What a great reading year I had! I read so many good books (it was hard to pick one or two books for my categories below), and got much better at quitting (DNF’ing) books I could tell I wasn’t going to enjoy. I’m so glad I started this hobby back up. It brings me immense joy, enriches my life, and teaches me so much.
Thanks for reading and responding to my book posts this year!
Here are some of my 2019 reading stats:
Numbers
Books Read: 59
Pages Read: 21,301
Books DNF’d: 4
Amount personally spent on books I read in 2019: $1.95
Fiction vs non-fiction count: 41 / 18
Physical book vs e-book: 45 / 14
Re-reads: 0
Fastest read: <1 day, Falling into Place (I was sick with lots of time to read that day!)
Slowest read: 30 days, The Kennedy Debutante (It made me really interested in the Kennedys but I struggled with that book)
“Oldest” book I read (by publication date): 5/3/2011, State of Wonder
“Newest” book I read (by publication date): 10/15/19, Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life
Longest book I read: 962 pages, The Goldfinch (Lucky me, I had a paperback copy that was thicker with more pages)
Shortest book I read: 153 pages, To Be Taught, If Fortunate (my first novella!)
Fiction
Favorite novels of the year: The Dutch House and The Most Fun We Ever Had
Novels I recommend to everyone: Recursion and Dark Matter
Genres I read the most of: coming-of-age and domestic fiction
Genre I keep erroneously thinking I will like: magical realism
Non-fiction
Favorite non-fiction of the year: The Passion Paradox
Favorite memoir of the year: Educated
Memoir I struggled with BIG time: Running Home
Random
Most disappointing reads: Whisper Network and The Woman in the Window
Worst book I finished: Looker
Book Club for Two book: Midnight in Chernobyl
Work Book Club book: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Pulitzer Prize book I read: The Goldfinch
Books I read then purchased: Recursion and Dark Matter
Series I read: The Broken Earth
Author I read the most pages by: N.K. Jemison (see above)
Books that change the way I see the world: Life is a Marathon: A Memoir of Love and Endurance and Talking to Strangers
Books that were turned in to movies/TV: The Goldfinch, The Woman in the Window, The Martian, The Chestnut Man, A Gentleman in Moscow, A Man Called Ove, Wild, Midnight in Chernobyl (more or less)
Books that I’d like to see turned in to movies: The Fifth Season, Recursion
Where I got the most of my book recommendation: Jamie B Golden – The Popcast
Most random book recommendation: from my seatmate on the train
I LOVE this! Oh man, so many recommendations! I’ll have to refer back to this when I need to add more books to my hold list on Libby. Which books did you DNF?
Awesome! Let me know if you read any! I am on Goodreads if you want to connect there (kimilax@yahoo.com).
I DNF’d:
Text Me When You Get Home
How to Bake a New Beginning
The Library of the Unwritten
Waiting for Tom Hanks
I am thinking about DNF’ing the book I am reading now, about someone running the Te Araroa trail in New Zealand. I thought it would be interesting to me but it’s pretty boring so far. Ugh.
How very cool to see all your book stats like that! I would also put The Dutch House as my favorite this year…perhaps The Most Fun We Ever Had will be my fav for 2020? Still waiting for it from the library…
I think if you liked The Dutch House you will like it! It has even more drama, if you can imagine 😉
What is “magical realism”?
“Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style of fiction that paints a realistic view of the modern world while also adding magical elements. It is sometimes called fabulism, in reference to the conventions of fables, myths, and allegory.” (from Wikipedia 🙂 )
Ooh, I have bookmarked this page for myself because there are some categories I want to add to my book stats for next year – like oldest vs newest book and author I read the most of. Fun!
You had such a great reading year! This post also reminds me to pick up The Passion Paradox. I remember when you were reading that!
Oh wow, I am honored you want to use some of my categories!!! <3
Thank you! I was shocked by how much I learned from that book. I thought it was going to be hooky but it really opened my eyes.