Hopefully you’ve already seen my Top Books of 2020 – and now its time to do one of those fun reading stats posts, that delight other bloggers and blog readers and probably totally baffle normal people. Along the way, I’ll be comparing with my stats from 2019.
Number of books read
I read 147 books in 2020 – up from 133 last year, though down from 153 in 2018. The telling thing there, though, is that in 2018 and 2019 I did ’25 Books in 25 Days’ projects, which bolstered the total. 2020 was still a bumper reading year for me – thanks to the pandemic.
(My own mystery illness meant I couldn’t read for a bit, but thankfully my eyes have largely been ok since the summer. Other symptoms ongoing, and hoping for a diagnosis in 2021. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.)
Male/female writers
92 of my 147 books were by women, with 53 by men and 2 by women and men. That’s 62.5% of my books by women – it’s usually about 55%. The difference is probably explained by all the reading I’ve been doing to find new titles for the British Library Women Writers series.
Fiction/Non-fiction
I read 97 fiction books (69 by women, 28 by men) and 50 non-fiction (23 by women, 25 by men, 2 by both). All of those stats are pretty similar to 2019’s. It’s funny how these things work out.
Books in translation
2019 was my all-time high for reading books in translation, at 11 – 2020 took a hit, at only five. They’re from Greek/Hebrew (guess that book!), German, and three from French.
Most-read author
Three authors tied for first, with me reading four books by them – E.M. Delafield, Beverley Nichols, and Marilynne Robinson. All big favourites of mine – though only two Robinsons and one Delafield were first-time reads.
Re-reads
Speaking of, I re-read 15 books in 2020, which is much more than usual. A few were pandemic-propelled comfort reads (Austen), some were Marilynne Robinsons because of Jack coming out, but almost all were connected with British Library Women Writers series.
New-to-me authors
I usually read about half new-to-me authors, but this year only 63 of the books I read fall into this category – 43%. Not my lowest ever, but apparently I needed some reliables this year.
Number of audiobooks
I thought all those government-mandated walks would have amped up my audiobook total, but I only read eight books that way. Some of them were very chunky though.
Shortest book title
A few four-letter titles: Home and Jack by Marilynne Robinson, Emma by Jane Austen, and Them by Jon Ronson.
Strangest author name
It’s not a strange name in itself, but reading Love, Interrupted by Simon Thomas was quite a surreal experience – glancing down to see my own name repeatedly.
Most disappointing book
I think Mr Kronion by Susan Alice Kerby. I’d loved Miss Carter and the Ifrit so much, but this one wasn’t in the same league at all.
Worst book I read
This wasn’t really a disappointment, because I was expecting it to be rubbish and it was: Self-Leadership and the One-Minute Manager by Ian Blanchard, that I read for work. Management books are not at all my cup of tea anyway, and they never will be if they’re all as appallingly written as this one.
Word that came up a lot unexpectedly
Three of the novels I read this year had the word ‘Citadel’ in the title – The Citadel by A.J. Cronin, Proud Citadel by Dorothy Evelyn Smith, and Citadel of Ice by my mum, Anne Thomas (you can order it here!)
Persephones
Last year I said I wanted to read more Persephones from my shelf, after reading three in 2019. Last year I read… one. Patience by John Coates, which was very good.
Names in book titles
After I read 72 books with names in the title for Project Names in 2019, I thought it would be interesting to see how many I managed when I wasn’t trying – well, it clearly made a difference, as I only read 20 in 2020.
Animals in book titles
Only three in 2019, which is lower than usual. In 2020, there were The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier, All the Dogs of My Life by Elizabeth von Arnim, The Birds of the Air by Alice Thomas Ellie, Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons, A Summer Bird Cage by Margaret Drabble. Apparently I was mostly drawn to birds last year.
Strange things that happened in books this year
A stepping stone tested chastity, two women swapped bodies, a husband and wife swapped bodies, three women stole identities, a serial killer tried to win a title, someone pretended to write a biography of Byron, a husband disappeared, two cities inhabited the same space, patients woke from comas, a man hunted the devil in Cornwall, someone gave birth in the Blitz, a body was found in a sealed tunnel, chairs were made of human skin, a shark crashed through a roof, and a borrowed overcoat led to abduction.
I have read dozens of books on management and leadership and related matters (not unsurprising since that is essentially what my academic role is) and I agree that there are some pretty dire ones as well as some useful but not particularly well written ones. I am fairly certain I have come across a couple that stood above the crowd and were pretty engaging; I’d be happy to recommend some IF I thought you would actually wish to read any! :-)
Haha, you guessed correctly on that :D
Great list. And well done, I always try to reach 100 books but hardly ever manage.
I have the same problem with management and “self-help” books. My worst book this year was probably A message to Garcia.
You can find my Statistics 2020 here.
I’m usually hovering around 100, but since living on my own have definitely finished more books!
I thought I’d seen a post of yours with some sort of statistics, so I noticed I already commented here. As I mentioned there, if I calculate my books by average pages, it would have been 133, still fewer than yours.
I wonder which one of your books was the longest.
I do hope they find what’s wrong and that you can be reading even more this year.
What fun! I love some of your random superlative categories. It was also a big rereading year for me at 16 — probably my record. I really made a point of it, and it helped that I was doing buddy reads of some Carol Shields novels I’d read before, and that I comfort/binge-read several Anne Lamott books in a row.
Any particular recommendations? I’ve only read Bird By Bird.
I’m always bemused by these stats posts that appear at this time of year. I enjoy reading them, but would never put one together: too much like a school project! This last year has been a poor reading year for me, and I have several friends who’ve had the same experience. I seem to have recovered, but my concentration was initially poor, and I seemed to require a lighter diet than usual. Maybe getting back to my more solid diet will enable me to join in the statistical fun next year.
Interesting! I look forward to writing it so much, though otherwise not much of one for stats.
I love your stats. I might add shortest (and longest) book titles to my fun bit next year! Like you, birds dominated my animal titled reading too .
Thanks Annabel! I used to include longest title and then I got lazy, because shortest requires less counting!
Love this list! I have so many questions.
How do you keep track of what you’re reading?
Do you make specific effort to read a split of male/female?
Can I borrow your books when going outside is real again?
I have a notebook I keep it all in! And no, I don’t really plan with gender or anything, it just happens that I read more women every year.
LOL – If I had just read the last section I would have wondered quite what books you’d been reading this year! I’m always impressed by those who can break down their reading stats like this – I know I’ve read Russians and translated lit and Classic Crime but I’m not going to be able to get more accurate than that! ;D
And I hope the eyes continue to stay well!
I suppose ‘middle class people talk a lot’ covers quite a lot of the books I read, but not really worth including :D
So sorry to hear you’ve been ill, Simon; I guess Covid is not the only virus! I hope your eyes continue to be okay – though only you would count 130 books as resting them!
Thanks Mary! If you were to look at my list of books, you’d definitely see a sudden up-turn of audiobooks at one point :D
“Someone gave birth in the blitz” – does this mean you read the chamomile lawn ? (Sorry for spoiler otherwise but wouldn’t say it was a huge plot point)
No, this was actually non-fiction :D Spam Tomorrow by Verily Anderson.
What a year, Simon! I must say, your “strange things that happened in books this year” made me literally snort with laughter. Shark through the roof?!? Amazing!