I wanted to take some time to look back at my 2022 reading life and see what worked for me and what didn’t, and set some goals for 2023! I use the Book Riot reading log to track this info, and I totally recommend it if you are as nerdy about your bookish and reading stats as I am!
The reading log has a lot more detail and stats to track than what I’m posting about here, so it’s worth checking out to see what else it tracks, if you are interested.
Number of Books Read:
As of the date I’m writing this, I read 132 books in 2022. That’s less than what I read in 2021 (200) but that was definitely an outlier of a year for me in terms of number of books read. 132 is about average for me.
I also DNFd 8 books in 2022, which is decent. I’m getting better at DNFing as I realize my reading time is not infinite, and if a book isn’t working for me, I would rather put it down and try something else.
For 2023, I’d like to love more of what I read. While the number of books I’ve read in the last couple of years has been high, it hasn’t meant that I actually loved a lot of books. I tried this year to focus more on loving what I read over reading as much as I could, but I also tried to push my reading comfort zone and try some books that didn’t immediately appeal to me. I don’t know if that’s what’s behind my lack of 5-star reads, or if there’s something else going on, but maybe I need to aim to be more intentional about what I’m reading instead of being such a mood reader or reading something just because it’s a library hold due back soon even if it no longer really appeals to me.
Format:
The majority of the books I read this year were digital / ebooks, which doesn’t surprise me. Most of the ARCs I receive and library books I borrow are in ebook format, and for a variety of reasons (space, portability, ease of reading while in bed) I tend to prefer reading on my e-reader these days.
Print came in second place, with audio in a distant third. That 5.1% of audiobooks translates into 7 books read on audio this year, mainly courtesy of my Scribd subscription. I’m still not sure that I can really do audiobooks, since I just don’t process information well that way, but I do keep trying.
92 of my reads this year were digital, and the remaining 39 were print.
For 2023 I don’t have any specific goals related to the format of books. But I do like seeing how it breaks down each year.
Audience:
When I started this blog back in 2010, I was mostly reading YA. That has totally changed over the years, and while I do still read a decent amount of YA, clearly the majority of what I read now is adult. The numbers for 2022 break down into:
Adult: 105 books
Young adult: 30 books
Children’s / middle grade: 3 books
For 2023, I’d actually like to read more YA! There are some very buzzy books that have piqued my interest, and there are genres I love (horror, mystery/thriller, fantasy) that I’d love to dig into from the YA realm.
Genre:
It’s absolutely no surprise to me that the majority of my reads this year (37%, representing 51 books) were mystery/crime. I love mysteries and thrillers and read them pretty quickly, so usually when I’m not sure what I’m in the mood to read, that’s what I tend to go for.
I am surprised that horror (14.5%, 20 books) and romance (12.3%, 17 books) were so close. I love horror, but I am really hit or miss with romance and am surprised that I read so much of it (for me) this year. This is one area where I was trying to read outside of my usual comfort zone.
After mystery/crime, horror, and romance, I read fantasy (10.1%, 14 books), sci-fi and general fiction (both 8.7%, 12 books), general nonfiction (6.5%, 9 books), memoir/bio (1.4%, 2 books), and then nature/science (0.76%, 1 book).
For 2023, I’d like to read more fantasy, sci-fi, general fiction, and essay collections. I love mysteries and thrillers, but I think I’ve been reading so much of them that I’m feeling a bit burned out on them.
Pub Date:
The chart doesn’t properly show up here, so it’s:
Books published in 2022 (82 books);
Books published in 2023 (2 books); and
Backlist – anything published before 2022 (56 books).
I’m actually pleasantly surprised that my backlist number is so high, because I was definitely trying to increase that number over previous years.
For 2023, I want to continue reading a good mix of backlist and new books.
Book source:
Oof, I am disappointed in the number of books I read from my own TBR this year. While I am pleased that 21.3% of my reads (26 books) came from the library, for 2023 I want to increase the number of books I read from my own TBR and from my review copies, because I have so many books from both of those categories.
So when I’m picking my next read, I would like to look at those two sources first.
Star ratings:
I rated 46 books (34.85% of my 2022 reads) at 4 stars, which is pretty good. But I only rated 7 (5.3%) at 5 stars. And of those 7 books, 4 were re-reads. For 2023 I don’t know how but I would really like to find more 5 star reads.
Book spending:
The reading tracker includes a sheet where you can track what you spend on books. In addition to the amount, you can track format, retail source, reason for purchase (e.g. fun, book club, etc.), and if you read the book.
I’m not going to delve into the details here, but of the books I purchased in 2022, I’ve read 36%. For 2023, I’d like to purchase fewer books (because I have so many already to read!) and then read more of what I purchase.
I had a lot of fun looking back at my stats for my 2022 reads! I want to pay more attention to my 2023 stats during the year, rather than doing one big look back at the end of the year, so I can see where I’m at in terms of my goals set above.
How was your 2022 year in reading?
