2020 End of Year Book Stats & Overview

Now that we've covered the most important end of year posts with the best books lists, it's time to jump into one of my favorite posts of the year--yearly stats! I am once again using some information from the Goodreads 'Year in Review,' since it does a fairly good job of capturing some finer details (which also means that some of these, such as my average star rating and the highest rated book are unique to the Goodreads community only and not reflective of other sources), and I am also still keeping a spreadsheet of the books I read and some info about genres, author info, formats, sources, etc. If you have any end of year posts/surveys/best books lists that I haven't seen yet, please do leave them in the comments so I can come visit!

 

Previous end of year stats & overview posts: 2018, 2019

 

Much like last year, I've opted not to include most of the books I read for grad school so as to keep them separate from my pleasure reading, although I did enjoy most of what I read so perhaps I should revise that one day... Nonetheless, 160 is far beyond anything I expected to read this year! This year was busy and anxiety-inducing as hell and there were so many times where I felt I was barely getting through any books, so I'm very excited about that. It beats last year's 150, but I have no intentions to try to beat 160 next year. I also think 65,000 pages is a bit mind-boggling to consider in the grand scheme of things, especially when I then factor in the sheer number of articles I had to read for school and... I think I need to give my eyes a break.  

I am a little surprised that 112 pages was the smallest book I read this year, but then I really didn't read very many novellas so I suppose it does make sense. It's also hard to believe that it was this year that I read Silver in the Wood when it feels like ages ago because I read it in our old apartment before we moved, haha. Imaginary Friend was indeed quite chunky, and since I didn't end up getting to my usual special 1,000+ page book of the year, I suppose it can take that place. The average book length also seems pretty on par with average book lengths in general and similar to last year's (405). 

This rating is always inflated on Goodreads since I can't do half or quarter stars, and I did a lot of those this year. Still, it's fun to see!

 

This feels unsurprising, I'm almost more curious what the most popular would be if I hadn't re-read The Fellowship of the Ring.  Also, Gatekeeper was a delight and I'd highly recommend it!

In case you can't read that tiny font, that's a 4.67 average, which is pretty damn good! I'm glad this trilogy is getting the love it deserves.

Stats:
Now we can dive into some of the fun (to me, anyway) stats! As with previous years, I'd like to apologize for some of the font/color sizes on these--Google Sheets remains my free option of use, and it's frustrating to use sometimes. I started keeping track of stats about two years ago and I've enjoyed it so much! I'm very much a mood reader and can't necessarily plan out too much of what I intend to read, so I always find these an interesting way of seeing where my moods lead me each year and if there are any big changes.

Genre

This is probably the first time that straight fantasy (48.8%) has been more than half of my reading. Speculative fiction as a whole, however, including horror (9.4%) and science fiction (6.3%) does reach over the halfway mark, though, which makes more sense. I am pleased to see that I managed to read more historical fiction (15.6%) this year, which was something I wanted to do since I am a big fan of historical fiction in general. This was partly due to the fact that when my anxiety was skyrocketing when my husband and I were moving earlier this year historical fiction turned into my comfort read genre for the time? It was a surprise to me as well, but I ran with it. I'm glad to see more horror this year, and I'd really like to check out even more next year, as well as more sci-fi, perhaps. 

Target Audience

There aren't too many surprises on here. I enjoy a young adult book here and there, but overall I tend to read mostly adult (80%) books. I do still love my middle grade, though, and I'd almost prefer to read more middle grade (6.3%) than young adult (13.8%) these days! I mainly read middle grade at night, which is why that percentage tends to stay low. I've really been struggling with young adult fantasy these past two years or so, and I keep finding myself disappointed more often than not, so I'm not sure if it's just me or something else. 

Format

This is such a close mix this year of formats! I have concluded that paperback (31.9%) is probably the most comfortable to read, and that makes up about half total (including Physical ARCs). I am not a huge fan of reading on my Kindle (eARCs, 20%), but since that is how I am able to read NetGalley books and the like, I am happy to do so! Those also tend to the be the only books I read on my Kindle, though I do occasionally snatch up some Kindle deals now and then.

