2019 Book Wrap Up

I’m mainly writing this post for myself because I like to keep track of my books all year and then look back at the arbitrary statistics. In 2018, I read 89 books, so I set my goal for 2019 at 88 books. I knew the year was going to be wonky, so I felt like that was reasonable. I hit 88 books at the end of October and finished the year with 108 books, reaching 124% of my goal.

If you’d like to see a complete listing of the books I read, you can check my Goodreads 2019 Year in Books page. Something is wrong with their algorithm, and it says I read 109. I know this is incorrect because I keep a detailed spreadsheet for myself all year long. This is one more argument for trusting humans over machines--DO NOT LET THE ROBOTS TAKE OVER. I digress.

Here’s some yummy graphs of my 2019 books by the numbers:

I want to add a few notes that will tell the story behind the numbers.

1. I separated out the memoirs instead of lumping them with all nonfiction because I read so many this year. I also noted that I read zero poetry books this year, and that is sad. I did write a lot of poetry, so perhaps that’s why.

2. My audiobooks percentage is higher than normal which points to the pace of my lifestyle this year. I read very few meaty/literary books.

3. The year of publication points to the fact that I was intentional about reading more diverse books this year. The publishing industry is slowly putting out and promoting authors that aren’t white and male (seriously, they are embarrassingly behind the times). Because I went into 2019 with that intention, I read a lot of books very close to their publication dates--thus the heavy skew toward recent publications.

4. I have a very high percentage of American authors, but among that percentage, I read a much higher percentage from people of color including more Asian-American authors than ever. For whatever reason, I ended up reading several books by people with Korean or Singaporean heritage.

5. I always skew female, but I think it will be interesting to see how the publishing landscape changes over the next few years to include more members from the nonbinary and trans communities. I have so much to learn from these stories.

6. My ratings are crazy high this year--mostly 4s and 5s, and I think that’s because I was emotionally spent most of 2019 and thus empathetic. More than ever before, I rounded up and gave generous ratings. I also think the fact that I read so many memoirs affected this because I am always more generous in my reviews of true, personal stories.

And finally--the notable books from this year:

Shortest: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (re-read for probably the fifth time) at 137 pages.

Longest: The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand at 581 pages.

I noticed a read a ton of books this year with really long titles. The longest was Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis by Sam Anderson. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan was a close second.

Here are a few favorites:

Middle Grade Fiction: Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

Young Adult Fiction: Unwind and Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Adult Non-fiction: Boom Town by Sam Anderson, My Grandfather’s Blessings by Rachel Naomi Remen, and Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness

Adult Fiction: Shtum by Jem Lester and My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

Honestly, it was really hard to narrow the non-fiction titles because I read and adored about fifteen that really knocked my socks off. I decided for 2020 to keep an actual book journal for the first time in addition to using Goodreads and my spreadsheet. It’s part creative outlet, part community building (because some of my favorite book people do this), and part therapy. There’s something about taking the time to write things down on paper that soothes me. I’ve spent the last month coming up with the ideas for what I want to include and look forward to sharing that with you at the end of the year.

Happy reading, friends!