This is the post where I dramatically reveal to the hero that I am not a villain, I am… a statistics nerd! If you want to see what I read this month, go here.

In 2015, I started doing reviews of books at the halfway point of the year, so happy one-year book reviewing anniversary to me!

Thus far in 2016, I have read:

• 27 books
• 8 were non-fiction
• 8 were tagged fantasy, but at least 4 more could be reasonably described as fantasy
• Totaling 10,153 pages
• At an average of 376.04 pages
• With a standard deviation of 317.94
• By 31 unique authors (some repeats, some collaborations)
• 13 of whom were female (42%)
• All but six of whom were American (4x English, 1x Australian, 1x French)

Last year, at this time, I had read:

• 24 books
• 1 non-fiction
• 13 fantasy
• Totaling 9987 pages
• At an average of 416.15 pages
• With a standard deviation of 243.78

By the categories so far:

• Favorite standalone fiction: tie between Redshirts and The Ragwitch
• Favorite series fiction: Beka Cooper, represented in 2016 by Mastiff. Close second to the extended Outlander universe including the main series and Lord John’s spinoffs. (Dresden Files ruled ineligible as I read no in-series books, only a short story collection.)
• Favorite nonfiction: tie between Gulp and Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015
• Favorite other-format (graphic novel/play/etc): Nimona
• Oldest: if you count only the words, Manga Much Ado About Nothing (1612), but since that’s not really fair as the pictures are the selling point, Count of Monte Cristo (1845)
• Newest: The Road to Little Dribbling (2016)
• Longest: SURPRISE! It’s NOT the Count, it’s The Fiery Cross, Outlander book 5 (1456), edging out the Count (1312). The pair, along with Outlander book 4, are the longest books I’ve ever read. (I can say this with confidence, as I had not ever read a book over 1000 before I read any of the Outlanders.) Note, I don’t include the Couunt’s copious explanatory footnotes, which I read, in that total.
• Shortest: Bob’s Burgers, at 96. If you’re of the camp that graphic novels Do Not Count when it comes to page numbers, novella collection Working for Bigfoot,  at 128.
• Weirdest: The Skin of Our Teeth, and how
• Dark horse favorites (that I did not expect to like as much as I did): Redshirts, The Ragwitch, Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015, Bob’s Burgers: Medium Rare, Skin of Our Teeth
• Disappointments (that I expected to like more than I did): Road to Little Dribbling, Cleaning the Kingdom

Also of note, the average rating so far was 2.55 – which basically reflects that I doled out 2s and 3s evenly, because I have only bestowed one 1 so far this year. I would interpret this as me doing a good job vetting my book choices since I very rarely end up with something I dislike. That said, I might also be vetting a little too harshly and missing books out of my normal range that seem too risky. Alas, the travails of being too busy to read everything. I doubt I’ll ever get this balance right.

I recently rearranged my bookshelf and prioritized my to-read shelf. (No more impulsive late-night line jumping… for now…) I’m focusing my attention on books that either I borrowed from someone or someone has asked to borrow from me. My kindle to-read stack is an entirely separate and extremely messy matter, but nobody borrows those, so that realm of irresponsible reading habits is my own problem.