2021 Reading Year in Review: Stats, Charts, and Graphs

Hey hi hello friends, and Merry Christmas Eve to those who celebrate!! 

I know I've been kind of MIA for December, this month was just super hectic and weird. I'm not going to go into all that has happened, but know that it was...a lot. December was one of my worst reading months, but I'll get to that in my monthly wrap-up. For now, let's talk about the past year. 

I love doing my yearly review. Something about stats and charts makes me feel super organized, and I love looking at the numbers that tally my year up. Today I have stats from both my Goodreads Year in Review, and my reading log that was created by BookRiot. A reminder that the reading log does not have the manga I've read this year, so the numbers will be slightly different between the two sources. Okay, without any further ado, let's look at some numbers! 

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First, let's look at the Goodreads Year in Review.

This has been my best reading year yet! I read a grand total of 265 books, with 77,105 pages. Of that number, 84 of them were manga volumes, which means I read 181 other books (including novellas, graphic novels, and poetry). 

The difference in these two numbers is staggering and hilarious. The longest book I read this year was Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (also one of the worst books I read this year, but that's for another post), and the shortest book was a flash fiction; Warm Up by V.E. Schwab, which takes place in her Villains world. The average length of book I read was 290 pages, though that is skewed by all the manga I read. 

These stats also make me laugh. I'm not surprised that the most popular book I read this year was The Hunger Games, it was the most popular a couple years ago as well (actually I think Catching Fire has a higher number, but I didn't read that this year). What does surprise me is that only 248 people have shelved O Maidens, even if it is the 8th and last volume of the series. Stop sleeping on this manga, it's great! 

My average rating is pretty high at 3.9, which is good, because it means I had a relatively good reading year. I'm also not surprised that Heartstopper is the highest rated on Goodreads. A 4.63 average is insane. This graphic novel series seems to be everyone's highest rated this year, which just makes me ridiculously happy. 

Okay, time for my reading log's stats. 

As I said before, these charts and graphs don't include the manga I read this year. So the numbers are as follows: This year, I finished 181 books and I DNF'd 12 books. That makes my completion rate a whopping 93.8%. Go me! 

The majority of the books I read this year were physical copies, at 105 books. Next is digital, all of which came from my library, at 85 books. Then I listened to 3 books on audio. You can tell that's not my preferred method of reading. 

I tried to read more nonfiction this year, but I don't think I succeeded. Of the 181 books in this log, only 24 books were nonfiction. I do think that's a bit better than last year (poetry really helped me on this one) but next year I'll read even more! 

This chart really surprises me. Last year the books I read were mainly YA and middle-grade, but this year 112 books that I read were categorized as adult. That's nearly 60% of the total books I read! I really wasn't expecting that. I read 66 books in the YA category, and 15 books that are categorized as middle-grade. I'm hoping to bring that number up next year! 

Obviously the majority of what I read was prose, with 140 books in that format. I also read 24 books of poetry, 16 comics and graphic novels, 10 novellas, 2 essay collections, and 1 short story collection. Not a very even mix, but I'm glad I read a bit of each. Essay and short-story collections aren't really what I gravitate to, but who knows, maybe I'll read more in 2022. 

I find this chart fascinating: of the 181 books, 146 of them were written by female authors. 54 were written by male authors, and I read 2 books written by non-binary authors. Again, I'll try and bring that number up next year. 

This also isn't a surprise: about half of the books I read this year were from the library. I haven't gotten any physical books from the library in years (thank you, COVID) but I am constantly using my Libby app, which is probably my most used app of the year. 90 books were from the library. Of the remaining 91 (again, half!), 52 books were already on my physical TBR, 50 books I purchased this year, and 1 book was a birthday gift from a friend. I also want to mention that I reread 13 books this year, but that's not on the chart.

I tried to read more 2021 releases this year, and I think I did a pretty good job. I read 53 books published this year, the rest were backlist. Of course, we're always going to read more backlist books that newly published, unless you only focus on new releases. 

Alright, now for the big one: genre. The highest percentage is fantasy (no surprise), with 56 books of that genre. Next is general fiction (meaning contemporary, literary, anything like that) with 30 books. Sci-fi and historical fiction tie, both with 23 books. Then comes horror (13 books), classics (10 books), romance (8 books), and mystery/thriller (6 books). As far as nonfiction goes, the highest is general nonfiction--basically poetry--with 14 books, then memoirs (4 books), science nonfiction (3 books), self-help (2 books), and lastly 1 book that was a travel memoir. 

My biggest goal for this year was to read more translated fiction. I added a shelf on Goodreads and everything. In 2021 I managed to read 27 books that were translated from their original language. Check out the next chart for where they were from. 

Naturally, the US, Canada, and the UK are going to dominate the published books I read. 121 books were published in the US, 26 books in the UK, and 13 books in Canada. The rest of the books I read were from a spattering of different countries, written in different languages. The largest number comes from Japan, with 9 books. That shouldn't be a surprise considering I love Japanese literature. Also, remember that this chart doesn't include manga, otherwise the number would be 93, not 9. Next down the line are Ireland and Brazil, both with 4 books, then Australia, Korea, and Italy with 2 books each. The rest of the countries only have 1 book each, and are as follows: China, France, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Greece, the Philippines, Lebanon, Malaysia, and Germany. And that's it! Those are all the books I read, separated by country.

This is a break-down of how many books I read per month. As I said, December was one of the worst months of the year, tied with October for 10 books read. Next is April, with 11 books, then January and May with 12 books each. I read 14 books in November, 15 books in September, 17 books in February, and 20 books in both June and August. March had 21 books, and the most books I read this year in a month was in July with 22 books. 

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Okay, that's all I have for today! Next post will be the best and the worst books of 2021, so be sure to look out for that. It'll be an interesting mix, that's for sure! 

How many books did you read this year? Let me know in the comments, or tweet at me @AllyEmReads. 

Until next time!