty much like yours. I rate nearly everything 4 because I usually choose well and I nearly always enjoy what I read!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly! We have a fair idea of what we will and won't like right Lisa?

      Delete
  5. Hi Marg! I'm not good with lists at all. But I always look at stats like yours and I think - lovely. So organised. Why can't I be like that!

    I've also read Hogfather last year! My first Terry Pratchett in years. Lots of fun.

    Definitely 5 stars to The Rose Code yes!! One of my favorite reads for 2021 too.

    Have a good week ahead and happy reading!

    Elza Reads

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have been keeping my spreadsheets for so long. It's just part of my finishing a book routine now! Finish it. Update Goodreads. Add to the two spreadsheets. Start the next book.

      Delete
  6. I have never looked at my Goodreads stats, I will today. All my reads are e-books from the library. I lean towards authors in the UK. I don't do re-reads either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These all come from my spreadsheets! I only look at the Goodreads challenge really.

      Delete
  7. Looks like you had a very good reading year in 2021. Rose Code keeps turning up as a favorite on the book blogs I follow. Clearly it needs to go on my TBR

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think you will regret adding it to your TBR pile Mary!

      Delete
  8. I do love charts and stats... well done! The Rose Code was such a good read and it lead me to the nonfiction The Splendid and the Vile, which I also loved.

    My comfortable, balanced reading pace is a book a week, too. Last year I read over 60 though and I think it was because we didn't have any visitors in FL last winter.

    Hope 2022 is another great reading year for you!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love seeing all the charts! Isn't it interesting how our reading focus can change from year to year.

    I hope to read The Rose Code in 2022.

    Balance is a great focus word for the year that I think many of us could relate to.

    Have a great weeek!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Balance should probably be my word of the year every year Gretchen!

      Delete
  10. I've read less over the last few years too and I[m okay with that too, because it is about balance. That said, I would like to read slightly more than I did in 2021 and a greater variety of books. Most of mine were from two series.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love the idea of just reading series, but I don't think I could ever do it Bryan!

      Delete
  11. What a lot of graphs! I never got into using Goodreads, so I have no idea of any of my numbers.

    Last October you wrote up "The Fish Girl" by Mirandi Riwoe, and I finally followed up and read it. Thanks for the idea!

    best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thsi is really spreadsheets where I gather all this information from Mae!

      I am so glad you read it!

      Delete
  12. Nice recap. Here is mine (there are 3 posts, scroll down, the 2nd has lots of charts and pies: https://wordsandpeace.com/tag/year-of-reading/
    Happy New Year of reading!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Congratulations on your reading accomplishments in 2021!
    I’m determined to keep up with recording my reading this year (I’m using Book Riot’s Log) so I’ll have pretty charts to share at the end of the year.

    Wishing you a great reading week, and the balance you crave

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just make completing part of my I finished reading a book routine! I have been keeping one of my spreadsheets for about 17 years now!

      Delete
  14. I keep forgetting that Viola Shipman is a man! I only learned that recently. I should be able to remember...ShipMAN. Great stats and charts!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh, I just love your graphs! Do you use a special program to create them?

    I'm hoping to read The Rose Code later this year. I've heard nothing but great things about her books.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Les

      The graphs are the simplest of graphs made using Excel!

      The Rose Code is such a good book!

      Delete

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