2024 Year End Stats

2024 was another busy year. I said in my last wrap up post how we'd moved (and then moved again) because the housing market is crazy in this neck of the woods. It's no less crazy now but the good news is that we were able to somehow find something in our preferred neighborhood, not far from the place we were renting which meant there was no need to worry about pulling Matthew out of school because we were still in the district. We moved in May but are still in the process of unpacking (it feels like a never ending task) but the books are unpacked! All 980 of them! 

Work has also been something. Again, in my post last year I mentioned I started a new job because my old one sold the brands I was working on. I'm still at that (not so) new job, BUT this company has announced that they are selling off the brand I work on so again, things are a bit up in the air. Good news is I'm a bit more relaxed about it all because what are you gonna do? 

And then my reading for the year was surprisingly strong. Moreso than I would have thought though I couldn't really say why other than reading is great and audiobooks make it at all possible to read while having to get everything else done (cooking! cleaning! commuting!) Again. ididn't make any cool graphics which I'm sure I should have because it would definitely make this more visually interesting to look at but is just not going to happen. Instead please enjoy this list of stats compared to my historic average (2013 - 2023)

What will 2025 hold? Who knows? I 'm just going to try not to make any sudden moves or spook it in any way and we'll just see what happens. 

Total books read

63

Last year was the most books I had read in a year over the past 10 years.

This year, I exceeded that. I dunno why. Meaning I didn't go out of my way to try to read more than last year and indeed, I didn't actually realize that was the case until writing this just now. 

Historic average: 54

Year with the most books: 2024 / Year with the fewest books: 2016 & 2018 (48 books)

Total pages read

20,365

Historic average: 17,758

Year with the most pages: 2013 (21,681) / Year with the fewest pages: 2018 (13,525)

Months with the most / fewest books

November (9 books) / Feb, May, Jun, Sep (4 books)

Historic average: as I said last year, every month is either 4 or 5 books on average with the exception of July which for whatever reason is a light year and the average is 3

Months with the most / fewest pages

November (3,135) / June (1,170)

Historic average: Sept (1,699) / May & July (each with an average of 1,243)

Fiction

74%

Historic average: 60.7%

BIPOC authors

15%

Historic average: 18.7%

Female authors

56%

Historic average: 57.8%

Author's nationality

US: 52% (Historic average: 67.4%)

UK: 29% (Historic average: 20.4%)

Canada: 5% (Historic average: 1.7%)

Australia: 3% (Historic average: 2.0%)

Japan: 3% (Historic average: 1.5%)

Sweden: 3% (Historic average: 0.8%)

Malaysia: 2% (Historic average: 0.2%)

New Zealand: 2% (Historic average: 0.2%)

South Korea: 2% (New country!)

Translation

8%

Historic average: 3%

Rereads

24%

Historic average: 19%

Book format

audiobook: 85% (Historic average: 45.1%)

ebook: 10% (Historic average: 27.4%)

hardback: 5% (Historic average: 3.9%)

Where'd I get the book

library: 69% (Historic average: 29.2%)

Kindle/Audible: 19% these weren't new books but rather me finding rereads (Historic average: 34.1%)

gift: 10% (Historic average: 9.0%)

indie bookstore: 2% (Historic average: 15.6%) though a few of the gifts came from indies

Decade published

1840s: 2% (New Decade Unlocked)

1970s: 2% (Historic average: 1.4%)

2000s: 3% (Historic average: 14.9%)

2010s: 23% (Historic average: 55.7%)

2020s: 71% (Historic average: 15.3%)

Top Genres

Mystery: 33% (Historic average: 10.2%)

Adult fiction: 10% (I didn't have this genre previously and I dunno even know if it's entirely right now but whatever)

Fantasy: 7% (Historic average: 5.2%)

Humor: 7% (Historic average: 7.3%)

Literary Fiction: 7% (Historic average: 9.8%)

Resolution books

55%

Historic average: 49%

December Reading Wrap-Up

December is always such a crazy month. It's a fun month. We had fun this month. But there's just so much going on it feels like there's stuff every weekend, and even multiple times during the week. And yes there's stress because there's so much to do and get done but Christmas was a success! We decorated gingerbread houses! We saw a symphony perform the music of A Muppet Christmas Carol (the best Xmas movie, IMO) while watching the movie so the monster's first trip to the movies could be a fancy one. We had family over for Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas Day in the city. We took a quick trip to D.C.

