Opinions of a Wolf

Every year, I wrap up the old year and start the new one here on the blog with a look back at my reading stats.  You can see my stats for the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014,and 2015 by clicking on the years.

Total books read: 59
Average books read per month: 4.92
Month most read: August with 7
Month least read: July with 3.
Longest book read: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski with 705 pages.

Fiction: 49 (83.1%)
Nonfiction: 10 (16.9%)

Series: 24 (40.7%)
Standalone: 35 (59.3%)
With my new commitment to read only things I enjoy, this reflects a lot of me reading the first book in a series and then choosing not to continue because I didn’t enjoy it quite enough, so there was more room for standalones this year.

Formats:
–print:  8 (13.6%) (Down quite a bit from last year.)
–ebook: 42 (71.2%)
–graphic novel: 0 (0%) (I’ve honestly lost most interest in graphic novels.)
–audiobook: 9 (15.3 %) (Almost the same as last year. My final audiobook of the year that I am still on is dragging, hence the slowdown.)

I’ve always read slightly more female than male authors but this is a vast majority this year, as opposed to 2015’s 57.7% female authors. I think this is a reflection of my commitments to read what interests me and stop being ashamed of it, particularly chick lit. This meant more female authors. Interestingly, my ratings of books by women show that I like them significantly better.

Ratings of Female Authors:

Ratings of Male Authors:

Not a single one of my 5 star reads was by a male author.

This went down, largely because I only accepted 6 ARCs this year. You’ll note that I still read indie books that were not ARCs. I do struggle to find indies, though, since my reading list is often influenced by other book bloggers, and I find that many of them don’t seek out indie reads quite the way I do. That means it can be harder for me to find the indie reads.

I thought glancing at this that I did poorly reading pre-2000s books but the goal I set for myself last year was for 20 to 25% of my reads to be pre-2000s, and I actually surpassed that with 27% of my total reads being pre-2000. I still felt like it was a bit low, though, so for 2017 I’ll aim for 30%. I’ll keep going up til I hit the sweet spot.

I read slightly fewer adult books this year, with more YA and also a new venture into NA. I’m happy with this distribution.

Genres:
–Scifi: 12 (20.3%)
The subgenre I read the most of in scifi was outer space (50%).
–Contemporary: 9 (15.3%)
–Fantasy: 7 (11.9%)
The subgenre I read the most of in fantasy was urban fantasy (71.4%).
–GLBTQ: 7 (11.9%)
–Chick Lit: 6 (10.2%)
–Mystery: 6 (10.2%)
The subgenre I read the most of in mystery was an even split between cozy and traditional.
–Thriller: 6 (10.2%)
–Nonfiction – self-help / psych: 4 (6.8%)
–Romance: 4 (6.8%)
–Nonfiction – history: 3 (5.1%)
–Historic Fiction: 2 (3.4%)
–Horror: 2 (3.4%)
–Nonfiction – biography: 2 (3.4%)
–Alternate history: 1 (1.7%)
–Nonfiction – lifestyle: 1 (1.7%)
–Nonfiction – memoir: 1 (1.7%)

My top two genres are scifi and contemporary, followed by a tie between fantasy and GLBTQ lit for third place.

A marked improvement over last year with 4% more 5 star reads. The rest of the star ratings remained similar distributions to before, but I generally felt a larger enjoyment of my reading. I think more 5 star reads helped with that.

General Thoughts on the Stats

You can see my new focus on reading what I enjoy rather than making reading a chore most reflected in the genres I read, the number of ARCs read, and surprisingly in the gender of the author. I did not set any intentions on what gender of author to read and yet seeking out books I was fairly certain I would enjoy led me to more women authors. I think that’s interesting.

I was also surprised by the strong presence of contemporary fiction this year. I didn’t used to perceive of myself as someone who found contemporary lit to be escapist, but apparently it works for me now. While I still have a dominant showing in scifi and fantasy (32%) this is far down from the 50% last year. This shows that venturing into new or returning to old well-loved genres left less room for scifi and fantasy but I still visited them and enjoyed it.

