2021 reading round-up
Jan. 5th, 2022 07:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizbee2021 was the year I stopped using GoodReads, being optimistic that I'd get signed to an agent and be further on the way to becoming a Real Proper Author.
That didn't happen, but moving to a more private spreadsheet gave me a chance to start tracking other metrics, like author gender and race, which I didn't want to do with an audience.
Total books read: 95
By genre and audience:
I also read 16 works of non-fiction, all written for adults. By topic:
Target audience stats:
Adult: 57
New Adult: 3
YA: 22
MG: 11
JF: 2
I know "new adult" is not meant to be a thing anymore, but I don't know what else to call a novel with the style of YA but focusing on the lives of college or university students.
I decided in 2021 that I wasn't going to keep up with YA and MG releases -- I'd just take a year off and see what happened. And then I wound up rereading a lot of adult fiction as well.
Author stats:
Finally, the nerdiest numbers:
Rereads: 17
Kindle purchases: 31
Library loans: 34
Hardcopy purchases: 31
I have a mental flowchart which determines how I get a book:
That didn't happen, but moving to a more private spreadsheet gave me a chance to start tracking other metrics, like author gender and race, which I didn't want to do with an audience.
Total books read: 95
By genre and audience:
Contemporary (adult): 2
Contemporary (YA): 7
Contemporary (MG): 5
Contemporary (JF): 2
I think we can safely say that adult contemp is not my genre -- I am trying to branch out, but 100% of those books were by Liane Moriarty.
However, there's some pretty great stuff happening in contemp realism YA and MG, and that's also where a lot of the diversity in my year's reading appeared.
Fantasy (adult): 1
Fantasy (new adult): 1
Fantasy (YA): 7
Fantasy (MG): 4
It's weird to realise how much fantasy is also not my genre. That one adult fantasy? The Abigail novella in the Rivers of London series. And one hundred percent of those YA fantasies were by Leigh Bardugo.
Historical fiction (adult): 2
Historical fiction (YA): 1
Historical fiction (MG): 2
I don't wanna scare anyone, but two-thirds of those historical novels for younger readers were set in the 1990s. I mean, yes, that's two out of three -- The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks and Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas. But still, that seems like too many. The '90s were, like, last week, right?
Horror (YA): 2
This is more horror than I've read in whole decades...
Mystery (adult): 7
Mystery (YA): 1
First, more people should write YA mystery. (YA thrillers are booming, thanks to Tess Sharpe and Ellie Marney, and I love them both, and obviously there's a lot of overlap, but still.)
Second, murder mysteries are good and I like them. Apparently this is problematic nowadays, but I ... do not care.
Romance (new adult): 1
Romance (YA): 2
I keep trying to read romance, and this year ... I found one I did not hate. And two that I didn't love, but didn't think were necessarily bad, I just have trouble caring about the love lives of characters I've barely met.
Science fiction (adult): 25
Science fiction (YA): 1
SUFFICE TO SAY that between rereading the last four Expanse novels and then the entire Vorkosigan series up to A Civil Campaign, I had a bit of a year for space opera.
And that was by far the highlight. Especially realising that Amos Burton is a younger, sexier version of Sergeant Bothari, which I feel is some real galaxy brain nerding right there.
I also read some Ann Leckie, reread A Memory Called Empire ahead of A Desolation Called Peace, grimaced through Foundation, and read three Star Trek tie-in novels. Two were by Una McCormack, who sadly remains The Only Good Star Trek Novelist Currently Working.
Contemporary (YA): 7
Contemporary (MG): 5
Contemporary (JF): 2
I think we can safely say that adult contemp is not my genre -- I am trying to branch out, but 100% of those books were by Liane Moriarty.
However, there's some pretty great stuff happening in contemp realism YA and MG, and that's also where a lot of the diversity in my year's reading appeared.
Fantasy (adult): 1
Fantasy (new adult): 1
Fantasy (YA): 7
Fantasy (MG): 4
It's weird to realise how much fantasy is also not my genre. That one adult fantasy? The Abigail novella in the Rivers of London series. And one hundred percent of those YA fantasies were by Leigh Bardugo.
Historical fiction (adult): 2
Historical fiction (YA): 1
Historical fiction (MG): 2
I don't wanna scare anyone, but two-thirds of those historical novels for younger readers were set in the 1990s. I mean, yes, that's two out of three -- The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks and Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas. But still, that seems like too many. The '90s were, like, last week, right?
