My 2019 Book Stats

Time for my 2019 Reading Recap. This may be slightly inaccurate as it is based upon my faulty sleep deprived memory! Here is 2018's recap.

How many books read in 2019? – 88! Which was 8 more than 2018.  My goal for 2019 was 52, so I succeeded that goal!

How many fiction and non-fiction? 5 non-fiction and 84 fiction books.  Which is less non-fiction than the year before, and I have been trying to read more non-fiction but with my pregnancy brain, it just wasn’t in the cards last year.  I did read quite a few fiction books based on true accounts!

Male/Female author ratio? 14 men and 51 women.  Quite a few authors I read a couple of their books this year.

Which author was new to you in 2019 that you now want to read the entire works of? I would say either Marie Benedict who wrote, The Only Woman in the Room, that I read or Julia Watts who wrote, Quiver.

Favorite book read in 2019? Overall, I’d say Becoming by Michelle Obama, but I REALLY enjoyed a lot of books I read.  I surprisingly gave 18 books 5 stars including Becoming.  The others that I’d recommend after thinking about them more are Ohio by Stephen Markley, The Mother-In-Law by Sally Hepworth, Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin, Front Desk by Kelly Yang, On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, Before we Were Yours by Lisa Wingate, Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the Word by Ashley Herring Blake, The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen, The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict, and Quiver by Julia Watts.

Least favorite? The Hampton Connection by Vincent Lardo, Maid of Murder by Amanda Flower, and The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish. 

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why? The Alice Network and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. I really wanted to like both of them and plan on giving them another chance at a later date.  They just weren’t what I needed at the time. 

How many pages did you read? 28,952

How many books from the library? 53, which is 3 less than last year.  I focused on clearing off some bookshelves in the spring of books I already owned, but still a lot from the library.   

How many books read did I purchase? Quite shocking for me, but of the ones I read last year I only bought 2 in 2019 for book club I think. However, 16 were purchased in other years.  Mostly from fill a bag day at the library.

How many were gifts? 5 I think.  3 were from Christmas in 2018. 

How many borrowed from others? None.

How many were given to me for reviews? 2

How many books read on kindle? 1, Sister’s First.

Any re-reads? Boxcar children and Little House on the Prairie books that I read with my daughter. 

Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading? United States, Japan, Canada, France, England, Australia, Singapore, China, Syria, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, Austria

from a spark of light 

What states did you go through the page in your year of reading?  Ohio, Illinois, New York, Maryland, North Carolina, Massachusetts, California, North Dakota, Wyoming, South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Michigan, West Virginia, Tennessee, Washington D.C., Wisconsin, Florida, Mississippi

Which book wouldn’t you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?  Ayesha at Last, Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, and Front Desk

Which author did you read the most of? 3 Sarah Addison Allen, 3 Sarah Dessen, 4 Nancy Coco, 4 Amanda Flower, and 4 Louise Penny.

What was your best reading month? July when I read 15.

What was your worst reading month? October I only read 2 books.



Top Ten Reading Moments of 2019

- Finishing the Little House series as a read aloud with the fam.

- Visiting the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum.

- Reading 15 books in one month!

- Introducing the Boxcar series to my kiddo.

- Watching my child get super excited for library trips.

- Recording my kid’s reading on goodreads with her and plotting out what book she should read next.

- Reading together with both of my girls.

- Watching the newest version of Little Women in the theatre.  Little Women is one of my favorite books from childhood!

- Volunteering at the elementary library and seeing kids excited about reading and learning about new books and seeing how awesome the library is at the school!

- Putting together a 12 pack of books for my best-friends newest baby.  One book a month for the first year.

2019 Reading Goals - Revisited

1.    Read 52 books.  I read 88!

2.    Read more books on my shelf. Continue donating so my living room book case looks better.  I read 21 books that were already on my shelf and then I donated them! (Not counting the Little House books in this!)

3.    Try to do our family read aloud 5 out of 7 days a week.  This did not work.  After I was pregnant, it was hard for me to focus and then we finished the Little House books and we just kind of stopped.  I read books together with the 8 year old but we didn’t do the family read alouds.  We are talking about doing Charlotte’s Web together but now she wants to read Little Women and that would just be the two of us.

2020 Reading Goals

1.   Read 60 books.

2.   Read more books from my shelf and clear them out.

3.   Write more about what I read.

How many books did you read this year? Did you complete your 2019 reading goals? What are your goals for 2020? Which author did you read the most of? What was your most recommended book? Any you couldn't finish?