Jenny's 2013 Reading by the Numbers

GoodReads seems to disagree with itself as to whether I read 238 or 240 books this year.  I think the accurate number is 238, since the stats for end of year include two books I abandoned (but not all 26, so curious.)

238 seems high.  238 seems impossible.  I'm sure I'll hear a lot of these things.  Well, some of those are individual short stories that I counted because they were award nominees and I was reading them as single shots.  Some of them are poetry, which while short, I always read at least twice.  Some are cookbooks.  So clearly, some are not that lengthy.  On the other hand, the longest book I read in 2013 is Infinite Jest, at 1,079 pages.  I have the feeling that the numbers balance out.

Books by Format

Print: 150 (77%)
eBook: 44 (19%)
Audio: 34 (14%)

Interestingly, 41/44 of the eBooks were advanced reader copies from NetGalley, so I still very much prefer print.  The three eBooks I actually purchased were in moments of desperation, usually because I needed to get a copy in time for book club or a podcast.  Or they were a really good deal.  I bought far more eBooks than I read, since I always forget I bought the Kindle Daily Deal types.  Whoops.  About half the audiobooks were also review copies, but I do have an Audible subscription and pay for about half.  Print is always a mixture of new, used, swap, and library books.

Books by Genre

Foodie: 25 (11%)
Graphic novels: 11 (4%)
Memoir: 13 (5%)
Novella: 13 (5%)
Poetry: 22 (9%)
Science fiction and fantasy: 55 (23%)
Short stories: 22 (9%)
Travel: 10 (4%)

These aren't all the genres, only those I'm interested in tracking.  I guess what's left is the general, literary fiction, and some non-fiction.  And some of these crossover, particularly memoir with foodie or memoir with travel.  I'm happy that my poetry number has gone up, and I want to keep it around 10% if I can.

Award Winners and Nominees

Last year, I read all the nominees for a lot of award, so much so that it took 25% of my reading time, and some of that reading was not satisfying.  This year I pledged to only read the books I was interested in.  Quite a few of my abandoned books of 2013 are from award nominees that I dumped, and are not reflected in these numbers.  Added up as a sum total, this still takes up 21%, but many of the Booker-NBA-Orange overlapped.  The number is about 18%, a definite dip from 2012.  It feels great to gleefully abandon what isn't working!

Hugo: 17 (7%)
Man Booker Prize: 6 (3%)
National Book Award: 11 (4%) <- pretty directly 6 novels and 5 poetry finalists
Nebula: 2 (.008%)
Nobel: 0
Orange Prize: 3 (1%)
Pulitzer: 0
Tournament of Books: 15 (6%)  <- many of these I had already read for other reasons though!

Reading for a Purpose

I often read books for challenges, podcasts, and book clubs, but these are all part of my interests.  I don't look to decrease these numbers.

Around the USA Challenge: 31 (5%)
Around the World Challenge (includes The World's Literature group's focus on Turkey): 69 (29%)
Great African Reads: 2 (.008%)
International Book Club (in person, just joined in September): 2 (.008%)
League of Extraordinary Dorks Book Club: 6 (3%)
SFF Audio Podcast readalongs: 13 (5%)

I think 2013 was a great year in reading!  Tomorrow I will give more thought to my goals for reading in 2014, but for now it is time to relax and celebrate.  Happy New Year!