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I used to write this post on my first turn at blogging and I enjoyed taking a deep dive into my reading trends. I also like sharing favorite books from various genres that might not make it into my “Top Ten Books of the Year” post. This is always long so bear with me as I review my 2020 reading by the numbers. Links will go to either my review, my GoodReads shelves, or the Malaprop’s bookstore website (I’m an affiliate).
Edit: I just saw on Helen’s Book Blog that there are a couple of other blogs I can link to. Esther at Bite Into Books asks us to share a GoodReads: Your Year in Books meme. Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner has an End of Year Survey. I didn’t answer many of her questions since I found the survey after I’d already written my post, but I touched on enough of them that I feel comfortable linking up.
The Stats
Number
GoodReads challenge goal: 100 books
Completed: 127! Woohoo!
Format
- 39 audiobooks
- 65 e-books
- 23 physical books. Since we’re traveling with my husband’s job, the Kindle is just easier.
Age Group
- Adult: 92 books
- Young adult: 19 books
- Middle grade: 12 books
- Children: 3 books
Shortest and Longest
- Shortest: Walter the Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray, illustrated by Audrey Colman, coming in at 32 pages.
- Longest: The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty at 784 pages.
Page Count
I read 38,054 pages but considering that there’s no real way to track “page numbers” for audio books, that’s not a very representative number.
The average length of my books was 299 pages.
Author Gender
- Female authors: 73 books
- Male authors: 52 books
- Books by genderqueer authors: 1 (as stated on their GoodReads profile)
This is usually far more evenly balanced; I don’t know what happened this year.
Did Not Finish
2 books although there are one or two others I should have given up on as well.
Genres
The breakdown by rough genres. I did not choose any re-reads as favorites, nor did I choose a book for more than one category. If my favorite was in my Top Ten Books of 2020 list, I added a runner-up. If I didn’t review a book, I linked to a synopsis.
Adventure
Read: 16
Favorite: A top ten book listed elsewhere
Runner-Up: Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze by Elizabeth Enright, read by Pamela Dillman
Audiobooks
Read: 39
Favorite: Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan; read by Mark Bramhall, David de Vries, MacLeod Andrews, and Rebecca Soler; music by Corky Siegel (Top Ten Book)
Runner-Up: Viva Jacquelina! Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Over the Hills and Far Away by L. A. Meyer, read by Katherine Kellgren
Banned/Challenged
Read: 5
Favorite: Melissa (Formerly Published as George) by Alex Gino (Top Ten Book)
Runner-Up: A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illustrated by E. G. Keller
Contemporary Fiction
Read: 13
Favorite: A couple of my top ten books which show up in other genres
Runner-Up: How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry, read by Fiona Hardingham
Dystopia
Read: 4
Favorite: Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline, read by Wil Wheaton
Epistolary
Read: 3
Favorite: The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows, read by a full cast
Fairy Tale Retelling
Read: 5
Favorite: Bookish and the Beast by Ashley Poston (Top Ten Book)
Runner-Up: Wires and Nerve by Marissa Meyer, illustrated by Douglas Holgate and Stephen Gilpin
Fantasy
Read: 38
Favorite: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune (Top Ten Book)
Runner-Up: The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty
Gothic
Read: 3
Favorite: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Graphic Novels
Read: 16
Favorite: Goldie Vance Volume One by Hope Larson, illustrated by Brittney Williams (Top Ten Book)
Runner-Up: Giant Days Volume One by John Allison, illustrated by Lissa Treiman
Historical Fantasy
Read: 7
Favorite: The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden (Top Ten Book)
Runer-Up: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, read by Christian Coulson
Historical Fiction
Read: 19
Favorite: The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys (Top Ten Book)
Runner-Up: Death Cloud by Andrew Lane, read by Daniel Weyman
Historical Mystery
Read: 4
Favorite: Billy Boyle by James R. Benn
Horror
Read: 13 (Seriously. I just realized I accidentally hit lucky number 13 in the horror genre. 2020, man.)
Favorite: Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks, read by a full cast (Top Ten Book)
Runner-Up: My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Humor
Read: 7
Favorite: Highfire by Eoin Colfer
Middle Grade
Read: 12
Favorite: A top ten book that’s listed elsewhere and a couple of re-reads
Runner-Up: Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
Mystery
Read: 14
Favorite: A top ten book that’s listed elsewhere
Runner-Up: Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich
Mythology-Based
Read: 3
Favorite: Hounded by Kevin Hearne
Nonfiction
Read: 14
Favorite: Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright (Top Ten Book)
Runner-Up: The Book of Awesome: Snow Days, Bakery Air, Finding Money in Your Pocket, and Other Simple, Brilliant Things by Neil Pasricha
Paranormal
Read: 12
Favorite: Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Romantic
Read: 9
Favorite: A top ten book listed elsewhere
Runner-Up: The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, read by Carly Robins
Science Fiction
Read: 8
Favorite: The Last Astronaut by David Wellington, read by Megan Tusing
Thriller
Read: 5
Favorite: Goodnight Beautiful by Aimee Molloy (Top Ten Book)
Runner-Up: Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg
Young Adult
Read: 19
Favorite: A couple of top ten books mentioned elsewhere
Runner-Up: A Poison Dark and Drowning by Jessica Cluess, read by Fiona Hardingham
GoodReads Year in Books
See all of the books I read in 2020 by clicking on “View Books” in the box below. You can view my 2020 reading by the numbers on GoodReads as well.
8 Comments
I love epistolary novels and didn’t know that The Truth According to Us was written in that format. I have a copy on my TBR shelf and will have to get to it ASAP!
This is awesome!! Congrats on reading 127 books!!
127 books, wow!! Thanks for joining in. I hope 2021 will be great for you, personal and book-wise!
Thank you! Happy 2021!
Wow, you did a Stats analysis. That takes a lot of hard work and commitment, I think: do you track it at the end of the year or do you keep records meticulously all along? What also caught my eye is that you read a number of audiobooks. That’s awesome. Would love to know about your top 10 audiobooks of all time — so that I can pick those up, of course! 🙂
It took time to choose all my favorites but the rest of it was just copying numbers from my GoodReads Year in Review.
I’ll have to remember to do my top ten audiobooks one week when the regular Top Ten Tuesday prompt doesn’t interest me. Thanks for the idea!
I really enjoy seeing other bloggers’ reading stats at the end of the year. You have books on your favorites list that I also enjoyed so that’s fun.
Fun post! I always love looking at my bookish stats for the year. I haven’t checked yet, but somehow I feel that my gender breakdown isn’t going to be very balanced this year, either.