18 September 2015

Reading Roundup Year in Review, 2014/15

My reading year is over! I never got around to doing a big wrapup last year (September was during my Big Blog Drought), but I'm back with charts and data. First off, how does it stack up to years past?

Year Books Read
2003/04  151
2004/05  129
2005/06  141
2006/07  129
2007/08  152
2008/09  161
2009/10  157
2010/11  139
2011/12  184
2012/13 195
2013/14 148
2014/15 146
SUM 1832
MEAN 152.7

A little bit below average for me, but not by a lot. This is fair, as my teaching and writing responsibilities were definitely higher than they've been in the past.

Here's what I've been reading this year: (I broke out series/authors only if I read more than one book of that series/author)

SERIES/GENRE/AUTHOR # OF BOOKS BOOKS/ MONTH % OF ALL BOOKS
Doctor Who 26.5 2.2 18.2%
Star Wars 11 0.9 7.5%
Star Trek 6.5 0.5 4.5%
Media Tie-In Subtotal 44 3.7 30.1%




George Griffith 3 0.3 2.1%
A. Conan Doyle1 2 0.2 1.4%
Stanislaw Lem2 2 0.3 1.4%
Other SF&F 21 1.8 14.4%
General SF&F Subtotal 28 2.3 19.2%




Crisis Crossovers3 15.5 1.3 10.6%
Batman 14.3 1.2 9.8%
Legion of Super-Heroes 2.5
 0.2 1.7%
Other DC Comics3 6.7 0.6 4.6%
Avatar: The Last Airbender 3 0.3 2.1%
Other Comics4 5 0.4 3.4%
Comics Subtotal 47 3.9 32.2%




James Bond by Ian Fleming 2 0.2 1.4%
Victorian Literature 2 0.2 1.4%
Other Literature 16 1.3 11.0%
General Literature Subtotal 20 1.7 13.7%




Other Nonfiction5 7 0.6 4.8%

1. This also includes the novel Dinosaur Summer, by Greg Bear, a sequel to a Doyle work (The Lost World).
2. This also includes Summa Technologiae, a nonfiction book by Lem.
3. These also include novels about these comics-originated characters/premises.
4. Comics based on a particular series (e.g., Doctor Who or Star Wars) are included with that series's count.
5. Nonfiction connected to a particular series (e.g., Star Trek or Avatar: The Last Airbender) is included in that series's count.

Tie-ins had a big upsurge for me this year, based on a couple things: my working through the Doctor Who Humble Bundle, and my reading of one novella per month from the 50th anniversary collection. I've also been rereading old Star Trek and Star Wars books a lot this year, something I don't often do. I read lots of Victorian literature this year, but most of it was proto-science fiction, so it gets lumped into the sci-fi category, making me look like a poor Victorianist! Most other categories stayed pretty flat, except for nonfiction, which dropped down to its usual levels when I'm not reading for exams.

As usual, I picked a book every month as the "Pick of the Month"; here's the full list in alphabetical order by author:
It's usually impossible to select a "Pick of the Year," but this year it is obviously Possession, if only because Dubliners was a reread. The full list of "Picks" going back six years is here.

And finally, the customary graph of reading share over time:
click to enlarge
I sure do read a lot of DC comics, huh?

You can compare this to previous years if you're interested: 2007/08, 2008/09, 2009/10, 2011/12, 2012/13. (I didn't do ones for 2010/11 and 2013/14.)
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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous18 September, 2015 11:31

    Yay, Possession!!!

    I was shocked by your Victorian numbers, till I read the explanation... then I wondered, how many have *I* read for the first time this year? Are there any?

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