2019: A Year in Books

[thistlechaser]

Welcome to the look back on my 7th year of reviewing books!

This was, hands down, the year of the Animorphs books. My goal is reading 50 books a year, and I hit 80 books (74 finished + 6 books of credit for unfinished books). It's only because the Animorphs books take 1-2 hours to read each that the total is that high.

For the books I abandoned, I added up the percent I finished. Since all books aren't equal, it's not a perfect system, but I can't think of a better one. Total abandoned books: 666% = 6 books + 66% towards the next, rounding down to 6.

My liked/disliked numbers are odd this year. Since the Animorphs books were so fast to read, I generally finished them even if I didn't like them:

Ratings for Books

Finished Books

Loved: 20
Liked: 20
Okay: 17
Disliked: 11
Hated: 6

Abandoned Books

Loved: 1*
Liked: 0
Okay: 3
Disliked: 23
Hated: 6

*Not really abandoned, it was a reread of a novella, so I didn't want to give myself a book credit for it.

Traditionally Published vs Self-published

Until I clear out the massive backlog of my To Read pile (currently about 350 books), these numbers won't really accurately reflect my current tastes, but you can still see the trend of things: I'm adding fewer and fewer self-published books to my Kindle.

Finished Books

Traditional: 64
Self-published: 10

Abandoned Books

Traditional: 15
Self-published: 14

Only about 20% of the books I read this year were self-published. Hm, looks like I didn't track that stat in previous year in review posts, but I'm sure it's going down.

My overall percent of books abandoned also went down, but again, Animorphs skewed my stats this year.

Have a happy new year of reading everyone!

Comments

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

My numbers never match up perfectly, either. Animorphs beefed up my final count this year, too! (And I've still got about- a dozen? -to go)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I read the first few of them last year, but most of them this year. I'll never have a year with numbers like this!

Though the author did apparently start a new series... I bet the books will be as short as these were (because she can get away with normal book prices for tiny short ones). It's called Ending the Last. About some dog-alien thing. I haven't looked much into it yet.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

I came across mention of that one online before- Endling. For some reason it didn't catch my interest- I think after I read some of the amazn reviews and it sounds really stuffed with new made-up animal species, a lot to pick up for the worldbuilding. But incidentally, a different one that came up on the if-you-like-this-you-might-like-this thing below: A Wolf Called Wander. Based on a true story, and I just read the nonfic book about the same wolf. Might be good!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I could only find an audio book version of Endling, and listened to the first couple minutes, but it hadn't hooked me (though that was mostly because I hated the voice of the woman reading it). I might give the physical book a try one day, based just on the author.

I think I already have A Wolf Called Wander on my Kindle. It sounds really familiar.