I love reading people’s Best Books lists, and I also love reading stats posts. Sometimes I forget that normal people don’t even keep a list of the books they read, let alone analyse them – but they are much the poorer for it. Here are some highlights and statistics from my reading year (and comparison’s with 2018’s stats)…
Number of books read
I read 133 books last year, which is significantly above my usual average of around 100 – but rather fewer than the 153 I read last year. I’m not sure why it dropped, since my commute has been cut by an hour in the second half of 2019 and I should have had more reading time. But I always read more in years when I do A Century of Books, so maybe that’s an impetus?
Male/female authors
I read 58 books by men and 74 books by women – i.e. about 55% by women, which is the same percentage I had in 2018. And I read one book that was co-written by a man and a woman.
Fiction/non-fiction
85 fiction books (54 by women, 30 by men, 1 by both) and 48 non-fiction (20 by women, 28 by men). So men win out in the non-fiction stakes, slightly surprisingly. 64% fiction, which is a very slightly lower percentage than 2018. I do read more and more non-fiction, but I seem to buy fiction at a speedier rate…
Books in translation
2019 is my all-time highest ever for reading in translation – the first time I’ve ever broken double figures! I read 11 books in translation – 9 novels and 2 biographies. They came from Portuguese (2), French (2), Italian (2), Japanese, Flemish, Finnish, Russian, and German. I’m not sure I’ve ever read a novel translated from an Asian language before.
Most-read author
Nobody came in with more than 2 books this year – quite a few tied on that number: Agatha Christie, R.C. Sherriff, Mollie Panter-Downes, May Sinclair, Paul Collins, Muriel Spark, and Adam Silvera. But clearly no author obsessed me in 2019.
Re-reads
I re-read seven books in 2019 – as usual, a few were for podcast or book group. And some were for a secret project that I’ll tell you about in the next couple of months…
New-to-me authors
In 2018 I broke my usual 50/50 approximation by only reading 39% new-to-me authors. And in 2019 it was 62 new-to-me authors, which 47% of the books I read and closer to where I expected.
Shortest book title
Appropriately enough, it was Less by Andrew Sean Greer – tied with Omar by Wilfird Blunt.
Books by friends
I’ve reached the stage of life where friends are getting books published, it seems. It’s not quite the first time – but it’s the first time it’s happened more than once. I was delighted to read the excellent non-fiction books This Golden Fleece by Esther Rutter and The Remarkable Life of the Skin by Monty Lyman, both of whom are friends. And I read another one that hasn’t been published – also excellent.
Persephones
I’m trying to read more from my Persephone bookcase, partly because there are some books that have been there for an age, but mostly because they’re reliably brilliant. In 2019 I read The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff, Mariana by Monica Dickens, and The Carlyles at Home by Thea Holme. Plenty more there, of course.
Most disappointing book
I don’t know if it counts, because I wasn’t super excited to read it, but The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho was pretty stupid. I also couldn’t stand Baltasar and Blimunda by Jose Saramago, so it’s not been a good year for books translated from Portuguese…
Animals in book titles
Will there by any this year?? There always seem to be… but it’s quite low this year. Mrs Fox by Sarah Hall, Molly Fox‘s Birthday by Deirdre Madden, and The Spectre of Alexander Wolf by Gaito Gazdanov are the only ones that get in this year. Unless you count Albert and the Dragonettes.
Strange things that happened in books this year
A woman turned into a fox, a hyrax started speaking, a meteor hit the earth, a man grew wings, a dead girl’s hand appeared, a murderer tried to get other people to accuse her, a woman went missing in Israel, a woman went missing in Russia, a church meeting lasted for eternity, a bridge collapsed and killed its engineer, a flood enveloped a house, dozens of people died from dancing, and phone calls told people the day they’d die.
I didn’t make much sense of Paolo Coelho’s Alchemist either. I’ve read through three or four Paolo Coelho books, and to be honest, none of them really struck a chord. So I spent the rest of the year revisiting the Classics (Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Leo Tolstoy and the others).
I definitely don’t feel like I want to rush back to Coelho! Your classics revisiting sounds much more enjoyable.
