A Look Back at My Year in Books

 

 

I’m kind of a stats nerd, so I always love to look at my end of year reading recap on Goodreads.  I’ve never actually shared my stats on the blog before, but I enjoyed Birdie Bookworm’s 2017 Goodreads Year in Books post so much that I decided to follow her lead and share how I did reading-wise in 2017.

 

READING CHALLENGE AND OVERALL READING TOTALS

 

 

 

As you can see, I successfully completed my Goodreads Challenge this year.  I probably should have set my goal higher, but prior to blogging, I usually only read 40-50 books a year so I was hesitant to set the goal too high. The last thing I would want to do is make reading feel like a chore.  I will definitely be increasing my goal for 2018 though, probably to at least 80 but maybe even 90 or 100. We’ll see how I feel when it’s actually time to join the challenge, lol.

I think the stat that most impressed me this year was not so much my increase in number of books read, which was still a pretty impressive jump from 68 in 2016 to 104 in 2017, but rather my increase in the total number of pages I read.  In 2016, I read 25,412 pages and in 2017, that number jumped to 40,391!  I attribute both of these increases to becoming more dedicated to my blog this year and to just wanting to read more books because all of your reviews make so many books sound so appealing.  Knock on wood, but I don’t think I had any kind of a reading slump this year either, which definitely helped these numbers.

 

LENGTH OF BOOKS READ

 

 

At first I was surprised to see that my shortest read of 2017 was still 209 pages long, but then I remembered — now that my son reads independently, I’m not reading as many shorter novels with him as I typically do.  I also knew before I even looked at the stats that my longest book of the year would be A Storm of Swords.  At 1,177 pages, I honestly thought it was going to take me the entire year to read just that one book.  I’m planning to read the next book in that series in 2018 so I predict it will be my longest read of next year.

 

 

BOOK RATINGS

 

I guess I’m pretty consistent in terms of how I rate my reads because my average rating last year was 3.8.  I’m not sure if I just go too easy on books when I rate them or if I’ve just gotten better about selecting books that I’m pretty sure I’m going to enjoy.  I lean towards the second option, especially when I’m often relying on blogger recommendations to choose my next reads now. Prior to blogging, I almost always relied on those ‘Most Anticipated Reads’ list that appear on major entertainment sites like Entertainment Weekly.  My luck with their picks was always hit or miss.  These days I definitely trust the recs of my fellow bloggers way more than I trust those lists.

 

 

MOST POPULAR/LEAST POPULAR

 

Even though I read a lot of popular and hyped books this year, I’m not at all surprised to see a Harry Potter novel was the most popular book that I read.  I am surprised that only 134 other people have read Murder Over Mochas.  I thought it was a really cute cozy mystery and would definitely recommend the series if you’re into the cozies.

 

 

FIRST AND LAST REVIEWS OF 2017

 

 

I seem to have read more fantasies and thrillers this year than ever before, so it didn’t surprise me to see that my first review was a fantasy and my final review was a thriller.  In 2016, my first review was a historical fiction and my last was a mystery.

 

 

HIGHEST RATED 2017 READ

 

I guess this is probably considered more of a bit of trivia than a real stat, but the highest rated book on Goodreads I read in 2017 was A Court of Mist and Fury. Sarah J. Maas is such a popular author that this didn’t surprise me a bit, especially since I rated it 5 stars myself.  It’s my favorite book in that series.

 

 

MY 2017 JOURNEY IN BOOKS 

 

It’s kind of cool to see my year in books laid out in visual form.  I had actually forgotten about some of the books I read, plus it’s just pleasing to the eyes to see all of these gorgeous covers again.  It also reminds me that I still have several reviews to write for books that I read in December that I haven’t gotten around to yet.  (Goal for 2018 – To stop procrastinating when it comes to writing reviews!)  Anyway, 2017 was a great reading year for me overall and I’m looking forward to an even better year in 2018.

