This blog is pretty much just a bunch of stats a t this point, so why not carry on the tradition with the end of year book stats?
How was 2025? I mean, let's ignore, you know, the larger world and focus personally. It was fine. Certainly less eventful than the last couple years. If nothing else, we didn't have to pack up and move again which is nice. I mean, sure we're still unpacking boxes but this is mainly a laziness thing and the fact that we have so much stuff and really need to get rid of more. But I think all of the packing and unpacking (repeat, repeat) has scarred me a bit so the thought of either unpacking more or even putting stuff in boxes to get out of the house is stressful so I'm mostly in a frozen state about that, relying on Tom's motivation (in his brief free time) to take the lead.
I was looking at last year's post and I mentioned that I had changed jobs because some of the stuff I worked on was being sold and that surprise! It was happening again at my new job so I was back to some uncertainty. I'm still at that job, though my role has expanded a bit, in a way that helps make it a bit less up in the air, even if it does make things more hectic. What will 2026 bring? I just keep repeating how the future is unknowable, so I'll just focus on what's in front of me. As with last year, I'm gonna try not to make any sudden movements, lest I spook the new year and we'll just see what happens.
Also I had this post written DAYS ago and yet I'm just getting around to posting it now. That's how the year is going so far.
Let's see how the year shook out, reading-wise
Total books read
70
Once again, this is the most books I've read since I started tracking. Part of this is because I was doing more reading to Matthew that I have arbitrarily decided counts towards these stats (think chapter books). That and for a while I was also reading books out loud to him while he fell asleep, though that has somewhat been replaced by listening to someone else (aka audiobooks) read to him while he's drifting off. Don't worry, we're still reading to him when he's awake.
Historic average: 55
Year with the most books: 2025 / Year with the fewest books: 2016 & 2018 (48 books)
Total pages read
22,966
You would think it would be obvious that this year, when I read the most books, would also result in the most pages. But given some of that volume was, as I mentioned, made up of kids chapter books, I wasn't sure that would be the case. Surprises never cease.
Historic average: 18,359
Year with the most pages: 2025 / Year with the fewest pages: 2018 (13,525)
Months with the most / fewest books
Most: June, August, October (7) / Fewest: May & November (4)
The historic average is 4-5 books a month. July used to only be 3 but that's been pulled up
Months with the most / fewest pages
Most: July (2,430) / Fewest: November (1,406)
Historic avg: September (1,730) / May (1,296)
Fiction
77%
Historic avg: 64%
BIPOC authors
12%
Historic avg: 18%
Female authors
49%
This is the first time in the last 10 years this stat has fallen below 50%
Historic avg: 57%
Author's nationality
US: 50% (historic avg: 65%)
UK: 29% (historic avg: 22%)
Canada: 7% (historic avg: 2%)
Sweden: 4% (historic avg: 1%)
Singapore: 3% (historic avg: 2%)
Australia: 1% (historic avg: 1%)
Germany: 1% (new country!)
Japan: 1% (historic avg: 2%)
Malaysia: 1% (historic avg: 0.4%)
New Zealand: 1% (historic avg: 0.4%)
Translation
7%
Historic avg: 4%
Rereads
27%
Historic avg: 20%
Book format
audiobook: 64% (historic avg: 50%)
ebook: 26% (historic avg: 26%)
paperback: 10% (historic avg: 20%)
Where'd I get the book
library: 77% (historic avg: 37%)
Kindle/Audible: 10% (historic avg: 31%)
indie: 9% (historic avg: 14%)
gift: 3% (historic avg: 9%)
chain bookstore: 1% (historic avg: 3%)
Decade published
2020s: 67% (historic avg: 25%)
2010s: 17% (historic avg: 49%)
1990s: 4% (historic avg: 5%)
1960s: 4% (historic avg: 2%)
1970s: 1% (historic avg: 1%)
1890s: 1% (historic avg: 0.3%)
1810s: 1% (historic avg: 0.4%)
Top genres
Mystery: 26% (historic avg: 14%)
Literary fiction: 11% (historic avg: 10%)
Fantasy: 10% (historic avg: 6%)
Kids/Childrens: 10% (historic avg: 1%)
Thriller: 10% (historic avg: 5%)
Resolution Books
60%
Historic avg: 50%
