Good morning, friends! I am so excited to share my 2022 reading stats with you guys today. I love putting this post together at the beginning of the year. As a reminder, I keep a detailed spreadsheet of everything I’m reading. This spreadsheet lists out the title, author, # of pages, genre, where I sourced the book (library, Amazon, etc.), start and finish dates, rating, and so much more. I’m happy to send a copy of the spreadsheet to anyone who wants to be as neurotic as I am about their reading life. 🙂
The spreadsheet means that I can easily put together this post! So let’s get into my 2022 reading year.
Nitty-Gritty Details
- Number of books read: 124 (-9 from 2021)
- Number of pages read: 42,799 (-3,854 from 2021)
- Money spent on books I read this year: $424.99 (+77.25). This amounts to $3.43 per book.
- Percentage of books by and about BIPOC and the LGBTQIA+ community: 47, or 38% (+1% from 2021)
- Number of books abandoned: 15 (+7 from 2021)
Format Breakdown
In 2021, I read way more print books than e-books, but in 2022, the numbers balanced out again. I like reading a good mix of e-books and print books, so I’m happy with these numbers. Print reading was down 7% from 2021, e-book reading was up 5% from 2021, and audiobook listening was up just 1% from 2021.
Genre Breakdown
| Genre | Percentage | Average Rating |
| Romance | 33% | 3.8 |
| Nonfiction | 18% | 4.2 |
| YA | 16% | 4.1 |
| General Fiction | 13% | 4.7 |
| Mystery/Thriller | 11% | 4.2 |
| Historical Fiction | 8% | 3.0 |
| Middle Grade | 2% | 4.5 |
| Science Fiction | 1% | 5.0 |
When Engie did her Reading Stats post last week, I love how she broke down each genre with the average rating she gave, so I decided to steal her idea to do the same. As you can see here, I am a very generous rater! Ha. Once again, romance was my most-read genre (down 3% from 2021) and nonfiction came in second (up 1% from 2021). YA zoomed up to the third spot (up 6% from 2021) and this year, I broke fiction into general fiction and historical fiction. I ended up reading more fiction than last year (if we combine those two genres together) by 2%. Mystery/thriller fell by 3% this year and I read a handful of middle grade and science fiction books this year, too.
The most surprising statistic here is my low rating for historical fiction! A 3.0 average is startling low for me. Maybe I need to be pickier about the historical fiction books I’m picking up? On the other side of the coin is my 4.7 average for general fiction. Apparently, that’s a very good genre for me! (I only read one science fiction book in 2022 and gave it 5 stars, which is why it has a perfect rating.)
Source Breakdown
It’s always fun to see where my books are coming from! More than half of my books came from the library (59%), and that percentage is the same as last year! I’m nothing if not consistent, I guess. Amazon comes in second, but that number dropped by 5% this year, so that’s good. I would like to end my reliance on Amazon for books. Book of the Month is also a great resource for books, and that number is up 1% from 2021. Thriftbooks (an online used books reseller) jumped up by 5% this year, which I’m very happy about. And the stragglers this year are Target (up 2% from 2021), indie bookstores (no change from 2021), and a donation from a friend.
Month Breakdown
A little up-and-down this year, but only by a few books each month. I never read less than 8 books a month (my average being 10 books a month), and my highest reading month was March when I finished 13 books.
Ratings Breakdown
Again, my 4- and 5-star ratings were almost 70% of the books I read! (68.5%) In 2021, I pondered if I was being too lenient with my rating system or if I was just getting better about picking good books. I think the answer is both. I think I am more generous with my 5 stars than other readers, and I think I have gotten very discerning with the books I pick up. I’m also someone who has no problem abandoning a book I’m not enjoying. In 2022, my 5-star ratings rose by 4% while my 4-star ratings decreased by 4%, so we can see what happened here! My 3-star ratings also decreased by 2% but my 2-star ratings increased by 2% – so I guess I was less lenient with the books I didn’t really like, haha. My average rating was 3.9, which was exactly the same as 2021!
Days to Read
It’s taking me longer to finish books these days. In 2021, I had a lot more books in the 3-5 day range. I’m averaging about 7-8 days to finish a book and that’s because I usually read multiple books at one time so it takes me longer to finish them, but then I tend to finish a bunch at one time.
New Releases vs. Backlist
While I still read more backlist titles than new releases, my new release reading went up by 6%! I’m not always the person reaching for the shiny new release, but I think this is a pretty balanced ratio for me.
