Mid-Year Reading Stats

Hello bookish friends!

A few weeks ago I participated in the Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag (which you can find here) where I talked about some of my favorite and least favorite books of the year so far. Today, I’m going to zoom out a bit and focus on the stats of my year so far!

I use a Google Sheets template designed by Brock Roberts. It has been so useful to me in both 2020 and 2021!

Total Books Read

My GoodReads goal this year was to read 100 books, which I was pretty certain I would surpass early. As of now, I have read 85 books, so hopefully I will complete 100 in July! I don’t think I will increase my goal, just because I don’t want to be stressed, especially when fall semester starts up.

Genre

I feel like genre wise, my year has been pretty standard. Fantasy (29 books) and contemporary (26 books) definitely make up most of my reading, so this didn’t come as too much of a surprise. However, I definitely have read more historical fiction (10 books) than I thought!

Format

Last year my reading was split about 50% audiobooks and 50% physical books. I think my audio reading is definitely down because I’ve been listening to a lot more music lately rather than books. I am actually surprised at how many e-books I’ve read. Most of those are ARCs or graphic novels I obtained from the library.

Length

This isn’t a huge surprise to me, because I am pretty terrified of big books. I also read a lot of YA books, which I think tend to be shorter. My biggest book this year was definitely Winter by Marissa Meyer, which was over 800 pages. I don’t think I’ll read a bigger book than that in the second half of the year.

Years Published

While last year I really tried to focus on reading new releases, this year I’m really trying to focus on books that have been on my shelves for years, which have mostly been released in 2019 or 2020! I am also very surprised at the lack of classics on this list. I thought I read more than I actually did!

Book Acquisitions

Like I said, I am trying to focus on books on my shelf, so those are mostly purchased (22) or gifts (7). All my audiobooks and e-books come from the library, so this chart looks about how I expected it to!

Star Rating

Last year I had so many 2-3 star reads, so this year I really wanted to focus on reading books that I genuinely thought I would like, and not reading something just because everyone else was. That definitely shows in this chart, because a majority of my books are above a 3.5! I also have a bunch of 4.5 and 5 star reads, which I love. (And no 1 stars!)

Age Group

This is pretty much identical to last years chart, but I am a bit surprised because I feel like I have been reading more adult books lately! Perhaps in the second half of the year it will show more.

Location

This is a chart I find especially interesting! The way I do this is I mark either where the book takes place, or if there is no evident location, where the author is from. Obviously, a majority of the books I read take place in the U.S. or are by U.S. authors, because that is where I’m from. In the second half of the year I am hoping to read more Asian literature, because the lack of Asia on this map is significant.

Diversity

This year one of my goals was to have 50% of my reads be own voices. Right now, about 60% of the books I’ve read have been, so I am pleased that I am surpassing my original goal!

Series vs. Standalone

My weakness is picking up series, reading the first book, and never touching the rest of the series ever again. I think one of my 2022 goals is going to be to only pick up the first book in a series if I think I will continue it, because this year alone I have started 15 new series, and I still have some from last year I want to continue with as well.

So, those are my stats for this year so far! I am excited to come back to this post in January and see how (or if) things have changed.