I am quite happy with how my stats look this year. The only thing sticking out to me as a goal for 2017 is the format of books. I am out of room on my print book shelf at home, and I can see why with only 8 of my reads being in print. While I prefer reading on my kindle paperwhite (for convenience), there are still books you can only get in print. These are what are taking up my shelves. I’d like to read 1 a month to continue to allow myself to pick up the not available digitally books as I see them.

I hope you all had a good reading year and found my reviews helpful in your pursuit of good books.  Sending best wishes for everyone’s 2017!

Every year, I wrap up the old year and start the new one here on the blog with a look back at my reading stats.  You can see my stats for the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 by clicking on the years.

Total books read: 52
Average books read per month: 4.33
Month most read: July with 7
Month least read: September with 2. This is no big surprise, since that’s the month I got married!
Longest book read: The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson with 763 pages

Fiction: 46 (88.5%)
Nonfiction: 6 (11.5%) (I read slightly less nonfiction this year.)

Series: 26 (50%)
Standalone: 26 (50%)
(I’m fascinated that this wound up exactly 50/50!)

Formats:
–print:  13 (25%) (Almost the same as last year.)
–ebook: 27 (51.9%)
–graphic novel: 2 (3.8%) (I successfully read 2 of the graphic novels I already own. I believe I have 2 left.)
–audiobook: 10 (19.2%)

New Categories
I decided to track a few new categories this year.  The author’s gender, whether the book is indie or traditional, the publication year of the book, and the target age-range.  Snazzy graphs for all of these!

I read more female than male authors.  This isn’t a surprise, since I actively seek out scifi and fantasy by female authors.

You will definitely hear about some indie books if you follow this book blog! 😉 Note that I only accepted 6 ARCs to read this year, so that means I read 7 indie books I sought out myself.

I mostly read books from the 2000s. I did solidly touch upon the 1970s and 1980s.  I’d like to read a bit more from older books next year.  Maybe up to more like 20% to 25% of my total.

I mostly read adult books.

Genres:
–Scifi: 14 (26.9%)
The subgenre I read the most of in scifi was dystopian (28.6%).
–Fantasy: 13 (25%)
The subgenre I read the most of in fantasy was urban fantasy (46.2%)
–Historic Fiction: 5
–Horror: 5
–Contemporary: 4
–Nonfiction history: 4
–Romance: 4
–GLBTQ: 3
–Mystery: 3
–Nonfiction science: 3
–Chick lit: 2
–Alternate history: 1
–Erotica: 1
–Nonfiction cookbook: 1
–Nonfiction self-help / psych: 1

Number of stars:
–5 star reads: 3 (6%)
–4 star reads: 26 (50%)
–3 star reads: 20 (38%)
–2 star reads: 3 (6%)
–1 star reads: 0 (0%)

This was a slower reading year than last year, but given everything that happened (my wedding and the loss of my father), I’m happy I was able to make my goal of one book a week.  Honestly, next year I intend to keep the same goal and focus my energy on writing more. I think a book a week is a good amount for a writer to read.

My new stats I tracked this year show with hard data what I already know.  I mostly read adult books and read more female than male authors, although I do still read a strong minority of male authors.  I also read a strong minority of indie books.  I’m interested to see how this changes with time, and with some of my new reading goals, which are such a big deal I’m going to be making a whole separate post about them.

I’m disappointed I only had three 5 star reads this year.  Where were the heart-gripping life-changing books?

The other thing of note is that half of my reads were scifi or fantasy.  This blog is half scifi/fantasy and half eclectic, lol.  I noticed throughout the year I wasn’t wanting to read thrillers, but I didn’t realize I’d read none.  I’ve definitely changed from a thriller reader to a mystery reader.

Normally I would talk a bit more about my future goals, but as I mentioned earlier, those are significant enough this year that they deserve their own future post. So keep an eye out for that!

I hope you all had a good reading year and found my reviews helpful in your pursuit of good books.  Sending best wishes for everyone’s 2016!