After the list of my 2018 favorites, here are my statistics.
Then tomorrow you can see the fun I had with the titles I read in 2018.
Year of reading 2018
Part 2: Statistics
2018 was my most pathetic reading year of the decade, as for numbers. But I did read some amazing books. Also less books, less pages, but longer books apparently, and longer audiobooks.
I read more books than last year, though apparently shorter ones, so less pages! But the big difference is in audiobooks.
61 books reads (88 in 2017), and 16 listened to (25 in 2017) = 77, which is an average of 6.4/month (113 books in 2017, with a monthly average of 9.4).
Books read in 2018:
61. That’s an average of 5/month
Total of 17,761 pages (23,037 in 2017), which is an average of 48 pages/day (63 in 2017).
That’s an average of 291 pages/book, (261 in 2017!). So I read longer books this year.
Books listened to in 2018:
16 [25 in 2017]. This is an average of 1.3/month (2.08 in 2017)
Total of 10,405 mn (11,654 min in 2017) with an average of 28 mn/day (31 in 2017)
That’s an average of over 10 hours/audiobook.
In graphs, this is what it looks like:
End of year in crescendo, trying to catch up a bit!!
Same idea!!
Nonfiction actually same average as last year.
12% more mystery than in 2017!
About half in print!
= getting close in balance
7 less countries represented than last year.
Same number of languages as last year.
Neat that almost half of the books I read
were not originally published in English
In translation: 21 [22 in 2017]:
- 7 from the French
- 6 from the Japanese
- 4 from the Spanish
- 1 from the Russian, the Greek, the Korean, and the Serbo-Croat
14 in original language: in French
Out of a Total of 60 authors (85 in 2017)
33 were new to me (55%. It was 56% in 2017)
Books by the same author: 22 [35 in 2017]:
6 by Fred Vargas
6 by Michel Bussi
4 by Anthony Horowitz
and 2 by Marie Benedict, by Masako Togawa, and by Randall Silvis
Re-Reads:
Being There, by Jerzy Kosinski
Armada, by Ernest Cline (first time read, this time: listened to)
Oldest:Letters to Saint Olympia, by Saint John Chrysostom (407)
Newest: The Book Artist, by Mark Pryor,
and The Only Woman in the Room,, by Marie Benedict
(both to be released on Jan 8, 2019)
3% more of brand new books
About same as usual
Most books bought are part of my EStories audio subscription
19 countries these books led me to (20 last year):
France (26), US (24), England (12), Japan (7), Russia (3).
2 were set in Scotland, Cuba, and Austria.
1 was set in Australia, Morocco, Canada, Bulgaria, La Réunion, Spain, Kazakhstan, Bosnia, Wales, Chili, and on the Moon
Shortest book: The Provocative Colette, by Annie Goetzinger – 108 pages (graphic “novel” – Colette’s biography)
Longest book: Killing Commendatore, by Murakami – 681 pages.
Longest audio: Le temps est assassin, by Michel Bussi – 15:17 hours
Funniest: Little Culinary Triumphs, by Pascale Pujol
Most Unique Book: 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style, by Matt Madden
Most tear-jerker: On la trouvait plutôt jolie, de Michel Bussi
Most disappointing: Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver
Creepy: Walking the Bones, by Randall Silvis
Eye-opener: Democracy in Chains, by Nancy MacLean
Best reading companion: Conan Doyle for the Defense, by Margalit Fox
Beautiful illustrations: Che: A Revolutionary Life, by Jon Lee Anderson
Biggest discovery: Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles
Favorite characters of the year: Alex (Alex Rider series), Pâquerette (Defy the Night), Abbas (Love and Invention), Leyli (On la trouvait plutôt jolie), Chance (Being There), Geneviève (The Blue), Zack (Armada), Alexandra and Bobby (The Shadow Land), Marianne (Maman a tort), Tom (Visiting Tom), Che, Sprout (The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly), Jamal (N’ounlier jamais)
Classics I finally got to read:
The Master Key, by Masako Togawa
Portrait of a Murderer: A Christmas Crime story, by Anne Meredith
The Bridge on the Drina, by Ivo Andric
The Face of Another, by Kobo Abe
Whose Body?, by Dorothy L. Sayers
The Lady Killer, by Masako Togawa
A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway
Books present for a while on my TBR that I finally got to read (other than the classics just mentioned):
Coffin Road, by Peter May
Defy the Night, by Heather and Lydian Munn
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, by Thad Carhart
While Beauty Slept, by Elizabeth Blackwell
The Shadow Land, by Elizabeth Kostova
Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Present Day, by Andrew Louth
Which authors new to me in 2018 that I now want to keep reading?
