2015: By the Numbers

All week I posted about my favorite books of 2015: Hawthorne's board books, comics, mysteries, nonfiction and fiction. I loved breaking down the categories this way, as it's so hard for me to rank books from different areas. I also discovered some interesting patterns in my reading:

Fiction:

• All thirteen of my favorites were written by women. 
• Only two of my thirteen favorites were written by authors I'd read before (Laura Dave & Lauren Groff, both in my Hall of Fame.) 
• Seven of my thirteen favorites were fiction debuts.
• Three of my thirteen favorites were audiobooks.

Nonfiction:

• Half of my ten favorites were written by women.
• All ten were written by authors I'd not read before.
• Six of my ten favorites were audiobooks.

Mysteries:

• Half of my ten favorite were written by women.
• Eight were written by authors I'd read before.
• Only one was an audiobook.

Overall Numbers:

I was reading until late on New Year's Eve, but I managed to hit my goal of 130 books read in 2015. I'm really proud of that number. I managed 139 in 2014, but prior years were much lower: 2013--94, 2012--118, 2011--108, 2010--8, 2009--94. I set a goal of 130 because it works out to be 2.5 books a week. I average 1-2 weeks for audiobooks, and that leaves me with two other books a week. There were plenty of weeks when I read more or less, but it all seemed to average out.

Here's how some those reads break down:

• 37 audiobooks (more than twice as many as 2014, which was the highest ever)
• 92 books by a female author, which is exactly the same as 2014 
• 72 books I read from the library (this includes audio and print)--2 more than 2014
• 31 books from publishers (down from 44 in 2014)

I start 2016 with 32 unreviewed books. Some of those reviews I've written, as I've already finished six 2016 releases, but I have some serious catching up to do. Or I need to admit I don't have to review every book I read. 

Tune in tomorrow as I share my 2016 reading goals.