It was as enjoyable as it sounds. There’s a reason they’re still loved over a hundred (or two) years after they were written.
I bet Paolo Coelho depends on people’s tastes because I enjoyed reading the Alchemist and I still hold it as one of the greatest novels I have ever read.
This is vey interesting read.
Now you’ve got us all excitedly trying to work out what this secret project is all about… hope its not too long before you reveal all !
I’m a tease, aren’t I ;)
Since I started ThePassionateReader blog, my numbers for 2019 are 110 books read, 47 fiction , I poetry,, longest 784 pages, biography 8,. Favourite is Terry Phyllis’ Albatross in the fiction genre, and Michelle Obama’s Becoming in nonfiction. Prior to 2019, I never kept track.
784pp is extraordinary! And I loved Becoming too, Cam.
Curious that you read more women overall but more non-fiction by men. I found that too. I wonder if men simply write more non-fiction, or are more successful in getting it published? Or it could, of course, be pure coincidence.
If you haven’t read it already can I recommend Jambusters by Julie Summers as a good non-fiction book for someone who likes The Provincial Lady and Mollie Panter-Downes? It’s about the WI in the second world war, and I found it fascinating.
Happy New Year,
Victoria
I looked back at previous years and usually women come out top for both fiction and non-fiction, so maybe a coincidence? Who knows! I never choose books based on the gender of the writer, so I never know how it will fall until the end of the year.
I haven’t heard of Jambusters – thanks for the recommendation!
No, I don’t like Coehlo either, but I do love Saramago and am disappointed re Baltasar and Blimunda because that’s been on my wishlist for ages.
Happy reading for 2020!
If it helps, I disliked them for very different reasons, so you might still enjoy the Saramago!
2020 is going to be a great year of reading and i hope its for others too:) Please check out my story!
Here’s hoping!
I love seeing all the stats. So many fun ways to think about what you read.
It’s always great fun!
Not bad. I read 50 books this year and that’s a whole lot for me!
Well done! I just saw a blogger who read 450 books last year, so I suppose it’s all about our personal goals!
Gosh, impressive stats (and I love the list of odd things happening in books!) I read 114 which is about average for me, and some of those *were* quite long. I haven’t checked, but I do feel that I read less women authors last year, which I need to rectify in 2020! :D
It’s always fun compiling the oddities of the year’s reading!!
The Alchemist was the most disappointing book ever for our book group too, spiritual-lite twaddle!
I do love your list of happenings too!
I love stats but most of all I love your categories, especially strange things. It’s such a fun way of looking back on the year! (which I am too lazy to do, sadly, so I appreciate you providing the entertainment)
I enjoyed keeping stats this year and wish I’d discovered I could update my pivot tables as I went – this year I’ve got them all set up from the start so I can keep an eye on the stats (not sure what effect that will have if any!). I’m not sure how I could work out which authors were new to me – maybe once I’ve finished getting the reading journals from before the blog onto my spreadsheet I will be able to search!
No lists, no analysis, just reading.
Very impressive!! you are a big inspiration, I really should read more!
I loved reading your stats, enjoy it every time. I am always intending to do something similar myself but haven’t got round to it for several years. You have great categories!
Not sure why, but I love personal stats. Thank you for sharing and keep up the reading!
Nice! I like your last category, I should start keeping track of those weird things.
Here are my own stats: https://wordsandpeace.com/2020/01/02/year-of-reading-2019-part-2-statistics/, it contains a link to my favorites of the year
Interesting variety of summarising your year of reading. 133 books is a good number, since I think most of them come from your own shelves. I did not manage to lower my numbers that much, but still a few. I do love Coelho, although it takes a few books to understand his greatness. I have a book by Saramago, The History of the Siege of Lisbon. I started it, but could not stand the way he writes. Almost through it away, but stopped myself. Maybe, maybe, I will be able to read it one day.
Since I am now back in Sweden, I tend to read more books in Swedish. Although I prefer to read English books in English, I still read them in Swedish, when finding them in the library. So lucky to be able to borrow books again, in stead of always buying.