2015 - READING ROUND-UP AND STATISTICS

2015 and another year over and another boring blog post, more for my own amusement than any other reason.

The statistics......My Holy Grail target of 120 books was met  - the final count was 132!

Book length………..

600 pages plus -- 1

500 pages plus – 0

400 pages plus – 4

301-400 pages – 12

201-300 pages – 39

101-200 pages – 36

51-100 pages – 22

Under 50 pages – 17

Audiobook - 1 (I suppose I could have found a page count but didn't look!)

Gender……..

Male – 102

Female – 17

Co-authored – 1 = 0.5 male, 0.5 female
Undisclosed - 12. (Stark Holborn is a pseudonymous author and won't tell me whether he/she is a dude or dudess, even when I asked with a pretty please.)

1 more than last year I think, but with an increase of about a dozen on my reading total for 2014, a decline percentage-wise in the number of books read by female authors. Unless of course Holborn is a female, but I'll never know.

Nationality…….

USA – 82

England – 28

Scotland - 5

Australia – 3

France – 3

Ireland – 2 (Republic - 2, Northern - 0)

Canada - 2

Britain - 2

Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Germany, South Africa, - 1 each

The USA continues to rule!

Format …….

Digital – 64.5

Paperbacks – 53

PDFs - 8.5

Hardbacks – 5

Audible - 1

Over 90 on the Kindle in 2014, a bit of a resurgence for the paperback last year.

I do like the feel of a paperback!

Type of read…….

Fiction – 127

Non-fiction – 5

3 more non-fiction than last year.

I've finally dispelled my misconception that I read on average 1 non-fiction book a month! Deluded or what.

Year of publication…….

2015 -- 34

2014 – 39

2014 - year of the book!

2013 – 11

2012 – 6

2011 – ZERO

2010 – 3

2000’s – 3

1990’s – 1

1980’s – 16

1970’s – 6

1960’s – 3

1950’s – 4

1940’s – 2

1930’s – 2

1920’s – 1

1910’s – 1

Still a self-confessed fan of 70’s and 80’s pre-tech crime fiction, I’m pleased to have read more of these than last year. I’m not surprised at the paucity of pre 40’s reads as I don’t go for early 20^th Century books. I do like newer books obviously.

New v. old authors ……..

132 books read,

73 never before tried authors,

59 previously read which includes 2^nd and 3^rd books and indeed 12th books from authors who featured in the 83 count. 

I do like trying out new authors, though the figure is 10 down on last year. 

I can still try newbies in 2016, I just ought to read some already in the tubs.

Most prolific…….

Stark Holborn - 12 (or 1 big fat Nunslinger), 

Bill Pronzini - 6, 

Max Allan Collins - 5, 

Benedict J. Jones and Evangeline Jennings - 3 each,

Anonymous-9, Pascal Garnier, Todd Luchik, Carolyn Weston, Paul D. Brazill, Jay Stringer, Matt Coyle, K.A Laity/Graham Wynd - 2 each  

One shot wonders - 87

Origins……

Pre-owned or bought and then read – 40

Copies from authors - 26

Copies from publishers/publicists - 28

Munseys - 2

Project Gutenberg - 2

Net Galley - 27 (Library - 12)

Edelweiss - 3

Internet - 1

Owned books, updated version sent by author - 3

My figures are kind of skewed as the book Nunslinger was downloaded from Net Galley as a single beast and expired before I could read it. I got the book from my local library and as it had been published in 12 episodes, counted it as 12 books rather than one in my stats - sneaky huh?

I do need to read more of my own books though and should turn down more requests in the future. 

Quality......

On my arbitrary and subjective rating system of 1 - 5 STARS, with my minimum hope when cracking a book open being a 4, I enjoyed more than endured last year. Late in the year, I introduced half marks on the basis that some weren't quite perfect reads but were better than a 4. It's all arbitrary anyway.

5 STARS - 26

4.5 STARS - 22
4 STARS - 73

3.5 STARS - 1
3 STARS - 7
2 STARS - 2
1 STAR - 1 

Nearly 1 in 5 scored top marks!

The vast majority I read were really enjoyed, only 10 scored a 3 or below.

2 x 2's and 1 stinker - Chester Himes - The End of a Primitive. 

Funny enough, one of my 2 STAR reads - Sax Rohmer and this 1 STAR were both choices for my participation in Rich Westwood's Past Offences - Crimes of the Century meme. Of late, I have chosen better books to read! 

I did have a great reading year overall. I managed to complete a few sidebar challenges, but still have some way to go to having a "tidy" blog.

I’ll be doing another post on my favourite dozen or so reads, maybe tomorrow if I can get the post sorted in time.

2014 - READING ROUND-UP AND STATISTICS post for all insomniacs is here.