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.
Dr. Kaitlyn Casimo 