Because I’m a giant nerd, I love putting together a post of bookish statistics at the end of the year. What struck me as I was working on this post is how incredibly similar my reading year looked when compared to 2012 (and somewhat to 2011). Seriously, it’s downright eerie how consistent I’ve been over a three year period.
The Basics
- 104 books read (110 in 2012 | 109 in 2011)
- 33,839 pages read (34,883 in 2012 | 34,127 in 2011)
- 104.5 hours listened (93.5 in 2012 | 58 in 2011)
- 650 pages per week (671 in 2012 | 656 in 2011)
- 93 pages per day (96 in 2012 | 93.5 in 2011)
I’ve been seriously keeping track of the books I read in a spreadsheet since sometime in 2011, so I’m starting to get some interesting data over time. Looking at some of these numbers, I think it’s fair to say my reading has remained remarkably consistent (even when it feels like it’s slowing down). Some other numbers of note:
- Longest Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling (870 pages). Other long books were The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (771 pages) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (734).
- Shortest Book: Not including graphic novels, the shortest book I read this year was We’ll Be the Last Ones to Let You Down by Rachael Hanel.
- Most Common Book Length: 288 pages (9 books)
- Oldest Book: All the President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward (1974)
- Books Published in 2013: 55 of 104 (52 percent)
- Author Gender: 60 female authors, 43 male authors
Books by Genre
Yay, charts! This first chart shows my fiction versus nonfiction for the year. Of the 104 books I read this year, 46 were fiction (44 percent) and 58 were nonfiction (56 percent).
Weirdly enough, this is the exact same percentage breakdown I had in 2012, despite reading slightly fewer books this year. I am even more consistent than I thought!
Books by Acquisition Type
One of my general goals every year is to balance review copies with other sources for reading material. Of the 104 books I read this year, 48 were review copies (46 percent), 15 were borrowed from the library or friends (15 percent) and 41 were from my own shelves (39 percent).
This is a pretty good balance for me, although in 2014 I would love to see the books from my own shelves eclipse review copies.
Books by Format
Another thing I keep track of is what format I read books in. Over the last few years, I’ve been trying to increase the number of ebooks and audiobooks that I read. This year I read 34 hardcovers , 32 paperbacks, 19 Advanced Review Copies, 10 ebooks and 9 audio books.
In 2012 I only ready 2 ebooks and 7 audiobooks, so I’m happy to see an increase there! Otherwise, those numbers look pretty close to what I’ve read in the past — fewer paperbacks this year, but that’s probably because I’ve increased the number of ebooks.
So there you have it, a look at some statistics about my reading in 2013. Now that it’s the new year, I’m excited to start thinking about what my reading in 2014 will look like!
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Yay charts! I’m glad I’m not the only one who does this. I love that you have multiple years to compare, too – so interesting that they’re all so similar. Looks like you did a great job keeping your review/owned books in check!
I think that’s interesting too. It looks like 100 to 110 books is about my max for any given year. I didn’t break this down, but it varies pretty widely by month — some months I read just a few books and others I read a ton. But in total, that seems like a stable range.
I really wish I had been more diligent with my spreadsheets over the years so I could see how the stats have changed! My stats lost will be going up tomorrow. This year, I kind of just made up the categories as I went, so it wasn’t as consistent as I would have liked, but I know what to do now for 2014. I have found that no matter what is going on in my life, I almost always read around 100 books. Sometimes a few more, sometimes a few less, but it’s always pretty consistent. I love seeing these pretty charts and stats on everyone’s blogs. I think it is just so interesting what everyone decides to keep track of! Happy New Year!!!
I have some info from 2009 and 2010, but not as detailed as when I started using a spreadsheet in 2001. Sometimes keeping up the tally is a pain, but I do love being able to have all that information at the end of the year.
I’m curious what categories you decided to go with? I’ve tracked different things over the years, but these seems to be the things I’m most consistently interested in.
55 percent from this year? Nice. I’d be lucky if I had 25 percent this year, but then again I usually tend to read older books, catching up with series most of the time will do that.
Yep, just over half were 2013 releases (thanks ARCs and my local library). I don’t think that stat is really good or bad, it just is what it is 🙂
Impressive! I mostly rely on Goodreads (plus a decent amount of end-of-year tallying) to keep track of my stats since I’m completely useless when it comes to keeping spreadsheets updated. Now I want to go back and see how many 2013 books I read. 🙂
I like Goodreads for some things (it’s really easy to just pop a book on there when I’m finished with it), but I like having the spreadsheet for myself too. This year I ended up having to go in every month or two and fill in books… I wasn’t very good about doing it right away.
Man, this is so cool. I should make better notes this year and then I can make pie charts and compare stats. I don’t really at this point.
I was actually kind of lazy about it this year — I had to go in over the last month and fill in a lot of info — but now that it’s compiled I’m glad that I did it.
The nerd in me loves when people do a post about their stats. Why is that?
I love it too — so interesting!
Charts! So awesome!
I’ve tried to use Good Reads to keep track of my stats but their numbers never match up with mine so I should probably start using a spreadsheet too because I love stats. I’m amazed at your consistency! Happy New Year!
Ooh, I like the idea of a spreadsheet! I just track on GoodReads and LT and hope that at the end of the year, they get to around the same number 🙂 It would be good to have a breakdown of pages and such…
Oooh, I love all the stats! Interesting that your most common number of pages is 288. I’ve seen that pop up in my reading life several times, too.
I always think that stat is strange. What is it about 288 pages that makes it such a common book length? Who knows!
Those coincidences are indeed a bit creepy. 1974 is not that old – how did the other year look like when it came to date of publication?
It’s not. I read a lot of contemporary books. In 2012 my oldest book was The Great Gatsby (1925). So again, not really that old. I think in 2011 I read The Odyssey, which is probably my oldest book ever.
I love these statistics! I keep track of my writing in a very similar way, but I had never really thought about doing such extensive tracking of my reading (you know beyond how many books I read).
There wouldn’t happen to be a copy of the spreadsheets/formulas/etc you use to track these things available somehwere is there?
I just use a Google Form, which I made myself. I can share a copy with you if you send me an e-mail. The form counts things up, but I have to make the pie charts myself in a different program.
Another blogger has a great spreadsheet I know many people use — it’s linked on this post: http://fyreflybooks.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/year-in-review-2013/
I forgot how long some of the Harry Potter’s are, but geez! Longer than The Goldfinch?
Awesome year. Hope you have an even better one in 2014!
You know, they’re probably fewer words than The Golfinch, since the size of the books is smaller and the font is bigger, but year, more pages. Crazy!
I love statistics like these! I just downloaded a spreadsheet template for tracking reading and I can’t wait until I have years of data too 🙂
Oooh! Where do you get the template?
I love charts! I haven’t done something like this for 2013 because I only started blogging in June, but I’m planning on keeping track of the things I’m reading more precisely
I wish I had stats from my first year or so of blogging. I didn’t keep track of anything except title and author until like 2010, I think.
You did a great job keeping track of your stats and comparing them! Go you!!! And yay for pretty charts!