Friday, January 4, 2019

2018 Reading Stats

At this time of the year (or even sooner!) I start getting antsy about scrapping all my reading logs and starting fresh for the new year. I don't like to get ahead of myself and do any kind of wrap-up before the year is over because, well, the year isn't over yet! But when the calendar turns, I really crave that fresh slate more than the process of looking back. But why in the world did I even keep those logs if I wasn't going to do SOMETHING with them? I started my reading binder last year largely because I wanted to have some year-end stats, but didn't want to wade through my Goodreads account tallying everything up after the fact. I wanted some running totals instead -- which I now have! -- so I thought I'd share.

Total Books Read: 144 
Includes books for all ages and shorter works, but not picture books.

144 books in a year isn't too shabby! This does make it quite clear though that a LOT of the 336 titles I read for #TheUnreadShelfProject2018 were picture books. So now for some nerdy stats...

Middle Grade: 56 books
Young Adult: 11 books
Adult Fiction: 17 books
Poetry/Novels-in-Verse (MG, YA, & Adult): 20 books
Graphic Novels/Comics/Illustrated: 7 books
Non-Fiction (almost entirely Adult): 33 books

I read a lot more non-fiction than I thought I had and I'm fairly sure this is the most titles I've read in a year in quite some time! And I'm very pleased with 20 poetry/verse books because I've been actively trying to read more of those as well. I was very light on the adult fiction this year and I'm OK with that, though there are a LOT of unread adult titles on my shelves, so I really need to remember that when I'm buying new books. 


Print: 100 books
Audio: 36 books
Print + Audio: 2 books
eBook: 6 books

Nothing too surprising here! I'm not a fan of eBooks because I feel like I'm on screens enough as it is without doing my *regular* reading on a screen as well, but I do have a small collection mostly of shorter works not available in any other format, freebies (from Amazon's First Reads, etc.), and "extras" I got because the Audible audiobook was cheaper if I bought both formats (oh, the irony of Whispersync deals!) I love audiobooks and averaged 3 per month, but read in print as much as I'm able.


Borrowed: 16 books
Owned: 128 books

I love my library and read TONS of library picture books, but I'm very happy the vast majority of books I read for myself were from my own shelves. I must admit, I borrowed a lot more than 16 titles, but many were returned unread. I sometimes feel bad about that, but it's nice to have options and it helps me (sometimes) avoid the impulse to purchase a new book I've just heard about if I see my library has it. If I end up not reading it before I return it, I'm extra glad I didn't shell out the cash!


A few specialized categories I tracked were:

Short Works (collections, anthologies, essays, short stories, novellas): 29 books
Books About Books: 14 books
Classics: 15 books
Newbery Honor/Medal: 11 books
Re-Reads: 10 books

I'm very happy with these numbers as well! The idea behind reading more Short Works was to have some options especially when my reading time is limited. Whether I was reading bit by bit from a collection with many essays/stories/poems or a stand-alone short work, being able to read something in its entirety was always a good feeling, especially when reading a full novel was taking what felt like ages.

I also discovered this year that Books About Books are not an automatic home-run with me -- I've encountered some duds and even DNFed one! They can't all be for every reader and that's OK -- the the ones I loved were really excellent.

My Classics category includes classic children's novels, but no picture books. I lumped all nine of the Paddington Bear novels I read together as only one in my tally because while I definitely consider them children's classics, Michael Bond continued writing them for so many years it gets rather fuzzy where classic ends and contemporary begins. But I'm also glad I finally tackled a few more traditional classics like Wuthering Heights, Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and A Little Princess. In addition, quite a few, though not all, of my Newbery reads overlapped with the Classics category.

And lastly, I shouldn't be surprised to see that all my Re-Reads were on audiobook this year! I love to re-read favorites, but I don't often like to dedicate my *main* reading time to them, so it's nice to sneak in those re-reads in another format -- plus, I'm less worried about the occasional times my attention wanders while listening because I do already know what happens!

OK, I will admit it was kind of fun to take a look at my year as a whole -- even though I'm still anxious to move on with 2019 already!

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Did you track your reading in 2018? I'd love to hear how it went!

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

2018 Reading Challenge Wrap-Ups

Happy New Year bookish friends! I know it's been a while, but I have a few 2019 reading challenges I want to sign-up for, so I figure I ought to take a look at how I did on my 2018 ones! I drastically cut down on the number of challenges I joined this past year and I am very happy with how well I was able to do on the ones I did join as a result of narrowing my focus.

MY GOAL: Konigsburg level = 75+ points
PROGRESS: 86 points
STATUS: COMPLETE!

