Time to Crunch Some Numbers | Reading Statistics 2020

It is that time of year where I am going to dump an amount of statistics at you.

Throughout the year I keep my reading stats in my green little booklet (though I am going to change that) to then calculate for you all how I did throughout the year and how that holds up with previous years. Making the stats is one thing but comparing them to other years makes them especially interesting.

I read around 150 books in 2019 as well so the comparison there will be rather easy.

Previous Years

2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

Ratings

So as every year I start with the ratings I did this year. As you can see I rated over 50% 4 stars which makes this a pretty good reading year. I am more selective with what I want to pick up in recent years and that has continued on to now. In 2018 (with 200 books) I had 4 stars at 38% which is quite a bit less. In 2019 it was 48% so clearly this has continued to grow.

Another thing that grows are the 5 star reads. In 2018 that was 6%. In 2019 that was 12%. Now we are at 18%. I think this has to do with the target groups I read because that has changed over the last few years but we’ll get to that when we look at the target group percentages.

Release Dates

The biggest group here is 2020 releases so that were all the newer releases. Obviously I have been getting more approved for arcs which means that it is a lot easier to read the releases from the year we are in. In 2018 this was 30% and in 2019 it was 38% so it goes up and down a little. I am okay with this number. But I do want it to stay around this. I have so many backlist titles and series I’d like to pick up and they are still worth the read as well.

2010 to 2018 is the the next biggest group, around the same percentage as the 2020 releases which is good. In 2019 this was at 25% and in 2018 at 30% so I have been giving this group some more love.

I would however also love to give some more loving to 2009 and earlier released books. So hopefully I can do that in 2021. There are so many good backlist books around, and the world shouldn’t just revolve around all the new releases for us readers. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we do need to give them enough attention as we need the industry to keep going, but we don’t have to discard earlier books.

Format

As you can see the format is just two options. Physical books and ebooks. Audiobooks and I just don’t work. It is what it is. Maybe some day?

Looking at the stats you can see that ebooks have been doing pretty great this year. In 2018 it was 27% and in 2019 39%. It is almost half half in 2020. Now of course this has to do with the review copies that I get as earcs. However I have also been purchasing more ebooks. Especially long series as the October Daye series and the Ilona Andrew books. Books I do like to read but I don’t nessecarily want to read, especially if the price of the ebook is tempting, haha.

Authors

In 2019 I saw a big increase in my reading of female authors. That has clearly continued on into 2020. In 2018 the male authors were still at 44%. And now it is below 20%. I am pleased with this because there are so many great books by female authors and they can be so easily discounted by certain readers. I do however wish to grow the group of non-binary/trans authors. That number is not up to par.

Target Group

So here we are at target groups. Obviously graphic novels and poetry aren’t a target group but I always count them seperately. Looking at this along with my ratings.

In 2018 my YA percentage was 39% and my adult percentage was 29%, and in that year my 5 star ratings were only 6%. In 2019 my YA percentage was 28% and my adult percentage was 44%. The 5 star ratings were 12%. Now in 2020 my YA percentage was 22% with adult having risen to 55% and my 5 star reads having risen to 18%. I think you can see that there is a clear correlation here.

Young adult and I haven’t been gelling for a while now and it showed in the ratings. Young adult can still be great, and there is nothing wrong with reading it. But for me personally I have to be much more selective with what YA I pick up. My interests have changed over the years, and I’ve become a different person. I think my reading reflects that.

Misc.

As always the series starts are the highest here. But the standalones and novella’s are rising as well. I’ve talked in 2020 about my love for novella’s much more and I think that also reflects in the numbers.

Diversity

Looking at these numbers I think a lot of it stayed the same. Which is a shame because I think these numbers really have to grow. Especially disabillity.

Page Sections

And time to look at how my reading is over the amount of pages. My most read amount of pages is still 301-400. I would like to move this a bit more towards 401-500. Mostly just because I have been avoiding larger books and I’d like to stop doing that. Some of the bigger books have been favorites.

Now normally I would also be having statistics of my book hauling, but I was especially slacking in keeping track of that in 2020. And I’ve kind of lost interest in doing that at the moment. I mean, if I don’t care about the numbers why keep track of it?

If you have done a statistics post drop the link down below. I’d love to check it out!