Book Lists
Earlier this year, I decided to combine a few of my favorite things: books, lists, and data. I considered making a fun bullet-journal chart out of the results, but that was starting to take up way too much space. So instead I just kept track in a Word document, which is less fun but more practical.
I started keeping track of every book I read in May 2005, right after graduating from the 8th grade. Using the information from that spreadsheet, this is what I’ve discovered: The book I’ve read the most is Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, which I’ve read 5 times. Tied for second place are The Body by Stephen King, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, all of which I’ve read 4 times. While I love all of these books, I probably would not have read them so many times if I didn’t teach them every year. My most-read book that isn’t part of my classroom curriculum is Need by Carrie Jones. I’ve read this book 3 times because I re-read it every time the next book in the series came out. Unsurprisingly, the author I’ve read the most is Stephen King. Considering that I’m attempting to read all of his works in chronological order, it’s a little pathetic that I’ve only read 42 of his books up to this point. At a slightly distant second place is Mary Higgins Clark. I was a little surprised I’ve read only 29 of her books, considering I’ve been reading her stuff since the 5th grade. Coming in third place with 15 books is Meg Cabot, probably because I got really into her books during my first two years of high school. I’m very proud to say that I read way more female authors than male authors. I’ve read female authors 922 times, male authors 672 times, and non-binary authors 2 times. It’s possible that I’ve actually read a few more non-binary authors than that, but those were the only two who specifically identified as non-binary on their “about the author” page. December tends to be my best reading month, probably because of Christmas break. It could also be because December is when I realize that I need to hurry up and attempt to meet my Goodreads goal, so I try to cram in as many books as possible. February, on the other hand, is usually my worst reading month, likely because it’s the shortest month. So far, my best reading year was 2017. I read 220 books that year, and I’m pretty sure it’s because I put myself on a book-buying ban that year, but set aside $1 for every book I read, which I was then allowed to use to buy new books in 2018. Most of the books I read (496 of them) are between 300 and 399 pages long, though I also read a lot of books (448 of them) in the 200 to 299 page range. I’ve read only 5 books that were longer than 1,000 pages, so I might need to work on reading more super-long books. My most-read genre is historical fiction with 129 books, probably because a lot of the books I teach fall into that category. I also read a lot of coming-of-age books (127 of them), but that could be because I often put books into that genre if they’re about young adults and I don’t know what else to label them. I was surprised to discover that I’ve read way more books targeted toward adults (751) than those written for young adults (575). I haven’t read many middle grade novels (164), which isn’t surprising considering I kind of skipped over those even when I was in junior high. I tend to read way more backlist titles than new books, so I’m kind of surprised that most of the books I’ve read were published in 2016 and 2017, 147 and 143 respectively. I’m not sure, though, if I read them right after they came out, or if I’ve read them in the last couple years when they were no longer brand new. Unsurprisingly, I read way more physical copies of books than any other format, with 1,248 of my books being paper copies. I’ve gotten more into audiobooks lately, so those are making a slow rise, though I’m still at only 67 of those. The majority of my books come from my own personal collection, with 398 of them coming from my bookshelves. The next highest number is 264 books, which are from the library I went to at least once a week during high school. Clearly, I know how to pick books because of all the ones I’ve read, I would recommend 1,342 of them and think people should skip 147 of them. Unfortunately, most of the books I’ve read are by American authors (1,126), so I clearly need to do a better job of diversifying my reading. This is also clear based on the fact that I’ve read 1,325 books by white authors and only 122 by authors of color. This is one of those things that I’m sure no one else cares about, but I find it interesting. And this helps me create new reading goals, which is also one of my favorite things!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Jacinta M. CarterProfessional Book Nerd Archives
December 2018
Categories |