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!

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save