Every year, I obsessively track my
reading statistics. Then, at the end of the year, I use the few math skills I
possess to turn the stats into graphs. Here’s what I read in 2016 (in graph form).
Quick Overview
Number
of books read: 106 + 2
DNFs
Number
of pages read: 33,326
pages
Number
of rereads: 2 books
Approximate
pages read per day: 91
pages
Approximate
books read per month: 9 books
Oldest
book: first published in
1819
Youngest
book: first published in
2016
Infographics
Pie Charts
Book Type
 |
| "Other" = plays and poetry collections |
Book Type analysis: This isn’t surprising.
Novels are my favorite genre, so I read a lot of them. I also like short story
collections. In 2017, I’m going to focus on reading more nonfiction.
Target Audience
 |
| "Children" includes YA |
Target
Audience analysis: None
of these stats include picture books. I don’t track the picture books I read
because it feels like cheating. In 2016, I was aiming for 50% adult books and
50% YA/MG/Children’s books. I pretty much succeeded.
Author Gender
 |
| "Multiple" = books with 2 or more authors |
Author
Gender analysis: I don’t
take author gender into consideration when I decide which books to read.
Everything on this graph is random or coincidence. I don’t care about the
gender of the people who write my books.
Author Birth Country
 |
| "Multiple" = books by 2 or more authors from different countries "Other" = Vietnam, Germany, Russia, Canada, Ireland, France |
Author
Birth Country analysis: I
guess this is scientific evidence that I need to read more authors from
non-English-speaking places.
My Star Ratings
Star Ratings analysis: On Goodreads, I give 3
stars to any book that I think is “average.” Almost half of the books I read
last year were “above average” (4 or 5 stars). That’s good. It means I’m mostly
enjoying what I’m reading.
Presence of Diversity
 |
For a book to be put in the “strong” diversity
category, it must:
Be #OwnVoices
and/or
Be a work in translation
and/or
Feature a point-of-view character who
is a member of a minority community
and/or
Discuss issues that disproportionately
impact minority communities
|
Presence
of Diversity analysis: This
is the first year I tracked diversity using “strong” representation and
“weak/no” representation categories. (Note: “strong” doesn’t necessarily mean
accurate.) I don’t think I’ll ever get to 100% “strong” diverse representation because
the synopsis is still king with me. If a book sounds interesting, I’ll read it,
no matter who the main character is.
How did your 2016 reading go? Did you
meet your goals?
Love all your stats and charts/graphs!! I really need to track my reading better.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I’m tracking even more things this year, so hopefully I can stay on top of everything and remember to update my spreadsheets.
DeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I love all the graphics. I'd like to do it myself but have no clue how to even start!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Making them is a lot of work.
DeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I met my quantity goal.
ReplyDeleteI still suck at reviewing. I still suck at writing, even though I've read a lot. I feel like I should be better at it, and because I'm not, reading is a huge waste of time.
Anyway, I don't know if I should admire you or worry about you for reading The Goldfinch. Yikes.
Lol, The Goldfinch was a bit boring in the middle, but I liked it overall.
DeleteWriting and reviewing are hard. I get frustrated with them, too, because they aren’t skills that can ever be perfected. And, they’re subjective. No matter what you do, someone will hate it.
Aj @ Read All The Things!
This is really cool! I love looking at stats. They always seem to be something I get caught up in. I prefer looking at other's lol because I like to see how they differ from my own in the same blogging community.
ReplyDelete-Kayl @ Kayl's Krazy Obsession
Yeah, I love stats posts on other people’s blogs. It’s interesting to see how their reading compares to mine.
DeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I'm impressed you read so many short stories. I just rediscovered short stories because I read The Grownup by Gillian Flynn and it blew my mind. I need to find a short story collection to get lost in, I think.
ReplyDeleteAnthologies are a great way of discovering new authors. I try to read as many of them as possible.
DeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
Only 2 DNFs is VERY impressive. haha, I lost count of how many I DNF'd x)
ReplyDeleteLOL, I love our pie charts. The mustache and chick had me giggling.
Sigh, I still haven't done my stats for the year. It looks like a lot of work. :/
Thanks! If you do write a stats post, I’d love to see it. They are a ton of work, though.
DeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I am just impressed that you DNF'd only 2 books in an entire year. I get in streaks where I have a very limited tolerance for books that I can't find a reason to finish, so I don't.
ReplyDeleteYou kept track of some interesting factoids.
I need to get better about DNFing. I should have DNFed way more than two books. Life’s too short to force myself to read bad books.
DeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
Only 2 DNFs!! SO impressive!
ReplyDeleteI am also so impressed by how detailed this post is -- your pie charts are my FAVOURITE thing ever!
Unfortunately, schoolwork took over and I read a lot less books than I would've liked, which was disappointing! But, I'm hoping to do a lot more reading in 2017!
- Tyra
tyrasbookshelf.blogspot.com
Thanks! I hope you get to read more this year.
DeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
Adult = moustache. I can't argue with that logic ;)
ReplyDeleteGreat post - I'm no good at stats, so I'm always quite jealous of people who are! :)
Lol, moustaches were the most adult things I could think of . . .
DeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
Your decorated pie charts are really cute. I also really like the way you look at diversity in books. That's always kind of a struggle for me. Sometimes it's super obvious if something is or isn't countable as "diverse," but other times it's like--the author is biracial but the characters all appear to be rich white people, or this book about the Civil Rights is mostly about some white people, or okay, the character has an Asian name but that's about it.
ReplyDeleteI know, right? Tracking diversity is hard. Some books just barely fit into my “strong” category. Like, they have one chapter written from the POV of a minority character, but all the other POV characters are straight white people. That doesn’t seem very “diverse,” even though it technically fits my requirements.
DeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
I love looking at the reading stats of my blogger friends. Reading 91 pages a day on average is amazing! You read such interesting books.
ReplyDeleteGreat graphs! I'll never have 100% diversity either because I mostly just read what looks good to me without thought to much else. I do read a lot of LGBT+ books though, and I do try and find diverse books when I can because they are important, but other books are important too. I just wish books had more diverse characters, even if the MC isn't diverse. Just mix it up, authors! haha
ReplyDelete-Lauren
Thanks! I’m the same way. I try to find diverse books, but I mostly just read whatever interests me.
DeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
This is awesome! It seems that you had a pretty good year in reading! I've been trying to do pie graphs myself for my reading stats, but I can never figure out how to that. I'll try to do it this year!
ReplyDeleteWhenever I see these sorts of stats, it makes me want to track ALL THE THINGS! Love it!!
ReplyDeleteNicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
Man, you are awesome at organizing your reading life! I need to take some pointers from you!
ReplyDelete