Welcome to my second annual year of books review! I had all intentions of doing this in 2019 as well, but oops. So 2020 was the first year I did, and now we’re in 2021. In 2021 we continued to work from home, but to stir things up a little, the husband and I decided to pack up and move to Vermont. So as you can imagine, selling and buying a house, and driving 2,300 miles does take away a lot of one’s reading time. And yet… living in hotels and airbnbs without any of my usual stuff and a TV to watch Netflix mindlessly for hours… I still read a fair amount in 2021. So let’s get to the fun part (to me): numbers!
And I did not’t finish 5 books I’ve started. For reasons of: they either offended me or they were just too boring. Those five books are not counted among any other stats in this post.
Funny how I read less books but saw a 7% page increase? I wonder if it’s because I listened to less audio books? Let’s find out. I listened to 261 hours of audio books in 2021 (down 27% from 2020), the equivalent to 8,548 pages. So this is why there is a discrepancy. I read a lot more books (eBooks and hard copies) than I listened to books this year. Probably because I don’t have an audible membership anymore, and I did listen to quite a few more podcasts this year than I did the year before.
For this stat I do need to some clarifying: this is not the actual amount I spent in 2021 in books, that’s just the amount I spent on the books I’ve read in 2021. Doesn’t make sense? Okay, further clarification. I buy books every year and I don’t necessarily read them that same year (it’s why my to-be-read pile is what it is–I’ll talk about it later). For this stat, I am mostly comparing how many of the books I read that year cost me versus what they would have cost if I had personally bought all of them at Amazon prices. But I also read a lot of books from the library ($0 dollars) and I also get books as gifts or trade with friends. So if I HAD bought every single book I read this year, at Amazon prices, I would have spent $1,295 dollars on books—that’s almost three times the cost I actually spent. Libraries are the BEST.
After those interesting numbers, the next thing I’m going to look at is how the books I’ve read compare to each other. So it’s time for… graphics!
Yes, as this graph shows, I do prefer reading eBooks. I LOVE that I can adjust the font size to suit my end-of-day tired eyes, or read in something that is super light I don’t tire my hands and neck. I also love that I can always have a book at my fingertips with phone apps. You will never find me upset about waiting anywhere, because waiting means I’ll be reading a book. Also, 100% of the books I borrow from the library are digital: eBooks and audio books.
I’ve slowly across time been reading more non fiction. In 2020, 26 out of my 136 books read were non fiction. This year, I read pretty much the same amount of non fiction, which means my fiction reading is the one to decrease! I used to read exclusively fiction, so it’s been interesting to see how my interests change and evolve every year. I read so many different kind of books now, and it is intentional.
Earlier, when I talked about how much I spend on books a year, here’s another graphic that can shed some light on it as well. Out of all the books I’ve read, 58 were either library books or borrowed (granted, one was borrowed, so 57 were from the library!), and 62 I own. But out of the 62, 14 were gifts. Another conclusion comparing this graphic to the money graphic earlier: I buy books on sale as much as possible. That’s true mostly for eBooks though. Physical books I’ve been buying full price from indie bookstores, usually at a steeper cost than Amazon’s. It’s okay, it’s still money well spent.
I’ve read books fitting within 47 different genres this year. This is by no means ALL the genres there are out there, there’s plenty. But it’s a pretty good mix. Romance and Fantasy are the top two, and I am not shocked as they are my favorites. I don’t read a lot of Fantasy Romance though (like A Court of Thorns and Roses style of book) because I just haven’t enjoyed the few of them I’ve read—nothing wrong with them, just not my cup of tea. A couple of other things to note from this list: the math might add up to 1more than 120 because a few books will fit within more than one category. For example, Romance are usually split between Contemporary or Historical. Some of the History books I’ve read were also about Politics or Science. And so on.
And last, but not least… Let’s address my ever increasing piles of books to read, the famous TBR (to-be-read). One of my 2021 goals was to read 50% of my TBR (as it stood on January 1st). That meant my goal was roughly 50 and a half books. I managed to read 55 of them. But… I also added 46 new ones to it, virtually canceling any progress towards owning less books. In 2022, I am upping my goal to try and read 50 to 70% of books from my TBR, and this time, try to add LESS. I’m not going to quantify “less” for now, because 2022 will be a long year, and because I like to read, I do also get gifts of books and trades. So those 46 above are not all “my” fault.
I don’t usually do book reviews here, but I figured you’d at least wonder… “Okay Anita, after all those numbers, what did you actually enjoy reading this year?” And the answer is, I read a LOT of good books! I rated 46/120 books with 4 stars or more. The ones I absolutely loved were:
A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate, books 1 and 2 of the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik (A school of magic, but with monsters trying to actively kill you)
The Road Trip, by Beth O’Leary (Lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers, with a chaotic road trip, quirky secondary characters, and lots of traveling)
Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo (A group of misfits plans a daring heist… and there’s also some people with magic powers)
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (Groundhog day murder mystery)
The Downstairs Girl, by Stacey Lee (Historical, advice columnist, challenging gender and race)
Very Sincerely Yours, by Kerry Winfrey (Pen-pals to lovers, vintage toy shop, and a puppeteer)
Portrait of a Scotsman, by Evie Dunmore (Marriage of convenience-ish, they do go to Scotland!)
Anyway, thanks for reading! And cheers to a 2022 with MORE books!