2022 Reading Stats

This is one of my favorite posts and anyone else who’s also a reading stats nerd will likely enjoy this one! Throughout the year, I keep a really detailed spreadsheet of what I’ve been reading and at the end of the year, it brings me an immense amount of joy to see those stats analyzed and projected in the form of charts.  So much fun! I like to look at them throughout the year and see how they change month to month, but I never bore you all with that!  Let me know if you’ve had any surprising stats this year (if you keep track) in relation to your reading!

2022 READING GOAL

Goal: 100 Books

Actual: 124 Books

Total Pages Read: 38,479

It’s no surprise that my most read genre for 2022 was fantasy at 22.6%, followed by non-fiction and comics/graphic novels tied at 16.1% and mystery/thriller at 14.5%.  My projection for 2023 is a decrease in comics (Amazon purchased ComiXology and until they bring back the guided reader, I’m not going to be able to read any of my Star Wars comics. It’s truly SO annoying. I’ve Googled extensively and I don’t seem to be the only one having this issue) and an increase in romance and contemporary reads.  I expect fantasy and non-fiction will remain towards the top of my list!

The vast percentage of my 2022 reading was done digitally with eBooks making up the bulk of my reading followed closely by audiobooks.  I didn’t request any ARCs in 2022 so I’m not surprised to see such a low number there and the percentage for graphic trade is a little misleading since I didn’t want them to look like eBook novels in my breakdown. I believe I only read 3-4 graphic novels physically in 2022. In 2023, I’m expecting similar results with the bulk of my reading being done on eBook. I’m just having a love affair with my Kindle and library these days.

This chart I found particularly interesting! I knew I invested in more backlist books in 2022, but I wasn’t expecting my highest amount of books read to be in the 2010’s. Historically, I’ve read mostly new releases and I’m so curious if this is a side effect of being a BookTuber and how my reading was influenced without me even realizing it at the time.

My Best reading months were by far January and February, which surprise surprise, is right before we moved and started house hunting! Watch my reading decline from there.  I did manage to read a bit more in June thanks to vacations from work and December because I got really into thrillers which usually only take me a day or two to finish reading. I’m hoping to keep my December pace (around 10 books) going for each month of 2023 now that I don’t foresee any huge time commitments at the moment.  Those could be famous last words!

The bottom bar shows my total number of star ratings which is a bit confusing and I’m not sure why my spreadsheet decided to display it this way but we’re just going to go with it for now.  The majority of books I read in 2022 were 4 stars (excellent!) followed by 3 stars (not bad!).  I also gave more 2 stars last year than usual (I really leaned into my new rating scale which is based on my feelings toward a book versus its literary merit in the grander scheme of things).  I expect that 4 and 3 stars will continue to be my biggest categories in 2023 as well.

This is always a fun breakdown to me! My highest read publisher in 2022 was Penguin Random House which does not at all come as a surprise to me.  They have such a wide range of imprints across so many genres.  It’s also worth noting I’m able to pick finished copies of books that I want to read from them each month and they send them to me so I tend to gravitate toward their titles.  Second most read is Marvel thanks to Star Wars comics (before Amazon ruined that for me) and my third most read is Macmillan.  For 2023, I predict that PRH will remain in my top spot, but Harper and Simon will make up a higher percentage of reads for me based on what’s currently on my TBR.

For the purposes of this graphic, I’m going to combine the percentages for the Nassau digital library and the New York Public Library (NYPL).  The vast majority of my reading was done via library loans coming in at a 43.9%.  That’s amazing!! I’m so proud of myself for utilizing my library this year and for 2023, one of my goals is have my library reads reach 50% or more of my total reads for the year.  Following the library, my next highest was Amazon (those $1.99 Kindle sales always get me) and ComiXology.

I read a total of 50 series books and 74 standalones in 2022! My goal for the year was to complete 10 series, which I accomplished.  I continued reading 26 series, and I started 14 new series.  I’ll be curious to see what my 2023 chart looks like since I’ve been gravitating away from series.

In 2022 I read 44 new to me authors which feels pretty good! Additionally I read 5 debut books which makes sense based on the lower quantity of new releases I read and I opted to pick up books from 75 authors that I had read previously.  I’m glad that I explored new authors throughout the year and I’m not surprised that I picked up books from authors I already know and love.  No idea what 2023 will bring!

I’m also feeling so proud of this graphic!! YA had always been my highest read age range but it’s been on the decline for me for the past two years.  In 2022, I overwhelmingly read adult books at 71% with YA coming in second with 25%.  This is exactly what I wanted for my reading and I’m so glad to have succeeded in my goal.  I expect that 2023 will be an even higher percentage of adult books compared to YA but overall, I’m pretty pleased with this ratio.