At the start of 2021, I decided to try tracking my reading in a new way — via a reading spreadsheet from Book Riot, which takes your bookish input and turns it into interesting charts and graphs about your reading habits.
Midway through the year, I checked in on how it was going. More on that here: The Big Mid-Year Reading Check-In
Since then, I’ve ticked off a few more Read Harder challenge boxes (up to 11, from the 8 I’d checked by July) and finished my updated Goodreads goal of 75 reads. Now that 2021 is coming to a close, I’m doing one final recap of my reading stats to see how they’ve changed.
Would I use the spreadsheet again? Absolutely! I haven’t seen a 2022 edition pop up just yet, but I’m really hoping one is on the way. If not I may try to clone and update for 2022 on my own (we’ll see how that goes with my limited knowledge of Google Sheets).
Genre
I’m pretty pleased with how many different slices this pie has. Romance definitely wins the day, but is anyone surprised by that?
I think the line between Romance and Women’s Fiction is pretty wobbly these days, since Romance is selling so well. I’ve definitely read some titles this year that publishing tagged as Romance but which really felt more like women’s fiction to me, since love stories weren’t central. But, so it goes.
Page Count
Not much has changed here, in terms of my preferred reading length. It’s just become a bit more pronounced that the books I read tend to fall in the 300–400 page range. I honestly don’t give any thought to a book’s length before diving in these days, so I think this has more to do with publishing conventions for my preferred genres than anything.
Format
I’m not surprised to see that my format has swung a bit back towards print since I joined Bookstagram. Print books definitely reign supreme there, and I snagged quite a number of titles in physical form this year for the ‘gram.
I am a bit surprised to see audio taking such a huge chunk of the pie, but it makes sense when you consider the great Princess Diaries reread, which had me spending credits like they were going out of style.
Final Thoughts & Looking Ahead
This is the first year I’ve had such easily quantifiable book stats to review, so it’s a bit hard to say how getting back to book blogging and joining Bookstagram have impacted my reading, exactly. I do know that I read more this year than in prior years, and I’ve had a ton of fun connecting to bookish friends online.
In 2022, I’m hoping to do the spreadsheet again. I’ve also purchased a physical book journal (the Novel Companion from Little Inklings Design) to try my hand at that way of tracking reads, as well.
In addition to tracking reads, I’ll swing and miss again on the 2022 Read Harder challenge and my Goodreads number to 100 for the year (a stretch from this year’s 80, but manageable, I think).
Another exciting bookish project I’m working on is… (drumroll please)… an IRL Little Free Library! I’ve wanted to do this for a while, since moving in with my homeowner partner and acquiring a stack of books that need to move along to their next reader.
So, I used my Christmas money from my parents to buy a build kit and can’t wait to share the process of building, branding, and stocking my Little Free Library, which will of course be called Your Book Friend. I’m eager to share books with my neighborhood and learn all about being a LFL steward in the new year. But first… using tools and doing an art!
Do you track your reads? Or are you planning to start in 2022? Let your book friend know!
Thanks for reading! Follow us into the new year here, on Medium, and on Bookstagram to stay up-to-date on the latest bookish goodness.
Your Book Friend 