Mid-Year Reading Stats

Last week I posted an update on my writing and did a little check in with the goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2021. Today I thought I would go through my reading statistics for the first half of the year.

At the start of 2021, I didn’t really set myself hard goals like I did with my writing. However, I have had a few goals in mind as I’ve been choosing my next reads.

1. Read 100 books
2. Read more new books than rereads
3. Read newer releases

So far I seem to be doing really well! I did have a bit of a reading slump, so I am behind on my reading goal. As of the end of June I have read 38 books, so I am 12 books behind schedule. I am not too worried though. I think I can pull it back. Hopefully…

As well as the number of books, I have been trying to keep an eye on my page count too! Last year, I had quite a low page count which just meant that I was adding shorter books. This year I wanted to try and read some bigger books. I think last year I was trying to get some shorter books off of my TBR and this year I am aiming to get some of the longer books off it!

In 2020 I read 19,230 pages for the whole year with 61 books. So far this year I have read 17,710 pages with 38 books. I think it is safe to say that I am definitely on track to read more this year than last.

Next, I have been rereading a lot this year, but I have still been really good at getting to new reads too! So far I have reread 17 books and read 21 new books! I should focus more on reading new books and get that figure higher, but I still love rereading books. I find it incredibly comforting to return to old favourites. I also am a very forgetful person, so I often reread books before reading the next one in the series. There is definitely going to be some more rereads in the upcoming weeks.

Onto genres. Subconsciously, I have been trying to read more adult books than young adult. I still enjoy young adult, but lately I have been wanting more adult reads. I have read 24 young adult books and 13 adult books and 1 non-fiction book. I was actually quite shocked that I had read that many young adult books, but all of my rereads so far have been young adult books, so it isn’t that surprising. My newer reads have been more adult books which was quite interesting to me.

Out of the young adult novels, 20 of them have been fantasy, 3 have been contemporary and 1 has been a graphic novel. It is no surprise to me that they have been mainly fantasy books. I was in a three year fantasy reading slump, so now that I am out of that I have been devouring the fantasy books. I think this is changing slightly as we enter the summer months because I love reading contemporary books during summer.

Out of the adult novels, again there have been more fantasy: 7 fantasy books, 3 contemporary and 3 historical fiction. I honestly thought the historical fiction one would be higher, but clearly I haven’t been reading as many as I thought I had! Again I am beginning to lean more into the contemporary side of things – the three contemporary books are ones that I read last month so I expect this to increase soon.

Next I went back and looked up the publication date of each of the books, because I was curious to if I am reading newer books or if I am lingering too much on older books.

• 2007: 1
• 2008: 1
• 2009: 1
• 2010: 0
• 2011: 1
• 2012: 1
• 2013: 2
• 2014: 2
• 2015: 3
• 2016: 3
• 2017: 4
• 2018: 4
• 2019: 1
• 2020: 8
• 2021: 6

I am really happy with this! The later reads are rereads from favourite series’ which is why there’s only one book for a few years. Last year I was really bad at reading 2020 releases and I think I read only 1 maybe 2? This year I have really been focusing on newer releases and keeping up with the books as they come out.

So far I think I am doing really well this year! I do need to get on it thought if I want to read 100 books by the end of the year, so hopefully no more reading slumps this year!

After drafting this post, I left it for a couple of days and got curious about how my stats compare to this time last year. So, I am now coming back to this and I am going to compare to last year. I was actually quite surprised. Strangely enough, I have read the exact same amount of books as this time last year: 38. The only difference is that I went into a reading slump after June until September in 2020 and in 2021, I am just coming out of a reading slump. So I still think this means I am reading more than last year.

I put together a couple of graphs to get a more visual idea on how things are going for the year. Let’s start with publication dates.

I said earlier that I didn’t think I had read that many new releases last year, but apparently I read more than I thought! By June last year I had read 6 new releases, which is actually the same amount of new releases that I have read this year too! A lot of the new releases last year were poetry collections which I had honestly forgotten about. So when I was thinking back on the novels that I had read last year, I was coming up with a blank. I’ve also read more series this year, so I have more of a consistant line with the older years too whereas last year there were a lot of smaller books and poetry collections crammed together in recent years.

Next. lets go to the rereads vs new reads.

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I knew I had reread a lot of books this year, but I did think I had reread more last year too. Perphaps the rereads came later on in the year. However, from January to June, I have definitely reread more this year than last. I am still happy that I am reading slightly more new books than rereading, but I won’t be too harsh on myself. I love rereading books. I find that when I am having a bad mental health period or just down in general, turning back to an old favourite is always a good idea for me. I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I sometimes I will get overwhelmed by the concept of a new story and learning new characters. so in those moments also I will reread instead of reading a new book. I do the same with films and TV shows. Whilst writing this post actually, I am rewatching Pretty Little Liars for the hundredth time. Sometimes I just don’t want anything new!

Lastly, I want to share the comparison with the genres I have been reading.

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Things have changed quite a lot from last year. For starters, I haven’t read any poetry books this year and last year they were a huge part of my reading. I also was reading a more variedly within the young adult sector with YA historical and YA dystopian too. Whereas this year, I have been leaning a lot more to YA fantasy with a little YA contemporary, but really nothing else. In 2021 so far too, there have been far more adult books which I was expecting.

I really enjoyed comparing my reading stats from last year to this year. I find it really interesting to see how my reading has changed from this time last year. I also find it very strange that I have read the exact same amount of books as last year, despite my 2 month reading slump. Last year in total I read 61 books and this year I am aiming for 100 so it is a little alarming that I am in the same place as last year, depsite me aiming for more books. I still have hope that I can still get to 100 books, but I need to get a move on!

How are you reading goals going? How do they compare to last year?

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