I can’t believe that we’re halfway through 2021 already, I really don’t know where the time has gone. I always love looking at my reading spreadsheets at this point in the year to see how my reading looks like so far.
I set my reading goal at 100 books for this year and I’ve already completed my Goodreads challenge. I set my goal to less than normal as I was hoping to focus on reading some bigger books this year but so far that hasn’t really happened. I’m happy to have finished 116 books already though and am looking forward to reading lots more books over the second half of the year.
The longest book that I’ve read so far this year is The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer by Joel Dicker – my edition had 640 pages. The shortest book I’ve read was one I grabbed on a whim while I have a free trial of Kindle Unlimited – Suzy Lamplugh: Missing by Netta Newbound which had 49 pages. The average page count of books I’ve read this year is 344, which I’m very happy with.
This is the breakdown of genres that I’ve read this year. I’m fairly happy with the spread of what I’m reading although I’m a little disappointed that the nonfiction reads amount to a combined total of just 19.1% as I usually read more. I think it’s down to life being stressful and my anxiety levels being high and so I’ve sought out escapism in thrillers and general fiction. I hope as life begins to feel more normal that my reading tastes will start to go back to how they used to be and I might get more nonfiction read then.
As is definitely the norm for me I’ve read far more female authors than male this year. I’ve never consciously picked more books by female authors it’s just how my reading naturally seems to fall and I’m happy with this.
This chart shows the format of books that I’ve been reading this year. I’m surprised that the audiobook percentage is so low but I think this is because my husband only went back to work (after being on furlough) a month or so ago so up until then I didn’t have as much chance to listen to books. I have still been buying audiobooks though so I have lots to look forward to listening to over the rest of the year. My ebook reading percentage is very high but I’ve been reading my way through my NetGalley books and also due to my new eye problem I struggle to read print books now and need to be able to adjust the size of font. I think going forward my reading will be pretty much all ebooks and audiobooks, with the occasional print book in the mix as I do still have print books on my bookcase that I’d like to read if I can.
This chart shows where I acquired the books that I’ve been reading in 2021. This breakdown is about what I expected it to be as I’ve really been focusing on reading NetGalley books this year as I try to catch up on ARCs. A lot of my review copies were acquired last year so it’s been good to finally get those read and reviewed.
This chart shows where I’ve been getting my books from in 2021. I always like to look at this chart in my spreadsheet as it shows that while I am lucky to receive and read ARCs I do still buy the vast majority of my books. I always want to support authors and publishers so I’m really pleased with how my acquisitions breakdown.
So that’s my 2021 reading so far in statistics!
How is your reading going this year? I hope you’re reading lots of lovely books. 🙂
RatherTooFondofBooks 
That’s an interesting reflection and kind of mirrors my experience although I can’t do the pretty graphs because I keep a journal which is handwritten (in my 21st year this year so I have a little collection of them).. Novels because they provide escapism and most books just over 300 pages. I aim for 25% of my books read to be factual but miss that target every year ! About 75% of my books are written by women. Looks like you are heading for over 200 on the year – lots of exciting books yet to read.
Great stats! I also seem to read more female authors than male…and my thrillers hold a larger percentage of my reading, too.
Congrats! Those stats have me in awe 😍
I’ve never purposely read female authors over male but I bet it works out to 95% female.
Your stats look great and I hope you have a great second half of the year!
your stats look good! congrats on achieving your goodreads goal so fast!
Wow, so many ARCs! Looking at mine, though this month’s are on it, too, I’m on 24% NetGalley myself, which I think is higher than usual, 52% non-fiction, which is higher than usual and must mean I’m reading a LOT less general fiction, as 13 of my 83 books or 40 fiction books will have been Anne Tylers! I’m on 59% female but I have some by both and some by both and genderfree as well. Fun times! And I wish you happy reading for the rest of the year – well done on hitting your target already!
I always love stats posts and it was great seeing your stats so far this year! I seem to read mostly female authors too despite not actively picking books that way… And you are doing way better reading non fiction than me. xD Congrats for completing your goodreads goal already!
I’m impressed by the thoroughness of your tracking. Its about all i can do to keep track of the total number of books and how many I’ve read for each project
Love seeing people’s stats