I finished the year with 94 books read, down a little from last year when I read 106 books. 2018 was my highest number of reads ever and that was largely due to the POPSUGAR book challenge I was 'competing' to finish against Allison. We tried again this year and we both petered out. I did get 40 of the 50 prompts though - how many did you get, Allison?
Stats: I decided to do some stats on my books which will impact some of my goals for 2020, here's what I tracked:
- Fiction vs. Nonfiction - 81 books {86%} were Fiction - honestly I'm surprised I had as many Nonfiction books as I did!
- Author/Character a Person of Color - 18 books {19%} - I'm pretty pleased with this as I was loosely aiming for 1/month, but I'll be looking to up this in 2020.
- Female vs. Male author - Only 8 books {9%} were written by men - I don't really care about this stat other than I'm not surprised/found it amusing.
- Topic I'd like to focus more on - I read 4 books {4%} specifically about Race, I'd like this to continue to grow.
- Chick lit, Romance, and YA - these categories represented 44 books {47%} of my reading - I also categorized Fiction {more general in nature or sci-fi, suspense, LGBTQ, etc.}, Nonfiction, and Historical Fiction - I'm kind of surprised this wasn't more, ha?
- World War Historical Fiction - 5 books {5%} were about WW1 or WW2 - am I losing some steam on this subject?
Any of this surprising to anyone? Any other ways I should be tracking my reading? I thought this was really interesting and look forward to seeing how 2020 shakes out!
Favorites:
Now, onto my favorite books of the year! I honestly don't think I have a single favorite, instead I have a handful that I really loved that could all easily be in that top slot.
The New Jim Crow and White Fragility - these 2 books had the most impact on how I view the world and have made an impact on how I want to raise our children in relation to race. I do not want children passive in their white supremacy and want us to be an active family in antiracism work.
The Time Traveler's Wife - From page 1, I was in love with this book. The way the story was told and unfolded was beautiful. I had such big emotions throughout the whole experience and wish it had been twice as long.
Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid can do no wrong in my book. I would love to peak inside her brain and see how it works. Every book she has written has been fabulous, and this one had the added bonus of being so different style too. It's written like an interview which made it fast to read but I quickly figured out the 'personality' of the characters even told in this style. I ate it up and loved every minute.
Where the Crawdads Sing - This seemed to be the 'it' book of 2019 and it exceeded all expectations I had for it. It was such a wonderful story that unfolded beautifully. I was bereft when it ended, I can't think of any other way to describe it.
The Gown - Jennifer Robson is another author that writes with a golden pen. So far all her books have had a WW1 or WW2 aspect, so it's an added bonus for me touching on my favorite historical topic. This one ALSO added in some royal aspects and a modern-day love story. It was a delicious treat for me.
