Proving, I suppose, that the old rule my wife often reminds me of, "once an accountant, always an accountant," really is true, I always post a statistical accounting of my completed reading year before beginning the next one. (I do realize that no one other than me is likely to care about these numbers, but I post them as a reference point I can use in future years, so bear with me for a moment.)
2023 was another good year filled with remarkable books that I will long remember. But as I mentioned a few days ago, it was also a year that I'm not completely satisfied with when it comes to the books I chose to spend my reading hours on, so I'm hoping to make a few changes during 2024. But that's next year,
2023 was another good year filled with remarkable books that I will long remember. But as I mentioned a few days ago, it was also a year that I'm not completely satisfied with when it comes to the books I chose to spend my reading hours on, so I'm hoping to make a few changes during 2024. But that's next year,
and 2023 looked like this:
Number of Books Read - 122Fiction - 99
- Novels - 85
- Short Story Collections - 9
- Novellas - 5
Nonfiction - 23:
- Memoirs - 7
- Biographies - 3
- Books on Books- 2
- Sports - 1
- History - 4
- Politics - 2
- Essays - 1
- Travel - 3
- Written by Men - 77
- Written by Women - 41
- Written by Both - 4
- Audio Books - 19
- E-Books - 33
- Translations - 3
- Abandoned - 24
- Library Books - 83
- Review Copies - 19
- From My Shelves - 14
- Loaners - 6
- Pages per Day: 108
- Total Pages Read: 39,500
- Pages Per Book: 324
I'm not satisfied with the number of books by foreign authors that I read in 2023. I did manage to read 42 books from countries other than the U.S. but 29 of those were from the U.K. and 5 from Canada, and that seems too easy. Three of the others came from Ireland, and I read one each from Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Malaysia and Norway.
Now it"s time to move on to a new year...this is going to be fun. Happy New Year, y'all.
Your stats are fantastic! And it sounds like you're committed to another big reading year in 2024. I'm glad for your blog & that you've been on it for 16 years, wow. Keep it going! Yay for fiction in particular.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words. I find that the blogging really helps me structure my day, something I hadn't realized I needed so much - that is, as long as I'm the one deciding on the structure - until I was forced into that extended break a while back.
DeleteI'm constantly amazed when I see the number of pages I've read in one year written down: incredible what we manage. Like you, I treasure the contacts I've made by blogging about books, including your excellent self, Sam. Here's to another good year of interesting books. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI think it's a tortoise vs. hare thing for me, Cath. I'm not fast, but I'm persistent, and those pages start to add up, don't they? But, yes, it's the like-minded friends I've made that have been the real takeaway from all these years of book blogging. I never managed a book club of any sort, but this community of ours is better in many ways than I imagine a book club could ever be. Have a great 2024!
DeleteI can't resist reading posts like this, which is no surprise since I do one of my own annually. Happy Reading in 2024, Sam!
ReplyDeleteSame here, Cathy, although I haven't run into as many recaps this year as I remember from the past. Seems like everyone has been extra busy dealing with personal issues lately.
DeleteI enjoyed your stats for reading this year. I hope to come up with some sometime in January... We will see. I don't keep great records.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty happy with my reading last year, and am still thinking about any changes I will make to my goals. I do know that I am not going to be buying any books until the book sale in September, and thus will read mostly from my own shelves, or my husband's books. (I will be buying ebooks.)
Tracy, I love the way you read so much from your own shelves. You turn up some titles that way that I missed back when they were newly published, and you remind me of some favorite authors I really need to revisit. There's just so much back catalog out there these days that it bothers me that I can so easily get caught up in just the new books being published. And I'm certainly not convinced that the new ones deserve so much of my time.
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