The grand total is in! I finished 117 books in 2015!
117!!
In 2014, I read 94 books. I gave myself the goal of passing 100 this year. So...mission accomplished! Way to go, self. :)
I've been keeping a running reading list all year long—and I've been logging a lot more info than simply what I read and whether I enjoyed it. I decided I wanted a glimpse of my reading habits as a whole. And long story short, I'm so glad I did this! Not only is it interesting to see the trends (or at least, it's interesting to me), this is helping me set new reading goals for 2016.
So, without further ado:
Clearly, this was a year jam-packed with YA. I read so many of my fellow 2015 debuts' books, and many of them write YA. Plus, I met so many other YA authors at various events this year, and found myself wanting to read everything they wrote! Luckily, young adult literature just keeps getting better and better. I don't regret any bit of that 78.6%. That said, here's goal #1 for 2016:
I want to read more adult literature next year. There are some amazing adult books on my radar—one of them, ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE, was a Christmas present, and I dove right in. Not that I plan to read less kidlit, but maybe I can strike a better balance.
Next:
This one crosses all age demographics—and I'll say up front that there are a lot of genre-crossing books that I pushed into one category or another. Also, within that Sci-Fi / Fantasy pie slice, I've slotted books that are technically magical realism, steampunk, speculative fiction, and other subgenres. The pie chart was getting so unwieldy with all the tiny slices! But the clear winner here is realistic fiction—a minor surprise, given that I really do love the fantastic and magical. Goal for 2016:
More nonfiction, for sure. Out of those 117 books, only one was nonfiction. I can do better!
Moving on:
2015 was the year of the ARC. Being in a debut group means having the chance to read your peers' books months before release. With my debut year over, that ARC access is about to dry up. So, I expect the library slice to grow in 2016. (After all, I don't have unlimited book-buying funds—or unlimited shelf space in my Brooklyn apartment!)
Those were the three charts I originally planned to make, but once I started parsing my list, I couldn't stop, so here are two more:
As my bookshelves grow ever more packed, I've been making a conscious effort to return to books I enjoyed rather than always jumping at the newest thing out there. In 2015, I reread seven books that I loved the first time around—and I was pleased to love them again! I want to do more rereading in 2016, when I don't have a constant stream of debut ARCs landing in my mailbox.
I was also very curious about the diversity of my reading list. I started by looking at the male/female breakdown and was pleased to see how many awesome ladies' books passed through my hands in 2015. But in terms of other criteria (for instance, books with non-white authors and characters), I didn't do quite as well. In 2016, I definitely want to seek out more diverse stories—especially "own voices" books (stories told by authors who share the protagonist's race, religion, sexuality, disability, etc.). My world has expanded so much through the characters I've met in literature—and I want that to happen on an even bigger scale.
So that's it for now! Do you keep track of your reading habits? Do you have reading goals for 2016? (Oh, by the way—I'm not setting a numerical goal for the next year. I just want to see where the reading winds take me.)
Here's to a wonderful reading year!
~Kathryn