Welcome
to my giant post of 2020 reading stats! I don’t know how interesting this post
will be to other people, but these graphs help me figure out what I want to
change about my reading. If you’re the kind of nerd who wants to know more about
my reading year, check out my favorite books of 2020.
2020 Quick Facts
Total
number of books finished: 104
Number
of rereads: 12
Total
number of pages read: 30,464
Approximate
number of pages read per day: 83
Number
of books given up on (DNF): 4
Number
of translations read: 4
Number
of unread books owned at the beginning of 2020: 54
Number
of unread books owned at the end of 2020: 6o
Average
amount of time a new book sat on my shelf before I read it: 288 days
Stats From Goodreads
Pie (Charts) From My Ridiculous Spreadsheets
Star Rating
 |
| 3 stars = average. 4 stars = above average. 2 stars = below average. DNF = did not finish. It was too horrible. I quit to save myself. |
Analysis: I enjoyed most of the books I read last year! I fully embraced the DNF. If I wasn't enjoying a book, I quit, even if I was almost finished with it. I don't rate DNFs on Goodreads. Because of my DNFing, I had only one 1-star book. I didn’t DNF that one because it had so much potential to be awesome. I kept hoping it would get better. Spoiler alert: It didn’t.
Decade Published
Analysis: This graph looks pretty much the same every year. I rarely read new
releases because I can’t afford them, and my library’s waitlists are massive.
Over half the books I read were published between 2010 and 2019. I’m not sure
how I feel about that. I like reading about the modern world, but I really want to read more old classics.
“Old” meaning “published before WWII.” I should probably just buy a bunch of
classics and put them on my TBR shelf. Then I won’t be able to ignore them like
I do when they’re on my Kindle. (My TBR shelf is right above my bed. If I don’t
read the books on the shelf, it’ll eventually get so heavy that it will fall on
my head. That’s my motivation to read physical books.)
Target Audience
 |
| "Children" includes young adult books. |
Analysis: I always aim for 50/50 children’s books and adult books. Clearly, I failed in 2020. I’m not mad about it. I love children’s books, but adult books appeal to me more because I’m an adult.
Format
Analysis: I’m
shocked that paperback is my most-read format. I don’t think that’s ever
happened before. I usually buy hardcover books because they last longer. I have
way too many paperbacks that are held together with glue and rubber bands, so I
avoid buying paperbacks whenever I can. I guess that wasn’t true last year. No
idea why. I also read more E-books in 2020 than ever before. I know the reason
for that! I downloaded free classics from Project Gutenberg.
Publisher
Analysis: Penguin Random House is still my favorite
publisher. I still have no idea why. Am I drawn to their books? Do they
just publish a ton of stuff? Are they better at promoting their products than
other publishers? Are their books easier to find? It’s a mystery. Even though I
like Penguin Random House, I’m not thrilled that they bought Simon & Schuster
in 2020 and continued to expand their publishing monopoly. Please support small
presses! We need them.
Source
Analysis: This year, I added a category for baby Brooklyn’s books. That’s because
I have no idea where Brooklyn’s stuff comes from. She has a mom and a bunch of
grandparents and great grandparents. Toddler stuff just appears in my living room. It’s
a curse. We don’t have space for stuff! Anyway, like always, I got most of my
own books from the library and from trading at the used bookstore. I also won
some giveaways and was lucky enough to get books for Christmas. In 2020, I
added 75 books to my TBR shelf and spent $206.41 on books. That means I spent
approximately $2.75 per book.
The Diversity Stuff
Diversity?
 |
| This graph only tracks the presence of diverse casts of characters. It does not track if those characters are portrayed accurately. |
Analysis: Every year, it gets easier to find books that meet my definition of “Diverse.” Unfortunately, I did a terrible job of reading them in 2020. I blame baby Brooklyn. Her books are skewing my numbers. Most toddler board books seem to be written by white women and have animals or inanimate objects as characters. If anyone has board book recommendations, we obviously need them. We need to read some books about humans.
Here’s
how a book ends up in the “Yes” category:
It’s #OwnVoices
And/Or
It’s a work in translation
And/Or
It features a point-of-view character who
is a member of a minority community
And/Or
It discusses issues that disproportionately
impact minority communities
Author Birth Continent
Analysis: Every year I say I'm going to fix this, and every year I don't. Why is
it so hard for me to read books by people who aren't from North America? I need
to try harder to find good translated books. I think that's the problem. I'm too lazy to do the research.
Author Gender
 |
| "Multiple" = books by more than 1 author. |
Analysis: This happens every year. I tend to read books by female authors who are writing about female characters. Probably because I’m a woman. Books about women’s issues are more appealing to me because they’re relevant to my life.