Newbery Medal Winner = 3 points (read 8)
Newbery Honor Book = 2 points (read 3)
Caldecott Honor/Medal Book = 1 point (read 56)


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The Modern Mrs. Darcy 2018 Reading Challenge
MY GOAL: Complete all 12 categories
PROGRESS: 12/12 categories read
STATUS: COMPLETE!



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#TheUnreadShelfProject2018
Info / My Sign-Up Post
PROGRESS: 336 read books from my Unread Shelf
STATUS: COMPLETE!

I didn't set a specific goal for this challenge other than a desire to focus more on reading the unread books in my house than on library books, etc. For this challenge, books I owned prior to 2018 as well as any new books acquired during 2018 were fair game. Every time a new book entered my house, my Unread Shelf number simply increased which I found much easier to track than trying to only count pre-2018 books which gets harder and harder to do accurately as the year goes on (as I've learned from other TBR challenges I've attempted in the past!) My unread number went WAY up as the year went on thanks to a far too many used book sales and Book Outlet orders, BUT I also read a whopping 336 books from my Unread Shelf which includes EVERY type of book from picture books on up. Despite my ridiculous number of unread books still remaining (hello, #TheUnreadShelfProject2019!) I am calling this one COMPLETE and a success!


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Original artwork by Charles Haigh-Wood (1856-1927)
Info / My Sign-Up Post
MY GOAL: Complete Checklist + Read an entire author's work
PROGRESS: 104/104 categories read + 35/65 Patricia Polacco books read
STATUS: checklist COMPLETE! + author option Incomplete! 

For the author option, I mainly focused on Patricia Polacco, but also printed out book lists for Tomie DePaola, Cynthia Rylant, Stephen Gammell, & Jane Yolen. Let's just say I chose some VERY prolific authors to attempt this with! Some of Patricia Polacco's books I read in 2017, but I checked off quite a few more in 2018 -- still leaving me with 30 more to complete her backlist!

(bold = read)
Part of me wants to list all the titles, but that is just WAY too much work! If you are curious about what I read for a particular category, drop me a comment :)

1. Title beginning with A
2. Author beginning with A
3. Title beginning with B
4. Author beginning with B
5. Title beginning with C
6. Author beginning with C
7. Title beginning with D
8. Author beginning with D
9. Title beginning with E
10. Author beginning with E
11. Title beginning with F
12. Author beginning with F
13. Title beginning with G
14. Author beginning with G
15. Title beginning with H
16. Author beginning with H
17. Title beginning with I
18. Author beginning with I
19. Title beginning with J
20. Author beginning with J
21. Title beginning with K
22. Author beginning with K
23. Title beginning with L
24. Author beginning with L
25. Title beginning with M
26. Author beginning with M
27. Title beginning with N
28. Author beginning with N
29. Title beginning with O
30. Author beginning with O
31. Title beginning with P
32. Author beginning with P
33. Title or Author beginning with Q
34. Title beginning with R
35. Author beginning with R
36. Title beginning with S
37. Author beginning with S
38. Title beginning with T
39. Author beginning with T
40. Title or Author beginning with U
41. Title or Author beginning with V or W
42. Title or Author beginning with X or “Ex”
43. Title beginning with Y
44. Author beginning with Y
45. Title or Author beginning with Z
46. An alphabet book
47. A counting book
48. A color word in the title
49. A number word in the title
50. Concept book of your choice— picture book
51. Concept book of your choice — board book
52. bedtime book —board book
53. bedtime book — picture book
54. book that rhymes —picture book
55. book that rhymes — early reader OR board book
56. holiday of your choice — board book or early reader
57. holiday of your choice — picture book
58. wordless picture book
59. new to you author
60. new to you illustrator
61. favorite author
62. favorite illustrator
63. free choice
64. fairy or folk tale adaptation
65. fairy or folk tale traditional
66. a title with the word “first” in it
67. a book set in the state you live
68. a book set in a place you’d like to visit
69. a book set in an imaginary place
70. a book set in the past — fiction or nonfiction
71. a book set in the present
72. picture book for older readers — fiction
73. picture book for older readers — nonfiction
74. early reader — fiction
75. early reader — nonfiction
76. picture book with photographs
77. one word title
78. long title (four or more words)
79. oversized book
80. tiny book
81. a book about playing (hide and seek, tag, or peekaboo, etc.)
82. a book about school
83. a book about hobbies (art, dance, music, crafts, sports)
84. a title that is a question
85. a title that is an exclamation
86. an award winner or an honor book
87. a collection (of poems OR stories)
88. a book with animals (fiction)
89. a book with animals (nonfiction)
90. a book about books or reading
91. a book celebrating family
92. first book in a series
93. any book in a series
94. book with an adventure or misadventure
95. a book about a pet
96. A title with the word “yes” or “no” in it
97. A title with the word “big” or “little” in it
98. a classic published before 1968
99. a book you think should be considered a classic
100. Out of print
101. Library book
102. Impulse Pick
103. Board book published in 2018
104. Picture book published in 2018


