pagesofjulia

It’s time for the annual year-in-review, folks. (You can view past years here.) And don’t miss the best-of list I published the other day!

In 2023, I read 99 books–exactly the same as in 2022! Weird.

Of those I read this year:

• 75% were fiction. (Last year, 80% fiction, so that’s staying pretty steady.)
• 70% were written by female authors (80% last year).
• Of the fiction I read, 23% were contemporary novels, 21% were fantasy/speculative/sci fi, 14% were children’s/YA and another 14% mystery, 11% were historical, and in the single digits were a smattering of others including horror, humor, literary fiction, short stories, thrillers psychological and otherwise, and romance. (Last year, the largest categories were that nebulous ‘contemporary’ [38%], fantasy/speculative/sci fi [27%], historical [15%]. The remainder were small numbers of children’s/YA, fairy tale retellings and mythology, horror, mystery, thrillers, and short stories.)
• I “read” 4 audiobooks, up from just 2 last year. I took one pretty mammoth road trip, but the audiobooks I took on were long.
• This year 48% of my reading was for pleasure (last year’s 60%), and the rest were for paid reviews (minus one or two reviews I did for free). This reflects a change when I stopped teaching and made book reviewing a bigger part of my paid work.
• Nearly half, or 49%, of my reading were books sent to me for review. The other half were mostly purchased (38%), with the balance being gifts or loans or library books. (Last year I purchased 56% of the books I read and 40% were sent to me for review; just a few were received as gifts.)
• New this year, I tracked who recommended or demanded that I read a book. Liz was the big winner, accounting for 14% of my total reading, which is nearly a third of those I chose (not for review)! My parents were both in there, as well as my favorite soon-to-be-12-year-old.
• I reread 1 book this year (last year, 2).
• 28% of this year’s reads were e-books (last year, 21%). Again, that rise reflects an increase in paid reviews; I read as few e-books as possible by choice.
• The books I read were written by white authors at the rate of 72%. Another 15% were by Black authors, with 12% marked as ‘other.’* Last year, 33% were by Black authors, and 58% by white authors. I did not realize I had done such a lesser job this year of seeking out diversity. That’s something to work on.
• Just like last year, 11% of the books I read were authored by people who publicly identify as queer.*

*Those last two stats offer some obvious challenges when I categorize, but I do my best.

Wishing us all great reads in 2024.

Happy New Year!

Filed under: musings | Tagged: lists, year in review |