Jan 1, 2014

2013 book stats

The numbers can be deceiving. I had an idea that once again, I've not been reading as much as I used to (it's hard to find time anymore) so I was pretty pleased when my initial count of books came up to a hundred and ninety one! But then I realized that's the number of titles I blogged about. Many of those books I'd read years before (and was just remembering as best I could). They don't really count. So here's the real numbers:

Total books read- 148

Fiction- 97
Non-fiction- 51

non-fiction breakdown
Art- 2
Self-help, Parenting- 3
Gardening- 4
J Non-fiction- 4
Memoirs- 6
Nature- 6
Animals- 30 (of those, 20 on fishes!)
Other- 2

fiction breakdown
YA- 1
Historical Fiction- 3
Fantasy- 8
J Fiction- 9
Picture books- 14
Animals in Fic- 26
Baby books- 39

formats
Short stories- 1
Graphic novels- 15

sources
Owned- 58
Library- 87
Review copies- 3

other numbers
Abandoned books- 9
Re-reads- 2

Well, that's not quite what I expected, when I began this tallying exercise. I had the impression I was reading more non-fiction this year, but perhaps that's just lately. On the other hand, the beginning of the year was heavy with posts on children's books, and I read far more of those (with my kids) than I ever write about. So that skews the numbers somewhat. They never add up perfect, because I inadvertently stick some books in one or more categories. I'm glad that I've continued to read more graphic novels, and have gotten back into some more fun stuff again (fantasy).

I think it's funny that I felt I hadn't read as much as I used to, but when I look at the totals, it's very similar to last year. I guess that just means I never read as much as I want to!

Places I visited via the books: Sweeden, Africa (I don't recall which countries exactly), New Zealand, England, Japan, Ireland, Alaska, Scotland

Notable books from my year of reading: by far the funnest one was Rosy is My Relative. Made me laugh so much. One of my favorite non-fiction books was Garden Anywhere, I just loved the spirit of it. In terms of an excellent read, very well-written and rich in character, the best book has to be The Loon Feather. And two books that really caught my notice, made me sit up straight with astonished recognition and indignation, were The World Without Us and The Camera My Mother Gave Me. I recommend all these heartily.

Previous year's numbers: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009
Let's see what 2014 brings! Starting off with the Triple Dog Dare.

3 comments:

  1. Never enough time to read what we want, huh? Still it seems like a great reading year and I hope that 2014 is even better for you. Happy New Year!

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  2. I ran out of time to read all the books I'd wanted last year, but I cracked 100 so I can't complain too much. ;) Looks like you had a great year in books. Happy New Year!

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  3. Wow, what a great year yo had!

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