Photo Credit: JD Baskin via Flickr Creative Commons

Since 2010, I’ve kept a pretty detailed spreadsheet about the books I’ve read each year. That way, when December rolls around I can do a little number crunching and get a sense of my reading year in a little more depth. This post is always a lot of fun for me to put together, and often gives me some tangible ideas of reading year has been like. So, without any more preamble… the numbers!

The Basics

• 99 books read (102 in 2014 | 104 in 2013 | 110 in 2012 | 109 in 2011 | 108 in 2010)
• 28,214 pages read (28,888 in 2014 | 33,839 in 2013 | 34,883 in 2012 | 34,127 in 2011 | 31,210 in 2010)
• 112 hours listened (126 in 2014 | 104.5 in 2013 | 93.5 in 2012 | 58 in 2011)

This all averages out to about 542 pages per week (555 in 2014) or 77 pages per day (79 in 2014). Those numbers actually surprise me – they’re much closer than I would have expected, given how slumpy a lot of my reading felt this year. 

Longest Book: 11/22/63 by Stephen King (849 pages)

Shortest Book: We Should All be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (23 pages)

Oldest Book: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

Books Published in 2015: 54

Author Gender: I read 61 books by women (66 percent) and 31 by men (34 percent). The final seven were collections or books with a combination of male and female authors/creators.

Author Race: One of my goals for the year was to read more books by authors of color. I was able to meet my goal for this year – I read 26 books by authors of color (about 26 percent) – but that number is a little padded by comics. If anyone on the team was a person of color, I counted that book in my stats. In 2016, I’d love to get that number up to 30 percent.

Number of Comics: I read 16 comic books, mostly trade paperbacks of some series I’ve enjoyed. That’s really my preferred format, and I can see increasing that number even more in 2016. 

Books by Genre

Hooray, charts! This first chart shows my breakdown of fiction/nonfiction, with some specific divisions for common genres. In looking, it doesn’t really make sense to have comics pulled out – comic is a format, not a genre – but too late to address that for this year. My shift toward fiction continued again this year, about 46 percent versus 37 percent nonfiction. I think that is connected to the next chart…

Books by Source

This chart shows a comparison between review copies, my own books, and books borrowed from friends or the library. I am so excited that more than half of the books I read this year were books I own! I also used the library a lot more this year than compared to the past, also good news. I’d guess the shift to fiction is tied to my gradual shift away from review copies and towards reading books without a specific timeline. I’ve been not accepting fiction for review for several years, so reading more fiction probably means reading more books I own.

Books by Format

I still read a lot of hardcovers this year, despite paperback being my preferred format. And the number of audiobooks and ebooks is still really low. I’m not sure I care too much about changing these, but it’s interesting to see.

What’s it All Mean?

It looks to me like my reading life is continuing to shift away from reading review copies and the “big” books of the year and towards reading my own books on my own timeline. I’m happy about that – it keeps reading a hobby rather than an obligation and means I might, eventually, start making a dent in my enormous TBR pile. On the other hand, I don’t want to let reading my own books keep me from reviewing and sharing what I’ve enjoyed. I want to get more back in the swing of reviewing in 2016. 

Despite doing a pretty major book purge late in the summer, my office is full to bursting with books once again and my book budget for the year was blown out of the water. I definitely need to take a look at my habits when it comes to acquiring new books. But that’s all for another post on goals and plans for 2016!

How did your year in reading look? How do you keep track of what you’ve read? Any interesting trends this year?

It’s almost Christmas! I have to work about a half day today, then the boyfriend and I are off to the Twin Cities for a long weekend with both of our families. Since he’s an only child, his parents graciously agreed to come spend Christmas with my family again so we can all be together. Having a big extended Christmas last year was a lot of fun, and I’m so looking forward to it again.

I am not sure that I will have much time to read, so I tried really, really hard to be judicious in the number of books I stuffed in my bag for the weekend. I think I’ve narrowed it down to just three:

• Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins – A love story set in a dystopian near future, all about the lengths we go for family. This has been on my list all year.
• The Turner House by Angela Flournoy – What could be better than reading a family coming together in their family home while at home with my family?
• Best American Essays 2015 edited by Ariel Levy – I think an essay collection might be just the ticket for dipping in and out of during a family gathering. I may end up swapping this out for Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015 because the guest editor of that book, Rebecca Skloot, is one of my favorite science writers and I’m curious what she picked.

Except I also got a notification from the library that 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino arrived from the library and now I want to read that too. So maybe some changes before we’re out of here this afternoon… it’s tough being a book nerd!

Anyway, I’m also trying to decide what I should read as my first book of 2016 so I can participate in the first book event being hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. I love the idea of making the first book of the year a special one, and since I have New Year’s Day off from work (yay!) I can probably get a good start on that special book.

Ideally, I’d love my first book to be a book I already own (#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks), and a book with some connection to my One Little Word for 2016. I slacked off on OLW this year, but I’m excited to try again. I’m still trying to settle on the right word, but I think it will have something to do with being brave and taking chances. I want to start the year with a book that can help inspire boldness and confidence. With that in mind, a few I’m considering are:

• Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges by Amy Cuddy – Nonfiction on confidence and body language, recommended for fans of Brené Brown
• Saint Mazie by Jamie Attenberg – Historical fiction about a Jazz Age movie theater owner that I’ve heard nothing but good things about.
• The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau – Nonfiction, subtitled “Finding a Quest that Will Bring Purpose to Your Life.”
• Notorious RGB by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik – Coffee table biography of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg… also fun!