It was also, surprisingly, a month with a lot of reading again. As I mentioned in a previous post, some of this is because I've been reading to Matthew at night (beyond his normal routine of kids books) so that's contributing. Then there's the fact that I'm trying to replace some social media scrolling with something better (sometimes that's reading, sometimes it's MarioKart). Let's see how January goes.

Total books read

6

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

Mother Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach

Have you ever wondered about the science of actually getting people up into space? And did you know that the early space missions were way grosser than I might have initially considered? (Did you know it takes about 5-7 days before your body quits producing so much body oil, because that's about how long it takes clothes to reach a saturation point, because bathing in space is a challenge!) This was a book I read to Matthew as he was sleeping, with a fair amount of skipping bits that were let's say not six-year-old appropriate. Interesting and makes me appreciate all of the details that go into something like this.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Mother Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

It's really more like Grandmother, Mother, Daughter since in this case Lana, a high-powered realtor in LA finds herself staying with her daughter Beth and granddaughter Jack in a small northern CA town as she battles cancer, missing her old life. But murder night is right in the name so you know something is gonna happen and in this case it's that Jack comes across a dead body and when the cops start looking into Jack, Lana decides she needs to figure out what's going on and clear her granddaughter. 

This was described as Gilmore Girls but with murder and I have seen maybe 2-3 episodes of Gilmore Girls but the tone of this seemed pretty far from what I remember of that show, so keep that in mind if that's a big selling point.

Rating: 3.8 stars

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

Martha has had something of an unconventional upbringing, with a sculptor mother and an aspiring poet father. Beyond that, something has been wrong with her since she was a teen, where she would spend days in bed. It's a story of mental health and Martha's relationships, especially that with her husband Patrick. The story is far more Sorrow than Bliss (there's a La Croix of bliss). But it's mostly Martha self-sabatoging over and over again, knowing she doesn't want to be like this but seemingly unable to help herself.  I liked the style of writing and some turn of phrases but perhaps the weeks following the election were not the right time for a book with so much sorrow.

Rating: 3.65 stars

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

I've basically read it every year around this time and I love it each time. Even knowing it's going to make be bawl repeatedly.

Rating: 5 stars

The Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

The second in the Diviners series. I read the first a few years ago and I don't have a particular reason for waiting so long between books but it was enough time to forget most of what happened. Luckily this gave me enough to remember the important beats while not giving a full recap of The Diviners. We're still in 1920s NYC, following Evie (reads objects), Sam (great pitpocket and something of a conman), Theta (Ziegfield girl with a past), Henry (New Orleans musician who can lucid dream), Memphis (healer), and the others we met in the first book as they navigate a world of speakeasies, occult museums and now dreams with the aid of a new character Ling who can contact the dead through dreams. But there's a sleeping sickness sweeping through the city and is it more than a virus. There are a lot of plates spinning with this book and a lot of characters to keep track of, with various levels of success. But the story kept me engaged and interested and I'm sure I'll read the next book in the series. Maybe this time I won't even wait 2 years to pick it up.

Rating: 4 stars

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Come on, you know this one. Good for the season and apparently entertaining enough for my six-year-old that even though I didn't think he was paying attention, once we finished the book he asked if we could read it again.

Rating: 4.75 stars

Total pages read

2,056

Fiction

83%

Female authors

67%

BIPOC authors

0%

US authors

50%

Rereads

50%

Book club

17%

Format

audiobook: 50%

ebook: 33%

hardback: 17%

Where'd I get the book

Kindle/Audible: 50%

Library: 50%

Decade published

1840s: 17%

2000s: 17%

2010s: 33%

2020s: 33%

Resolution books

50%

Sorrow & Bliss is by a New Zealand author

The Graveyard Book by a UK author

A Christmas Carol is also by a UK author and oh also, originally published a bit before 2000