The 2013 Wrap-up Post: An Analysis of What I Read This Year

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Okay, so last year, I saw everyone with their pretty charts and graphs analyzing how they'd spent their year reading, and I vowed I'd be able to do the same this year.  So, I changed up my spreadsheet...you know, the one that you use to keep track of all the books you have to read, the ones you did read, when they're due for release, how you acquired it, etc. Anyway, I added a few columns to that bad boy and set myself up for maintaining some serious data when it came to this whole reading thing.

Some tidbits you should know before we proceed:

• Books read in 2013:  203
• Longest book read:  Monsters by Ilsa J. Bick, which came in at 688 pages
• Of those 203 books read, I reviewed:  173
• Number of posts in 2013:  505
• Stats are from:  1/1/13 to 12/31/13
• I love:  charts and graphs, so you're going to see quite a few below  =)
• Oh, and the charts and graphs are all interactive -- just scroll over them to highlight the info you want to see

First of all, I wanted to see which publishers I read the most.  I had an inkling, based on favorites and auto-approvals, but here's what the numbers show:

Yeah, I'm not surprised.  Except that I read fewer Random House and Macmillan titles than I would've thought.

Okay, so now we know what publishers I'm reading most, but how?  How am I reading over 200 books in a single year? Here's how:

Yeah, I listened to a ton of audio...and my pocketbook is paying for it!

Okay, so if you've added those numbers, you realize they don't add up to 203.  That's because in some cases, I listened to an audiobook for which I'd already received a review copy or had a copy on my shelf, and I listed it on my spreadsheet in all formats in my possession.  But if I purchased the audio, there's a good chance I didn't read it first.

Next, you're probably wondering how I obtained all of those books:

I think this hopefully helps to debunk that myth that all book bloggers are out to get free books.  I paid handsomely for about half of what I read last year.  (And, yes, again the numbers don't add up to that magical 203...and the same reasoning applies -- sometimes I'd get an ARC when I already had an egalley, or I'd get an ARC and a finished copy from the publisher, so I counted it twice.)

So, what else could you possibly want to know about my 2013 reading experience?  Hmm...how about how I rated all 203 books?

Apparently I was rather generous with the 4 and 5 stars this year.  Only one DNF.  Going forward, there won't be any half stars because I changed my rating system when I changed my blog design.  So, to be fair, some of those 4 and 5 stars might have been 4.5 and 3.5 stars rounded up, if they occurred after my design was changed.  I crunched some numbers, and my average rating over 203 books was 4.14 stars.  I'd say that's definitely average for me...before I even looked at the data, I could've told you that most of my reads are 4 stars, which means I like them a lot.

Also, you should know that I try my hardest not to read things that I won't like or barely like, thusly negating the need to rate them 3 stars or lower.  My reading time is precious and too little to waste on bad books. It's only because I attempted to read one truly terrible book that there's even a DNF on the chart, but sometimes, you're led astray by a pretty cover and promise of a good story that just doesn't hold up.  My lowest rating equates to "hated it with the fire of 1000 suns" so you can guess how bad I thought that one DNF was if I couldn't even finish it.

Anyway, I have more columns and more data I could share, but these are the biggies, I think.  I only just realized that I don't have areas to record the type of book (series, companion, stand-alone, novella, etc.) or the genre.  But genre is so subjective sometimes...I always feel that a lot of the books I read fall into several different categories at once, and so it's really hard to gauge where to place them for exercises like this.

If you're still here and made it to the end, I hope you found some of this intriguing.  Since I've been working with this data all year long, it doesn't come as a surprise, but it's still interesting to see the numbers like this. Plus, I just really like making pretty charts and graphs.

Well, I'm off to prepare for the rolling in of the new year.  Also, to add some stuff to that spreadsheet so that I have more to share next year.  :)