12.28.2010

A Year in Reading: 2010



As far as reading years go, 2010 was a great one for me. I discovered many new authors and began regularly reviewing every book I read. I wanted to break down my reading statistically to learn about my reading trends: how many authors or color did I read? How many "new to me" authors did I read? How many books did I read that are older than I am? Below are the results. To read about specific titles, check out my post 2010: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Books read in 2010:
52

Pages read in 2010:
16,217

Percentage of male authors read:
52%

Percentage of authors of color read:
19%

Percentage of US authors read:
62%

Percentage of European authors read:
21%

Percentage of South American authors read:
4.7% (remaining 12.3 percent are Canadian - mostly Atwood - and Asian Pacific)

Percentage of non-fiction read:
14%

Percentage of "new to me" authors:
71%

Percentage of classics read (not including modern classics):
17%

Percentage of books read that are older than me (published prior to 1985):
31%

After reviewing these stats, I have created a few goals for 2011. I am going to try to read more worldly authors, so my percentage of US authors read is less than 62%. I would also like to read more authors of color and more classics (both modern and old school), which is kind of perfect since I am participating in the classics challenge. I should also try to bump my non-fiction up to at least 20%.

Image via weheartit.

18 comments:

  1. Great way to break down your list! 52 books is great (one per week, according to Lewis Buzbee, from age 5 to 80 is 3900 books in a lifetime).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kerry, Well I most definitely didn't read 52 books a year from age 5, but maybe I can keep up the pace from here on out!

    ReplyDelete
  3. i like the way you broke this down. i'm too lazy to try doing statistics on my year of reading, but i counted up the books (83) and confirmed the weird trend that I read almost nothing by women. I mean, they're in there, but most of the female authors I've read this year have been YA, rereading stuff by Beverly Cleary & Judy Blume. For other female authors there's just been Edith Wharton, Kate Chopin, and a couple of "lit fic" writers. Kind of unnerving to discover this; in 2011 i want to pick up more female writers, and expand my reading outside of america/europe.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love statisic-y posts! I hadn't thought about breaking my books down by author. That would probably make me look at my reading habits in a whole new way. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Best of luck with your goals! I'm going to devote some time to working out my stats tomorrow. I wonder if I'm in for some surprises.

    ReplyDelete
  6. fatbooks, I think that trend is common unless you make a serious effort to read books written by women. I'm also hoping to expand my reading outside of Western culture.

    Katie, Thanks!

    Nymeth, I look forward to seeing your stats.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Brenna-
    It's great you got so many books in this year; the fact that you broke it down and have created new goals for yourself for 2011-- even better! I must admit that I only read something like 25 books- can you believe it?! Pathetic, I know. I know next year will change. I have a post similar to yours scheduled for this Thursday.

    I must say that I'm really looking forward to following your reading recommendations for the coming year!

    Current read: I read She's Come Undone years ago and really enjoyed it. I've read so many terrible reviews, but I still remember really enjoying the narrative.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm a sucker for books stats--how much fun to see those percentages! Maybe I'll see how my books break down too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beth, 25 books is not pathetic! You're probably much busier than I am! I look forward to your post on Thursday. About She's Come Undone - I've had it sitting on my TBR pile for awhile and with the challenges I'm participating in next year I didn't think I would get around to it. I'm hoping it's good but I have read some bad reviews.

    Melody, You should do it too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I wish I kept stats like this. I love your 2010 list. Maybe my 2011 goal should be to try to keep track of what I'm reading for the year.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Red, I basically just kept which books I read by which authors and then broke it down from there yesterday. It wasn't too hard.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love seeing the year broken into percentages. I may have to do this with my own list. It will be interesting to see exactly how many male/female/foreign, etc. authors I read.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Aivd Reader, You should do it! I had a lot of fun.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hope your goals work out well. Also, I really like that photo.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Love the stats! What an interesting way to look at what you've been reading. I may have to break down my list like this as well... because now I'm incredibly curious!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Very interesting! Wish I was as organized as you about this. Cheers to a great 2011, too!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks for visiting and following my blog, I'm now following yours back :)

    I love all these statistics posts people have been posting recently. Unfortunately I haven't been organised enough with my reading to do the same, but I'm planning on doing one of my own next year!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I love your statistics--I wonder if I can get my act together to do something similar by tomorrow! Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete