The most shocking thing this year is that I was able to read anything after June 30. Between work being ridiculous love the summer, long-delayed pandemic vacations, and starting school again I’m shocked I read as much as I did.
You can definitely see a bit of a dip after June, but MM Romance novels kept my numbers up and probably will continue to keep them up over the next two years. My page count is way down, but what can you do? At least I’m still finding time to read.
2022 Quick Facts
The big surprise here is that my physical/digital split and fiction/nonfiction are almost the same as last year. The fiction/nonfiction split only shifted because I read a couple of blended books. Glad to see Annabeth Albert still up there on most read and was a little surprised Wuthering Heights was the longest book read, but I did read the Norton Critical Edition which had a lot of extra details and footnotes which I found fascinating.
▲ or ▼ denotes a higher or lower percentage or total than in 2021; stats calculated based on total books read annual
- Total Books Read: 85 ▼
- Library/Kindle Unlimited Books: 21 (25%) ▼
- Galley/ARC: 46 (54%) ▲
- Kindle/Digital: 74 (87%) –
- Physical Books: 11 (13%) –
- TBR Books: 7 (8%) –
- Fiction: 79 (93%) ▲
- Nonfiction: 7 (6%) ▼
- Blended (F and NF): 1 (1%)▲
- Translated: 7 (8%) ▲
- Total Pages Read: 23,440 ▼
- Shortest Book Read: Lumber Jacked (Rainbow Cove #3) – Annabeth Albert (93 pages)
- Longest Book Read: Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë (464 pages)
- Authors:
- New to me: 41 of 61 (67%) ▼
- Most Read: K.C. Wells (7); Annabeth Albert (5); Kieta Hatsukoi and Alice Oseman (3 each)
- Author Gender Split:
- Male: 21% –
- >Female: 69% ▼
- Multiple/Other: 9% ▲
I once again wish I’d read more nonfiction, but here we are. I’m hoping to read more off my shelf again this year, but we’ll see if that happens at all. It’s so easy to just grab a MM Romance on my Kindle and not have to think about anything in that decision process. Definitely glad to see translations up, but most of that (or all of it I think) was from reading Japanese manga.
2022 Comparative Stats
I took a U-turn on the reading books of my shelf this year, but it only dropped by 3 from 10 to 7 this year. I hope I read more this year, but we’ll see if I do, it’s so hard when many of them are physical and it’s so much easier to just grab a kindle book and start reading right away.
The chart below really highlights the drop in page count this year. It’s the 5th lowest since I started blogging, but considering how busy I was I’m honestly a little surprised it wasn’t lower.
No major changes in the chart below either, the big one is I changed the color of the Multiple/Other/Non-binary/Unknown category.
Oof my nonfiction dropped to the lowest it’s ever been which is sad as it’s been my intention to increase the nonfiction annually. No promises, but it’ll remain on my to-do list for yet another year.
I continue to decline more Galley/ARCs than I accept which is a good thing. I even dropped the number of GRR accepted which is a little shocking, but not really considering my lack of reading time this year.
Top Book Posts Viewed in 2022 published any time
- Book 741: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous – Ocean Vuong (Aug 14, 2020)
- Book 724: Boyfriend Material (London Calling #1) – Alexis Hall (Jul 8, 2020)
- Book 647: Red, White & Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston (Sep 16, 2019)
- Book 672: Go for it, Nakamura! – Syundei (Feb 12, 2020)
- Book 750: Darius the Great Is Not Okay (Darius the Great #1) – Adib Khorram (Oct 14, 2020)
- Book 299: The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck (Aug 29, 2014)
- Book 272: The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid’s Tale #1) – Margaret Atwood (Apr 18, 2014)
- Book 714: Heartstopper (Heartstopper #1) – Alice Oseman (Jun 18, 2020)
- Book 615: Pride – Ibi Zoboi (May 22, 2019)
- Book 739: Solitaire – Alice Oseman (Aug 12, 2020)
The main surprise on this list is The Grapes of Wrath. I have no clue where it came from, but once again guessing kids are looking for page numbers for quotes. The other new entries Heartstopper and Solitaire are not at all surprising with the success of Netflix’s adaptation of Heartstopper.