 

34 replies
  1. Sam@WLABB
    Sam@WLABB says:

    Awesome job surpassing your goal, and seriously, 1100+ pages – that’s commitment. My average length is meaningless, because I listened to a lot of audiobooks, which are listed at 0 – 11 pages, but my longest book was SJM (again).

  2. Lauren
    Lauren says:

    Congrats on reaching your reading goal! 100 books is super impressive. I also can’t believe that George R. R. Martin book was over 1,000 pages. That’s insane! I don’t know if I could’ve stuck with it that long. I started reading a lot more cozy mysteries this year so I’ll have to check out Murder Over Mochas. I was somewhat surprised to see my least popular book as well. It was one I really enjoyed; however, it was released by a smaller press so I guess it makes sense to some degree. Hope your 2018 reading year is even better 🙂

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      Thanks! Yeah, those George R.R. Martin books are beasts. Even though I love the series, I can only bring myself to read one of the books a year.

  3. Grace @ Rebel Mommy Book Blog
    Grace @ Rebel Mommy Book Blog says:

    I love the Goodreads End of Year stats! I am holding out that I can finish one more if not two more books. I will say my ratings held steady year over year too. I did go down in books/pages. Hope you have a great 2018!

  4. Angela
    Angela says:

    You had an awesome reading year! I think we read a lot of similar books, so I’m always excited to see what you’re reading and what you think of it.

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      Yes, I think out of all of my blogger friends, you have the most similar taste in books to me. I always look forward to your recs for historical fiction. 🙂

  5. Rebecca
    Rebecca says:

    I love it when GR does this makeup. Nice way to CRUSH your reading goal! I set mine at 60 and then I had a massive reading slump over the summer. I’m currently at 58. I STILL HAVE TIME!!!

  6. Lauren Becker
    Lauren Becker says:

    I need to go and check out my Goodreads stats; I’m sure it would be fun to see! I love these type of posts as well though. 🙂 Always fun to look back. I tend to get most of my book recommendations from other bloggers too!

    -Lauren

  7. Wendy @ Birdie Bookworm
    Wendy @ Birdie Bookworm says:

    Oh man, this turned out really well! I love that you included your reading challenge. I may steal that for next years post. 😀
    I also debated listing my first and last reviewed books, but I’m terrible about updating Goodreads with my reviews. I tend to do like 20 books in one sitting, just pasting my reviews from my blog. It wouldn’t have reflected my true last review.
    Congrats on an excellent year.

    • Suzanne
      Suzanne says:

      I’ve gotten better about putting my reviews on Goodreads so this year is probably the first time the first and last reviews actually match up to what I did, lol.

  8. Jordan
    Jordan says:

    Wow, looks like a fantastic year! You completely rocked your reading goal–congratulations! I love looking at the GR end-of-year stats, it really brings things into a big perspective that is always fun and a crazy to see. I love looking through all the covers of the book you’ve read also, they’re so lovely together and it looks like you read a lot of fantastic books. Here’s to another great year of reading!

  9. sjhigbee
    sjhigbee says:

    What a great achievement – there are some awesome books in that list. And it does look so pretty. There are a fair few books there that I want to read, also…

  10. Lara @ Words With Lara
    Lara @ Words With Lara says:

    So many books!!! Wow….. I love the Goodreads wrap up that they have this year. It’s so interesting to see every one else’s stats (and my own). Looks like you had a good bookish year!!

  11. Evelina @ AvalinahsBooks
    Evelina @ AvalinahsBooks says:

    I’m a stats nerd too, but I’m a little bit worried about doing the year end post because there will be so many stats, how can I even get everything together xD
    Congrats on finishing and even going over your challenge!

  12. bookworm
    bookworm says:

    You had a great reading year! I like how Goodreads lays it all out, it’s nice looking back on the reading year. The Murder Over Mochas book does look good. Happy 2018!

  13. Literary Feline
    Literary Feline says:

    It is fun to review our stats over the year, I think. I love how you organized this, Suzanne! It looks like you had a great reading year. I hope you have a great year in reading in 2018!

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