Goodreads tabulated my reading habits for me…

First off- I set a challenge to read 50 books, and as of 12/16 I had read 62 books. Yay me!!

I read 21,539 pages!

Shortest book- “The Importance of Being Earnest” Oscar Wilde (76 pages)

Longest book- “Vanity Fair” William Makepeace Thackeray (867 pages)

On an odd note- I read both of these for the same book club.

My average book length was 347 pages.

The most popular (how many people read last year) book was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, and the least popular was “The Accessory Handbook” by Alison Freer.

Average book rating: 3.4

Highest rated book (based on Goodreads submissions) “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens

For the uncalculated stats:

Favorite books I read this year:

“A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles

“Daisy Jones and the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 

52 thoughts on “My Year in Books”

  12. My year in books and yours would make an interesting comparison chart. I read more books but less pages than you did; 71 books and 20,465 pages.
    What came as no surprise to me is my average rating is considerably higher than yours. Over the year, we’ve discussed ratings and your philosophy and mine are quite different.
    Your average 3.4
    My average 4.6
    Happy reading in 2020.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      2. Well, i don’t consider it negative, just my opinion. If I give something a four, I want the person reading the book to enjoy it on some level. There’s nothing worse than reading something that got a five and have it be average. Does a teacher just give A’s because the kid worked hard? Or do they judge an essay on its merits? I blog almost every day…I know there are people who hate hat I write, and conversely, there are people who love what I do. Neither person is wrong. I’d be pretty suspect if someone rated me a five….or a one. Three is average….80% of what’s out there should be between a 2.5 and a 3.5 (on a five scale) bell curve at its finest.

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      4. Because I don’t think anything is perfect. Five stars would be perfection, an ideal. Now, I give Pride and prejudice as close to five stars as possible. I loved Daisy Jones and the Six, but it’s clearly not as good as pride. My problem is with a rating system that isn’t tighter. I’d like to rate something a 4.5, or something more like that, but given a goodreads critique of whole numbers, I need to err lower. If someone were to tell me something is five stars, whether it be a tv show, a movie or a book, it better be spectacular. While I enjoy things, rarely do I consider anything spectacular. It doesn’t really make something “less”, it just makes it honest. And it’s all personal. I give planners five stars, but there are so many people out there who think that’s nuts….won’t open a planner to save their life. Not wrong or right…just different opinions.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Agreed, different opinions for sure.

        Playing devil’s advocate, if I may – if I followed your way of rating as a teacher, I would never give an A. I know there are some professors and teachers in all grades for that matter, who think the way you do. Do you think it’s okay for them to never give an A? I had an English professor my freshman year who boasted he never gave a grade higher than a C. (He told me that personally because when he gave me a B it felt like a painful defeat for him.) We both knew I deserved an A but he wasn’t going to break his rule. Maybe that experience shaped me as a teacher and a reviewer. If I don’t like something (book or movie) I don’t rate it at all because I figure I wasn’t the target audience. If I don’t finish a book, I don’t rate it. I hate when I see a 1 star review and a DNF.

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      6. I’m ok with teachers not giving A’s. My daughter got her first B ever this semester (philosophy…which I was thrilled about because it rules out her becoming a philosopher) the TAs do the majority of the grading and apparently no one gets an A. That’s life. It’s not fair. I hate that so many teachers just give As so the parents don’t complain. I think that’s far worse. I think we all need to learn that sometimes we try our hardest, and it’s still not perfect, we still lose, we still don’t get an A. We shouldn’t be graded on effort, because we should all be giving 100%, 100% percent of the time.

        Liked by 1 person

      7. Lol! I never gave a grade to placate a parent. However, if I gave a quiz or test and no one earned 90% or better, I took some responsibility that maybe I didn’t teach the material well enough, didn’t realize they lacked sufficient understanding.

        Liked by 1 person

      8. I get that theory of thought…if no one gets over a 90, then maybe you missed a step. That’s fair thought. But seriously, I met an NYU prof at a party. He said the amount of parental phone calls he gets regarding grades is astronomical. And I know it’s a huge issue at the high schools in the tri state region. It’s why standardized tests are never going away. How do you determine which teachers are giving away A’s? As my daughter puts it, it you’re taking college prep math (algebra, geometry, algebra 2, trig and calculus) and get straight A’s in all of them, yo7 should not get less than a 650 on Sat math. If you do, you didn’t deserve A’s

        Liked by 1 person

  13. I don’t keep track of my books and didn’t know goodreads did that. I had thought of sharing my reading via posts. I also reread The Importance of Being Ernest this fall, not the only play in that book. I have read it a few times, and love so many lines in the various plays.
    I tend to historical mysteries but you have intrigued me with A Gentleman in Moscow, I will investigate. I suspect many of blogger friends are avid readers also. Enjoy your day LA.

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  14. I didn’t quite make my goal of 40 books this year. I am on 33 (Jay’s Haunted House Ghost) so I may make 34 by Tuesday. I like that Goodreads tracks your books too. I’m a list maker so I appreciate that kind of stuff. I also keep a reading log of my own – gotta have that pen and paper list too! My daughter got me one of the Pop Chart Scratch off posters of the 100 Classic books and even though I’ve read a lot of them, with the exception of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and 1984 which I just finished, I am going to re-read them before I scratch it off. Should be fun. I’m planning a post about it myself. I also follow the PopSugar Challenge and the Modern Mrs. Darcy challenges too. Since I didn’t make 40 this year, I’m keeping that as my goal for next year.

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  15. Yay You!
    I always keep tabs on my books read but guess what? I often forget to add to the list as the year wears on…I guess goodreads really helps with that, huh?
    🙂
    “A Gentleman in Moscow” was one of those that started off slow for me, but was worth the time investment after about the first half – really enjoyed it! I ended up lending my copy to hubby to read and buying a copy for my bro on his b-day.

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    Reply

  18. I feel pretty good that I read 31 books this year. My goal was 30. I’d like to read more but there are too many things I like to do!! Congrats on your 62. A friend who reads many books didn’t enjoy A Gentleman from Moscow. I can’t decide if I want to read it or not.

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    1. I really enjoyed it. I understand why someone might call it slow, but it’s just a visual book. The descriptions are beautiful, and I found it hard to not love the main character.

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