2012 Wrap-Up
I spent the last two years reading approximately 230 books per year. Having twins (and moving) slowed me down a bit, but I still managed to finish 213 books this year, partly because I no longer have a day job, I’ve just been playing with kids, blogging, and doing some freelance writing. This post will not include my favorite books of 2012, but other details about my reading year last year and the one to come.
Here’s how the stats break down:
Format
Approximately 50% of what I read was read in print, the rest broke down into just over 20% in ebook and just under 30% in audio. Earlier in the year ebooks were a bit lower and audio a bit higher, but an audio slump around the holidays and my new Nook flipped the stats around a bit. This added up to a total of just over 49,000 pages of print/ebooks and nearly 25 days of listening to audiobooks
Genre
My genre breakdowns were as follows:
General fiction: 79 books/37%
Historical fiction: 61 books/28%
Speculative fiction/fantasy: 14 books/7%
Nonfiction: 37 books/17%
Classics: 2 books/1%
Mystery/thriller: 16 books/8%
Memoir: 4 books/2%
Etc
85% of the books I read were given to me for review. Of the non-review books, about 2/3 were from the library and 1/3 were books I owned.
73% of the books I read were written by women
Thanks to some Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers reissues, the mean age of the books I read this year was about 4 years, but thanks to all of my review books (including 2013 review copies) the median and mode pub date of what I read this year was 2012.
Over 70% of the books I read this year were written by authors I had never read before.
Ahead to 2013
At the moment I am going to continue posting print/ebook reviews Monday, Tuesday, and Thursdays; audiobook reviews on Fridays; and Sunday Salons – as well as the occasional Saturday Story Spotlight. I know that this schedule will stay for January , but as the year progresses I may have to go down to three reviews/week including audio, or possibly even fewer. I am going to be more ruthless than ever about abandoning books that aren’t working for me, so you are probably only going to be hearing about those I truly enjoy, as I am also generally not planning to spend my time writing up books that don’t work for me. If you want to do the math of what I have listed as read on my monthly wrap-ups and what I get around to reviewing you are welcome to, but given the late reviews I give some books that may or may not tell you anything.
Part of the reason that I am going to less time for the books I don’t dig (besides the whole three kids under four thing)is that I am coming on as an assistant agent at the Larsen Pomada Literary Agency. If you are interested in querying me, here’s what I’m looking for:
I am now open to submissions in upmarket women’s fiction and historical fiction. I’m looking for books with particularly well-developed characters and strong authorial voice. In historical fiction in particular I am particularly interested in books that bring the setting to life and that maintain balance between historical accuracy and strong plot choices. I am also very interested in mystery, fantasy, and occasionally romance approaches to these genres as well.
At the moment, you MUST query me by pasting your query, your 1-2 page synopsis, and the first chapter of your novel into the body of an email and sending it to querypamvhv@gmail.com. When that changes I will let you all know here, but any queries sent to this blog’s email address (jen@devourerofbooks.com) will be deleted unread.
Anyway, I’m hoping to be reading lots of amazing manuscripts and selling them to editors, so, yeah, we’ll see what the blog does. It will definitely not be going back to my pre-twin levels and we’ll see whether or not it stays at current levels.
Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2012
Congrats on the assistant agent job! Exciting!
I, too, am going to be much more ruthless in stopping reading books that I am not completely engaged in. I am giving it the 50 page rule. If at 50 pages I am not completely enthralled, I am abandoning it. I have spent too much time trying to read books that just don’t do it for me when I could be reading books to fall in love with.
Happy New Year, Jen!
Loving your 2013 goals about being more ruthless with books that aren’t working for you – I’m definitely changing up my selection process a bit to try and weed these out. And woohoo – congrats on the new job!!! And the twins – 2012 was a year of lots of changes for you
Congratulations on your new job!! Happy New Year!
Congrats on the new job. Your reading rate is still fairly amazing!! Looking forward to 2013!!
Congratulations again on the new job! You are going to kick ass and take names and will soon move beyond that assistant title; I just know it!
I have a feeling that a lot of us are going to be more ruthless this year in what we accept and in what we read completely. Will 2013 be the year that everyone takes back their reading from eager publishers and focus on what they want to read? I think so, at least from what I’ve seen and heard lately.
Happy New Year, girl! The future definitely looks bright for you!
Well, I don’t know that it will really change the balance of what I read. The biggest reason I tend to read my review copies and not what I already have on my shelves is that I’m too attracted by the shiny, new books. This has always been a problem with me, the books that came into the house most recently are pretty much always the ones I’m most interested in. BUT there may be some books I don’t bother slogging through.
Good for you for being more ruthless about books that aren’t working for you. Also huge congrats on your new job – you’ll be great!
Congrats on the new job! All the best in 2013.
This is ha-mazing news! I’m so happy for you – a perfect pairing.
New job! Congrats! Good luck with EVERYTHING in the new year
congrats on the job and happy new year.
Congrats on the new job and the new adventure!!
Congrats! Very exciting news. My big goals for 2013 are trying to be more selective on what I accept for review from the outset (tried this last year too and did moderately ok) and to try and read a couple more of my own books. But, like you, I fall for the new shiny things too!
Kudos on your new job! Makes me wish I was a writer so I could submit things to you…;)
Maybe someday you’ll narrate one of my clients’ books!
Lots of women!
I ended up with almost half audio I think. It’s not that I read more audio, but I read fewer print. I blame the baby.
Good luck with your 2013 reading and the new job! (said like I don’t talk to you 18 times a day).
fantastic!
I will also change my reviews, and write reviewlets for some books I did not enjoy too much. otherwise I am so many reviews behind.
here is my wrap-up, with pies and charts:
http://wordsandpeace.com/2013/01/03/year-of-reading-2012/
I love all these end of the year stats! I vow to keep better record this year so I can stop having stat envy.
My new to me authors has definitely exploded over the last few years. Back before blogging I pretty much found an author I liked, read everything they wrote and then rinsed and repeated. 70% is very impressive!
I don’t have a good breakdown, but it seemed like I read more new-to-me authors like February through October. January, November, and December seemed to have more repeats. If you want a great way to keep track of your reading stats, check out Fyrefly’s Book Blog. She didn’t post a new version this year, I don’t think, but you can probably find the one from 2012. There is all sorts of stats-y goodness.
Woohoo! I am SO excited for you, lady! What news to start off the new year!
Congratulations and all my very best wishes to you and your sweet ones as you begin this new adventure, my dear.
Congratulations on your new job – how exciting!
Thank you!