2019 Year in Review –> 2020 Goals

By the Numbers:

I read 167 total books this year! I’m not even sure how that’s possible, but it’s true! Last year I read 154 books, and I intentionally made it a goal to read less this year. Clearly, that didn’t work out for me. 🙄 In 2020, my goal is going to be 100 books.

According to Goodreads, I read 56,432 pages and I averaged a 4.0 star rating. (My personal average was 3.9, but Goodreads doesn’t recognize ½ stars so I’m sure that’s where the discrepancy comes in.)

Author:

Out of 167 books read, 130 (78%) were written by women, 35 (21%) were written by men, and 2 (1%) were written by authors who self-identify as gender nonconfoming. In 2020, I want to add a whole lot more diversity to the authors I read. I want more men, gender nonconforming authors, and more diverse authors.

Genres:

As for genres, I like the diveristy in my reading. Here’s the official breakdown: 37% fiction, 12% nonfiction, 11% historical fiction, 16% memoir, 10% thriller/mystery, 10% YA/middle grade, 3% fantasy/scifi, and 1% humor. I want to continue to read widely, but I especially want to focus on reading more #ownvoices in 2020.

Success Rate:

If you follow Sarah (Sarah’s Book Shelves), you know she’s all about the data. And while I’m not quite as good with numbers as she is, I have been inspired to try tracking my reading a little differently. This year, I had a 74% successful rate for books I finished (like Sarah, I count any book I rated 3.5 stars or higher as successful). When I add in the books I DNF’d that number fell to 57% 😔. Next year, I want to get better at reading books I know are in my wheelhouse. Sure, sometimes it’s fun to be surprised by a book you wouldn’t normally pick up, but I want more quality in 2020!

Book Length:

My average book length is 337 pages and I would really like to see that number higher in 2020. Part of the reason I am making it a goal again this year to read less is because I want to be able to read some longer books and not have to worry about the pressure to meet a number goal at the end of the year (quality vs quantitiy, see above). I also learned this year that, even though big books can feel daunting, they usally end up among my favorites. I have a few books on my shelves that are 400+ pages and I don’t want a reason to skip over them!

Popularity Contest:

The most popular book I read was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern which makes sense because it was published in 2011. This was a reread for me and I enjoyed it so much more the second time around! The least popular book I read was Wild Words: Rituals, Routines, and Rythms for Braving the Writer’s Path by Nicole Gulotta. If you’re interested in the writing life at all, I would definitely recommend it!

#bujo:

This year I played around with bullet journaling. Two of my favorite bookstagrammers that bujo are: Allyson (@bookstaandbujo) and Jorie (@jojobuckreads). They take bujo-ing to the next level and I love seeing what they come up with.

Jorie totally inspired me (and everyone else it seems!) with this Book of the Year spread!

Favorite Books:

And while Know My Name by Chanel Miller is definitely the Most Important Read of the Year, my Favorite Books of the Year were actually City of Girls by: Elizabeth Gilbert (Fiction) and The Only Plane in the Sky by: Garrett M. Graff (Nonfiction).

By the Month:

 

Honorable Mentions by Month:

January 

• Waiting for Eden by: Eliot Ackerman
• The Paragon Hotel by: Lyndsay Faye
• Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by: John Carreyrou
• Golden Child by: Claire Adam
• Sugar Run by: Mesha Maren

February

• The Silent Patient by: Alex Michaelides
• Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Daughters by: T. Kira Madden
• The Huntress by: Kate Quinn

March:

• A Woman is No Man by: Etaf Rum
• A People’s History of Heaven by: Mathangi Subramanian
• Next Year in Havana by: Chanel Cleeton
• The Island of Sea Women by: Lisa See
• Queenie by: Candace Carty-Williams
• The Other Americans by: Laila Lalami

April

• I Miss You When I Blink by: Mary Laura Philpott
• Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by: Mira Jacob
• Finding Dorothy by: Elizabeth Letts
• Miracle Creek by: Angie Kim
• #IMomSoHard by: Kristen Hensley & Jen Smedley
• Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by: Brittney Cooper
• Life Will Be the Death of Me…And You Too! by: Chelsea Handler
• The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by: Melinda Gates

May

• Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living by: Shauna Niequist
• Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story by: Jacob Tobia
• Ask Again, Yes by: Mary Beth Keane
• With the Fire on High by: Elizabeth Acevedo
• The Farm by: Joanne Ramos
• The Mother-in-Law by: Sally Hepworth
• The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by: Balli Kaur Jaswal
• Mrs. Everything by: Jennifer Weiner
• Out East: Memoir of a Montauk Summer by: John Glynn

June

• The Flatshare by: Beth O’Leary
• Fall & Rise: The Story of 9/11 by: Mitchell Zuckoff
• Summer of ’69 by: Elin Hilderbrand

July

• The Editor by: Steven Rowley
• The Gifted School by: Bruce Holsinger
• American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by: Maureen Callahan
• Americanah by: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Daisy Jones and The Six by: Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Chain by: Adrian McKinty
• Waiting for Tom Hanks by: Kerry Winfrey
• The Lager Queen of Minnesota by: J. Ryan Stradal

August

• Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen by: Jose Antonio Vargas
• More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say) by: Elaine Welteroth
• Dry by: Augusten Burroughs
• Patsy by: Nicole Dennis-Benn

September

• After the Flood by: Kassandra Montag
• The World That We Knew by: Alice Hoffman
• The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 by: Garrett M. Graff
• Red, White, & Royal Blue by: Casey McQuiston
• The Goldfinch by: Donna Tartt

October

• The Dutch House by: Ann Patchett
• Evvie Drake Starts Over by: Linda Holmes
• The Turn of the Key by: Ruth Ware
• A Monster Calls by: Patrick Ness
• The Dearly Beloved by: Cara Wall
• The Night Circus by: Erin Morgenstern

November

• Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by: Dani Shapiro
• In the Dream House by: Carmen Maria Machado
• How We Fight For Our Lives by: Saeed Jones
• The Body: A Guide for Occupants by: Bill Bryson

December

• The Song of Achilles by: Madeline Miller
• Recursion by: Blake Crouch

Whew! That was A LOT! I’m curious: have you done a 2019 reading wrap up and/or set your goals for 2020? I’d love to hear them!