Book Source

This was one of the stats that I was most interested to see this year since all my local libraries were closed for eight (!) months year due to COVID. It was rough, but it also made me thankful for how many books I've accumulated over the years and was able to dip into (purchased category)--and in the end, I'm really glad I've had the opportunity to focus on the books I already owned, plus some I bought to try to support authors this year. It also gave me an opportunity to read a lot of older ARCs that I, uh, hadn't gotten around to... so that's why the publisher category is a bit bigger, since publishers weren't sending out as many physical ARCs this year. 

Page Count

This feels pretty on par with the fact that most books (especially in fantasy) tend to average 300-500 pages (63.7% together). That tiny sliver there is 900+, in which I only read one book this year. I don't have too much to say about this chart because it feels very reasonable and a bit predictable, haha. Is it just me, or do fantasy books these days often seem bigger in general or is it just me??

Tell me about your year in books! Do you keep track of information for stats like this? (If you do and you made a post that I haven't seen, leave me a link because I love looking at them! Or if you have any 'end of year' sort of post, link that also so I can check it out!)

2018 End of Year Book Stats & Overview

One of my favorite things about the new year is getting to look at an overview of all the books I read during the previous year! In all honesty, I'm a really weird person who tends to get anxious at the start of a new year. While most people find the new fresh start and blank slate exhilarating and motivating, I tend to find it terrifying because it's just wide open...nothing? It's hard to explain, but what can I say, anxiety is fun. But we're not here to talk about anxiety--we're here to talk about books!

As usual, I'm starting off with some of the fun facts given to us by the wonderful Year in Books section from Goodreads. I also usually do The Perpetual Page-Turner's End of Year Survey, but this year I decided to keep track of some of the stats on the books I read and I'm instead going to share some of that info because I love stats and charts and all that fun stuff. I always see people keeping track of information on the books they read throughout the year and always mean to do it myself, so I'm glad I finally decided to just do it and answer some pressing questions I've had. For instance, where do I actually get most of the books I read? How much more fantasy do I actually read over other genres? What format of books do I read the most of? Some of my results were surprising, but most were pretty much what I expected.

This was unexpected! I always set my Goodreads goal around 60 so that it's still something to strive for, but also something that I know I can somewhat easily do so as not to pressure myself. The minute reading becomes a chore is the minute I realize I have to re-prioritize things. I did some math and figured out this ends up at an average of 138 pages a day, which is bonkers and I'm not sure how that happens. I'm pleased with 132 books! If for any reason you want to see all of those books, you can find all the books I read here.

Seems about right! Jerusalem was definitely the biggest challenge of the year. I always try to tackle one hugely intimidating book each year, and this year it was Jerusalem. It was well worth the read, though!

Yeah, The Odyssey is just a little popular, so that doesn't surprise me. That is also a very small amount of people who have read Hollywood Hostage. My average rating seems way too high, but then Goodreads doesn't account for half and quarter ratings and I tend to round those up on Goodreads, so I'm guessing that's what happened here. I did have a pretty good reading year overall, though, so there's that.

Stats:
And now let's dive into some stats! I'd like to apologize in advance for how small some of the charts ended up being. I've been battling with Blogger for far too long now with formatting to get things how I want them, so this is just where we're at. :/

Genre

In the biggest shocker of the year, I read more fantasy (56.8%) than anything else! I know, I know, stop clutching your pearls, it was a shock to all of us. Despite that, I do like that I read in quite a few different genres, though I wish I had more time to read even more from different genres. I was actually surprised at how little historical fiction (6.1%) I read this past year because that's one of my favorite genres. I think I've just gotten so enmeshed in fantasy book worlds and somehow find it easier to obtain fantasy ARCs and copies from my library, so I end up reading those more. I think I'll try to focus on some historical fiction next year and try to include more. My sci-fi (9.1%) is definitely up, though.

