Wednesday, January 13, 2021

2020: My Year in Reading

 

 
My graph making has turned into an annual event when I share statistics from my reading during the past year. In the case of 2020, I now have a decade's worth of reading statistics on my Excel spreadsheets, so I thought I'd share a few of those. I've already shared my Best Reads of the Year in a previous post, so let's get started on all the rest!
 

2020 Book Travels



 

One of the things I like to do is to track the settings of the books I read. The major way I do this is on Zee Maps. Take a look at my world map to see the miles I racked up in my reading during 2020. You can zoom in and out, hover over markers to see book titles, etc. During this pandemic, I did find myself reading books that traveled around the globe simply because I couldn't. I did start out pouring over accommodations on sites like Airbnb to plan future adventures, but I just found myself getting depressed, so I stopped that and started immersing myself in books that did my traveling for me. Gerald Durrell's attempts to populate his zoo with exotic animals really helped during this time as did a book on a century of sea travel. I think I had a dream in every port.

Looking at the globe made me wonder what countries I visited most through my reading.

 

 1. England (47 times)
 2. Scotland (11 times)
 3. France (8 times)
 4. Italy (6 times)
 5. Australia (3 times)
 6. Germany (3 times)
 7. India (3 times)
 8. Thailand (3 times)
 9. Iceland (2 times)
10. Spain (2 times)

 

Needless to say, there were a lot of countries that I only visited once!
 
 
Now... how about the United States? Which were my most visited states in 2020?
 

 
1. New York (10 times)
 2. California (7 times)
 3. Massachusetts (5 times)
 4. New Jersey (5 times)
 5. Arizona (4 times)
 6. Nevada (4 times)
 7. Texas (4 times)
 8. Washington, DC (4 times)
 9. North Carolina (3 times)
10. Connecticut (2 times)


Now it's time to break out my trusty graph maker at chartgo. Hang on to your hats!
 
 
The Nitty Gritty


Online Graphing
 
 
2013 through 2017 seem to have been my halcyon days of reading, years when I devoured all in my path. Since then, knitting has taken a larger role in my free time, and I did notice that my attention span during 2020 suffered, and I'm definitely going to blame that on the pandemic.


Online Graphing


You can see in this graph that my usage of my Kindle has taken a larger and larger percentage of my reading hours. When you start having eye problems, the ability to increase the font size becomes a very wonderful thing, plus I like being able to highlight a word and immediately get its definition. Yes, I will admit it-- I do like my bells and whistles, although I certainly have not abandoned my physical books!


Online Graphing


One thing that has remained fairly constant over the years is my book ratings, although I did notice that I had more C, D, and DNF books this year. Pandemic funk? It's possible.


Online Graphing


Normally, my reading is more evenly divided between male and female authors. I'm not sure what happened this year, but I'm not going to let it bother me. The only "planning" there is to my reading revolves around the release dates of the Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) that I have. Everything else is serendipity because I learned that planned reading makes me grumpy (and I don't like being grumpy).


Online Graphing


Another constant is how the sources of my reading are divided, although I'd really prefer fewer ARCs. It looks as though I'm going to have to learn how to say no to publicists again!


Online Graphing


Yet another constant: anyone can tell by looking at this graph that I prefer my reading to be (more or less) hot off the press. I don't know if I want to remedy this or not.

Online Graphing


This is a graph that showed a definite departure from past years. My prime reading time has always been the summer months, but not in 2020. I felt most distracted during the summer months, and my reading suffered. I think this is a definite example of pandemic funk.


A Decade's Worth of Reading


Online Graphing


These last graphs are ones I thought I'd use to play around with my decade's worth of statistics. After 2010, my reading of fiction (which includes science fiction, historical fiction, etc.) began to decline. When my blog turned three, my focus became crime fiction.


Online Graphing


My non-fiction reading also suffered, and this is one genre that I'd like to read more of in 2021. Will I do it? Since I don't plan my reading, who knows?

Online Graphing


It's easy to see in this graph that my short story reading showed a definite increase from the zero in 2010! I'm learning to appreciate-- and enjoy-- them more.


A Decade of Crime Fiction


Online Graphing


To round out my annual statistics post, I thought I'd take a look at the major crime fiction subgenres. I have a preference for police procedurals that has remained steady over the past ten years.

Online Graphing


The private investigator subgenre is one that I don't have a particular fondness for, especially if the P.I. is written as the old 1940s gumshoe, Humphrey Bogart type. With P.I.s like Joe Ide's Isaiah Quintabe, it wouldn't surprise me if I started reading a bit more in this subgenre.


