Friday, January 5, 2018

2017 Reading Stats



Welcome to my giant post of 2017 reading stats! I don’t know how interesting this will be for you, but all these graphs help me figure out what I want to change about my reading. If you’re the kind of nerd who wants more data about my reading year, check out My Favorite Books of 2017, My Year In Review Tag, and the New-To-Me Authors post. So, here we go, let’s look at all that data I spent a year obsessively collecting.






2017 Quick Facts


Total number of books I read: 113
Number of rereads: 14
Total number of pages I read: 36,642
Approximate pages read per day: 100
Number of books I gave up on: 4
Number of translations I read: 7









From Goodreads














I managed to find a book that nobody else has read! It was bad. Don't read it.






I won at Goodreads! Also, *awkward laugh* at being good at other things.










From My Spreadsheet



My spreadsheet was a nightmare in 2017. Between its glitches and my incompetence, it’s surprising we got anything done. I have a different spreadsheet this year, so hopefully everything works out better.








Analysis: You can see all my mini reading slumps. And you can tell that I read a bunch of short books in January.








Analysis: Yeah . . . I’m afraid of big books, and I can not lie.








Analysis: I swear I read in February. The graph just didn’t work for . . . reasons. #YouHadOneJob. Can you tell that readathons happened in April and October?






0 = DNF


Analysis: Most of my 5-star books were rereads. Still, I enjoyed the majority of what I read. Three stars means the book was average. Four is above average. Two is below average.








Analysis: I’m fairly happy with this. One of my goals for this blog is to review backlist books. I feel like I did that. Still, a lot of what I read was published in the last 17 years. I need to get back to reading more classics. There were times in my life where I pretty much only read classics.









Pie Charts








"Children" includes young adult books.


Analysis: This completely surprised me. I knew I was reading a lot of adult books, but I didn’t know it was this many. I have two theories on why this happened:

Theory One: After finishing my degree in children’s lit in 2016, I felt burnt out on children’s books. Adult books were more appealing to me. 
Theory Two: I didn’t read as many YA-centric blogs last year. Honestly, I got a bit sick of having my feed constantly flooded with Cassandra Clare and Sarah J. Maas books. I started using lists on Twitter and Bloglovin’, so it was easier to find posts that interest me. I ended up reading a lot more adult-fiction-focused blogs.








Analysis: I prefer hardback books because they don’t fall apart easily, but paperbacks are cheaper. I guess my wallet is winning out over my heart.








Analysis: This isn’t a surprise. I love my novels.








Analysis: Almost all of my books came from the “Big 5” publishers. That’s sad. I need to find more indie books and presses. Also, I apparently really like Penguin Random House? 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? It’s a mystery.








Analysis: This is the “Where did all my money go?” graph. I bought 13 full-price books last year. Over half of my books were acquired through trading at the used bookstore. A lot of my other books were bought used or scratch & dent. The rest were gifts or giveaway wins.









The Diversity Stuff



Note: My graphs only track the presence of diverse characters. They don't track the accuracy of the representation.


Analysis: I did it, guys! The majority of the books I read last year fit my “diversity” criteria. It took some research to find diverse books, but mission accomplished! Here’s how a book ended 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






“Other” = one author from each of these countries: Algeria, Greece, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, Vietnam.

“Multiple” = more than one author from different countries. 


Analysis: This is still a bit of a problem. I’d like to read fewer US-born authors. I read a lot of them because I live in the US, and their books are easy to get. I need to find more books by talented people who aren't from around here.





"Multiple" = more than one author, different genders.


Analysis: I guess I was loving the lady writers last year? This graph is mostly just random. I don’t pay attention to the author’s gender when I decide what to read.






Note: This graph tracks the presence of diversity, not the accuracy of representation.
Note: All the books on this graph are from the "Yes" category on the "Diversity?" graph.



Analysis: I tried to track the types of diversity I was seeing in books, but it was difficult. It’s hard to put characters (and books) into neat boxes. A lot of the books ended up in the “Multiple” category. If a character is a Muslim immigrant, I didn’t know if I should put the book in “Culture/Religion” or “Immigration/Refugee.” That’s how the “Multiple” category got so big. I guess it’s interesting to see what types of people are turning up in literature? The graph seems pretty useless, though.






That’s my massive post of 2017 statistics! I hope it was slightly interesting.























36 comments:

  1. Lots of stats!!! I love charts. Good job on completing your GR goal!

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  2. Here are some translations I liked:

    The Stranger - Albert Camus
    Dostoevsky's Last Night - Cristina Peri Rossi
    Italian Shoes - Henning Mankell
    Scandal - Shusaku Endo
    Several from the Maigret series - Georges Simenon
    Burma Chronicles - Guy Delisle
    A few from the Kurt Wallander series - Henning Mankell

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  3. This is SO COOL! I love all your stats! Graphs and charts make me super happy. Can you tell me a bit more about your spreadsheet and how you track all this information? I'd love to get more details about my own stats, but I don't know if I have the focus... O_o

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    1. My 2017 spreadsheet was a disaster. I found it by Googling, and it kept breaking all year. This year, I’m using a spreadsheet made by Sophie @ Portal in the Pages. There’s a download link and info on how to use it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDWdsiejTyg

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  4. I read mostly Indie and self published so they dominate my blog! Also I never find the time to check which publisher belongs to bigger publishing groups etc. Maybe I'll try that next December and also have a read v DNF pie chart! I do enjoy nosing at other people's booky stats!

