After the list of my 2019 favorites, here are my statistics.
Then tomorrow you can see the fun I had with the titles I read in 2019.

Year of reading 2019
Part 2: Statistics

As I wrote yesterday, if 2018 was my most pathetic year in the last decade, with only 77 books read, 2019 is my best year, with 118 books!
I read and listened to many more books than last year, though apparently shorter ones.
90 books reads (61 in 2018), and 28 listened to (16 in 2018) = 118, which is an average of 9.8/month (77 books in 2018, with a monthly average of 6.4).

Books read in 2019:
90. That’s an average of 7.5/month
Total of 23,033 pages (17,761 in 2018), which is an average of 63 pages/day (48 in 2018).
That’s an average of 255 pages/book (291 in 2018). So I actually read shorter books this year. It makes sense with all the mangas I read!

Books listened to in 2019:
28 [16 in 2018]. This is an average of 2.3/month (1.3 in 2018)
Total of 14,323 mn (10,405 min in 2018) with an average of 39 mn/day (28 in 2018)
That’s an average of over 8 hours/audiobook. (10 hours/audiobook in 2018, so I also listened to shorter audiobooks)

In graphs, this is what it looks like:

 

So many months with average over 60, compared to 2018!

 

Those 2 peaks over an hour are impressive!

 

Nonfiction actually same percentage 3 years in a row!
And I like this better balance.

 

I decided to include here a Graphic Novel section,
as I read 20 this year.
Otherwise, about the same,
though less ebooks and more audiobooks

 

Some of you are may be appalled,
but honestly, as long as a book is well written,
I really don’t care if a man or a woman wrote it

 

9 more countries represented than last year,
mostly due to the fact that I was part of
the Man Booker International Prize Shadow Panel

 

6 more languages than last year!
Neat that less than half of the books I read
were not originally published in English.
Also due to the Shadow Panel.
I actually read exactly as many books translated into English
as published originally in English (51)!

In translation: 51 [21 in 2018]:

• 19 from the Japanese (mostly mangas)
• 6 from the French
• 5 from the Russian
• 4 from the Spanish
• 3 from he Korean
• 2 from the Chinese, Polish, Swedish, Arabic, Dutch, German
• 1 from the Serbian and from the Aleut!
  I’m super happy about this one from the Aleut. It’s a short Orthodox spiritual book written by Bishop Innocent when he was working with missions in Alaska.
  I originally thought it was translated from the Russian, but then I realized Saint Innocent of Moscow actually wrote it directly in Aleut! (he taught himself several local languages in Alaska)

16 in original language: in French

Out of a Total of 90 authors (60 in 2018)
53 were new to me (58%. It was 55% in 2018)

Books by the same author: 32 [22 in 2018]:
15 by Hayao Miyazaki (Mangas)
4 by Guillaume Musso
3 by Katherine Applegate
and 2 by Michel Bussi, Sarah Bailey, Candice Fox, Ichigo Takano, Clement Sederholm

Re-Reads:
Le Horla, by Guy de Maupassant (first time read, this time: listened to)

Oldest: Don Quixote, 1st part, by Cervantes (1604)
Newest: Lady Clementine, by Marie Benedict, and Dreamland, by Nancy Bilyeau, to be released at the beginning of January 2020.

 

A bit less books published after 2010 than last year.
I do try to go through classics and old TBRs

 

NB: Most books bought are part of my EStories audio subscription.
11% less books received for review than last year!
Indeed, I try to exercise more discernment on what I request or not

21 countries these books led me to (19 last year):
US (22), France (21),
Japan (18), England (12),
Russia (7), Australia (5),
3 were set in Spain, South Korea, and space,
2 were set in Germany, China, and Canada.
1 was set in Morocco, Norway, Malaysia, Switzerland, Austria, Oman, Poland, Columbia, and Czechoslovakia.

Shortest book: Bear and Wolf, by Daniel Salmieri –  44 pages (picture book)

Longest book: La vie mode d’emploi, by Georges Pérec – 580 pages.

Longest audio: The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins – 22:28 hours

Funniest: Are We French Yet? by Keith Van Sickle = nonfiction on life of expats 

Most Unique Book: Secret Agent Brainteasers: More Than 100 Codebreaking Puzzles Inspired by Britain’s Espionage Masterminds, by Sinclair McKay

Most tearjerker: The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate

Most disappointing (and totally unbearable): Valerie, by Sara Stridsberg

Creepy: Scare Me, by Richard Jay Parker

Eye-opener: Talk to Me: How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Think, by James Vlahos

Best reading companion: Quichotte, by Salman Rushdie (as a spin off on Don Quixote, by Cervantes, that I also read this year)

Beautiful illustrations: The Secret World of Arrietty, vol. 1 by Hayao Miyazaki

Biggest discovery: Hayao Miyazaki (several books), and Liu Cixin

Favorite characters of the year: Louis and Sam (The Trumpet of the Swan), Trace (Trace), Naho & Kakeru (Orange), Colin (Sang Famille), Jayme (A Long Way Down), Azi (The Gomorrah Gambit), Arrietty (The Secret World of Arrietty), Joshua (Avalanche hôtel), Alexander (Alexander Schmorell), Satsuki and Mei (My Neighbor Totoro), Giordano Bruno (Treachery), Mrs Bunting (The Lodger), Ivan (The One and Only Ivan), Sarah & Christopher (le cri).

Classics I finally got to read:
Don Quixote, by Cervantes
On the Edge of the World, by Nikolai Leskov
The Castle of Otranto, by Horace Walpole
Tender is the Night, by Fitzgerald
Parnassus on Wheels, by Christopher Morley
Walden, by Thoreau,
Travels with Charley, by Steinbeck
Dictionnaire des idées reçues, by Flaubert
Travels with a Donkey, by Stevenson
The Lodger, by Marie Belloc Lowndes
The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins
Le mystère de la chambre jaune, by Gaston Leroux
The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgard Allan Poe
The Mystery of the Hansom Cab, by Fergus Hume
We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Solaris, by Lem
Childhood’s End, by Clarke
The Trumpet of the Swan, by E. E. White

Books present for a while on my TBR that I finally got to read (other than the classics just mentioned):
Prayers by the Lake, by Nikolai Velimirovich
La vie mode d’emploi, by Georges Pérec
Earthern Vessels, by Gabriel Bunge
Poustinia, by Catherine de Hueck Doherty
If You Love Me, by Matthew the Poor
Elder Leonid of Optina, by Fr Clement Sederholm
Elder Anthony of Optina, by Fr. Clement Sederholm
Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven, by Saint Innocent of Moscow

Which authors new to me in 2019 that I now want to keep reading?
Un-Su Kim, Pat Cummings, Poschmann, Tom Chatfield, Candice Fox, Sarah Bailey, Olivier Norek, Salman Rushdie, Arthur C. Clarke, Liu Cixin, Marie Belloc Lowndes, Nicolas Beuglet

New Series I want to pursue:
Crimson Lake, Gemma Woodstock, Sarah Geringën

Best title: HHhH, by Laurent Binet

Longest book title:
Secret Agent Brainteasers: More Than 100 Codebreaking Puzzles Inspired by Britain’s Espionage Masterminds, by Sinclair McKay

Shortest book title: We, by Yevgeny Zamyatin

MORE FUN RECAP TOMORROW!

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