2020 End of Year Book Stats & Overview

Now that we've covered the most important end of year posts with the best books lists, it's time to jump into one of my favorite posts of the year--yearly stats! I am once again using some information from the Goodreads 'Year in Review,' since it does a fairly good job of capturing some finer details (which also means that some of these, such as my average star rating and the highest rated book are unique to the Goodreads community only and not reflective of other sources), and I am also still keeping a spreadsheet of the books I read and some info about genres, author info, formats, sources, etc. If you have any end of year posts/surveys/best books lists that I haven't seen yet, please do leave them in the comments so I can come visit!

 

Previous end of year stats & overview posts: 2018, 2019

 

Much like last year, I've opted not to include most of the books I read for grad school so as to keep them separate from my pleasure reading, although I did enjoy most of what I read so perhaps I should revise that one day... Nonetheless, 160 is far beyond anything I expected to read this year! This year was busy and anxiety-inducing as hell and there were so many times where I felt I was barely getting through any books, so I'm very excited about that. It beats last year's 150, but I have no intentions to try to beat 160 next year. I also think 65,000 pages is a bit mind-boggling to consider in the grand scheme of things, especially when I then factor in the sheer number of articles I had to read for school and... I think I need to give my eyes a break.  

I am a little surprised that 112 pages was the smallest book I read this year, but then I really didn't read very many novellas so I suppose it does make sense. It's also hard to believe that it was this year that I read Silver in the Wood when it feels like ages ago because I read it in our old apartment before we moved, haha. Imaginary Friend was indeed quite chunky, and since I didn't end up getting to my usual special 1,000+ page book of the year, I suppose it can take that place. The average book length also seems pretty on par with average book lengths in general and similar to last year's (405). 

This rating is always inflated on Goodreads since I can't do half or quarter stars, and I did a lot of those this year. Still, it's fun to see!

 

This feels unsurprising, I'm almost more curious what the most popular would be if I hadn't re-read The Fellowship of the Ring.  Also, Gatekeeper was a delight and I'd highly recommend it!

In case you can't read that tiny font, that's a 4.67 average, which is pretty damn good! I'm glad this trilogy is getting the love it deserves.

Stats:
Now we can dive into some of the fun (to me, anyway) stats! As with previous years, I'd like to apologize for some of the font/color sizes on these--Google Sheets remains my free option of use, and it's frustrating to use sometimes. I started keeping track of stats about two years ago and I've enjoyed it so much! I'm very much a mood reader and can't necessarily plan out too much of what I intend to read, so I always find these an interesting way of seeing where my moods lead me each year and if there are any big changes.

Genre

This is probably the first time that straight fantasy (48.8%) has been more than half of my reading. Speculative fiction as a whole, however, including horror (9.4%) and science fiction (6.3%) does reach over the halfway mark, though, which makes more sense. I am pleased to see that I managed to read more historical fiction (15.6%) this year, which was something I wanted to do since I am a big fan of historical fiction in general. This was partly due to the fact that when my anxiety was skyrocketing when my husband and I were moving earlier this year historical fiction turned into my comfort read genre for the time? It was a surprise to me as well, but I ran with it. I'm glad to see more horror this year, and I'd really like to check out even more next year, as well as more sci-fi, perhaps. 

Target Audience

There aren't too many surprises on here. I enjoy a young adult book here and there, but overall I tend to read mostly adult (80%) books. I do still love my middle grade, though, and I'd almost prefer to read more middle grade (6.3%) than young adult (13.8%) these days! I mainly read middle grade at night, which is why that percentage tends to stay low. I've really been struggling with young adult fantasy these past two years or so, and I keep finding myself disappointed more often than not, so I'm not sure if it's just me or something else. 

Format

This is such a close mix this year of formats! I have concluded that paperback (31.9%) is probably the most comfortable to read, and that makes up about half total (including Physical ARCs). I am not a huge fan of reading on my Kindle (eARCs, 20%), but since that is how I am able to read NetGalley books and the like, I am happy to do so! Those also tend to the be the only books I read on my Kindle, though I do occasionally snatch up some Kindle deals now and then.

Book Source

This was one of the stats that I was most interested to see this year since all my local libraries were closed for eight (!) months year due to COVID. It was rough, but it also made me thankful for how many books I've accumulated over the years and was able to dip into (purchased category)--and in the end, I'm really glad I've had the opportunity to focus on the books I already owned, plus some I bought to try to support authors this year. It also gave me an opportunity to read a lot of older ARCs that I, uh, hadn't gotten around to... so that's why the publisher category is a bit bigger, since publishers weren't sending out as many physical ARCs this year. 

Page Count

This feels pretty on par with the fact that most books (especially in fantasy) tend to average 300-500 pages (63.7% together). That tiny sliver there is 900+, in which I only read one book this year. I don't have too much to say about this chart because it feels very reasonable and a bit predictable, haha. Is it just me, or do fantasy books these days often seem bigger in general or is it just me??

Tell me about your year in books! Do you keep track of information for stats like this? (If you do and you made a post that I haven't seen, leave me a link because I love looking at them! Or if you have any 'end of year' sort of post, link that also so I can check it out!)