OK, I’ve shared my total reading numbers for 2022—87 total—and my favorite fiction and nonfiction books. Now let’s talk stats.
My Diversity Stats
- 55% POC books
- 57% women/nonbinary authors
OK, I’ve shared my total reading numbers for 2022—87 total—and my favorite fiction and nonfiction books. Now let’s talk stats.
I read 87 books in 2022, and here’s my favorite nonfiction reads. I don’t read very much nonfiction (16 out of 87, so 18%), so it usually has to be something I’m really interested in. And this year I struggled through several 2-star books (and even a 1-star book).
On that note, definitely a theme this year with my LGBTQ nonfiction. Might keep it up in 2023 as I just picked up Danica Roem’s Burn the Page from the library.
If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.
And how about previous top non-fiction lists: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012.
I read 87 books in 2022, and here are my favorite fiction reads:
I read 87 books in 2022. It’s up from last year, so that’s a win.
You can also check out my previous reading lists: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, and 2001.
If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.
I loved John Scalzi’s The Kaiju Preservation Society. It’s a fun, quick sci-fi story about a parallel planet Earth where animals evolved into Godzilla and we’re crossing dimensions to study them. Weird, quirky, fun.
I knew I would eventually read a novel that incorporated COVID-19 into the plot, and this is it. It’s relatively a minor part of the plot and not exactly crucial, but it does ground this work in time in a unique way.
Perhaps the most unique way is in how Scalzi describes how the book came to be in the acknowledgments. He was working on a dark, serious book when the pandemic hit. His work ground to a halt and he just couldn’t pick it up again. He eventually gave it up and found incredible freedom in letting it go.
There’s a right book for a right time, and that time wasn’t it.
As soon as he gave up on that idea, he got a new one and out popped The Kaiju Preservation Society. He calls it a pop song, saying: “We all need a pop song from time to time, particularly after a stretch of darkness.”
So true.
While that’s a story about writing and creating, I think it’s also true about reading. There’s a right book for a right time, and if you’re struggling to get through a book, it’s probably the wrong time for that book. Its OK to move on and try something else. Don’t feel guilty.
As we’ve moved from one calamity to another (pandemic, protest, insurrection, back to pandemic, war), keep that in mind. If it’s really hard to read, that’s OK. Find the right read for the right time.
I’ve given my total reading numbers for 2021—73 total—and my favorite fiction and nonfiction books, now it’s time to look at some stats.
Here are my numbers for 2021:
I read 71 books last year and here are my favorite nonfiction reads of 2021.
I don’t get through much nonfiction these days, so when I do tackle one, it’s because I really want to read it.
If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.
And how about previous top non-fiction lists: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012.
I read 71 books last year and here are my favorite fiction reads of 2021:
(Really hard to order this year’s list. Ask me tomorrow and I’d probably put them in a different order.)
Hard to choose which books to mention this year, and these are all worth a shoutout:
If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.
And how about previous top 10 fiction lists: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012.
I read 73 books in 2021. That just barely passes 2020 and hopefully doesn’t start a pattern of lower reading numbers.
Here are my top 10 fiction and top 5 non-fiction for 2021, as well as my reading stats for the year.
You can also check out my previous reading lists: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, and 2001.
If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.
Continue reading 2021 Reading ListI’ve given my total reading numbers for 2020—69 total—and my favorite fiction and non-fiction books, now it’s time to look at some stats.
Here are my numbers for 2020:
Here’s how that compares to previous years:
It’s also helpful to compare it to my total reading:
And why do I track these numbers? Because when I didn’t pay any attention to it, I gravitated to a very homogeneous reading list. Which isn’t very good if you want to be exposed to a range of voices and ideas.
Here are some other stats from my reading in 2020:
If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.
For more on diversity and stats, check out previous years: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.