I started book blogging in 2008. At the end of the year, I fell in love with posts where bloggers would break down their year in reading. Beginning in 2010, I started to keep detailed statistics about each book I read so I could look back on my year in reading that way too. I love being able to look back at those numbers and use them to assess the current year too.

I know that there are still a couple of days left in 2014, but I’m in the middle of a few chunky books and don’t really see myself finishing them before the new year begins. And that’s ok, I’m feeling ready to wrap up 2014 and get started in 2015.

The Basics

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

This all averages out to about 555 pages per week (650 in 2013) or 79 pages per day (93 in 2013).

Longest Book: Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith (720 pages). Honorable mentions include Console Wars by Blake Harris (576 pages), The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (576 pages), and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (548 pages).

Shortest Books: Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson (120 pages) and I Don’t Know by Leah Hager Cohen (128 pages).

Most Common Book Length: 320 pages (10 books)

Oldest Book: Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (1995). This is a little sad. I should read more classics in 2015.

Books Published in 2014: 53 of 102

Author Gender: 54 women, 36 men, 12 other (multiple authors)

Number of Comics: 13 of 102, although this doesn’t count single issues because I didn’t track them. Nine of these were written by Brian K. Vaughn (Saga and Y:The Last Man Standing).

A new stat for this year was the author’s race. My average before this year was about 10 percent books by authors of color. This year, about 14 percent of the books I read were by authors of color. I’m hoping to up that to 20 to 25 percent in 2015.

Books by Genre

And now, the charts! This first graph shows fiction versus nonfiction for the year. Normally, I read more nonfiction than fiction. This year, it was pretty close to even. I attribute this to finishing three trilogies I was excited about, and reading more comics.

Books by Acquisition Type

This chart looks at where my books come from. Generally, I try to balance review copies with other reading material. In the past, I’ve still skewed pretty heavily towards review copies — not this year! In 2014, more than half of the books I read were books I owned. I’m really excited about this.

Books by Format

This last chart looks at what format I read my books in. As you can see, I read a lot of hardcovers (about 33 percent), followed by paperbacks and ARCs. My percentage for audiobooks went up a bit this year (9 percent in 2013 to 12 percent in 2014), but my percentage of ebooks went down.

Tackling by TBR in 2014

I only set one goal for 2014: getting my TBR under control. While I wasn’t entirely successful in completing the tasks I set for myself – catalog my library in LibraryThing, track every book I acquire, buy fewer books, and choose ebooks – I did manage to read more of my own books that review copies and library copies combined. That is so exciting, and a trend I hope I can continue in 2015.

What’s it All Mean?

In taking all of that in, I think it’s safe to say that my reading was a little bit off this year. While I read about as many total books as I’ve read in the past, the breakdown of the type of book must be different – I read significantly fewer pages, but increased my time listening to audiobooks by a pretty big margin too. I’d also venture to guess that I read many more comics this year, adding to my total books but not to total pages.

The breakdown of fiction and nonfiction seemed weird, at first, but as I reflect back I can see how I was a bit disconnected from the “big” nonfiction books of the year. I also don’t review fiction as thoroughly as nonfiction, so when I need “no pressure” reading I turn to fiction — I recall doing a lot of that this year too.

I’m not sure what 2015 will bring. I hope I’ll continue reading from my own bookshelves, and I hope I’ll get to read more nonfiction. I hope I can squeeze in more audiobooks and I hope I can utilize my ereader more. Whatever the new year is going to bring, I’m ready!

PHOTO CREDIT: ANSSI KOSKINEN VIA FLICKR

Aside from pulling together my end of the year reading statistics, I think my favorite post of the year is this one, my favorite nonfiction reads of the year. It’s so satisfying to scroll back through all of the books I read this year and think about which ones I loved most, and which ones I wish more people would read.

Like my list of favorite fiction of 2014, this list doesn’t include just books published in 2014, it’s pulled from all the books I read this year. I did a little better job incorporating backlist into my nonfiction this year, and this list reflects some of that. I also don’t think these books are necessarily the best books of the year — I’m not widely read enough to even claim that — they’re just the books that I loved most.