Target Audience

This is pretty much what I expected. I read mostly adult (69.7%), but I do still enjoy some good YA (22.7%) here and there, though when it comes to YA I mainly read fantasy. Contemporary YA is usually not my thing (with a few exceptions). Middle grade is what I usually read at night before bed so 7% seems about right. I'm not sure how weird this is, but I have super vivid dreams every night that I tend to remember decently well in the morning when I wake up (or that wake me up in terror in the middle of the night), so I've learned not to read things that are too heavy and dark at night (which is, ironically, usually the type of book I love)--and that's where middle grade fantasy fits in! I've grown to love so many MG books and I totally recommend people to some out if they have a chance.

Format

So this category was one I was most interested to see the results of. I decided to differentiate between Ebook ARCs (23.5%) and physical ARCs (15.2%) for my own personal information since I tend to read ebooks on the go or when I'm eating/walking/etc., so I though it was interesting to see how many I've read throughout the year while doing those things. That 1% ebook category is proof and justification of why I no longer purchase ebooks. I read ebooks no problem, but almost all of my ebooks are now ARCs from NetGalley or from authors as review requests, so I no longer tend to spend money on books that I don't physically own. I might still buy things here and there, especially if it's ebook-only, but for the most part I don't.

Book Source

Another area that I was most interested in was the places I get the books I read from! I was surprised by the publisher (36.4%) and review request percentage (12.1%--by review requests, I mean books that authors have emailed me about to review their book and subsequently sent me a copy), as hey were definitely higher than I expected. This also shows me that I really need to start reading more of the books I actually own already and that you don't have to buy a lot of books to be a reader necessarily. I also love using my library (12.1%), so I'm surprised that percentage is lower. 

Page Count

The way this chart turned out is super annoying to my eyes, but I can't seem to get it do what I want, but that's beside the point. I feel like this is fairly regular in regards to book length, as 300-500 pages seems to be the norm in most, especially for fantasy which tends to be longer.

Tell me about your year in books! Do you keep track of information for stats like this? (If you do and you made a post that I haven't seen, leave me a link because I love looking at them!)

2016 End of Year Survey

Well, fellow book lovers, the year is finally coming to a close, and with that comes The Perpetual Page-Turner's annual End of Year Survey, which I have decided to join this year. I particularly love how many different questions are present in this survey, though I would like to warn you that I won't be doing all of the questions because, well, some I didn't have a strong answer for. Also, I will try not to have too many repetitious answers, but... I'm sorry if I repeat some titles a lot.

Number Of Books I Read: 121

Number of Re-Reads: 0 (I'm not a huge re-reader, but this year apparently I didn't do it at all...)

Genre I Read The Most From: Fantasy

1. Best Book You Read In 2016?

Picking only one book is a huge 'nope, impossible' for me, so I'm just going to list a few of the best ones I read this year...

The Girl With Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee (Review)

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber (Review)

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (Review)

Stoner by John Williams

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff (Review)
Scythe by Neal Shusterman (Review)

Heartless by Marissa Meyer (Review)

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t? 

• Wildwood by Colin Meloy — I thought this would be another wonderful middle grade fantasy read, but unfortunately all it seemed to do was drag on and on with a plot that just didn't grab me.

 3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?  

• Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey — Surprising in a fantastic way!
• Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard — Another good surprise.

 4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

• Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo — Mainly because I got my mom to read this duology. I feel accomplished.

 5. Best series you started in 2016? Best Sequel of 2016? Best Series Ender of 2016?

• Best series started: Shades of Magic by V. E. Schwab                             
                               Nevernight by Jay Kristoff
• Best Sequel: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas                    
                     Crooked Kingdom by Leight Bardugo
• Best Ender: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2016?

• Michel Faber. Such a gorgeous writer, I can't get enough of his work.

