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Or, in which I blather on endlessly about the books I read this year. Seriously, I like looking at my stats and putting out some genre favorites that might not have made it into my top ten list.
The Stats
I set my GoodReads goal at 75 books for the year but I finished up with 86. Okay, I haven’t finished #86 yet and it’s 6:47 pm on New Year’s Eve, but I’m over halfway through so I’m going to count it for 2015.
I listened to 30 audiobooks, up from 25 last year.
I read 13 books on my nook, less than in 2014. I mostly read my nook at the gym or on vacation. If I had to guess, I’d say the decrease is from spending less time on the treadmill and more time in groupexercise classes.
I read 9 middle grade and 8 young adult novels. The YA number is lower. I’m not sure what that’s about. I definitely still enjoy reading YA.
My longest book was Hawaii by James Michener at 1136 pages. Technically, this broke between 2014 and 2015 but I need to get credit for this behemoth somewhere and I didn’t count it last year.
I read 27578 pages, up about 7000 from last year. Holy cow. I don’t know how I managed that when I increased my audio books too. I hate the way GoodReads handles audio books, by the way. I know they don’t technically have “pages” and I don’t have a suggestion for how to fix it, but it bugs me when I only get credit for 12 “pages” (i.e. parts) on a book that is 12 hours long and probably about 400 pages in print.
I read 41 books by men and 43 books by women. One was an anthology and another has the publisher listed as the author. I’m still unconsciously keeping that pretty balanced.
Categories:
The breakdown of the categories I read. I did not choose any re-reads as favorites, nor did I choose a book for more than one category. If I haven’t reviewed a book yet, I linked to a synopsis.
Audio
Read: 30
Favorite: Mississippi Jack by L. A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren
Banned/Challenged
Read: 1
Favorite: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Classics
Read: 6
Favorite: My Ántonia by Willa Cather
Contemporary Fiction
Read: 9
Favorite: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, translated by Rod Bradbury, read by Steven Crossley
Ebooks
Read: 13
Favorite: When the Moon is Low by Nadia Hashimi
Fairy Tale
Read: 3
Favorite: Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier
Fantasy
Read: 20
Favorite: Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman
Graphic Novels
Read: 5
Favorite: Habibi by Craig Thompson
Historical Fiction
Read: 11
Favorite: Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer, read by Angela Brazil and Stephen R. Thorne
Horror
Read: 6
Favorite: Those Across the River by Christopher Buehlman
Humor
Read: 5
Favorite: Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach–Maybe not everybody’s idea of a humorous book, but it cracked me up!
Middle Grade
Read: 9
Favorite: The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall, read by Susan Denaker
Mystery
Read: 7
Favorite: The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh, read by Dorothy Dillingham Blue, Shannon McManus, and Sofia Willingham
Nonfiction
Read: 11
Favorite: In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS by Hampton Sides
Romantic
Read: 6
Favorite: The Passion of the Purple Plumeria by Lauren Willig, read by Kate Reading
Science Fiction:
Read: 6
Favorite: Cress by Marissa Meyer, read by Rebecca Soler
Southern Literature
Read: 5
Favorite: All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg
Young Adult
Read: 8
Favorite: Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok, read by Grayce Wey
Reading Challenges
Southern Literature (hosted here)–8 read with a goal of 5
Nonfiction (hosted here)–11 read with a goal of 11
Books in Translation (hosted here)–5 books read with a goal of 1
Eclectic Reader–12 of 12 books read, and I reviewed them all! I usually struggle with getting all the reviews posted.
European–6 books read with a goal of 4
Banned Books–1 read with a goal of 3. I was on vacation during Banned Books Week so banned books weren’t on my radar at all as I planned my trip. Hopefully I’ll do better next year.
7 Continents, 7 Billion People, 7 Books Challenge–7 books read with a goal of 7
I’m pretty happy with those results!
See all of the books I read this year on GoodReads.
1 Comment
I'm super jealous/impressed at how well you met almost all your challenges! I only had 3 and failed miserably with all. I like how you broke things out by categories and listed your favorite – Looks like it was a great reading year!! I also loved Gulp and Winter by Marissa Meyer and read by Rebecca Soler was on my best of list as well. I think Soler does a great job with the narration. Happy reading in 2016!