Stephany Writes

Categories: Best Of

Best of 2023 | The Year in Blogging

This is always a fun post to put together at the end of the year because it’s the only time I ever look at my stats! I don’t really care about blogging stats, but I can pull my yearly stats pretty easily so it’s fun to compare them year after year. I also love looking at what blog posts resonated with you guys the most this year and looking back on all of my blog posts to pull out a few of my favorites. Let’s get to it!

By the Numbers

  • 61,000 unique views
  • 13,100 visitors
  • 884 words per post on average
  • 3,000 comments
  • 154 posts
  • 112 countries represented in my views (with the United States, Canada, and Poland being my top three)
  • 206 subscribers

Lots of great growth this year! My unique views and visitors increased by a bit, but what really increased were my comments and subscribers. This was good to see, as it shows that I’m building a wonderful community and it’s exactly what I want from this blog! I wrote about 30ish fewer posts this year (I took a blogging break in August, which is one of the reasons for that decrease) and my average words per post went down. (Last year, I was at 1,088 words, so look at that! I can be more concise!)

My Top 5 Blog Posts of 2023

(Blog posts written in 2023, in order of most pageviews.)

  1. My Laundry Habits – I am not surprised that this was my most popular post of 2023; we love learning about each other’s daily habits. We all do these normal routine tasks so differently, depending on how many people we live with, how we learned to do laundry, and our own specific ticks when it comes to laundry. It was a fun post to write and even better to get everyone’s comments on their own processes.
  2. Diet Culture, Fat Acceptance & What Comes Next – I wrote this post because I needed the catharsis of talking about these thoughts that had been percolating in my head for so long. I discuss my journey with dieting and diet culture in general, and my reasoning for seeking out a dietician to help me learn how to eat in a healthy, sustainable way. I am so happy that I found a dietician who believes in the concept of Health at Every Size and hates diet culture as much as I do!
  3. A Tale of Two Doctors – I wrote this post after having two completely different experiences with two doctors. I went to my primary care doctor to talk about adjusting my Lexapro dose and instead of having a caring, knowledgeable conversation with someone, I was lectured about my weight. (It should be noted here that the doctor I saw was not my usual PCP; she was out on leave and this was her replacement.) Then, I reached out to a psychiatrist and had such an eye-opening and positive experience.
  4. 10 Little Things That Make My Life Better – I stole this post idea from San and it was so fun to round up 10 inexpensive but incredibly useful things that make my life so much better. We’ve got everything from microfiber hair towels to squeeze bottles on this list!
  5. Monthly Goals | June 2023 – Every year, one of my random monthly posts squeaks into this list. I have no idea why this post was so popular over other posts, but it received nearly 300 views for some reason. Okay then!

My All-Time Most Popular Blog Posts

  1. I’m 27 and Scared to Move Out (+186 views)
  2. On Being a Socially Anxious Introvert (+6 views)
  3. 10 Things I Like About Myself (+1,125 views)
  4. “What is meant for me is already mine.” (+594 views)
  5. Rules for Living with a Dachshund (+101 views)

This list has not budged in many years and that remains true this year. I’m still amazed at how many views “10 Things I Like About Myself” is getting every year (in 2022, it had over 2,000 new views!). I have a feeling that it will overtake my socially anxious introvert post in 2024. These posts all have 5,000+ views, which is just astounding to me.

Other Favorite Posts

  1. What Is a Writing Date? – My friend Mikaela and I have been doing writing dates for a full decade. We meet up weekly at Starbucks and work on our own creative projects. I talk a lot about these writing dates in passing but have never explained exactly what they are, so I sat down to write it all out in this post.
  2. Coming to Terms With Myself at Pride – I attended my first Pride parade this year and it was a truly amazing experience to be surrounded by other queer people and allies. It was such a positive, beautiful atmosphere! I wrote about my experience at the event and the slow process of accepting my place in the queer community.
  3. Body Positive Resources – After I wrote my post on diet culture, someone asked me for a list of body positive resources and I was more than happy to oblige! This post has podcasts to listen to, people to follow on Instagram, and books to read that can help you unlearn diet culture.
  4. My LASIK Experience – I got LASIK this year! (Maybe I talked about it a time or twelve?) I wrote this very detailed post about the whole process with specific headlines so you can skip any of the eyeball stuff.
  5. What’s Working in My Reading Life – I loved putting this post together during NaBloPoMo. It was fun to think deeply about what my reading life looks like right now and what feels good about it. I think this may be a post I return to every few years to see how things have changed.

