Book Stats – Review of 2012, and aims for 2013

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Stats

I posted about my books of the year a couple of weeks ago here. Now it’s time, as I always do, to take a light-hearted look at the stats of what I read…

Life must be getting busier, as each year I seem to be reading fewer books. I say that firmly with my tongue in my cheek, as I know that if I diverted some of the time I spend mucking about on Facebook playing games etc. into reading, and also not watching afternoon telly on days when I get home early, I’d get a lot more reading done!

So – having consulted my master spreadsheet, up to the time of writing:

• I’ve finished 90 books this year, vs 93 in 2011, 106 in 2010 and 114 in 2009.
• The page count is still holding up well at just under 26k, vs 29k in 2011, 26k in 2010 and 32k in 2009.
• I read the same number of books in translation this year – 10.  Again, I’d like to read more in 2013.
• Due to my hosting Beryl Bainbridge Reading Week, this was the first year in which I’ve read 6 books by the same author. I also read 4 Adrian Mole books by Sue Townsend, and 3 teen books by Sophie McKenzie to impress my daughter and her friends.
• Another stat I love to look at is when books I read were published.  I didn’t manage to increase my reading of ones published pre-1960 (my d.o.b.) this year, and am always shocked to find how many shiny new books I manage to squeeze in  - a full 44% percent published in 2012, plus 2 yet to hit the shelves.
• In genre fiction, this must be the first year that I haven’t read any SF proper. I have read more historical fiction though particularly set around WWI & II – there’s a lot of it about!
• One area I’ve improved upon is to read more non-fiction having read 6 books of memoir/biography and 5 others.
• Lastly, I’ve redressed the balance between male and female authors this year. Last year my list was 70% by men. This year it’s almost at parity, with 46:44 male:female writers.

My aims for 2013

1. Read more!
   1. Read more from my TBR – I’m taking part in the TBR Double Dog Dare, which’ll take me up to the end of March without reading new acquisitions.
   2. Read more old books – particularly those published pre-1960.
   3. Read more in translation.
   4. Read some SF. Mustn’t forget about my first book love.
   5. I’d love to host another author reading week.  I have an idea, possibly for May – more soon!

So, how did your reading year shape up?

The fun stats of blogging …

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Stats

try not to look at my blog stats too often. Outwardly I don’t worry about rankings and the number of page views, it’s not my primary motivation for blogging. Internally, of course I’m always flattered when the blog get lots of hits and good rankings – who wouldn’t be?!  What is always fascinating though, is how people get to your blog. Some of the search terms can make you giggle…

ne such search phrase was “Jumping sex” – well I can work that one out.  I posted about Jilly Cooper’s Riders back in January. Lots of variations on that search lead to the same post too. Another search which included the words ”Knickers Off” led back to my post about the first two volumes of Charlie Higson’s zombie series – I’d called the post Zombie Mayhem to Scare Your Pants Off. I bet that was different to what the searcher expected!

aving said I wasn’t interested in page views, I am really – but not in the way you’re thinking – I was just looking at those posts that have historically got the most visits in total.

Top of the list by far is my post after seeing the film of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. It’s a shame in a way it was the post about the film, rather than the book. It’s followed by: a post on the first graphic novel I reviewed on the blog - The Crow by James O’Barr; then An Evening with Toby Mundy a talk I went to by the boss of Atlantic Books – strange it still gets a lot of visits; and then a post entitled My Life in Comics and Magazines.

otice how they’re all posts that are not about conventional books. The most recent of them was the Salmon Fishing one which was published this May. The others are over a year old, the Toby Mundy one was in December 2010, yet somehow they are still getting hits, and still registering in my most viewed posts. When I work out the secret I’ll let you know!

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y the way, if you’ve enjoyed these lovely drop capital graphics, they come from a site called Daily Drop Cap and are free to use in personal blogs etc.

Book Stats – Review of 2011

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Stats

I told you about my Books of the Year a few weeks ago here, but another thing I like to do at the end of the year is compare my reading stats. Being an inveterate list-maker and cataloguer this always appeals to me, and actually I’ve had a different type of reading year in 2011 compared to the couple before.

Firstly, I read less books:  This year, at the time of writing, I’ve read 93 books, whereas in the previous years I topped the century with 106 and 114 in 2009.

I did read more pages though in 2012 – beating 2010′s 26k with a whopping total of over 29,000 pages read.  I’ll admit that 2100 of those were the first four books in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series (and I’ve still got around 2000 to go to complete it!). A further 1650 were the four Charlie Higson books for older kids that I devoured (and loved) in preparation for meeting and interviewing him back in September. This was the first year I’ve read more than two books by individual authors.

I’m going to talk about my TBR piles in another post, but there are a few other memos to self that I can note:

• This year I read a lot more books by men – nearly 70% versus 55% last year – not a conscious decision – just the way it went.
• I continued to try to read more books published before I was born (1960 in case you wondered), and the number is creeping up – 15  versus 13  and 9 in years before – here’s to reading even more ‘old’ books in 2012.
• I read very little Non-fiction indeed in 2011, something I blogged about here.
• I read a similar number of books in translation, 10 this year.
• The lure of the shiny new title continues to do its work – again, around a third of the books I read were published this year.
• In terms of genres, what I’d broadly describe as contemporary fiction dominated as usual, but I read a good sprinkling of crime, classics, modern classics, YA/children’s fiction and SF/dystopian/spec fiction, plus my first graphic novel.
• … and finally…  Less vampires this year, but more zombies!  Ho, Ho, Ho.

I’d love to know how your reading year shaped up.