74 Books So Far
The results are in. Here is how many of what I’ve read so far from January to June. If I continue reading at this pace, I’m not likely to read 200 books in a year (a goal I probably will not make until retirement, or unless I switch to early grade chapter books), but it is interesting to see how evenly my tastes in genre spread out.
I’ve done something a bit different from previous years: I have cataloged the genres of all the books I’ve begun (including audiobooks) instead of tagging them “unfinished.” I have kept track of my unfinished books separately and have also kept a list of which books I got from the library–so that in the future when I swear I’ve read something but don’t see it on my shelf, I will know why.
BY GENRE
- Audiobook – 13 (17%)
- Fantasy – 16 (22%)
- Literary – 15 (20%)
- Mystery – 11 (15%)
- Nonfiction – 3 (4%)
- Science Fiction – 16 (22%)
Interesting, no? The five major sections (excluding nonfiction) are all roughly equal in amount. It wasn’t even planned.
Of the above books in various categories, I left unfinished thirteen books, which calculates to 17%, a fairly high rate of rejection. However, of these, all but two came from the library, so there wasn’t much monetary loss. And if I read less than a fifth of a book, I didn’t put it on my list at all. The unfinished books I do put on my list are a) representations of all the reading I do that isn’t logged, like newspapers, magazines, and blogs, and b) reminders that I didn’t like it and won’t try to read it again in five years.
But–drum roll please–out of the 74 books, 43 came from the library.
That’s 58%, people!
Please be impressed. I own hundreds of books and usually read more than 150 books a year. I never buy a book at full price, but even so, my passion can add up. Therefore, after a soul-searching decision last June to spend less money, I began using the public library pretty heavily. Last year, about a third of my titles came from the library. This year, more than half.
So, I’m still reading the same kinds of books I love to read (namely, SF and fantasy), but I’m reading exponentially more cost-effectively.
Win.
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