And that’s my year in blogging! What a great year and I cannot wait for another year of blabbing about my life on this dear space.

Categories: Best Of

Best of 2023 | My Favorite Podcasts

Who’s ready for a podcast round-up? I love my podcasts so much; I have truly developed parasocial relationships with the hosts on many of my favorite shows. Last year, I included my own podcast in my round-up but I decided to take it out of the running this year—if only to leave room for one last podcast to sneak in. If you don’t know, my best friend Bri and I host The Friendship Paradox, which discusses personalities and the ways our very different personalities affect our friendship, our lives, and much more. We’ve done deep dives on personality frameworks as well as season-long explorations of things like our work lives, traveling, relationships, and more. We discuss how our personalities can impact the way we approach all of these things. We’re currently on a hiatus until the new year but give us a listen if you want!

Now, onto my favorite podcasts of 2023! I am listing these in alphabetical order:

5-4

The tagline for this show is: “A podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks.” And it has truly opened my eyes to how bad Supreme Court justices can be with their decisions. Like, they are not as smart as I thought they were? I just always thought they were these geniuses who only got to that position because they were the best of the best. HA. HAHAHAHA. Anyway, this podcast goes through some of the worst Supreme Court decisions throughout history and the three hosts (all with law backgrounds) go through the reasons why the decision was trash. They are super snarky and I love it!

Episodes every other Tuesday – curse warning on this one (LOTS of f-bombs!)

Currently Reading

I’ve been listening to this bookish podcast for such a long time, and I still love it so much. I rarely stick around for the deep dives; I just want to know what books they are reading and their thoughts about them. I even keep a list on Goodreads of Kaytee/Meredith recs so I can see how my reading taste aligns with theirs. (So far, Kaytee usually doesn’t steer me wrong with her recs, but Meredith can be hit or miss—unless it’s a thriller/mystery, and then she never misses.) It’s a fun, easy podcast to listen to and I love how delightfully bookish the hosts are!

Episodes every Monday

Faith Adjacent

I am so very glad that The Bible Binge changed its name, and it’s a perfect one for this show that talks about faith and religion from a variety of lenses. Sometimes it’s about pop culture, sometimes it’s about Bible stories, and sometimes it’s about a very specific aspect of faith. I love the light-hearted tone they take (while still being respectful) and even though I am no longer a practicing Christian and have no desire to go back to a church environment, I still find so much to love about this podcast. The main reason I love this podcast is that the hosts remind me that Christians can be kind and thoughtful and liberal. Their views may not always align with mine, but the important stuff is there and that’s what matters.

Episodes every Thursday

The Girl Next Door Podcast

Another podcast that has remained in my top-10 year after year. What’s more, this podcast inspired the idea of my own podcast because I just loved the format of the show: just two friends sitting down to chit-chat about their lives, but always with a focused topic. Kelsey and Erica, the hosts of the show, are two very different people, too, and it’s always fun to learn more about their different approaches to life. I tend to identify more with Erica while striving to be a Kelsey.

Episodes every other Wednesday

Good Christian Fun

What more can I say about this podcast that I haven’t already said? It is so firmly in my wheelhouse, as a girl who grew up with Christian pop culture and also went through a faith deconstruction journey. This podcast talks about all different kinds of Christian pop culture—music, movies, and other entertainment made by and made for Christians. Sometimes, they take their humor a bit too far but for the most part, I always find myself laughing along while I listen.

