My Book Blogging Journey: Year Two

I started this wrap-up post last year, after my very first year of blogging, and loved seeing all my stats visually. Plus, it gave me real guidance on what diversity “holes” I needed to fill in for the following year’s reading. So, here I am again, sharing some fun and colorful pie charts of my second year of blogging and giving some insight into where I got better from last year (because I did get better). Yay!

A few notes before we start. The same as last year, so that I can be consistent, I’m tracking based on the books I blogged reviews for this year, and not my entire “read” list. What that means is that I have read more (that I rated/reviewed on Goodreads) than I have posted about here on the blog. Usually I am a couple “read” books ahead of where I am for review posts, to give my self a bit of a cushion. Also, I’ll admit there were some books I read that just didn’t get review posts here…ah well, such is life. Last, any series that I reviewed together in one post were counted jointly.

To start, here’s what my 2018 book blog stats overview:

Followers: 528 (A little more than double where I was last year!)

Posts: 102

Comments: 800

Likes: 2,366 (This is 2,000 more than last year!)

Views: 7,061 (Over 5,000 more than last year!)

Most Viewed 2018 Reviews: Down Among the Sticks and Bones, Circe, The Power

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And now, here’s the really interesting part! A breakdown of the books I posted about over this past year…by author race/ethnicity, author gender and sexuality, genre, method read and more! (Keep in mind, this is based on public information about the books/authors, so give my categories/selections, etc. the benefit of the doubt.)

 

Last year, 60% of the books I read were by white (US) authors and I was really disappointed. I thought I read more diversely than that. So I made it a goal this year to work on that – and I’m so proud of my progress! I brought that number down to 44%. And overall, almost half the books I read were by authors of color, as opposed to last year, when only about a quarter were. I’m really proud of this and hope to improve even more for next year.

 

I’m also happy with this outcome. Last year, 68% of my reads were written by women. This year it’s 80%. I love that I read primarily female-authored books, but I’m also ok with this number staying here. It’s also important to read book from men of diverse backgrounds, so I don’t want to dismiss their works simply because they are male. In addition, I’d like to increase how many books I read by non-binary authors this year.

 

 

Last year, only 6% of the books I read were by LGBTQ+ authors. Although 13% is significantly better (I mean, I doubled the percent!), this is an area that I want to try and focus on this year, for sure.

 

 

 

This is just a fun breakdown to read. Since I’m a mood reader, I don’t like to set specific goals in this area. I just like seeing how it plays out at the end of the year! My fantasy and nonfiction percents went down a little, while contemporary lit went up a little. Also, my “other” category increased – I think because I read more short story collections – they might need their own category next year.

 

 

This is new from last year, but I was curious. I’m alright with this. I feel like it’s a good balance of “keeping up with the Jones'” new releases and working to bring down the insane backlist TBR.

 

 

 

 

This one is also new since last year. But I got really into audiobooks and just wanted to see how big of a percentage they were, since I got a new job that involves a lot more driving (which means more time in the car to listen!). Not surprising that the majority are still physical books though. I’m curious to see how this year compares to next year now.

 

 

And last, one more new one from last year. This was the first year I’d really started requesting ARCs (still mostly through NetGalley, but maybe this year I’ll get some from publishers!), so I was curious about this breakdown. Also, you all know I love the library (LOVE) and I wanted to see how many I actually read from there versus books I owned. Again, this was just for interests’ sake and I can’t wait to see what this looks like next year.

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So, I hope you enjoyed looking through all that. Personally, I had a fantastic time making it! And it was even more fun this year, since I could look back and compare to some of last year’s numbers. I am really glad I started this little tradition.

What are some of your reflections from last year’s reading and/or goals for the upcoming year?