2018 reading statistics // year in review

I'm not going to lie, I've been really excited about this post for a long time now.

Being the nerd I am, I get an odd sense of pleasure from a well-formated Excel spreadsheet with fancy formulas and appealing graphs. So much so, that I used one to keep track of my reading last year. When I told people this, they all responded with varying degrees of incredulity ("What's the point?" "Why are you wasting your time?") BUT let me tell you, it was immensely useful and I now have a complete record of all the books I read in 2018!

And I also get to share all the fascinating statistics with you!

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I read 101 books in 2018, absolutely smashing my Goodreads Reading Challenge and reading more than I've ever read before! I am so, so proud of the amount of reading I accomplished last year! (Even though I didn't even make a dent in my TBR pile, oops!)

Of the 101 books that I read, 16 of them were rereads, and 15 were sequels that I read for the first time in 2018.

Thanks, Goodreads, I'm really not but I appreciate your support.

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Star Rating

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the books I read in 2018. My average rating was 4.1 stars, meaning that I really enjoyed the majority of the books I read!

I didn't rate any books 1 star, although perhaps I should have. I'm not the most critical reader, so my ratings tend to either skew high (if I loved the book) or hover around the 3-star mark (if it was just okay).

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Genre & Category

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of books I read were young adult. Also unsurprisingly, half of them were fantasy (including urban fantasy, high fantasy and magical realism). I think I read more historical fiction and sci-fi than I have in previous years, but less contemporary.

       

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Year Published

I'm actually super impressed with the number of new releases I read last year! Although surprise surprise, the vast majority were backlist titles, particularly from 2016 and 2017. I still have a lot of backlist books to catch up on, but hopefully I can read even more new releases in 2019!

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Page Length

The average length of the books I read in 2018 was 369 pages, which is about what I would expect given the size of most YA books. However, almost half the books I read in 2018 were more than 400 pages long! I'm kind of shocked? 

The shortest book I read was The Threads We Weave by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (a Starbound novella; 41 pages) and the longest was Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare (699 pages). 

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Format

The majority of books I consumed in 2018 were paperbacks, however I listened to an unprecedented amount via audio. I made the most of every free moment to read, listening to audiobooks rather than music during commutes and whilst exercising. 2018 was basically the year of audiobooks! 

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Author Gender & Nationality

This is perhaps one of the most interesting statistics and one that I am very proud of: more than half of the books I read in 2018 were written by female authors! YAY for supporting female creators! Also, a third of all the books were written by Australians (double YAY!) but together with American and British/Irish authors, this equated to 92%. Sadly, it seems that my reading in 2018 was not hugely diverse, but this in part reflects the state of the mainstream publishing industry. Hopefully I can improve on this in 2019! 

       

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LOOK AT ALL THOSE NUMBERS! I think my brain is about to turn into smush. But it is so interesting to look at all these stats and I'm looking forward to being able to compare everything this time next year! 

How many books did you read in 2018? Did you manage to complete your reading goal? Let's chat about our 2018 reading statistics! 

Niamh, xo.