What with Covid ruining the holidays and a cat who’s been to the vet twice in two days, I’m wishing 2022 good riddance. (The only good thing the end of the year brought is a visit from my sister, who hadn’t been to the UK in 15.5 years. After a few cautionary days at a hotel in London, she’s been staying with us and enjoying the slower pace of life of these quiet, rainy days.) It was still a good reading year for me, though; I worried my total might plummet after my mom’s passing, but I found I read as much as ever, just maybe shorter books and more rereads. Late in the year I realized matching the previous three years’ total of 340 books wasn’t going to happen, so reduced my goal accordingly and managed to surpass it yesterday.
How I did with my 2022 goals
My goal for 2022 (which I had completely forgotten about!) was to read mostly backlist books. In fact, I read 44.9% current-year releases, which means 55.1% older material – even if just 2021 or 2020 releases. This is actually higher than my 41.8% new releases last year, so it looks like I failed to live up to the letter of my resolution, but still happened to read well over half “older” books.
Once again, my initial goal for the new year will be to get through all my set-aside books and my review backlog shelf. After that … I’ll just read some books and hope to enjoy them.
The statistics
Fiction: 53.3%
Nonfiction: 33%
Poetry: 13.7%
(Fiction and nonfiction are usually just about equal for me; I’m surprised that fiction pulled well ahead this year. I read a bit less poetry this year than last.)
Female author: 72.3%
Male author: 23%
Nonbinary author: 1.7%
Multiple genders (anthologies): 3%
(I’ve been reading more and more by women each year, but this is the first time that female + nonbinary authors have outnumbered men by more than 3:1.)
BIPOC author: 20.7%
(The second time I have specifically tracked this figure. I’m pleased that it’s higher than last year’s 18.5%, but will continue to work towards 25% or more.)
Work in translation: 8.7%
(Better than last year’s 5%! But I’d still like to get closer to 10%.)
E-books: 26.3%
Print books: 73.7%
(The number of e-books has doubled since last year because of my increase in reviewing for Kirkus and Shelf Awareness, for which I exclusively read e-books.)
Rereads: 12 (3.5%)
(The same number as last year, so one per month seems to be what I naturally gravitate towards. I have a whole shelf of books I’d love to reread, though, so I’d like it to be more like 2–3 a month.)
Where my books came from for the whole year, compared to last year:
- Free print or e-copy from publisher: 42% (↑10.2%)
- Public library: 30% (↑5.3%)
- Downloaded from NetGalley or Edelweiss: 7% (↑1.1%)
- Secondhand purchase: 6.7% (↓10.1%)
- New purchase (sometimes) at a bargain price): 4.7% (↓0.9%)
- Gifts: 4% (↑2%)
- Free (giveaways, The Book Thing of Baltimore, the free mall bookshop, etc.): 2.6% (↓6.7%)
- University library: 2.3% (↓1.5%)
- Borrowed: 0.7% (↑0.7%)
Additional statistics courtesy of Goodreads:
67,899 pages read
Average book length: 225 pages
Average rating for 2022: 3.6
Happy new year!
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I’m always fascinated by other people’s statistics without having the smallest desire to compile my own (I couldn’t. The maths lobe in my brain is entirely absent). There was me though, feeling OK about some 130 books. How DO you do it? No bed? No meals? No life? I simply can’t imagine! Looking forward to your take on 2023!
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I have blog and Goodreads friends who read 50, 80, 100, 120, 150, 180, 200, and all other figures you can imagine, up to a maximum of 440, I think it was, from Buried in Print last year. Any of these totals are impressive and to non-bookish types would be unimaginable! Reading is pretty much my only hobby and also forms part of my work. I eat meals (but don’t cook them) and love to sleep; most of my socializing and volunteering is book-adjacent. The main thing I usually attribute my comparative bounty of reading time to is a lack of telly, smartphone and children.
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Hardly watch TV: not a smart phone addict, though I have one and children flown the nest. I have no excuses!
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Stunned by that total, particularly given what this year’s thrown at you. Enjoy your sister’s visit and I hope the cat is recovering.
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Thanks, Susan. On the low side for me but very high in most people’s book, as I can appreciate! We had a nice time with my sister, though it was quite the whirlwind trip with under a week here. The cat is back to his normal self but gave us quite the scare on NYE.
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The statistics seem challenging. Yes, would be good to read more in translation. I inherited some eastern European books from a writer friend. Still working through them but quite different. Not sure too how you manage to read so much. I have to listen more now as my eyes get tired and not keen on Kindle. Happy 2023 and look forward to reading about your books!
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My knowledge of Eastern European literature is nearly nonexistent. I feel like reading work in translation is good for broadening one’s perspective. I read for pleasure as well as for paid reviews and devote up to six hours to it per day.
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300 is still a mega target to achieve, although I realise some for is professional purposes. This year, I’ve read more in translation and half as much as usual by US authors, which has actually been great!
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Well done, you! I need to do better with translated books. I don’t track the nationality of authors like you do, but I expect US and UK would be almost matched.
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Happy New Year Beck, and wishing you a wonderful reading year.
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Thank you, Kate, and the same to you!
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I’m so sorry you had rubbish holidays. Hope things are better this year!
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We had a Christmas ‘do-over’ yesterday, and did actually manage to get to a NYE party, so those get-togethers plus some video chats and a short visit from my sister lifted my spirits. 2023 can only be better, I hope!
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I hope you and your cat are feeling much better now! I enjoy reading about everyone’s stats and goals. 300 books is quite a feat by any standard. Happy reading in 2023.
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I was still testing positive yesterday morning, but I think traces of virus in the system last much longer than actual infectiousness/symptoms. We’re pretty much back to normal now, as is the cat.
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Hope you are both feeling better now, Sarah and Zoe have both had it this Christmas, but are more or less clear now.
Great set of stats. Makes my 190 seem quite pathetic!
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We’re coughing a bit but pretty much recovered now, thanks, Paul. So sorry your wife and daughter were ill for Christmas! That must have been a particular worry for Sarah.
You’re no reading slouch! I’m amazed that you read so much with a full-time non-book-related job and three kids.
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Glad to hear it. Very worrying. I was at the hospital on Christmas Eve collecting another large box of tablets. It did the trick though. And I still haven’t had it!
I think that I don’t read enough, and then I speak to others who are rightly proud of reading twelve books and then it makes me think that I do read more than most…
To be fair, two of them are now adult kids now (21 & 19)
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We thought we’d done well not to catch Covid for the first 2.5+ years.
That’s true, I know people whose goal is to read a book a month and for some that’s what their life allows (a few pages before bed each night, probably).
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Fab total, well done! I was pleased with mine and I think you did well, too. Interesting we both read more fiction than usual last year – a lot of good stuff around or more review stuff in ebooks? Dunno. Anyway, happy reading in 2023 and hope puss is OK (let’s not go there with cat woes but I sympathise).
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I didn’t feel like I was reading more fiction than usual, but statistics don’t lie!
The cat is completely back to normal now but had a scary wobble on New Year’s Eve.
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