Episodes every Wednesday – curse/crude humor warning on this one

Over Under Achievers

I rarely listen to sports podcasts, even though I love sports, because I’ve yet to find podcast hosts that I like. Until Knox from The Popcast started a podcast with his best friend Jason. Yes, it’s two straight white guys talking about sports, but it works for me. I love how silly this podcast is and how informative, too. The two men often bet on sports games (hence the name Over Underachievers), which is not my thing, but they do it responsibly and it’s really funny when they bet so very wrong and have to own up to losing money. If you like sports, give it a listen!

Episodes every Monday and Friday

The Popcast

This podcast is truly my everything. Whenever I’m feeling sad and need a pick-me-up, I immediately turn on this podcast because I know it’s going to put me in a better mood. It’s a pop culture podcast, but it goes way beyond simply talking about what’s happening in pop culture. Instead, they do things like ranking the best Ryans in pop culture or doing a snake draft of fictional characters who are most definitely canceled. And please don’t miss their Flavor Town episodes where people write in about their spiciest opinions. And no, not like “Taylor Swift is overrated.” But rather, “I don’t think it should be taboo to marry your first cousin.” You know, normal stuff like that. Anyway, if there’s one podcast I want you to give a try (other than my own, of course), it’s this one.

Episodes every Wednesday

Rob Has a Podcast

This is a super niche podcast, but it’s one I can’t live without! RHAP is a podcast that discusses all sorts of reality TV, specifically Survivor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race. I love their episode recaps and find their analysis to always be super insightful, respectful, and interesting. They have a diverse panel of hosts, so it’s not all white dudes shouting into a microphone, which I appreciate. If you love reality TV and want to get some post-episode analysis, give this a listen! (Oh, and their sister podcast Reality TV RHAP-Ups is great, too. I always turn to them for my Love Is Blind post-episode discussions!)

Episodes daily

Sarah’s Bookshelves Live

My all-time favorite bookish podcast! I really can’t get enough of Sarah, especially once I joined her Patreon community and now get numerous fun episodes every week. Her author interviews are usually great, although I don’t listen to all of them. What I really love is her episodes with book industry professionals, like literary agents and such. And her seasonal book previews are fun, too. I think her Patreon is so worth the extra money because she puts a lot of time and effort into her extra episodes, and they are always excellent.

Episodes every other Wednesday

Stuff You Should Know

I left my dear SYSK boys off my favorites list last year, but I couldn’t leave them off this year. I love this podcast so much! I learn so much from it and Josh and Chuck have become my parasocial uncles. I’m deeply invested in their lives! This is a podcast that you can listen to with your entire family (depending on the topic, of course). Every episode covers a different topic, from shipwrecks to the lives of famous people to abstract concepts like kindness. And hey, they even had an episode about parasocial relationships! How meta of them.

Episodes every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday

Categories: Best Of

Book Club 2023

This year, our book club stepped things up a notch! We have 6 members in our book club, so every member was given two months of the year to plan. In that month, you would give the group three books to select from, and you would plan the book club activity. We had such a fun time with this! I wanted to give a review of what we did, partly for my memories, and also so you can take these ideas to do something fun in your own lives. (Buckle up—this is a long post!)

January

This was an incredible way to start off our year of book club experiences! We had a wonderful woman come over to Bri’s house for a permanent jewelry experience. Permanent jewelry is expensive (I think my bracelet cost around $150) but considering I’ve worn my bracelet every single day since I got it and it’s held up really well, I think it was worth it. And it’s been so fun to have a tangible reminder of my friendship with these ladies.

It was a little awkward to have a book club discussion while the woman doing the permanent jewelry was working, haha, but we had a pretty good discussion. There was a very interesting civil rights component to that book and I remember us talking at length about how that plotline was written.

February

This was such a fun night and it has stuck with me throughout the year. We all went to Amber’s condo in our pajamas where we enjoyed a nacho bar and then played a really fun game. I remember laughing so much during this game!

The book was a bit of a dud for most of us. What we liked about this book was learning more about the tobacco production process and tobacco marketing in the 1940s, but the writing wasn’t great and the execution of the book fell flat. (During this meeting, I remember talking to my friends about my uncle’s recent lung cancer diagnosis. This memory is heart-wrenching because I had no idea he’d be gone 10 months later.)