Odds and Ends
- Oldest book (by pub date): Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (1923)
- Newest book (by pub date): Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail by Ashley Herring Blake (November 22, 2022)
- Author I read the most: Mauren Johnson (4)
- Book I spent the most money on: Atomic Habits by James Clear ($19)
- Time spent listening to audiobooks: 290 hours, 10 minutes (which is 43 hours, 25 minutes more than last year!)
- Longest book: The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson (481 pages)
- Shortest book: The Fire This Time by James Baldwin (106 pages)
- Book that took me the longest to read: Four Hundred Souls, edited by Ibram X. Kendi (25 days)
We are twinsies today with our posting as I also shared my reading stats! But I did not make graphs as I was not feeling motivated enough! I, too, have gotten more generous with star ratings. But I feel like it’s the best way to communicate that I loved a book. I am also getting better at abandoning books. But overall, I feel like my recommendations sources have really improved and that is probably why I have more 5-star reads!
Yes, I feel the same way about star ratings! I guess I’m also someone who isn’t very precious with what I’m reading or maybe I just don’t care to think too critically about what I’m reading because this is something I do for fun and I want to keep it that way! If I liked a book and don’t really have a reason to dock it a star, it gets 5 stars from me!
Okay, so your average star rating for romance is the lowest and so was mine. You left a comment on my blog asking about that stat and I’ve been ruminating on it ever since. I think it’s because I don’t really vet romance novels very much (someone recommends it and I just get it without any further thought), they’re very low stakes since I can read them in a day or two, and I have really high standards for a 5-star romance, but a 3-star romance is pretty typical. I wonder if there’s something similar happening with your ratings?
I don’t buy books because my husband does. We have books EVERYWHERE in our house and we have six giant bookshelves filled with books and no extra space for more books. So, I know I seem rather militant about not buying books, but don’t worry, there are hundreds (thousands?) of books in our house.
My historical fiction rating was lower than romance (3.0), but romance did end up being my second lowest-rated category but even that wasn’t all that low (3.8). I think I am a little more critical with my romances (more than most people are) because it’s the genre I read the most and I have specific standards for the writing, the characters, the dark moment, etc. And I read a LOT more romance than any other genre so just to keep up with my desire of reading lots of romance (I probably read 4-5 romances a month), I’m more apt to read books that aren’t as great. With other genres, I’m actively seeking out the good books that are getting a lot of positive buzz.
I just love reading about reading statistics! I am really itching to ask you for your spreadsheet, but I don’t know if I could be consistent in tracking everything I read. Especially the source — I am terrible about remembering where I heard about a book!
The ratings by genre category is so fun.
Do you ever have a reading slump? I feel like I have 1-3 a year and it really brings down my overall total (and my mood).
The source isn’t where I heard about the book, but where I got the book from. It could be the library, or Amazon, or Thriftbooks, etc. I rarely remember where I heard about a book! I am trying to be better about listing it under a recommendation source when I add it to my TBR. So, for example, if I heard the book about it on Sarah’s Book Shelves Live, I’ll add it to my want-to-read list on Goodreads and then also add it to my “sbsl-rec” shelf. I hope this will help me discover which recommendation sources work best for me!
I don’t really have reading slumps. I’ll have moments where I feel like I’m abandoning books left and right, but I’m still always reading SOMETHING. I think the fact that I always have a romance going helps – sometimes, that may be all I’m reading and that’s absolutely fine!
This is so intense…and so wonderful. Your graphs are so pretty and – just…wow! So many stats and you track it all so well. Very, very impressed!!!
Thank you! It’s one of my favorite hobbies, keeping track of my reading stats, haha. 🙂
Reading stats are so fun to read.
I think I’ve already mentioned it at Engie’s post that rating the genres is really interesting. But I wouldn’t be able to do it. I never really know what genre a book belongs too. It would be too stressful to figure that out for me.
I also don’t read Romance books very high. more the 2-3 star ratings. But I do not expect them to be in my 4-5 star ratings. Those are for books that will stay with me, are thought provoking or shattering. The romance ones are for entertainment. And will never read those again. So they have a different value for me I guess.
That’s interesting how you rate romance titles! For me, a 4- or 5-star read isn’t necessarily a book I will reread. I very rarely reread! But it’s mostly how the book made me feel, and a lot of romances make me feel really happy, which is why I rate them highly.
You know I love a good pie chart 🙂 Stats make me happy. I am so glad you had such a great reading year and read so many 5- and 4-star books!
Putting together these pie charts is so fun! 🙂 I’m glad you enjoy them!