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

• And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich — Horror is not something I generally read much of, so I was very pleaed with this one!
• Illuminae by Jay Kristoff — I'm not huge on space settings, but this was amazing!

 8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

•  A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas, and
• Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

9. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2016?

Ithaca by Patrick Dillon (Review)

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (Review)

Heartless by Marissa Meyer 

The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart (Review)

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab (Review)

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

10. Most memorable character of 2016?

• Lila Bard from A Gathering of Shadows by V. E. Schwab
• Mary Boleyn from The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
• Rhysand from A Court of Mist and Fury Sarah J. Maas
• Kaz/Jesper from Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

11. Most beautifully written book read in 2016?

• The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
• Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
• Stoner by John Williams
• Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

12. Most Thought-Provoking Book of 2016?

• Scythe by Neal Shusterman

 13. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2016 to finally read? 

• Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
• The Kiss of Deception by Mary Pearson
• Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

 14. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2016?
How do I pick just one!? This year I actually started marking and typing up some of my favorite quotes from books, so this question actually opens a whole enormous slew of quotes. To save you the time, I decided to go with only two from one particularly lovely book called The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee:

“In this world, some time long ago, far past anyone’s remembering, women as a kind had something so terrible, so awful, so fantastically cruel that they and their daughters and their daughters’ daughters were forever beyond forgiveness until the end of time - unforgiven, distrusted, enslaved, made to suffer for the least offenses committed against any man. What was remembered were the terms of our survival as a class: We were to be docile, beautiful, uncomplaining, pure, and failing that, at the least useful. In return, we might be allowed something like a long life. But if we were not any of these things, by a man’s reckoning, or if perchance we violated their sense of that pact, we would have no protection whatsoever and were to be treated worse than any wild dog or lame horse” (538).

“It was such a hard thing, this virtue, it seemed to me. Keeping it was like having to grip the knife by the blade and defend yourself with the hilt.  Ever since I’d been old enough to know about Virtue in a woman, it had seemed like a bull’s-eye painted on my head in rouge. I was sure, as I was led away, I would be better off without it. It was better to be done with it and be gone” (99).

15. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2016?

• Shortest -  Seven Brief lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli, 96 pages
• Longest - War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, 1273 pages

16. Book That Shocked You The Most

•   Consequence by Eric Fair

17. Favorite Book You Read in 2016 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

• Haruki Murakami: Dance Dance Dance and Colorless Tsukuru and his Years of Pilgrimage (I am a huge Murakami fan)

18. Best Book You Read In 2016 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:

• Kiss of Deception by Mary Pearson — So many book blogging people everywhere encouraged this one, I had to give it a shot!

19. Best 2016 debut you read?

• A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess
• The Crown's Game by Evelyn Skye
• The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes by Wade Albert White

20. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

• Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
•  The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente
• Lord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmel
• The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski

21. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

• Heartless by Marissa Meyer
• The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes by Wade Albert White

22. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2016?

• Pit Bull by Bronwen Dickey — This might seem an odd choice, but reading about how many animals are wrongly treated and stereotyped tugged at my heart so much while reading this book. 

23. Hidden Gem of the Year?

• Kings or Pawns by J. J. Sherwood!

24. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

• The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee
• Heartless by Marissa Meyer
• Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

25. Most Unique Book You Read In 2016?

• Under  the Skin by Michel Faber

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2015 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2017?

• Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erickson (The Malazan Book of the Fallen #1)

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2017 (non-debut)?

• A Conjuring of Light by V. E Schwab
•  Nevernight #2 by Jay Kristoff
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
• The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova
• Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
• Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

3. 2017 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

• City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

4. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2017?
I would personally like to be a bit more active and schedule a much wider variety of posts, ranging from lists, recommendations, discussions, and much more!

5. A 2017 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone:

• Gilded Cage Vic James

See any books you liked or wanted to read? What does your bookish year of 2016 look like?

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