Happy New Year Book Worms!
Do you track your reading? Are you a stats nerd?
It’s time to reflect on 2024 Reading Stats and set 2025 Reading Goals.

2024 Reading Stats

Image Source: Canva

Brace yourself for a nerdy post, bookaholics!

Do you track your reading?
Have you ever set a reading goal or considered a reading challenge?

Reading in 2024

I’d love to hear from you if you analyze reading data at year’s end. Although I’ve always been analytical, I think my appreciation for using data to plan was heightened during my tenure as a teacher when I poured over student data to inform my teaching. Now, instead of looking at student achievement, I’m paying attention to my own numbers as it relates to reading achievement. I realize that while numbers are not that important in a rewarding reading life, they do reveal some trends and inform future reading choices. It’s important to me that I’m reading diversely, supporting women authors, and increasing my nonfiction percentage. While this post about the numbers is mostly a self-reflection, I hope you find it interesting and possibly motivating toward considering your own reading achievement during the past year and setting some goals for the New Year.

If you’ve read ONE book this year, you’re a reader and I encourage you to celebrate that read and accomplishment!

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I’d also like to know (in comments) what you’d like to see more of or less of on the blog for 2025. Has the variety this year been satisfactory for you? Thank you for your engagement and support!

I’m also so grateful for wonderful books and delightful bookish conversations! Thank you to each of my followers and visitors! Thanks for the views, comments, and shares! I appreciate EACH one!

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Best of 2024

See this post for my most memorable reads in 2024.

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Let’s Talk Numbers!

Total Books Read: 154

Remember….it’s really not about the numbers! It’s about the enjoyment of reading.

This number is up from last year, but as long as I’m above 100 I’m satisfied. I averaged 25-30 books a year when I was teaching full time and the majority of those were read during the summer. For me in this season of life, 100 books is a comfortable number. I average two+ books per week and the weeks when I can only read one dense nonfiction or a 500+ page fiction are balanced out later when I can read 3 lighter, shorter books in one week (Novellas in November helps my numbers!). Pictured below is a Goodreads generated summary for 2024.

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Books Abandoned (DNF): 3

I’m getting better at knowing my reading tastes and passing on books/genres that I know won’t be to my taste. This number is down from last year because I’m better at resisting the hype for popular books that I know do not match my reading tastes. (you might be shocked at the number of popular books I resisted in 2024!) This number does not take into account the books I abandoned after reading only a few paragraphs or pages and didn’t bother to record. I’m not reluctant to abandon books that aren’t working for me. There are too many great books waiting to be read to make myself finish something that isn’t right for me at the time. Related Posts: My Love Hate Relationship With DNF. Confessions From an Outlier.

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Women Authors: 131

One of my goals in starting this blog is to support women authors writing about strong women and I feel like I’ve had success in this area. We’ve certainly come a long way since the days when women had to publish under a man’s name!

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Authors of Color/”Own Voices”: 11

 Reading and promoting authors of color is one of my primary reading objectives, and I’ve fallen short this year. I can’t give a reason, except that there were not that many books that matched my reading tastes. Two of the ones I read were exceptional and earned a spot on my best-of-year list (James and By Her Own Design). Hopefully, next year my stats in this area will show improvement.

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Sources:

One stat I enjoy tracking each year is the percentage of books from various sources.

Library = 15
ARC (advanced readers copy from the publisher) = 91
Own = 48

69% (106/154 ) of my books are FREE! Great kindle deals help me buy books to own. (wmall revenue from blog ads and affiliate links help my purchasing power! Thanks!) I’m not sure why my library usage is down from previous years, but I read a lot of new releases and the hold lists are long and I become impatient and purchase them…or I see an irresistible kindle deal. I always clearly state if I’m reviewing a book I’ve received for free.

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Stars:

twenty 4.5-5 Star Reads
(WOW! highly recommended, memorable)
eighty-eight 4 Star Reads
(very good read)
eleven 3.5 Star Reads
(more than OK, no WOW factor, mixed bag)
twenty-six 3 Star Reads
(mixed bag)
nine 2-2.5 Star Reads
(not especially enjoyable but I finished or skimmed it)
1 Star Reads
(usually my DNFs)

My average Goodreads rating was 3.8 Stars and my average Story Graph rating was 3.73 (SG allows half star ratings).

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Fiction: 138

I’ve listed four top subgenres….I have to many subgenres to list them all.

Historical Fiction: 60
This is obviously a favorite sub-genre! Almost half of the fiction I read is historical. (Also, this is why I think I read more nonfiction than I do!) My favorite histfic reads this year are James by Percival Everett, (I created a FREE Book Club Kit!) By Her Own Design by Piper Huguley, and The Berlin Apartment by Bryn Turnbull.