March

In March, we all got together at Lynn’s house and brought our own charcuterie board. We had a good mix of breads, dessert, meats, cheeses, and lots more. I brought a yogurt parfait board! We enjoyed a few rounds of food, had lots of chit-chat time, and discussed the book. It was a good time!

This book had some mixed reviews, but I loved it! It was a thriller and I thought it was so well-written and intriguing. We had a pretty good discussion about this, especially about some of the feminist aspects of the book.

April

In April, we had a more low-key book club experience as we all met up at one of our favorite local restaurants for dinner and to celebrate Amber, as it was her birthday! We had a good time.

The book we read was one that most of us enjoyed; it was about a traveling circus during World War II. I’m a bit burned out on WWII novels at this point, but I do enjoy a WWII novel that brings something different to the table and this one definitely did that.

May

This is another evening that I look back with immense fondness. It was such a fun night! Only four of us were able to go—Bri was under the weather and Mikaela had a doggo emergency (everything ended up okay!). We had dinner at a Greek restaurant downtown and then headed to a shuffleboard club to play a few games. Afterward, we found a delicious dessert shop for a late-night treat. The best part about this evening, though, is that our friend Lynn offered to drive us around. The three of us parked in a parking garage and then Lynn handled the driving and downtown parking, which we greatly appreciated as three women who have parking/driving anxiety.

We had a pretty good discussion about the book, too. We talked about the way power can be harmful, no matter who is in charge, and we all raved about the final chapter, which is one of those endings I’m still thinking about. It’s such a great final chapter!

June

June was my month for choosing a book club experience, and I chose axe throwing! We met up for dinner at a bar right next to the axe-throwing place and then had a fun few hours learning how to throw an axe and compete in various games. Some friends were a little skittish about this experience beforehand, but everyone ended up having the best time and it warmed my heart!

After we threw some axes, we found a cute little ice cream shop to have dessert and discuss the book. It was one of my favorites of the year and it felt good to be able to talk about why this gay love story meant so much to me.

July

One of the BEST experiences of the year! We all had such a great time doing a murder mystery party and I think the majority of us were able to correctly guess the murderer (it ended up being Bri’s character—she claims to be a villain, so this further proves her theory). We’ve already decided to do this on a yearly basis and in 2024, we’re going to try to get our act together to get dressed up and make it a big event!

We took a break during the murder mystery for dinner—we ordered in pizza, so something simple and delicious! And we discussed the book while we ate. This one had some mixed reviews: half of us enjoyed it and the other half were “meh” about it. I fell into the “meh” camp. We had an interesting discussion about women and autonomy, what was permissible and what wasn’t, and that helped me better understand why the other ladies enjoyed the book so much.

August

Wait, was this the best experience of the year? We still talk about how fun this escape room was! We had a great time trying to figure out all of the puzzles. This escape room was an all-time favorite for me and there were so many different rooms to go through and unique puzzles to solve. They did a fantastic job putting this room together!

After the escape room, we all went to a nearby Italian restaurant for dinner and to discuss the book. I just loved the book selection this month and enjoyed talking about the impact it had on me. I can’t remember if we got super deep with our discussion, but I don’t really need that with my book club. I just like talking about the book and hearing why people liked it or didn’t like it.

September

We all had a great time at our September experience: making pottery! This was the first time most of us used a pottery wheel and it was mostly terrifying but also so much fun. I felt like I learned a lot and I was happy to have two beautiful pieces by the end of the event. Also, I don’t know how I did this, but I ended up getting clay everywhere: my face, my hair, my clothes, my shoes… nothing was safe!

During the second half of the pottery experience, we were hanging out together painting our clay pieces and this is when we spent some time talking about the book. I found the book to be pretty interesting but I had some quibbles with it that I talked about during our discussion time. Overall, it wasn’t a hit for most of us.

