Just as I did last year, I thought it would be fun to share a few insights and statistics from the Goodreads Year In Books feature that is available for Goodreads members. During 2020 I pledged to read 25 books but, due to all the sheltering in place we had to do, I ended up reading 40 books. I will not make this post longer than necessary so I am not going to list all the books that I read here. Instead you can find them in the individual posts that I wrote approximately every 3 months and which you can find here, here, here and here. Now let's move on to to the fun stuff.
My year in books 2020
- Number of books read: 40
- Total number of pages read: 13 977
- Average book length: 349 pages
- Shortest book: Night by Elie Wiesel at 115 pages
- Longest book: Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory at 560 pages
- Most popular (i.e. most read): The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (which was shelved an incredible 5 367 820 times)
- Least popular: A Brief History of British King and Queens by Mike Ashley (shelved 915 times)
- Highest rated by Goodreads readers: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah with a 4.40 star average
- My average rating for 2020: 3.7 stars (this is just a little higher from last year's 3.5 stars - I suppose I'm still difficult to please when compared to some other readers)
- The book that has been published longest: Tess Of The D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy in 1891
- The most recently published book: Eli's Promise by Ronald Balson in September 2020
- My 5 star reads: The Strawberry Thief by Joanne Harris, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and Night by Elie Wiesel
- My favourite book: All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. You may read my review here.
- The book I liked least: The House I Loved by Tatiana de Rosnay
- Most disappointing book: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (this book had such rave reviews and such a high rating on Goodreads that I expected it to be so much better than it was. It's a fast paced book and the plot is intriguing enough but some glaring errors and inconsistencies really marred my enjoyment of it).
- Best suited for a book club: History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund. There are so many layers to this strange book and so many themes for discussion that I think it's perfect for a book club.
- Number of non-fiction books: 10 (which is equivalent to 25% of the books I read. That's not bad, especially since it takes me much longer to finish a non-fiction book.)
- Month in which I read most: May (6 books)
- Month in which I read least: October (1 book)
I hope you enjoy these book posts as much as I enjoy writing them. This year, I won't be reviewing multiple books in one post as it became overwhelming for me to write them (and probably for you read them). Instead, if I read a book and really like it, I will do a separate review. I will still share a list of the books I read every quarter but, in it, I will just highlight things like my favourite books, the ones that disappointed me and so on (a sort of miniature version of today's post).
I am not sure that I will read as many books in 2021 as I did in 2020 because I already have several very thick books in my pile. My aim is to read at least 30. But we will see how it goes. reading is something I never get tired of doing and, if I didn't have to get up for work, I would probably read all night.
Hi Loree, The "Post a Comment" button was almost hidden on this post! Since your Gatsby lacked the original cover art, you have to look up the original blue cover by Francis Cugat, which Fitzgerald actually wove into the story.
ReplyDeleteI would find it hard to compile statistics for my reading, because I always have heaps of books around, and I have never been organized enough to sequester one year's books for such an analysis. As I may have mentioned before, I did an unusual amount of rereading this year due to Covid and my inability to get fresh books from the U.S.
I tend to prefer non-fiction to fiction, but my favorite reading is essays, which are somewhat in between, technically non-fiction but written in an elegant or literary fashion.
--Jim
Wonderful post! It is inspirational to read about your reading stats. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteLoree it looks like you did a great deal of reading last year. I love to read as well. Last year I read 22 books. That included fiction and non fiction. It is fun to keep a list and note whether you would recommend them or not. Thanks for sharing your list. Hugs!
ReplyDeleteHAPPY you got to read so many books!
ReplyDeleteI need to start back at it!
Took a break as my neck was hurting..............XX