Horror (YA): 2
This is more horror than I've read in whole decades...
Mystery (adult): 7
Mystery (YA): 1
First, more people should write YA mystery. (YA thrillers are booming, thanks to Tess Sharpe and Ellie Marney, and I love them both, and obviously there's a lot of overlap, but still.)
Second, murder mysteries are good and I like them. Apparently this is problematic nowadays, but I ... do not care.
Romance (new adult): 1
Romance (YA): 2
I keep trying to read romance, and this year ... I found one I did not hate. And two that I didn't love, but didn't think were necessarily bad, I just have trouble caring about the love lives of characters I've barely met.
Science fiction (adult): 25
Science fiction (YA): 1
SUFFICE TO SAY that between rereading the last four Expanse novels and then the entire Vorkosigan series up to A Civil Campaign, I had a bit of a year for space opera.
And that was by far the highlight. Especially realising that Amos Burton is a younger, sexier version of Sergeant Bothari, which I feel is some real galaxy brain nerding right there.
I also read some Ann Leckie, reread A Memory Called Empire ahead of A Desolation Called Peace, grimaced through Foundation, and read three Star Trek tie-in novels. Two were by Una McCormack, who sadly remains The Only Good Star Trek Novelist Currently Working.
I also read 16 works of non-fiction, all written for adults. By topic:
Business: 1
Feminism: 1
History: 5
Medicine: 1
Politics: 3
Space: 2
Sport: 4
True crime: 2
My spreadsheet didn't allow for multiple topics, so I'm just gonna flag that the business, feminism, medicine, some of the history, and politics, all overlap with true crime.
The real surprise here was how much sports non-fiction I read. It turns out I don't hate sports, I'm just often more interested in the social and business side than the ball kicking. Except ice hockey, that is legit amazing, it's a compelling mixture of TREMENDOUS GRACE and also PUNCHING.
Feminism: 1
History: 5
Medicine: 1
Politics: 3
Space: 2
Sport: 4
True crime: 2
My spreadsheet didn't allow for multiple topics, so I'm just gonna flag that the business, feminism, medicine, some of the history, and politics, all overlap with true crime.
The real surprise here was how much sports non-fiction I read. It turns out I don't hate sports, I'm just often more interested in the social and business side than the ball kicking. Except ice hockey, that is legit amazing, it's a compelling mixture of TREMENDOUS GRACE and also PUNCHING.
Target audience stats:
Adult: 57
New Adult: 3
YA: 22
MG: 11
JF: 2
I know "new adult" is not meant to be a thing anymore, but I don't know what else to call a novel with the style of YA but focusing on the lives of college or university students.
I decided in 2021 that I wasn't going to keep up with YA and MG releases -- I'd just take a year off and see what happened. And then I wound up rereading a lot of adult fiction as well.
Author stats:
Australian authors: 29 (30%)
Authors of colour: 13 (a lousy 13%)
Women: 75 (78%)
So if there's one thing I don't need to worry about, it's reading enough women. On the other hand, now that I know how few authors of colour I read when I'm not making an effort, I ... need to make an effort! I'm going to aim for two books by an author of colour per month for 2022 and see how that works out -- I know my local library has a really excellent collection of fiction by African diaspora authors, so I'll start there.
Authors of colour: 13 (a lousy 13%)
Women: 75 (78%)
So if there's one thing I don't need to worry about, it's reading enough women. On the other hand, now that I know how few authors of colour I read when I'm not making an effort, I ... need to make an effort! I'm going to aim for two books by an author of colour per month for 2022 and see how that works out -- I know my local library has a really excellent collection of fiction by African diaspora authors, so I'll start there.
Finally, the nerdiest numbers:
Rereads: 17
Kindle purchases: 31
Library loans: 34
Hardcopy purchases: 31
I have a mental flowchart which determines how I get a book:
- Is the author local? Buy or borrow in hardcopy (Australian authors get a small amount for every physical loan from a library ... but not for ebooks).
- Is this something I'm likely to come back to? Buy in electronic form ... unless I've reread it so many times or love it so much that it's worth expending some shelf space.
- Do I need it now? Buy in electronic form, but feel bad about it.
Basically I try to minimise my purchasing of physical books, and as you can see, that's really working out for me...