Top Book Posts Viewed and published in 2022
- Book 906: Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson (Feb 16)
- Book 904: Heartstopper, Vol. 3 (Heartstopper #3) – Alice Oseman (Feb 11)
- Book 936: Café con Lychee – Emery Lee (May 12)
- Book 937: Burn Rate – Andy Dunn (May 17)
- Book 901: More Happy than Not – Adam Silvera (Feb 4)
- Book 907: Hot Seat (The Hot Cannolis #1) – Eli Easton and Tara Lain (Feb 18)
- Book 914: My Best Friend’s Brother – K.C. Wells (Mar 1)
- Book 934: Breakaway (Off the Pitch #1) – Charlie Novak (May 6)
- Book 954: Heat Wave (The Extraordinaries #3) – T.J. Klune (Jul 22)
- Book 905: Hearstopper, Vol. 4 (Heartstopper #4) – Alice Oseman (Feb 14)
Overall, not a bad list. Great to see a debut novel (Black Cake) a couple of fan favorites (all of Oseman), a few self-published MM Romances (Easton, Lain, Wells, and Novak), and one of my most anticipated books of 2022 Heat Wave.
2023 Reading and Blogging Intentions (and 2022 Check-In)
I’ve been carrying over my goals for a few years and will continue to do so for a while they’re the bare minimum.
- Read at least 60 books: ✔
- I’ll be dropping this to 52 books this year. With a full year of classes ahead of me and a promotion last year at work, not sure I’ll even make it that far. MM Romances have carried me before and they probably will again this year.
- Read more nonfiction: ✖
- This continues to be a challenge for me, but with school maybe the numbers will go up. This intention has been consistent the last few years, but last year saw the biggest drop yet.
- Read more TBR books than last year: ✖
- This was a big ol’ nope. The percentage stayed roughly the same year-over-year, but the number I read didn’t. Hopefully, this intention will be something I can focus on this year, but I’m not going to beat myself up over it.
- Restructure and expand geoffwhaley.com AKA this blog (see below)
The Future of This Blog
I’ve mentioned it before, but I think when I hit 1,000 books I’m going to dial back on the blogging. I originally thought I might completely end the blog, but I’m not sure I want to go that far. Instead, what I’m planning to do are reviews every five books. I’ll post smaller reviews focusing on my recommendations (those 150-250 word snips I use on Goodreads). This will allow me to spend less time perseverating over what to say and how to say it. It will also allow me to remove some of the stress that this blog adds just by trying to keep it updated regularly.
This year I’m going to also introduce crafting/losing.my.knit monthly posts. I’ve done this in the past, but with how much time I spend knitting and crafting I’d like it to have a more permanent presence on this. Eventually, that’ll mean a revamp of the site’s header image and whatnot to broader encompass what the blog is evolving into. For example I’d like to talk about my knitting plans for the year like my my Make9 (photo to the right), the 9 patterns I’m most looking forward to crafting this year.
These are all grandiose plans and who knows if they’ll happen, but it feels right knowing I’m roughly 20 books away from 1,000 and the biggest delay in posting is my actually getting around to writing the responses. And the smaller more concise reviews will hopefully allow me to continue to read galleys from NetGalley and Gay Romance Reviews, but if I have to give those up I will. And I’m not saying I won’t go back, that’s always a possibility after I finish school, but with life and work things are just getting too busy AND it’s been almost a decade-and-a-half.
Did you have any surprises in 2022? What are YOUR goals in 2023, are you bothering to set any?
When life is busy, it’s hard to know what to do. I tend to group reviews together a lot more than I used to and this has saved me some time. I’ve mostly fallen down on keeping up with other blogs. It’s a hard thing to balance. It sounds like you’re chugging along pretty good, though. Especially with all the knitting it sounds like you’re doing on top of everything else! Good luck with everything this year!
It is so hard to keep up with others! I still read them but I read them in an feed reader and so going to comment is like 2 extra steps. I always feel guilty.