Online Graphing


I probably should not have lumped together amateur sleuths and cozies. Not all amateur sleuths are to be found in cozy mysteries, and I know that my cozy reading has shown a decline in recent years. I think this decline can still be seen, and since I'm pressed for time, I decided not to redo the graph. What happened in 2011? I have no idea!


Online Graphing


My reading of historical mysteries seems to wax and wane a bit, and it will be interesting to see what happens in 2021.

Online Graphing



The thriller seems to be another subgenre that seemed to fall out of favor a bit after 2012. Although thrillers seem to have the farflung settings that I like, the standard plots and lack of character development are things that I don't care for. Will I feel the same in 2021? Who knows!


oOo


I would imagine that, by now, all you graph and number lovers are absolutely stuffed. Bet you couldn't choke down one more graph, could you? *wink* Don't worry-- you've come to the end. All that's left for me to say is that-- as always-- I'm looking forward to seeing where my reading takes me this year!

14 comments:

  1. I love the graphs and charts. Wish I could do them. And I realize I read a lot fewer books last year than the year before. I blame Covid-19. At the beginning, I was glued to MSNBC and CNN and not reading novels.
    And the library was closed. But I bought books and I discovered the library's Overdrive system, and I zipped through books. And the font is big.

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    1. I used to be able to immerse myself in a book for hours, but now I find myself looking up every 30-45 minutes and wanting to do something else. It's annoying.

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  2. I keep my TV on to MSNBC and I look up, or I read news online or play chess.
    How did I guess your top book locations would be in England and Scotland?
    Finished Rachel Howzell Hall's book -- a different kind of book -- thriller, mystery, psychological suspense, tough p.i., harsher than V.I. Warshawski.

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    1. I used to be able to read in any conditions. I think I could've read and not lost my place even if a bomb went off on the next block, but for the past few years, I prefer peace and quiet when I read.

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  3. I am so impressed with the way you keep records, Cathy! Wow! And you've done your share of virtual travel and of different genres, which I really respect. I think we all took a 'reading hit' this past year, what with everything going on in the larger world. I hope this year will be an easier one for all of us.

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  4. Those graphs are amazing - and a whole lot of fun. I'm a number-cruncher by nature, so I found myself spending some time with every single graph you created here.

    What you said about ARCs is something I've been thinking about, too. I'm struggling for a "gentle" way to cut way back on the number of ARCs I accept from independent writers pushing their own books. I've got mixed emotions about it because I started Book Chase 14 years ago with the explicit purpose of helping the lesser known writers get some attention for their hard work. But I can't keep up, and I find myself feeling really bad for not accepting more than I do. Sadly, experience has taught me that I don't enjoy most of those anyway, and life is too short to continue trying to be a crusader for the little guy. Silly, I know, but this really bugs me.

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    1. It bothers me a little, too, although promoting independent writers was never a prime directive of my blog. In the beginning, I did accept ARCs from them, but I finally had to put a stop to it because, at the end of the day, I had to be honest and admit that I didn't like 99% of what was being sent to me. But even the major publishing houses can be too much.

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  5. I love all the stats and charts, especially seeing where you have been. I read about 20 fewer books last year, blaming the strange, emotional year. I also started quite a few books I did not read.

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    1. I have two types of DNFs: ones that I want to throw against the wall and those that just don't suit my mood. The first I get rid of. The second I save for another day.

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  6. I love charts and stats only a little less than I love lists, so this was a fun post! I also like to keep track of where my reading takes me. I have participated in reading challenges tracking this, but that feels like too much work sometimes. I would rather just keep track in my notebook :) Planned reading makes me feel grumpy too. I have said there is no quicker way to make me not read a book than to put it on a list. Thanks for sharing your stats!

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    1. You're welcome, Gretchen. I'm glad you enjoyed them.

      I used to keep track of where my reading takes me in my book journal, but I wanted to actually see it on a map, so I'm glad I found Zee Maps.

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  7. Planned reading makes me grumpy, too - some months I have trouble getting myself to read the book for my discussion group (even if it was my pick!).

    And I have had the same problem of not being able to sustain concentration on a book for as long a period as I'm accustomed to. It's definitely an effect of the pandemic and other current affairs having an impact on my mindset and mood. Getting back to my usual reading habits will be a sign for me that life is settling down again - which I'm looking forward to!

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    1. Me, too!

      The only planning I do when it comes to what I read is marking ARC titles down in the calendar by their release dates. I usually do three reviews per week, and I read what I want to read when I want to read it for the open review dates. That's as much planning as I want to do!

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