Tag / Summing up

by Sharlene

How I read in 2019 (with pie charts!)

As we wrap up the last few days of 2019, here is a summing up of my reading of the year.

I’ve done these year-end summaries for a few years now, you can check out what I was up to in 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.

2019 total: 244

2018 total: 226
2017’s total: 216
2016’s total: 234
2015’s total: 286
2014’s total: 217
2013’s total: 223
2012’s total: 227
2011’s total: 171 

The shortest book I read was 60 pages long (Likely Stories), the longest book I read was 980 pages long (A Breath of Snow and Ashes) with The Fiery Cross a close second at 979 pages! Boy does Gabaldon like to write long books or what.

My reading has taken me around the world: Alaska, Amsterdam, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nigeria, Russia, Sweden, Singapore, Tahiti, Taiwan, the UK, Uruguay, and of course, many states in the US, and many made-up settings.

Material types

I was a bit surprised by this as I thought there would be a greater majority of ebooks! I have been trying to borrow more physical books from the library though!

Diversity

I like how this percentage of POC authors read is slowly increasing. Last year, I was at 39%.

New-to-me authors

I always think it’s amazing that there can still be so many new-to-me authors out there.

Gender

By ‘both’, this usually refers to the team working on the comics. I am glad I am reading a majority of books by women!

Translated books

I read 19 translated books, of which 7 were comics/manga/graphic novels.

They were translated from the following languages:

Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian

I’m hoping to read more translated books in 2020.

Publication date

The oldest book (by publication date) I read was published in 1857 (The Professor by Charlotte Brontë).

1800s: 5 books

1900s: 8 books

2000- 2009: 23 books

2010-2014: 22 books

2015: 17 books

2016: 23 books

2017: 30 books

2018: 60 books

2019: 56 books

READING GOALS FOR 2020

  • read more books in translation
  • continue to read more books by women and writers of colour
  • try to read more backlist books!
  • continue to borrow more books from the library but also read more from my own shelves
  • more nonfiction!

How was your 2019 reading? What are your goals for 2020?

by Sharlene

Summing up 2017 in books

Happy new year!

I’ve done these year-end summaries for a few years now, you can check out what I was up to in 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013

Total books read: 216

2016’s total: 234
2015’s total: 286
2014’s total: 217
2013’s total: 223
2012’s total: 227
2011’s total: 171 

 

Gender

I like this female-majority reading that I’ve been doing, and hope to continue with it.

 

I was surprised by this one – not expecting that many new-to-me authors.

 

I know that technically comics are a medium and not a “genre” but it just simplifies things to put it as such.

Source

I’ve been trying to read more of my own books and I think I’ve done slightly better this year!

 

Type of reading material

This is one statistic that really surprised me. Last year, e-books made up 57% of my reads and I thought I was on track for a similar half-half statistic this year.

I realize now that it’s because last year I read a lot of comics on Scribd. I don’t use Scribd anymore so this year my comics all came from the library, as physical books (my library has a great e-book catalogue but not really much of a e-comic catalogue).

 

Diversity

A slight improvement from last year which was 32-68. But I will continue to try to make that more equal.

Decade published

The oldest book I read was published in 1817.

I read 39 books published in 2017!

 

Page length

The longest book I read was Voyager by Diane Gabaldon at 870 pages. The shortest book was Locke and Key: Small World at 32 pages.

Places visited in books

Thanks to these books, I travelled to many strange imaginary lands but also some incredible real-life places like Bangladesh, Bosnia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, England France, Haiti, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad, Vietnam, and also plenty of states in the US like Texas, Florida, Michigan, California.

Here’s to a wonderful reading year ahead! Despite everything else that happens, we will always have books.

by Sharlene

My Life in Books (2017)

A bit late to this but here is My Life in Books, a fun year-end reading round-up, which Adam at Roofbeam Reader posted:

    • In high school I was: Sweetbitter (Stephanie Danler) 
    • People might be surprised (by):Mother of all Questions (Rebecca Solnit)
    • I will never be: Labyrinth Lost (Zoraida Cordova)
    • My fantasy job is: Witches of New York (Ami McKay)
    • At the end of a long day I need: One Week in the Library (W. Maxwell Prince (Writer), John Amor (Artist))
    • I hate it when: The Hate U Give (Angie Thomas)
    • Wish I had: A Closed and Common Orbit (Becky Chambers)
    • My family reunions are: Ministry of Moral Panic (Amanda Lee Koe)
    • At a party you’d find me with: The Mothers (Brit Bennett)
    • I’ve never been to: Hotel Iris (Yoko Ozawa)
    • A happy day includes: A Time to Dance (Padma Venkataraman)
    • Motto I live by: Coming to my senses (Alice Waters)
    • On my bucket list is: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe (Ryan North (Writer), Erica Henderson (Artist))
    • In my next life, I want to have: The Soul of an Octopus (Sy Montgomery)