Literary Fiction: 15
This is a category that brings about some debate among readers….the most simple definition is that literary fiction is not genre fiction. Also, it’s usually character-driven rather than plot-driven, beautifully written, and written to explore the meaning of life and its issues (most prestigious award recipients and national prize winners are categorized as literary fiction). My favorite this year was James.

Contemporary Fiction: 33
One favorite and memorable contemporary fiction this year is How to Read a Book.

Since the pandemic started, I’ve been reading more “women’s fiction.” There were months when these lighter, escapist reads were a balm to my pandemic brain! Again, a reader’s definition may vary….for me they are books in which most characters are women and the plot centers around women’s concerns and issues….some in this category are lighter reads that readers refer to as “beach reads” or “vacation reads.” One of my favorite women’s fiction this year is Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel.

Romance: 48
Most of the romance I read are ARCs. It’s not my favorite genre, but they are good brain breaks! I especially enjoyed Love You a Latke.

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Nonfiction (sub-genres): 15

My goal is to have a 20% nonfiction percentage. I’m far away from that goal because very few books captured my interest. My favorite nonfiction read in 2024 was The Boys of Riverside by Thomas Fuller.

Memoir/Biography: 4
Narrative Nonfiction: 1 (narrative/journalistic)
(Nonfiction written in story format.
Journalistic Nonfiction:
Essay: 9
Informational/Historical: 1

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Story Graph

You may have heard about Story Graph, an alternative book tracking app to Goodreads. I decided to use both Goodreads and Story Graph and compare them (a blog post here about the results). I remain undecided, so I’m still using both. Two delights of using Story Graph include the ability to use half stars and the neat charts and graphs. My Story Graph handle is reading_ladies_blog. Here are three of my 2024 charts/graphs:

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Let’s Consider 2025 Goals

(please share yours in comments):

Goal 1: Tracking:

Goodreads Reading Challenge
(determine how many books you’d like to read and track them through the Goodreads app)

This is the easiest of the goals/challenges as it simply involves setting a number. This number can be adjusted throughout the year if you are reading above or below your goal. I recommend setting a reasonable goal and then raising it if necessary. My goal is 100 books. I met this goal in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, and it’s reasonable that I will meet it again. Retirement helps tremendously! Have you set your 2025 Goodreads challenge? Are we friends on Goodreads?

I also track my reading on Story Graph ( reading_ladies_blog ) and on an Excel Spreadsheet. I’m thrilled that I managed to stay synced between all three for the entire year (I.e. no backtracking to find a discrepancy). The reason I like a spreadsheet is so that I can track categories such as diverse reads, library books, arcs, women authors, star ratings, sub genres, etc. I know I could create shelves on Goodreads for the same purpose but the number of shelves I would need might be overwhelming and not of interest to anyone else.

Another stat I tracked in 2024 was “Bookish Books” (books about books) using Susan @ Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books as inspiration. Check out my wrap-up post here. I read 26 bookish books in 2024 and cannot resist them! I will continue with my goal of tracking these books in 2025. My pet peeve is authors who use this against me by creating titles that imply it’s a book about books or about a bookshop but in reality, it’s women’s fiction disguised as a book about books. An example is The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan. 

Goal 2:

I want to curate a satisfying reading life in which I read what I want, when I want! (Thus, no other challenges for me this year.) I’ve come to the conclusion that life is hard enough without adding book challenges.

My goals are simple: read at least 100 books in 2025, track my bookish books, read widely and diversely, and increase my nonfiction percentage.

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What reading goals do you have for 2025?

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Happy reading in 2025! I hope you’ve experienced some pleasurable and challenging reading in 2024 and are eagerly anticipating the reading year ahead! I wish you health and happiness and a tall stack of unputdownable 5 star reads!

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QOTD:

Did you meet your reading goal for 2024?

What is your 2025 Reading Goal?

Do you use a method for tracking your reads during the year?

Have you considered your best read of the year? My Most Memorable Reads of 2024 post.

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Happy Reading Book Worms!

“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke

“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes

“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones.”
~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

“I read because books are a form of transportation, of teaching, and of connection! Books take us to places we’ve never been, they teach us about our world, and they help us to understand human experience.”
~Madeleine Riley, Top Shelf Text

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Let’s Get Social!

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Unless explicitly stated that they are free, all books that I review have been purchased by me or borrowed from the library.

Book Cover and author photo are credited to Amazon or an author’s (or publisher’s) website.

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