My year in books - 2022 statistics

As we reach the end of 2022, I thought it was time for the round up of my year in books. I’d say it was a pretty good year reading wise, as I completed a couple of challenges, read some great titles and discovered some new authors.

Statistics

Numbers wise, it was very similar to the previous two years. I hit 52 titles, which is a book a week, though I never felt I was reading at a particularly fast pace. Some books I devoured in a few days, others took me a month.

I had previously taken part in the Goodreads challenge of hitting a certain number of books a year, but I didn’t enter this time around - for the simple reason that I was choosing books based on length, which seemed silly. 16500 pages read, for what it’s worth.

Length

Some of the longer titles I read this year included ‘Pachinko’ (496) and ‘Grand hotel europe’ (560). McCartney’s Lyrics was technically the longest at 874 pages but it had lots of photographs and took me three months, but I read this whilst consuming wine and listening to each track. I was never going to rush that. Stephen King, who sure knows how to spin a yarn, was the longest at 570 pages with ‘Fairy tale’. I bought it on the day I came down with covid and it took me nicely thorough my illness, mostly on the couch. Thanks for the fever dreams Stevie.

Format

67% of my books were digital. Mostly kindle, but also a few on the libby app. I’m not one for reading books on the iPad, but titles like ‘On Bloody Sunday’ by Julianne Campbell, with maps and photographs, was perfect in that format. A perfect companion to the book was my trip to the Bloody Sunday museum in the wonderful city of Derry.

Over 60% of my titles were for netgalley, as I was reviewing them. I’ve become more careful in my choices, rather than picking anything that looks faintly interesting. It’s an approach that’s worked as I’m now up to 75% in my reading stats.

Print titles were 23% of my total. I made a conscious decision not to purchase many books this year. In fact, I spent a grand total of £63 this year, mostly on hardbacks. And they were bought using amazon vouchers.

Another conscious decision was to avoid the 99p kindle emails until I had reduced my TBR pile. More on that later.

I didn't listen to many audiobooks this year - they made up just 10% of my total. I struggled to listen to fiction, despite trying a couple of times. I’m just constantly rewinding and not getting into the flow of the story. I did enjoy ‘Fair warning’ and ‘beasts of the earth’ though.

I enjoyed podcasts more this year. Shorter episodes that I can vary and dip in and out of. I particularly enjoy ‘waking up’ with Sam Harris, talks about meditation and mindfulness. Here’s a free month if you’re interested.

Random stats

24 books by men, 28 by women. Not sure if this is because I’m the only bloke in my book club, but it wasn’t a statistic I was aware of during the year. I probably lean towards more male writers in my own reading, so it keeps me balanced.

Ireland, UK and the US were the majority of the ‘nation of origin’ of my books. I did add a few from Japan, Korea, Mexico, Australia and Canada, but it is something I should try to expand. Maybe a geography challenge might help me on this one.

Challenges

I completed the 2022 non-fiction challenge hosted by Shelleyrae over at book’dout. I didn’t find it as difficult as I thought I might, as I made sure to read one title a month. Shelleyrae was supportive throughout the year and the other participants made some great suggestions.

The whole idea was to expand my non-fiction horizons, and I certainly did this. Science is a weakness, but I did enjoy books on the brain, and medical memoirs from a brain surgeon. I enjoyed the majority of them and probably only struggled with one on geography, but that was probably my fault for picking it.

The other challenge I took part in was the mount TBR challenge. I set myself a goal of 12 books from my TBR pile, but think I only hit ten. That’s ok though, as I made a dent in my TBR pile and didn’t really add to it.

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So that’s the year in stats. I enjoyed using the book riot reading log and will be using the 2023 sheet this year. I find it much more comprehensive than Goodreads.

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Favourite books of 2022

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November 22 Round up