Did This Blog Actually Grow In 2020?
Blogs
sometimes grow so slowly that it seems like they’re not growing at all. Here’s
how mine grew in 2020. Social media was stressful last year. Between the
pandemic and the US election, I couldn’t handle it. For months at a time, I abandoned
all my accounts except for Pinterest. Hopefully that will change in 2021.
Twitter:
Gained 105 followers
Goodreads:
Gained 54 followers
Bloglovin’:
Gained 239 followers
Instagram:
Gained 27 followers
Pinterest:
Gained 1,782 followers
The
blog was viewed 178,424 times in 2020. That’s approximately 488 pageviews per
day. Almost all of the blog’s traffic comes from Pinterest (93.89%).
The 2020 Posts You Clicked The Most
- Top Ten Tuesday: Unforgettable Books
- Top Ten Tuesday: Book Series That Should Be TV Series
- Top Ten Tuesday: Upcoming Young Adult Book Releases
- Can’t Wait Wednesday: More March 2020 Book Releases
- Top Ten Tuesday: Upcoming Adult Book Releases
- Discussion: Best Crime Novels For Adults
- Discussion: What I Learned From Reading 200+ “Best Books Of 2019” Lists
- Top Ten Tuesday: Award Winning Books That Are Worth Reading
- Coronavirus Is Hurting The Book Community. Here’s How To Help.
You reached the end! Congratulations!
Do
you keep book spreadsheets or track your reading?
I do not track my reading so fully, but I kind of love reading other people's posts. I find them fascinating. I'd like to read more translated books - definitely need to do better about that. I love finding books from Europa Editions - you can go by Country: https://www.europaeditions.com/
ReplyDelete-Lauren
www.shootingstarsmag.net
Wow, your 2020 summary makes mine pale in comparison! But I do commend you trying to diversify your reading between (between the sex and location of authors).
ReplyDeletehttps://fromarockyhillside.com
Interesting! I would say the majority of authors I read are female. I think you did a good job incorporating children's and adult books!
ReplyDeleteLol I'm the type of book nerd who loves this time of year for these stats, lol!
ReplyDeletePenguin Random House are among my fav publishers too. I keep separating them when recording the books I buy and read and identify them as either Penguin or Random House. Just being weird, lol.
I love this! I'm working on transferring my spreadsheet into a post at the moment too. I really need to get you to teach me your pinterest ways!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to having a fabulous year! I love how you made pie graphs for all the important information. Perhaps I will steal this idea for next year.
ReplyDeleteYou had a great year, so many books! I like all your graphs -- really great. I do track my reading but I haven't graphed them up. I need to check out what Project Gutenberg is. Don't know. Hope you have a great 2021!
ReplyDeleteI love these posts! I'm always interested in whatother people are getting through and what their stats are. I love doing the pie charts. I didn't do it in December due to it being a weird reading year but I might do a Covid comparison post with pie charts from last year and 2019. That might be fun!
ReplyDeleteI don't buy physical books, but you really got some bang for your buck there. Nice. I get what you are saying about waitlists for new releases at the library. It's one the things that keeps me requesting eGalleys. I find most of the books I read are written by women as well, but they seem to be dominating in YA and romance, my most read categories. You built quite a following on Pinterest. That's amazing!
ReplyDeleteI love your stats! I also produce pie charts at the end of every year, but I tend to chart slightly different things...
ReplyDeleteYou read a very good balance of YA and adult to me. Not dar from your goal of 50/50 at all.
ReplyDeleteThis is so satisfying. I love a good pie chart.
ReplyDeleteI LOVEEEEE these charts!!!! Thank you for sharing!! :) Congratulations on the following growth! Those numbers are amazing!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great reading year! I love seeing people's graphs and charts as relates to reading.
ReplyDeleteI am a math geek and I love seeing all the colorful pie charts (I also love pie much more than cake). I also can now DNF a book because so many books, so little time to waste on one that doesn't work for me. I also do not rate books I never finish--just because I didn't like the book, doesn't mean someone else won't love it.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first year where less than 80% of my books were by white American women. I was so proud! Still mostly American women, but not quiiiiite as white. You do so much better than I about the social media tracking and building your presence. I think I still have like 3 followers on bloglovin'. I think it's awesome that Brooklyn is having such an effect on your reading life. Reading aloud to my kids was right up there with Christmas in terms of magical elements of parenthood.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting! Nice statistics.
ReplyDeleteYeay for mostly 4 star books. That is always a good thing. I also read more women. Though that has been growing for years. When it was younger, men were just more easy to get (especially in translation as I'm Dutch) but that has gotten so much better. And I'm more aware of the gender of the author.
ReplyDelete