The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison – This was my pick for Book Riot’s Best Books of 2014 List (and not just because someone beat me to my other favorite of the year, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, it really was my favorite). I loved the way Jamison took a topic and came at it from all angles, never losing sight of these big questions about how we connect with one another. (Review).

The Secretary by Kim Ghattas – This book about Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State, written by a BBC foreign correspondent, was perfectly in my wheelhouse. Ghattas’ experience growing up in Lebanon gives her a really interesting perspective on U.S. foreign policy that I appreciated. (Review)

How Star Wars Conquered the Universe by Chris Taylor – This book, all about the history of the Star Wars franchise and it’s impact on contemporary culture, was one of the more surprising and delightful books I read this year. (Review)

Yes Please by Amy Poehler – True story, I bought two copies of this book, the audio because I wanted to hear Amy Poehler read it and the hardcover because I wanted to be able to see all of the interesting things she was reading to me. This book reads like sitting down with a smarter, older friend and getting excellent advice about apologizing, motherhood, and taking risks. I laughed and I cried and I’m so glad I read it.

The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg – Of all the books I didn’t write reviews of this year, this is the book I most regret not sharing in detail. Nordberg, a Swedish journalist, shares the story of Afghanistan’s “bacha posh” – girls who spend most of their childhood dressed at boys. It’s a fascinating phenomenon in a culture that has impossible and damaging gender standards.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty – I didn’t know that I wanted to learn all about what it takes to be a mortician until I read this memoir. In addition to being just a bit gross and very funny, this book has a lot of smart things to say about how our cultural response to death needs to evolve. (Review)

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala – This memoir, about a woman who lost her entire family in a 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka, is very hard to read. But it’s also a beautiful memorial to the family she lost and complicated meditation on grief. (Review)

Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith – If you are looking for a hard-hitting look at the British royal family, this is not the book. But if you’re curious about the life and personality of a monarch, this book is delightful. (Review)

The Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward – This is another book I just finished last week and boy, was it a good one. Ward’s memoir about losing five young men in five years is a moving look at what it means to be young and black in America. It’s so relevant now, really a must read for almost everyone  even though, at times, it feels like Ward doesn’t quite have the distance from these moments that she needs to be her most effective as a memoirist.

Honorable Mentions: Unbroken and Seabiscuit by Lauren Hillenbrand, Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr., Without You There is No Us by Suki Kim, Console Wars by Blake J. Harris, and On Immunity by Eula Biss

And that’s my list of favorite nonfiction for 2014! It’s been a really stellar year of reading, and I’m so grateful for that. I’m taking a little blogging break through Christmas, probably right up until the New Year when I’ll be back with a look back at my reading stats for 2014 and a look ahead to my plans for 2015. Happy holidays, everyone!

Briefly | It has been an eventful week! A new restaurant opened in town (this is a huge deal for a town our size), work was very stressful, and we had a plumbing issue in our basement. Our landlord is coming to look at it again today… hopefully it’s an easy fix.

Time and Place | 8:30 a.m. on my comfy chair in the living room. My office is unusually chilly this morning.

Eating and Drinking |  Black tea and homemade chocolate chip cookies, the breakfast of champions.

Reading | Since fall tv is on hiatus, I’ve spent a ton of time reading — and my books finished this week reflect that! Continuing on last week’s Laura Vanderkam/time and productivity binge, I finished What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, a collect of three shorter pieces she wrote looking at best tips for maximizing your morning, your weekend, and your time at work. All these ideas are dovetailing nicely into what, I think, will be my One Little Word for 2015 (my 2014 word was “curate”) — more on that after the new year.

On the fiction side, I finished Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, a really beautiful book about family, honesty and identity, framed by the challenges of being a mixed race family in the late 1970s. I had so many moments where I just felt heartbroken for these characters and the way their personal anxieties were hurting the people they love most — exactly like what real families do. And finally, I started in on my Christmas comfort reads with a reread of Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (the American title is The Golden Compass).

Watching | Last night, the boyfriend and I watched The One I Love, a weird little indie movie with Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss. It was really a fun movie to watch,if you ignore the fact that the way they try to explain all the weirdness makes absolutely no sense.

