2018 Books in Review

I never do year-end wrap up lists, but I'm trying to be accountable, even just to myself. So here we are! (I use GoodReads to track this, otherwise I'd never remember anything. Even using a tracking tool like this, I'm absolutely positive that I've missed things. Sorry, year end data, you fall vicitim to my bad memory, just like everything else.)

Contented generated by GoodReads

105 books read

26,741 pages

My shortest and longest books don't really mean anything, as the aggregate data that gets me to 254pp per books is ultimately corrupted by my love of graphic novels (41% of my total books were graphic novels), which are sort of a fundamentally bogus page count. GoodReads also counts my DNF (Did Not Finish) books as fully read, which, on the other hand, may even things out. (I DNF'd 8 books this year, or wholly 7% of my total reads! Including, for the first time to the best of my recollection, a graphic novel!)

It also doesn't count any stray short stories I almost certainly consumed, whether online, via e-reader, or in pieces through collections that I couldn't in good faith mark as "read".

Based on this, you might think that I was reading (or quitting) two books a week. In reality, I read in enormous spurts. I'll grind through an entire series in a week, then maybe not touch any books for a month.  This is also why I tend to wait until a series is a completed until I read it, I have zero patience in waiting for "the next one." (I mistakenly picked up Neil Shusterman's Scythe this year, thinking it was a standalone novel. Now Thunderhead was one of my most enjoyed books of the year, and I am livid that he dare do anything at all besides finish up that threequel for me.)

78 of these books were library books, which means that I only read 25 books from my personal collection. On its face, that seems inaccurate, but I couldn't tell you which books in my library I should be adding to this total, so it stands.

Of course, I did make a resolution at the beginning of this year to use the library more, so good job, me! (And let's be honest, I bet even some of those 25 books personal collection books probably came from a library's discard pile or used book sale. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SOCIALIST BOOK REPOSITORY.) In doing so, I saved myself approximately $1479.77, if you're going to believe my own math on how much I would have paid retail (or nearly retail) on all of the books I got from the library.

What would I change for next year? I'd like to be better bout quitting books that I don't enjoy. I got a little better at it this year, but I still had a lot of things that I could have quit, or quit earlier, and saved myself some time. This includes shaking my tendencies towards being a completionist, even after it's apparent that I'm no longer enjoying the series. (I see you, DMZ.)

Next year, I think my challenge will really be to read down my own personal library. I think completing one bookshelf book for every library book is a reasonable ask of myself. (And, really, the only way to insure that I don't die as one of those creepy Ripley's Believe It or Not stories, buried by my own hobby.)

Other Factoids:
<1% of my books were art books. I would like to change that in 2019!
10% of my books would be considered "YA" fiction.
15% of my books were "children's" literature. This is actually surprisingly low, I feel like I usually consume much more YA/kid lit than that! (This also ignores overlap between graphic novels and YA/kid lit.)
38% were written by women (though many graphic novels had female illustrators/colorists/letterers, it's just too difficult to doublecheck all of that while I'm running these loose numbers. Go read Dept H and enjoy Sharlene Kindt's incredible colors!).

Did you crunch any numbers on your hobby this year? Miles flown, Pokemons caught, VHS tapes melted? Let me know!