How my 2018 Reading Stacks Up To 2017


Now that I've been keeping detailed stats and blogging for almost two years now, I decided I'd compare my stats from this year and last year to see how I'm growing and changing as a reader as well as a reviewer.
Instead of making resolutions or setting a goal for a number of books to read for 2019, I'm just going to aim to keep improving and finding books that I honestly love. It's hard to hold yourself to a certain number when it's hard to predict how the future will go.

2017 Stats
I like to pull many different data points from the books I read. From genre to how many days each book took to who wrote and published it, it's interesting to reflect back. Here's some of the facts I see as most relevant to reflecting how I'm changing as a reader. In 2017, I read 120 total books which seems to be at the top end of what I can manage to read in a year on top of school work and other things. Of these books, 65 of them came from my local library, either in hard copy or by online loan (which is an awesome way to utilize your library if getting there or returning books on time is difficult). 23 of the 120 books were digital books (which shows my preference for paper books, I guess!), and I did listen to one audiobook.
Of the 120 books, 40 of them were new release books in 2017. You'll see how that shifted in 2018 as reading new releases and supporting debut authors became a major priority! 34 books were written by male authors.
Finally, to create an interesting comparison with last year's reading, I read a total of 37,626 pages. There's such a focus put on the number of books read, but the page numbers in each book vary so much that I thought that comparing page numbers year to year might be a more telling factor in how much reading really happened.

2018 Stats
In 2018, I only finished 118 books (I really thought I'd make my goal of matching last year, but nope). Interestingly, though, I read more in 2018. Starting to DNF more books definitely hurt me on my final total. I probably have over thirty books that I read fifty to one hundred pages of before putting them down, and I don't record books I DNF. That's one thing I'm changing this year. I want to see how many books I'm putting down and how many pages I read before then. 
There were a lot of major shifts in my reading habits in 2018, and I think they mostly have come from being a more experienced blogger and being more involved in the publishing and author communities. This has lead me to put a major focus on promoting debuts, and I like to read current books to add to unfolding conversations. I read 66 new releases which means that 56% of the books I read were 2018 releases (and there were a few 2019s that didn't count for this!). Also, of the 121 authors I read (there were some co-written books), only nineteen of them were by male authors. YA is truly an awesome, women dominated space that is so much fun to read from. 
When it comes to where I sourced my books this year, there was a drop in books that came from the library, only 36, but 40 of the books I read were advanced copies. 
Finally, even without counting my DNF'd pages, or the reading I did for school (this year I did school the whole year and didn't really take breaks which made me get creative with reading time), I managed to read 40,560 pages which is far more than last year, even if I didn't finish as many books. Seeing this divide between books and pages read made me decide that I'm not putting out a book goal, but I'm guessing, it will ultimately fall between 115 and 120, though maybe starting my gap year in the fall will give me a boost in my reading!

As a Reviewer
I also decided to look at how many books I gave different levels of stars. In 2018, I had 4 5++++ extra special books which made me super happy. These books are included in my favorites of 2018 below. In 2017, I hadn't thought of the 5++++ books, but I did give out 37 five star reviews, and 93 total reviews that I gave 4 stars or more. In 2018 I gave 100 reviews over 4 stars which hopefully means I'm getting better at picking books I'll love. I think it's also a product of only finishing books I'm enjoying. 

In closing, I'm really proud of what I've managed to do in 2018! I've managed to keep up my three times a week posting schedule for the whole year, grown the Instagram, met awesome authors and other bloggers on Twitter, and honestly put a lot of effort into creating the best content possible. If you'd like to support the blog, people subscribe to our email service so that you don't miss a post and follow on Instagram (@readingwritingandme) and Twitter (@readwriteandme and @mslaurenbrice). I'll link my top books of 2017 and 2018 below so that you can see my favorites of the last 2 years!

Books You May Like...
Top Reads of 2018: Here
To Reads of 2017: Here

Links of Interest:
A Quiet Kind of Thunder: Review Here
Field Guide to the North American Teenager: Review Here
The Summer of Jordi Perez: Review Here
The Me I Meant To Be: Review Here

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