Cooking | I was busy in the kitchen yesterday — lasagna, chocolate chip cookies, and sugar cookie dough for cutout cookies today. It was fun!

Blogging | Last week I shared my favorite fiction of 2014. This week I’ll have my favorite nonfiction of 2015 post up, then I’m taking a little blogging break for the holidays.

Promoting | I really like the way Jenny (Reading the End) describes her experience of trying to read more diversely, specifically how it affects her book-finding habits. This is what I hoped to say in my post on this subject, just much more clearly than I managed.

Pondering | I’m still trying to decide what I’m going to throw in my bag for my trip home for Christmas. Book friend Rebecca Schinsky offered this formula for travel book packing:

What’s your travel book packing strategy? Mine: absorbing novel + something on audio + something to dip in & out of (essays or stories)

— Rebecca Schinsky (@RebeccaSchinsky) December 18, 2014

Although we’re driving and space isn’t really an issue, I’m still trying to limit the number of books I stuff in my suitcase. So far I have The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass (absorbing novels, second and third in a trilogy), The Republic of Imagination by Azar Nafisi (audio), and The Unspeakable by Meghan Daum (essays). I’ll probably grab at least one more book, probably nonfiction, but I don’t quite know what yet.

Hating and Loving | I hate that there is so little sunlight today — the sunrise was at 8:01 a.m. and the sunset will be at 4:42 p.m. where I live — but I’m glad that we’re now up the upswing to longer days.

Loving | A new Mexican restaurant opened in town (this is a huge deal), so I went out for dinner and drinks with my boss on Monday night. They had the best margaritas, in many flavors.

Anticipating | The boyfriend and I, likely with Hannah in tow, are headed to my parents’ house for Christmas on Wednesday afternoon. His parents are joining us this year, so it’ll be a big, different celebration. I’m excited.

Happy Sunday! What are you reading today? What are your reading plans over the holiday?

Although the end of 2014 is still a couple of weeks away, I like to get my end of the year book lists written and posted before the holidays — by the time I get back from Christmas travel, I’m so busy thinking about the new year that it’s hard to get myself to go back.

First up, I’m sharing my favorite fiction reads of 2014. It’s important to note a few things about this list. First, it doesn’t include just books published in 2014, it’s pulled from all the books I read this year. However, now that I look closely, it seems that most of them actually were new releases this year… whatever!

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 all those caveats off the table, on to the list!

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel – This inventive take on the post-apocalyptic novel grabbed me at the first page and didn’t let go. Reading straight through it during the fall Readathon is one of my top reading experiences of the year. (Review)

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng – I just finished this book a few days ago and can’t stop thinking about it. It’s a haunting look at how difficult it can be to communicate with the people we love, as well as a thoughtful look at the challenges facing a middle class, mixed-race family in the late 1970s. It was so good.

Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood – This is the first short story collection I’ve read in a long while that seemed to hit me perfectly. Atwood is a masterful storyteller and really infuses every piece in this collection with a sense of past and future. (Review)

The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman – The Magicians trilogy is probably not for everyone, but it was a perfect trilogy for me. I loved the way this book concluded these stories and I’m excited to see what Grossman works on next.

The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman – This quiet novel, about a thirty-something bookstore owner named Tooly digging into her past, didn’t get as much love and I thought it might. The book alternates between three threads, sharing Tooly’s history and exploring how she got to where she is. I read this one over my birthday weekend in July and loved it.

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo – This is another final book in a trilogy, this one a young adult fantasy set in a world much like Imperial Russia. It has a whip-smart, sarcastic, challenging main character and a bunch of vivid supporting cast members. It’s such a fun series. (Review)

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters – I loved the way this book felt like three stories in one, held together by a distinct and well-drawn main character. (Review)

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples – Saga is one of the strangest most wonderful comic book series I’m struggling to describe the plot, so I’ll send you to Wikipedia and just say that this is so good and you should start reading it now.

Whew! It really was a wonderful year in fiction reading. I’ll be back at the beginning of next week with my list of top nonfiction for the year, sneaking that list in just before the holidays begin.

What was the best novel you read this year?