October

We had such a good time at the escape room in August that we returned in October to do the other escape room. This one was said to be much harder than the first, but we were confident in our ability to get it done. And we did, with a few seconds to spare. I did not enjoy this escape room as much as the previous one because it was a bit scarier! It felt more horror-based than thriller-based, which was perfect for an October escape room, but not great for my psyche, ha.

After the escape room, we went to dinner at the same restaurant we went to in August. We had a great discussion about the book, as we all really loved it! It was 4 or 5 stars for the majority of us. I think we all agreed that we want to visit New Zealand after reading this book.

November

I was hoping to host book club in November for a game night, but I had to switch plans because that was the week my apartment’s roof was getting worked on and parking was atrocious. Instead, we went to my favorite local pizza place for dinner and conversation. It was a lovely night!

We also had a really great discussion about the book, and I was happy that everyone loved it. I thought it was such a well-done story and liked this exploration of what it means to be married, have strong female friendships, and discover yourself. We talked about the infidelity plotline and if we’re turned off by these types of tropes, and we were pretty split between those who don’t like them and those who don’t mind them. I don’t mind them myself, but they have to be handled in the right way, of course!

December

Our final book club meeting of the year was such a fun one! We had our annual book club Christmas party at Bri’s house. Bri cooked us breakfast, we put together mini gingerbread houses, and we played a super fun game. And then we had our favorite things gift exchange! Here’s what I gifted: one microfiber hair twist towel (yes, the towel that has been all the range in bloglandia and is truly one of my favorite things!), two face masks that you peel off your face in an incredibly satisfying manner (remember when you used to let glue dry on your finger and then peel it off? Like that.), and two Blow-Pops because I re-discovered Blow-Pops in 2023 and love them.

And here are the favorite things I received:

  • A pair of super cozy slippers
  • A box of green tea with cozy socks “that don’t slip down your ankles!”
  • Dr. Bronner’s peppermint lip balm with a $5 gift card to Dunkin’s
  • A beautiful notebook with a selection of pens
  • A mini bottle of Prosecco with a package of Mighty Patch acne patches

It was such a wonderful gift exchange and it was a really lovely way to see what things had made an impact on my friends this year. For example, the friend who gave us the notebook and pens did so because she started a habit of listing out the things she’s grateful for, and encouraged us to do the same.

There wasn’t any discussion about the book, though, because only two people had read it by the time our meeting came around, ha. (We had a two-week turnaround from November’s book club meeting to December, so that was cutting things a bit tight.)

And that was Book Club 2023! I am so, so grateful to have these women in my life. We lift each other up, cheer each other on, and support each other when things are hard. And, along the way, we read together and have some of the most exciting experiences that will be with us for a long time. Speaking of books, here are the final stats:

  • Genre breakdown: historical fiction (4), contemporary fiction (4), thriller (2), dystopian (1), romance (1)
  • Overall rating: 3.8
  • My format breakdown: audiobooks (7), print books (3), e-books (1)
  • Highest-rated books of the year: The Power by Naomi Alderman (4.25 stars) and When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neal (4.25 stars)
  • Lowest-rated book of the year: The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers (3.25 stars)

If you made it through this super-long post, thank you! This was a lot. Do you belong to a book club?

Categories: Best Of

Best of 2022 | Reading Stats

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)
Categories: Best Of, Books

Best of 2021 | Reading Stats

Happy Monday, friends! It’s time for my last “Best of 2021” post. Today, I’m digging into my reading stats. As a reminder, I keep a very detailed spreadsheet of everything I read. 2021 was the seventh year of keeping this spreadsheet, and it’s truly become a regular part of my reading life. Each book has its own line where I list the title, author, start and finish dates, format, rating, diversity metrics, genre, source, publishing date, and a few other stats. It makes it really easy to pull together this post every year, and it’s just a fun way to look back on my reading!

So, let’s dive in to my 2021 reading stats!