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Girl reading a book by Federico Zandomeneghi
Info / My Sign-Up Post
MY GOAL: Minimum of 6 from checklist + Read an entire author's work
PROGRESS: 62/104 categories read + 8/8 Tomie DePoala MG books read
STATUS: checklist goal COMPLETE! author option COMPLETE! 

To the best of my knowledge, the eight books in the Fairmount Avenue series by Tomie DePaola are the only middle grade ones he has written, so I am calling that complete! I did also read the entire Penderwicks series, so I could also count 5/5 of Jeanne Birdsall's books for the author challenge :)

(bold = read)
Same as above, listing all the titles is just WAY too much work! But if you are curious about what I read for a particular category, drop me a comment :)

1. Title beginning with A
2. Author beginning with A
3. Title beginning with B
4. Author beginning with B
5. Title beginning with C
6. Author beginning with C
7. Title beginning with D
8. Author beginning with D
9. Title beginning with E
10. Author beginning with E
11. Title beginning with F
12. Author beginning with F
13. Title beginning with G
14. Author beginning with G
15. Title beginning with H
16. Author beginning with H
17. Title beginning with I
18. Author beginning with I
19. Title beginning with J
20. Author beginning with J
21. Title beginning with K
22. Author beginning with K
23. Title beginning with L
24. Author beginning with L
25. Title beginning with M
26. Author beginning with M
27. Title beginning with N
28. Author beginning with N
29. Title beginning with O
30. Author beginning with O
31. Title beginning with P
32. Author beginning with P
33. Title or Author beginning with Q
34. Title beginning with R
35. Author beginning with R
36. Title beginning with S
37. Author beginning with S
38. Title beginning with T
39. Author beginning with T
40. Title or Author beginning with U
41. Title or Author beginning with V or W
42. Title or Author beginning with X or “Ex”
43. Title beginning with Y
44. Author beginning with Y
45. Title or Author beginning with Z
46. 2018 Newbery Winner or Honor
47. Newbery Winner or Honor from 2010-2017
48. Newbery Winner or Honor from 2000-2009
49. Newbery Winner or Honor from 1990-1999
50. Newbery Winner or Honor from 1980-1989
51. Newbery Winner or Honor from 1970-1979
52. Newbery Winner or Honor from 1960-1969
53. Newbery Winner or Honor from 1950-1959
54. Newbery Winner or Honor from 1940-1949
55. Newbery Winner or Honor from 1932-1939
56. Newbery Winner or Honor from 1922-1931
57. Notable Children's Book from 2018 or 2017
 58. Any book by a Wilder Award author
 59. verse novel
 60. graphic novel
 61. biography or memoir
 62. nonfiction
 63. poetry
 64. audio book
 65. first in a series
 66. any book in a series
 67. last book in a series
 68. favorite author
 69. new to you author
 70. British author
 71. Australian author
 72. Canadian author
 73. translated into English from another language
 74. American author
 75. set in the state you live
 76. set in a place you'd like to visit
 77. set in an imaginary place you'd like to visit
 78. picture book for older readers
 79. book about a pet
 80. animal fantasy
 81. fantasy
 82. alternate reality
 83. science fiction
 84. adventure
 85. action/suspense
 86. mystery/detective
 87. realistic fiction
 88. school setting
 89. multiple points of view
 90. historical fiction -- world war I
 91. historical fiction -- world war II
 92. historical fiction, your choice
 93. historical fiction, mystery or suspense
 94. oh the sads
 95. happy, happy ending
 96. laugh until you cry
 97. coming of age
 98. "diary" or "notebook"
 99. classic, your choice
 100. out of print
 101. library book
 102. impulse pick
 103. published in 2018
 104. YOUR pick for Newbery 2019

Bonus/alternate picks:
 made into a good movie
 made into a horrible movie
 book from your childhood
 free choice
 multiple authors
 orphan child
 vacation setting or road trip
 first crush
 new book by favorite author
time travel or steam punk


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Did you join any 2018 reading challenges? Are you joining any for 2019? I'll be getting my own sign-up posts together soon :)