2019 certainly had it's ups and downs in terms of reading slumps and very productive reading months. Overall, it was a big improvement on last year so I'm happy with the outcome!
In total, I read 51 books spanning 19,157 pages. My average rating this year was 3.78. The longest book I read was The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and the shortest book was The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin.
The highest rated book from Goodreads was The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The most popular book was The Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman, and the least popular was The Christmas Wishlist by Heidi Swann.
Here is a break down of some stats!
Adult vs Young Adult
Adult: 43
Young Adult: 8
This wasn't all that surprising to me. I have recently seen some YA titles that are of interest, but the copies are generally all recent and therefore very expensive - let's see if I can read a few more next year!
Contemporary: 12
Non-Fiction: 10
Historical Fiction: 5
Fantasy: 5
Self Help: 2
Mystery: 3
Horror: 1
Thriller: 1
Sci-Fi: 4
Romance: 2
Chick Lit: 3
Short Stories: 2 Classics: 1
Where were all the thrillers this year? This might entirely explain my extreme reading slumps during the first half of the year. There is more fantasy here than expected - this is due to reading the Northern Lights trilogy which I didn't enjoy, and The Priory of the Orange Tree which I also didn't enjoy. I loved The Night Circus, but this seems to be much more magical realism than fantasy. I feel confident now with saying I am officially not a fan of this genre - it's just not my cup of tea!
Release Year
1939: 1
1954: 1
1963: 1
1995: 1
1996: 1
1997: 1
1999: 1
2000: 1
2003: 1
2007: 2
2009: 3
2017: 9
2018: 10
2019: 14
Really happy to have read more recent releases this year. I'm definitely going to keep this split up of books released over the last couple of years plus backlist.
Female vs Male Authors
Female: 36
Male: 15
I actually was expecting this to be much more uneven. I am impressed with the number of male authors I have read from this year. I have a hunch 2020 will be heavily in favour of the ladies. Sorry gents!
Author Origin
UK: 26
USA: 17
Australia: 1
Israel: 1
Nigeria: 1
Canada: 2
New Zealand: 3
So happy to see I'm reading so many UK authors! Important to note: this does not represent author ethnicity.
Read Before vs New Author
Read before: 8
New author: 43
This is a nice improvement from last year, seeing as I'd only read new authors. I don't feel like I'll be able to keep this up unfortunately. I'm surprised I managed 8!
Books per Month
January: 2
February: 0
March: 1
April: 2
May: 0
June: 1
July: 3
August: 5
September: 12
October: 6
November: 9
December: 10
This definitely puts my reading slump on display. It shows that yet again September is my best reading month - I don't know if I'll ever manage to read 12 books in one month again though...
Books per Season
Winter: 12
Spring: 3
Summer: 9
Autumn: 27
What was I doing in spring? Not reading.
Cover Colours
White: 11
Black: 6
Pink: 3
Red: 8
Orange: 4
Yellow: 4
Green: 4
Blue: 12
I don't know what this all means, I just think it's pretty.
Ratings
1.5 stars: 2
2 stars: 2
2.5 stars: 2
3 stars: 5
3.5 stars: 11
4 stars: 14
4.5 stars: 7
5 stars: 8
Over half of the books I read were 4 stars or more - happy with these numbers!
And there you have it - my full year of reading stats in 2019! This was a massive improvement on last year, however a vast majority of these books were read in the second half of the year. So, my goal for next year will be to keep keep out of a reading slump consistently and see how many books I can get through.