12.27.2011

A Year in Reading: 2011


I did a little breakdown of my year in reading last year to give myself an idea of my own reading trends. I'm a little OCD when it comes to keeping track of every book I read, it's publication date and page numbers, so it's fun to tally everything up and see the results. Goodreads has made it even easier to keep stats like this so if you'd like to play along, just link up at the bottom!

I'm posting these stats assuming that I will finish the book I am reading now by December 31st. I'm quite positive I can make that happen.

Books read in 2010:
60

Challenges completed:
3 (RIP challenge, Classics Challenge and 1001 Books Challenge)

Pages read in 2010:
17,277

Percentage of male authors read:
55%

Percentage of authors of color read:
15%

Percentage of US authors read:
71%

Percentage of European authors read:
15%

Percentage of non-fiction read:
15%

Percentage of "new to me" authors:
68%

Percentage of classics read (not including modern classics):
22%

Percentage of books read that are older than me (published prior to 1985):
30%

Percentage of books read published in 2011:
8%

Last year I told myself I wanted to read more worldly authors so my US author was less than 62% (which is what it was last year). I was on a roll at the beginning of the year, but for the last four months I have basically read all US authors with the exception of two books. I managed to read more classics this year than I did last year, thanks to the classics challenge. However, I dropped the amount of the authors of color read, despite trying to read more than 19% where is where I was in 2010. I think the surge of new(er) releases I read in the second half of the year contributed to my lack of diversity. There were so many interesting books released in fall of 2011 that I couldn't help picking up a few on the best seller's list.

All in all it was a great reading year for me. I originally set a goal to read 52 books this year and when I hit that number at the end of October I decided to bump it up to 60. Not too shabby for me.

To see my list of favorite reads of 2011, click here.
Posted by B at 12:37 PM Tags:

13 comments:

  1. BethanyDecember 27, 2011 at 1:17 PM

    Ooh! This is a really interesting way of putting your year of reading into perspective. I'd love to take a look at my list and do it that way - though I'm not sure I could work out the percentages properly... I never was one for numbers.

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  2. RedDecember 27, 2011 at 1:25 PM

    I love your reading stats! And congrats on beating your original goal of 52 books for the year. I've had the same problem these last few months breaking away from US authors.

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  3. BDecember 27, 2011 at 1:47 PM

    Bethany, It's not too hard I promise!

    Red, I know they are so fun I hope you do an end of the year one as well!

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  4. AndiDecember 27, 2011 at 2:31 PM

    Lots of fun! Thanks for sharing, Brenna!

    And I can't wait to read what you think of Love Begins in Winter. It's the only Van Booy I still have yet to read.

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  5. TrishaDecember 27, 2011 at 4:06 PM

    Congrats on beating your goals for the year! I love the "older than me" stat; I may have to steal that.

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  6. (Diane) Bibliophile By the SeaDecember 27, 2011 at 6:36 PM

    WOW, you do keep detailed stats...LOL Congrats on a great year!

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  7. LBCDecember 27, 2011 at 9:42 PM

    I'm getting ready to do my stats, but I'm afraid of what I'll find. I had a really good reading year, but I don't think it was very diverse at all. Congratulations on all your great reading!

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  8. Two BibliomaniacsDecember 27, 2011 at 9:49 PM

    I love bookish stats! I hope to better utilize goodreads next year, which seems to have a much better system than I've been using... I'm going to have to check out the 1001 book challenge.

    Nice work this year!

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  9. Ana S.December 28, 2011 at 8:04 AM

    Very interesting stats! I also didn't do so well on the diversity front. Hopefully we'll both do better next year.

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  10. Melissa (Avid Reader)December 28, 2011 at 2:17 PM

    Oh, I want to figure out my stats! I got hooked on LibraryThing early on, so I don't use Googlereads. I'll have to see if they have a similar stat option.

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  11. BybeeDecember 28, 2011 at 6:36 PM

    I also love the "older than me" stat! I may readjust my own time frame breakdown to include that.
    Nice work, Bookworm!

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  12. Kerry MDecember 29, 2011 at 12:59 PM

    I love these stats! I tracked # of books read this year, and a few other statistics, but not nearly as much detail as you did. I wonder how many pages I read...

    Anyway, sounds like you had a great reading year! Here's to another good one in 2012.

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  13. Meytal RadzinskiDecember 30, 2011 at 3:38 AM

    "I think the surge of new(er) releases I read in the second half of the year contributed to my lack of diversity. There were so many interesting books released in fall of 2011 that I couldn't help picking up a few on the best seller's list." I think that's my main problem with the bestseller's lists - that there's little overlap with more diverse and international books. The standard bestseller may be interesting (and occasionally even worthwhile!), but I think they tend to be a little safer and a little less challenging than books by authors of different backgrounds or nationalities.

    Still, you've actually got very diverse and interesting statistics. Seems like you must have had a very interesting (and successful) reading year. Looking forward to what you have to tell us in 2012.

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