As I've written other years, I can't imagine anyone but me really caring about these facts, but I enjoy looking back at them, and (geek alert) even enjoy putting them together. This year I read way more books by women, mostly because I read SO much of H.Y. Hanna! And also because I didn't read nearly as many older mysteries, which are mostly by men. I also read ten more books than last year which were published between 2011 and 2019.
In 2019, I read 65 books.
15 Fiction
4 Graphic Nonfiction
43 Mystery
3 Nonfiction
54 Kindle
11 Print
15 by men
50 by women
2 - 1920s
5 - 1940s
1 - 1950s
1 - 1960s
1 - 1970s
4 - 1980s
4 - 1990s
2 - 2000-2010
45 - 2011-2019
11 - Rereads
6 - Library books, all on the Kindle. I rarely borrow print books because I have so many of my own that I haven't read yet.
It's funny, I hadn't thought to check how many books I'd read by women as opposed to men, so I went and counted. Out of 73, 37 were by women so that's almost exactly half and half. I'm surprised as I thought I mainly read books by women!
ReplyDeleteLast year mine were almost equal, but I was on a Hanna tear this year! And as I wrote, I didn't read as many old mysteries this year.
DeleteI have fun looking at the lists and stats that others share. Plus my list of books to try always gets longer (of course). My reading always tips way toward the female author side. I don't think I ever purposefully tried to do that, but I do read a lot of newer mysteries. And a lot of the ones that I reread from earlier times are also written by women for some reason. Anyway, sounds like you had a satisfying reading year. Looking forward the new decade and what we'll read then. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've not read many cozies or historical cozies for a while, and this year I have read a lot. My biggest "tip" is toward British books (and tv). I may write about this idea - I want to read nonfiction about the 1920s and fiction written in the 1920s this year. I can hardly believe 1920 was a 100 years ago. When I was a girl, those days were only thirty years back - like the 1990s are to now. A real mind blow!
DeleteI think that's my favourite of the header pictures you use!
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in what you read and I don't think it's geeky at all. I would say that, because I analyse the year's reading in much the same way.
Happy New Year, Nan and I look forward to another year of posts from you.
That's the only one that isn't mine! An old magazine I bought. It is framed in my house.
DeleteThank you, and the same to you!
I still can't hardly make myself keep track of what I read. Each year when I read your lists I think 'I should do that' yet I never do. I do have some written down. Not near all of them. I begin doing it then a complete fail. ha... Maybe this year. I just don't know how you and some of your readers here do that consistently.
ReplyDeleteI'll be making my 2020 collecting post soon. Then every time I finish a book, I list it there. Very easy. Others use programs but I just make this simple list, and then add 'em up at the end of the year.
DeleteNan, I don't think I have ever read graphic nonfiction. I also very seldom reread books and that's mainly because I have so much to read already. I'm reading more paper books from my own shelves and less and less on Kindle. I need to reduce my pile of unread books.
ReplyDeleteI do, too! I have so many books waiting.
DeleteThose are fun statistics, Nan. Wishing you a happy New Year and happy reading in 2020!
ReplyDeleteThey are fun to me, too! Thank you, and the same back atcha!
DeleteI adore it when you put up your Nan's Making Coffee banner! And I always love reading about books you've read! I always prefer reading books by women authors, especially fiction. In fact, I can't really think of a male author who I've collected for my own shelves except Beverley Nichols and the Rabbi books. Oh, there's the Alexander McCall Smith collection of his Isabel Dalhousie series that I love also. I did have a few others that I donated to our estate sale when we moved to Florida. I tend to think that women write their male character's voices better than men authors do women's, but maybe that's just because I'm a woman.
ReplyDeleteA happy 2020 to you,
Dewena
I feel a bit bad because the original magazine clipping of the ad that I framed is faded from light. I've moved it, but still...
DeleteI think you might like to give Stewart O'Nan's Emily Alone, and Henry Himself a try. They are quite, quite wonderful.
I'm a number geek, too, so please don't stop sharing these stats every year! I'm surprised you read so many books from this past decade. That's unusual for you, isn't it? I haven't gone through my lists, but I'm pretty sure the majority of my books were written by women. I'm going to sit down and put together my list today and maybe I'll write about my favorite books for the past decade.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, my friend.
More than usual, but still every year I'm amazed at how many I read that are new. Just not the ones that are on best-seller lists!
DeleteLove all the book talk! I've been busy with college reading but I have this winter semester off, so I am stacking up a new to-be-read pile and diving in. Thank you for inspiration! Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteAnd to you!
DeleteIt's probably not such a strange thing, but I've noticed that almost every single stat-compilation I've seen again this year shows that men read mostly male authors and vice versa. In my case, about one-third of my reading was by female writers. I did notice that Cath, as she mentioned up above, had about a 50-50 split between the genders, and I find that to be exceptional.
ReplyDeleteLast year I read 30 by men, and 34 by women. I just finished my first book of 2020 and it is by a man. I don't ever plan!
DeleteI love reading such posts! I don't think I have previously broken down my reading by author gender or by decade but I do keep track of how many were books I owned vs from the library because I am a little worried about the piles of unread books throughout the house.
ReplyDelete