Margalit Fox, Peter May, Sun-Mi Hwang
New Series I want to pursue:
Alex Rider
Best title: Minced, Marinated, and Murdered, by Noel Balen and Vanessa Barrot
Longest book title:
The Ship, the Saint, and the Sailor: The Long Search for the Legendary Kad’yak, by Bardley G. Stevens
Shortest book title: Go, by Kazuki Kaneshiro
MORE FUN RECAP TOMORROW!
Words And Peace 
Nice…I love lists, stats, charts.
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I enjoy doing this every year. Tomorrow, more fun lists!
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Pingback: Year of reading 2018: Part 1 – My top 14 | Words And Peace
Stats are interesting. In 2018 I read 146 books, 46540 pp. That breaks down to 128 average pages a day and 2.8 books per week. Average pages per book were 318, so I must have read some really short ones because I also read some really long ones!
As did you.
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wow, that’s awesome!
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Pingback: 2018: December wrap-up | Words And Peace
I love Anthony Horowitz!
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I know, what an amazing author. I’m also thoroughly enjoying his YA series with Alex Rider
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Very impressive statistics, and I love how you have divided them into different view points. Apart from the high percentage for mysteries, we have more or less read the same percentage for the various categories! Awesome. I wonder though, so many mysteries and non of them Swedish or Scandinavian? A new world of thrillers to discover, but I must admit that they sometimes are too ‘bloody’. What is wrong with a good old fashion murder in the library? Does it have to be so brutal?
I really love how you managed to read so many different nationalities. I have to check how I was doing. Could be a good challenge for 2019 to spread the nationalities of the authors.
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I do have Scandinavians mysteries on my TBR, so one day!
Any favorite of yours you would recommend?
A few years ago, I read a stunning book translated from the Swedish. Not mystery, but so so good: https://wordsandpeace.com/2015/05/01/iffp-2015-review-the-ravens/
Happy New Year of reading to you!
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Thank you for your comment on the statistics and for your review of The Raven. I left a comment on your post. Sounds like a terrific read, and I will certainly read the book. Will look for it at the library next time I am there.
For Scandinavian/Nordic authors here some favourites: Arnaldur Indridason and Ragnar Jonasson (Iceland), Karin Alvtegen (Swedish), not really a traditional mystery, more on the psychological side of life, Jørn Lier Horst (Norwegian), only read one book but liked it and many, many more!
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Snowblind (Dark Iceland #1), by Ragnar Jónasson is on my TBR
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Read it quickly! His books are good. Hard to put down.
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ok, thanks!
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I totally enjoy reading stats! You did great on reading books in translation. That’s one area I always try to make sure that I read at least several. I didn’t do as well last year overall but hopefully this year will be better!
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Being a translator myself, I love international fiction. by the way, what’s your website? the ID given with your comment is bookgirl.net, which apparently is not. I’d like to go to your blog
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Love it! And I like the inclusion of publication year and oldest to newest book…I might steal that idea for next year myself:)
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please do. and you can use my sheet with all the categories. I fill it in after each book, to make it super easy at the end of the year: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jNczoefgG6vn4QBqf07FKNoQ1BwXtbrb4Z6KfhaV0n8/edit?usp=sharing
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I love your charts. Good on you reading so many library books.
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thanks, it’s fun to do. And why would I buy books when they are right there?
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I love reading all these posts with our reading stats for the year. It feels good to look back at what we’ve read and evaluate, right? 🙂
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loving it!!
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Ooh, I like your idea of tracking how much you read each month! I should add that to my summary next year 🙂 And I also read books from fewer countries last year. I’m hoping to get that number back up in 2019!
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Feel free to use my google doc form [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jNczoefgG6vn4QBqf07FKNoQ1BwXtbrb4Z6KfhaV0n8/edit?usp=sharing]. If you fill it after each book, it’s super easy at the end of your month: https://wordsandpeace.com/2019/02/01/2019-january-wrap-up/, and at the end of your year. For this mega stats, the first year I did these charts with excel. I kept the file: you then just need to change the numbers in the columns (those that generate the pies and such), and your chart/pies, gets automatically updated. So it’s a lot of work the very first year only
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Your statistics are impressive! Even if you say it is not a good year)))
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thanks. Because I usually read about 30 more books
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