Here’s my year in books (with thanks to the Goodreads record keeping tool):
I read 106 books in total. According to Goodreads, that’s 31,997 pages. The longest was The Nix by Nathan Hill at 640 pages.
Of those I read, 85 were by female authors and 21 by male authors.
39 books were by Australian authors (32 female authors and 7 male authors) and the rest were from America, England, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea, Italy, and France.
I read 68 books from authors who were new to me in 2019.
Of the 106 books I read, 26 were first published in 2019 (that’s more than I normally read which is odd because I didn’t feel I was up with the latest…).
I read 29 non-fiction books (21 of which were memoirs). Quite a few made my ‘best of 2019’ list but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the reveal.
I read 35 hardbacks (the rest were e-books plus seven audios).
I listened to 28 audiobooks in total but had a hard copy of 21 of those – I guess I can’t fully commit to the audio thing, and prefer to toggle between reading and listening. The stand-out audios were Gotta Get Theroux This (I could listen to him read anything) and Markus Zuzak reading Bridge of Clay.
I read mostly contemporary literature plus memoirs, historical fiction, history, thrillers, mystery, and true crime.
Lastly, Bookish Beck has posted her bookish superlatives – I’ve pinched some of her categories and added a couple –
The Book Everybody Else Loved but I Didn’t: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
The Year’s Biggest Disappointment: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Worst Book I Read This Year: Mischling by Affinity Konar
The Downright Strangest Book I Read This Year: a tie between Bunny by Mona Awad and Vacuum in the Dark by Jen Beagin
My Best Discoveries of the Year: Eli in Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe stole my heart
The Debut Author Whose Next Work I’m Most Looking Forward to: Trent Dalton
The Book I Choose Entirely Because of the Cover: Royals by Emma Forrest
The Funniest Book I Read This Year: Gotta Get Theroux This by Louis Theroux
The Book That Made Me Cry the Most: The Bright Hour by Nina Riggs
Tomorrow I’ll post my Top Books for 2019. I know you can’t wait.
Wow, good reading Kate. I’m posting my reading highlights post on New Year’s Day – some stats, some highlights, no top picks. Your ratio of women to men is higher than mine, but my ratio of Australian to non-Australian is higher than yours.
I enjoyed this post.
Thanks Sue. As in previous years, I’l post about the books that left an impression rather than a list of my ‘top’ picks or the books I’ve recommended the most.
Will look forward to your look back on your reading year 🙂
That’s more what I do too.
Yours and my reading doesn’t cross over much – but by reading reviews I can pretend I’m keeping up – but I really must read Boy Swallows Universe. i think all that’s holding me back is not liking to be late to a party.
The audiobook of Boy Swallows Universe is very well done – keep a look out for it.
Ah, I never think to use the GoodRead stats as a way of analysing my reading.
I just like the thumbnails of all my books – I often look back on them when I need a quick reminder of what I read in a year and the covers of the books jog my memory.
I’m with you on Tayari Jones which I think I may have liked more than you but there were so many other candidates for the Women’s Prize for Fiction that I preferred to win. A good year, though.
I was certainly in the minority (my book group enjoyed it from memory). That said, I heard Jones speak and her story was very interesting.
What a great year’s reading – I must check out the Goodreads stat on my own year!
It’s handy (although suspect not entirely accurate on page numbers read – I’m a bit lazy with making sure I’m recording the correct edition of whatever I’m reading).
You’ve read some amazing books this year! I might hit 150 but I added read dates on a bunch of tiny stuff. Always makes me feel like I’m cheating. lol
Well, I guess you can’t help it if the system doesn’t distinguish between novellas and War & Peace! (although I know this is precisely why me people don’t do challenges).
I’m joining you in the elite group that didn’t care much for An American Marriage. I kept seeing it highlighted as a book that made a bold statement about American justice but for me it didn’t go anywhere near enough tackling that topic…
‘Elite’ group 😀 I like that.
What a year! I should barely make it to book number 70 if I hurry…(it was not my reading year, probably because 2018 was so absurdly good).
Fingers crossed for a return of the reading mojo in 2020 (or is it a case of needing more time?!)
It’s not looking good for the next several weeks, but I anticipate feeling better after that (hopefully). It’s mostly a time thing though, ultimately, there’s just not that dedicated hour for me to read at the end of the day.
Oh, yes, Bunny was a strange book, wasn’t it. And even more strange, it was nearly un-put-down-able. You couldn’t help but want more of it. At first I was simply admiring your presentation and marvelling at it, and then of course, just as you credited them, I recognized it as the GR tool – it is awfully helpful, isn’t it?!
I keep thinking back to Bunny – such a strange book (and not really sure who I would recommend it to!).
I like the thumbnails of the books in GR – I often look back on them when I need a quick reminder of what I read in a year and the covers of the books jog my memory.
I always forget to add in your laugh/cry categories. I’ve been a broken record about Priestdaddy this year, but that might have filled both roles for me.