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    1. It is annoying to figure out which company all the imprints belong to. Sometimes it’ll say in the front or back of the book, but I did have to do a lot of Googling.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  5. Good and interesting insights!

    I am interested in your Rhyolite book :). I haven't read it but have probably read more Nevada mining books than anyone in your blog feed (but I've kind of moved beyond that). I have even done a Rhyolite post in my blog:http://sagecoveredhills.blogspot.com/2010/08/rhyolite-nv-travel-tip-thursday-post.html

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    1. I got the Rhyolite book from the gift shop in Death Valley National Park. I guess it’s not a popular book? No one on Goodreads had read it.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  6. OMG this is awesome, I wish I had the patience or the skill to do this, I really want to know in numbers what I read in a year and not just in my head. So cool!

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  7. This post is honestly so pleasing to look at. I love seeing such detailed stats posts but I don't think I'd ever have the patience to do my own. Congrats on completing your reading goal, and being good at lost of other things, as well haha. You gotta love how enthusiastic the person making up that line @ goodreads must have been. Hope your 2018 will be even better. :)

    Veronika @ The Regal Critiques

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  8. I did not think it possible to find a book no one else read.
    This post is really great! And over 100 books is awesome! Plus, awesome pies!

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    1. Thanks! It was really weird to find a book that no one else has read.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  9. Excellent. I too decided it was awkward to try to track what type of diversity a book repped. I like your qualifications for "diverse reads" and might settle on something similar instead of trying to track the flavor of diversity.

    I've never paid attention to publishers; it might be interesting to track that for a year just to see if Random House really is best.

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    1. I’m tracking publishers again, so we’ll see if Random House wins at life again this year.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  10. Wow - just wow. First, that you ready 235% percent more books than I did, and b), because, what an incredible analysis of your word chomping. I could do something like this, but it would include enchiladas, college caps ordered on lids.com and January Jones movies watched by myself.

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    1. Haha, I could probably make a pie chart of all the different types of Tex-Mex food I ate in a year . . .

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  11. I love reading peoples stats at this time of year. This is such a fun post, I love all the pie charts and the different categories you chose to graph :)
    I'm keen to try something similar this year, alas my computing/technology skills are that of an old lady (actually I think even some older people are better acquainted with technology than I am haha).

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    1. Tracking is a commitment. It also took me a whole day to analyze the stats and make the pie charts.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  12. Loved the post. Impressive numbers. next year I'll have something similiar probably

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  13. I love the stats!! I'm assuming that you must use some type of formulas in your spreadsheet to track it all? I'm not at all adept at using Excel, so I'd have to manually track data like that and that's too much work for me! It's tough enough to keep track of my challenges, but I'd love to compare genres and stuff like that. It looks like you had a great year of reading!

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    1. Thank you! I don’t make my own spreadsheets. I just download them and fill them in all year. In 2018, I’m using this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDWdsiejTyg

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  14. I'm tracking my books via a spreadsheet this year and you've inspired me to add more categories so that I can make more pretty graphs! :-)

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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  15. Wow! I used a spreadsheet for the first time last year, and I wish I had thought to track some of the things you did. Well done! Hmmm, you are making me rethink my format.

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  16. Wow, you have read sooo many books! A true bookworm, congrats! )

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  17. I love these piecharts; you had a really well rounded year. And wow, you read 16 books last January. Think you can do it again?

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    1. Haha . . . no. I wanted to get ahead on my Goodreads goal last year, so I read a bunch of graphic novels and short books. This January, I’m reading regular-sized books. (Which means I’ll probably be behind on my Goodreads goal.)

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  18. I loved your charts SO much!! And I totally relate to how hard it is to figure out how to track diversity stats sometimes?! I ended up like putting one book in multiple categories and I think it really screwed up my numbers by the end.😂 But it's really interesting to know which is more prevalent in books. And I also need to read less USA authors.😂 But I feel like their books are easiest to obtain and pfft, I've got too many favourites there so I won't worry too much.

    HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT 2018 OF READING TOO!

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    1. Thanks! Tracking types of characters didn’t work very well for me. It’s too hard to put neat little labels on people!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  19. I like seeing all your stats of 2017! That's interesting it varies so much how many books you read in a year! I didn't track book length myself, but it's interesting to see how long the books you read are. And that's neat you had so many books you enjoyed this year! And you sure did great reading a lot of backlists books, I mostly read 2017 new releases, which was my goal. And those pie charts are so fun to look at. I can see how diversity is difficult to track, but it's interesting seeing that graph and the different types of diverse characters you read about and how most even fit multiple categories. Great post!

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  20. I'm SERIOUSLY impressed with your detailed stats! It was fun seeing how your reading year unfolded.

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