We’ll see though, there are a lot of days between now and the new year for me to change my mind!

I’m not sure what the next week will bring for the blog, but I’m not sure anyone will be reading anyway. Happy holidays, dear readers, and thanks for being here!

Over the seven years that I’ve been a blogger, I’ve averaged about 60 percent nonfiction and 40 percent fiction. These percentages have been remarkably consistent, and without much effort on my part. But this year was a big departure from that trend – at last count, I was at less than 40 percent nonfiction for the year. I’m not sure what to attribute that shift to, but I do know I hope to get back closer to 50/50 for 2016.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t read some great nonfiction this year. Looking back, I’m happy with the titles I picked up and the ones that made my favorites of the year. The same caveats mentioned in my favorite fiction post apply here: first, it doesn’t include just books published in 2015, it’s pulled from all the books I read this year. Second, I don’t think these books are necessarily the best books of the year, they’re just the books that I loved most. And third, they’re listed in no particular order — I loved each of them nearly equally as much. With that, the list!

The Lonely War by Nazila Fathi – This excellent book is a balanced, nuanced account of life in modern day Iran told by a journalist who experienced intimidation and threats from the Iranian government.

Hammer Head by Nina MacLaughlin – If you like to think about work, or often imagine getting out of your head and finding a way to work with your hands, make sure you pick up this memoir.

Being Mortal Atul Gawande – This is probably the most important book I read this year, all about modern aging and how we can better handle the needs of our aging friends and relatives. Honestly, everyone should read this book.

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble by Zac Bissonnette – This was, hands down, the most fun work of nonfiction I read this year. If you were bit by the Beanie Baby bug, this is a must read.

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life On Earth by Col. Chris Hadfield – This memoir, about what it takes to become an astronaut, and what being an astronaut can teach us about hard work and teamwork, was a surprising delight.

It’s What I Do by Lynsey Addario – This was the best memoir about work-life balance and being a working mother that I’ve ever read, mostly because that wasn’t the point of the book. Addario is a war photographer and this book is the story of her career and life path. It was so, so interesting.

Leaving Orbit by Margaret Lazarus Dean – What does it mean that the United States has ended the shuttle program? Dean, a passionate space nerd, offers a history of the shuttle program and a fan’s love letter to space exploration. It was a lot of fun.

Thank You For Your Service by David Finkel – Finkel’s true stories about the cost of war, on soldiers and their families, was heartbreaking but wonderful.

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson – Actually, Just Mercy is the most important book I read this year (sorry, Being Mortal). Stevenson is a lawyer who works to overturn death penalty cases in the south. This book is a frightening indictment on the flaws of our criminal justice system.

Dear Mr. You by Mary Louise Parker – I thought this memoir in letters was beautifully written, but it’s not for everyone.

And finally, a few books that would have made the list if it were longer than 10 books:

Honorable Mentions: The Residence by Kate Anderson Brower, Blackout by Sarah Hepola, The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport

Time and Place | Around 8:30 a.m., at home, on my own couch! As I have mentioned (too often, I’m sure), I’ve been away from home for the last three weekends. That’s just too much for me, and I seem to have paid the price this week — daily fatigue headaches, insomnia, and general exhaustion. A weekend catching up on projects at home is exactly what I needed.

Reading | It’s been a good week of reading! I finished The Shore by Sara Taylor, a collection of connected short stories that take place on a group of remote islands off the coast of Virginia. The stories span hundreds of years, all connecting back to a single family with deep connections to the island (with an elaborate family tree to keep it all straight). I thought the book was beautiful — it’s the kind of collection that will reward a rereading in the future. I just started Mindy Kaling’s new book, Why Not Me?, which I’m confident will be a delight.

Listening | I just finished Winter, the final book in Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles quartet. I loved this series so much, especially the fact that it avoided nearly all of my least favorite tropes of young adult dystopian fantasy.

Watching | We went to see Star Wars last night! It was so fun, highly recommended.

Making | I have one small Christmas crochet project to finish, and then I am going to work on something for me — probably this poncho/wrap from Two of Wands on Etsy. I’ve got some gorgeous teal tweed yarn I want to do something with.

Cooking | Despite the fact that there’s snow on the ground, we grilled last night! We have another generous shipment of Omaha Steaks from the boyfriend’s mother, and probably need to find better ways to cook them now that winter has arrived.

Blogging | Last week I posted my favorite fiction of 2015, followed by some mini-reviews of a few books I hadn’t written about here on the blog yet. This week I’m hoping to post my favorite nonfiction of the year and share some of my reading plans for Christmas and the beginning of 2016.

Promoting | Shannon (River City Reading) posted some of the best long-form journalism she read online this year, which has some stellar pieces in it.

Hating | Headaches! It’s been a bad week on that front.

Loving | I splurged on a Hydro Flask water bottle, and it is amazing! I am very tempted to get one for tea as well, since it’s also supposed to be great for keeping drinks warm.

Anticipating | Christmas! We’re leaving sometime Christmas Eve to head to my parent’s house and will be there for the long weekend. The boyfriend’s parents are coming in from Milwaukee, so we’ll have another big, extended family celebration. I’m really excited.

Happy Sunday, everyone! What are you reading today?