2018 End of Year Book Survey (& Year in Graphs!)

This is a (very) modified version of Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner’s annual End of Year Book Survey. I’ve taken out quite a few questions and added some of my own, along with graphs (because everyone knows that pretty graphs make the world a better place).

2018 Reading Stats

Number Of Books You Read: 153

Fun Pie Graphs:

I thought it might be interesting to look at my reading in pie charts since I kept a spreadsheet this year and have really good stats. The first stat I compiled was how many books I read each month.

As you can see, I read a lot more during the second half of the year. There are probably a few reasons for this. First off, I was still teaching at the homeschool co-op until May and then I really jumped headfirst into revising my MG manuscript. I sent it off on submission a few places in August and took a bit of a break with revising, so I was reading a lot more. I spent the last quarter of the year mostly avoiding working on my YA WIP (but I did finish it!). Oh, and I also started reading more verse books in the second half of the year, and those are much quicker reads.

These are hard to get exact because sometimes genre is hard to define, but this gives you a good idea. I still tend to read more fantasy/sci fi than anything else. Oh, and I know Graphic Novels and Verse aren’t really genres, but I wanted to include numbers for those and this seemed like the most obvious place (I could have also put them into format, but they don’t quite fit there either).

I still read overwhelmingly YA. Over half of the Adult books are actually non-fiction (several of them are boos on the craft of writing). I’m trying to read more MG now that I’m writing it, but it’s a little hard since the books I own and the books I get for review are mostly YA (though I’ve gotten on some publisher’s radar for MG this year, so I’m starting to get more).

I read a lot more physical books than anything else (though less than last year since my overall reading was down). I listened to more audiobooks, though. Thank you, God, for my library!

Most of my books are still coming from publishers or authors in some way or another (87 in total), but I did manage to read 27 books from off my shelf and 54 books that I got from the library (this includes those 38 audiobooks) or borrowed. Those ALA/BEA books are from past years—glad I’m finally getting through some of my older review books!

By the way, if you’ve noticed that my numbers don’t add up quite right, that’s because some books I had from two different sources. For instance, sometimes I got a books from Edelweiss but ended up listening to the audiobook from my library (or switched back and forth!).

This is a pretty even split! I did a lot better about reading backlist books this year!

No surprise that 4 stars is still my go-to rating. Only books that would receive 4 stars or above on Goodreads appear on the blog now (but some of those 3.5 star books that I would easily round up to 4 on Goodreads show up here!).

I also kept track of how diversely I was reading in 2018. I read a total of 73 books that featured diversity. I only counted books where the MC qualified as diverse, not a side character. Out of those 73, 35 were definitely Own Voices (I didn’t try to research authors to find out if they were Own Voices if I didn’t already know).

These stats were a little hard to break down, especially when it came to POC vs. Cultural. Some books I just counted as only POC, but if culture was a main factor in the book, I might have also counted it as Cultural. Some books I counted as Cultural without counting them as POC (for instance, if the MC was Jewish and that culture was featured strongly).

Best in Books

1. Best Books You Read In 2018?

2. Best series you started in 2018? Best Sequel of 2018? Best Series Ender of 2018?

Listed in order of the questions above:

And while I’m at it, I thought I’d analyze my series reading for 2018. I read 68 books that were part of a series. But when I break it down by which number in the series I read, things start to look dicey:

I have a problem here, folks. I started 37 new series, and only continued 31 (that’s adding up all the rest of the series books I read). Why do I do this to myself? (Short answer: Review books and the shininess of new series.)

3. Favorite new author you discovered in 2018?

I didn’t count debut authors here, but instead went with an author who I just discovered but other people knew about. Tara Sim’s Timekeeper was amazing, and I can’t wait to read Firestarter!

4. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

I actually haven’t reviewed this series yet on the blog because I was waiting to finish it (the final—I think—book came out in November), but I’ve been LOVING listening to the Hell Divers Series, which is Adult Sci-Fi/Dystopian, a genre I rarely read.

5. Most thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

This book was a mystery, and I could. Not. Stop. Reading.

6. Favorite covers?

Lots of MG covers here. I’m sort of in love with them. Maybe because I love to dream about my own MG cover someday (it will be beautiful, by the way).

7. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2018?

My Blogging/Bookish Life

1. Favorite review that you wrote in 2018?

I love my spoiler-filled discussions of these books!

2. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?

I’m sort of in love with my color-coordinated bookcases.

3. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?

The WIFYR writing conference was amazing!!

4. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2018?

For me, this is a writing accomplishment. I finished revising my first novel and started querying it!

If you’d like to see my Goodreads Year in Books, click on the link!