Nitty-Gritty Details

  • Number of books read: 133 (-20 from 2020)
  • Number of pages read: 46,653 (-4,566 from 2020)
  • Money spent on books I read this year: $502.24 (+29.83). This amounts to $3.78 per book.
  • Percentage of books by and about BIPOC and the LGBTQIA+ community: 49, or 37% (+11% from 2020)
  • Number of books abandoned: 8 (-3 from 2020)

Format Breakdown

Last year, e-books were my most-popular format, but my e-book reading seriously fell to the wayside this year! Print reading was up 9%, e-books were down almost 17% (!), and audiobooks were up 7.5%. With the libraries closed and then functioning at greatly reduced capacity for most of 2020, I relied on e-books a lot more heavily than usual. Things are mostly back to normal now with the library, which is why my print reading bumped back up. In 2020, I also lost my commute in mid-March when we started working from home, which is when I mostly listened to audiobooks. But I’ve readjusted myself to this “new normal,” so I was able to get my audiobook listening time back in. I try to listen to at least two audiobooks a month, more if the audiobooks are short.

Genre Breakdown

Like every year, romance was my most popular category, although the percentage keeps falling every year (2% from 2020, 4% from 2019). My fiction reading took a real beating this year, so much so that my fiction/nonfiction reading is nearly neck and neck! My fiction reading was down 7.6% from 2020 and nonfiction also fell by a little over 1%. I read a bit more YA (up 3% from 2020) and mysteries/thrillers (up 4% from 2020). And this year, I added two new categories to my list that weren’t there in 2020: middle grade (1.5%) and science fiction/fantasy (3.7%). I can’t believe I read nearly 4% of the SFF genre. WHAT IS HAPPENING!

Source Breakdown

The majority of my books came from the library—around 59%, but that percentage is down 2% from last year. I read wayyy more print books from the library (+7.7%) than e-books from Libby (-9.1%). My next highest category is Amazon, which was up 2% from 2020. Coming in third is Book of the Month, which was also up 2% from 2020. Barnes & Noble, Thriftbooks, Target, and my local indie (Tombolo Books) followed behind (last year, I listed all of my bookstores as one line item, so I’m guessing I read slightly more books from bookstores). And rounding out the list are books I read using the Serial Reader app and that I got from a Little Free Library.

Month Breakdown

For the most part, I read 10-11 books per month. I had two months where I “only” read 9 books (as opposed to 2020, when I never read less than 11 books in a month). My best reading month was February—I read 15 books (it was also the month I did a readathon, so that helped!)

Ratings Breakdown

My 4- and 5-star ratings went up by 4% this year to 68.4%! Was I just more lenient with my ratings? Or am I getting really good at picking books I know I’ll love (and quickly abandoning those that aren’t working for me)? Who knows. My 5-star ratings went up by nearly 7%! My 4-star ratings stayed about the same, as did my 3-star ratings. My 2-star and 1-star ratings went down a bit. My average rating was 3.9 (last year, my average rating was 3.7).

Days to Read

Seven days is about my sweet spot when it comes to finishing books these days, mostly because I’m usually reading multiple books at one time. Twice, I was able to finish a book within 24 hours, but that’s very much an anomaly. I don’t consider myself a particularly fast reader (and I can easily get distracted by my phone); I just devote a lot of time to reading.

New Releases vs. Backlist

Last year, I read about the same number of new releases vs backlist books. This year, I read way more backlist! That feels much more normal to me, as I’m not the person always reading the latest new releases. I love backlist books!

Publishing Years

I like to keep track of publishing years, but I’m still not exactly sure how to use this info. This year, I listed out the past 5 years and then combined anything 2016 or beyond into one data point. The biggest number of books I read was from 2020, which makes sense, and 2021 books weren’t too far behind.

Odds and Ends

  • Oldest book (by pub date): The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (1844)
  • Newest book (by pub date): The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang (August 31, 2021)
  • Author I read the most: Louise Penny (5 books)
  • Book I spent the most money on: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune ($25)
  • Time spent listening to audiobooks: 247 hours, 35 minutes (but since I listen at 1.5x or 1.75x speed, my actual listening time is much less than that!)
  • Longest book: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (1,275 pages)
  • Shortest book: White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson (178 pages)
  • Book that took me the longest to read: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas (214 days)

How many books did you read in 2021? Did you read more e-books, audiobooks, or print books?