Then, another fact that prompted me to write this "2011 in numbers" post now is that this post is my 1000th!!! Wow, I can't believe it LOL. I never really thought about the future of this blog when I started. All I wanted was to share my thoughts about the books I've read to help other readers who were looking for recommendations. I'm glad that I've achieved that and I'm even more happy that after more than 5 years, I'm still blogging :) Anyway, I think it's only fitting that for such a milestone post, I talk about numbers and books :)
And without further ado, I offer you:
Number of books read
200
In the past couple of years, my goal had always been the same: read 200 books. 2011 was no different, except that I finally made it LOL. This is the most that I've read in a year, so I'm pretty happy :) Although, I have to admit to a little bit of cheating ^_^; I've read a lot of novellas in December to boost up the numbers :P In addition, I've counted some of my re-reads - the books that I haven't read in years and therefore, the stories were a bit murky in my memory. Technically though, if I count the re-reads and the manga I've read, I'm well over 200 books... But that's a debate I have every year. So for 2012, my goal is to read 201 books and will not count re-reads at all :) Hopefully, I can make it!
Speaking of books read count, I have to say I'm really glad I signed up to Goodreads!! It really made keeping track of the books easier :)
Number of books bought
157
All right, that's a number that I'll take :) Considering it'd give me -47 books in the TBR pile! Plus, it's quite an improvement from last year's number, 193. Of course, this number is a bit misleading as it doesn't include the books I've gotten at RWA ^_^; and books I've received from my blogger friends and oh, you've been generous with me my friends! LOL. Still, you have to take into consideration that in 2010, I went to the RT convention and came home with books and still bought 193. So it's still an improvement!!
And this leads me to one of my favorite number each year, the amount of $$ I saved :) This year, it is a grand total of 468.97$!! Awesome no? I think I definitively made some good deals LOL. Obviously, the bookstores were helpful to my cause as there were a lot of promotions and discounts. Hopefully, 2012 will be as good.
This is one of the reasons I have so much difficulty changing my buying habits. The fact that by buying ebooks, I don't really save over buying print books. So many of the discounts are not applicable on all publishers and seriously, it's really frustrating. If you look at the break down of my purchases, it's quite telling: 139 print books bought (88.5%) - 116 in bookstores and 23 online - and 18 ebooks (11.5%). However, whether I want it or not, the gap between these numbers will probably decrease this year... simply because I'm really running out of space ^_^; I need to be more selective about which books and authors I buy, especially in print. We'll see how I'll manage LOL.
Oh, another number that's interesting is out of the 157 books I've bought, I read 101!! That's 64.3%!! So I'm really good at reading what I've just bought... So I'm really not adding that much to the TBR pile, right?
What did I read?
For comparison, I've put last year's number in parenthesis. So the winner genre is...
Historical romance = 58 (45 | +7) --> Regency = 51, Western = 6, Highlander = 1
Contemporary = 41 (42 | -1)
YA, all genre = 29 (22 | +7)
Urban Fantasy = 20 (17 | +3)Cosy Mystery/Thriller = 16 (2 | +14)
Romantic Suspense = 12 (13 | -1)
Category romance = 8 (9 | -1)
Paranormal = 7 (17 | -10)
M/M = 4 (5 | -1)
Fantasy = 2 (14 | -12)
Fiction = 2 (1 | +1)
Erotica = 1 (0 | +1)
Sci-Fi = 0 (3 | -3)
Steampunk = 0 (1 | -1)
... once again historical romance :) I have to say, I'm glad that historical romance and contemporary romance came on top of the list. I guess it really shows that I'm a romance reader at heart LOL. I'm surprised that I could read even more historical romance than last year and I think it supports my claim that a lot of historical romances are being published over the other genres.
The genres that I have taken the biggest hits are paranormal and fantasy. I'm not surprised about paranormal, the market definitively has been saturated in the past couple of years and I felt it coming, my overdose. I really cut down on a lot of series and only continued on with the Psy-Changelings series by Nalini Singh, The Guardians by Meljean Brook, Patti O'Shea and Molly Harper. I did pick up new authors - Thea Harrison, that was really due to the blogland buzz, and Jessica Sims because I was looking for comedy. However, I doubt I'll continue on with them ^_^; I predict that 2012, it'll be pretty much the same story for paranormal... I'll just be keeping up with my favorite authors.
As for biggest increase, Cosy mystery/Thrillers wins it and it really stems from the fact that I've been looking for something different to read... although I'm not sure this genre really is for me ^_^;
Who published them?
(0) Harlequin (Harlequin, Mira, HQN, Carina Press) = 33
(0) Harpercollins Publishers (Avon) = 29
(+3) Random House (Bantam Books) = 25
(-1) Simon & Schuster (Pocket) = 15
(0) Macmillian (St. Martin's Press, Tor) = 9
(+1) Kensington (Zebra) = 8
(-) Hyperion/Scholastic/Bloomsbury = 7
(-4) Grand Central Publishing = 5
(0) Sourcebook = 5
(-) Samhain Publishing/LooseID/Aspen Mountain Press/Dreamspinner Press = 5
(-) Self-published/Kindle = 5
Top 3 publishers have not changed, it's still Penguin, Harlequin and Harpercollins Publishers and I can't say I'm surprised. What surprises me is Grand Central Publishing's drop. I love that publisher because they have great romantic suspense and they're quite cheap... however, aside from RS, the other genres don't do it for me, especially their contemporary. As for Random House's surprising jump, well that's because I binged on some of their authors such as Mary Balogh and Tess Gerritsen. As for the self-published books, I haven't read that many... 3 out of the 5 books were from the Ilona Andrews duo :)
When were they published?
2012 = 1
2011 = 127 (63.5%)
2010 = 31 (15.5%)
2009 = 19 (9.5%)
2008 = 4
2007 = 2
2006 = 2
2000 to 2005 = 11
Before 2000 = 3
See, my hunting for new releases actually is worth, considering I don't just buy them for their shiny newness, but actually read them! LOL. Yup, majority of the books I read in 2011 were published the same year. It makes up for 63.5% which is very similar to 2010 where I read 63.2% of books released that year. The most staggering I guess is that 88.5% of my reads were published between 2009 and 2011. I knew that of myself, I knew I tend to stick to recent books... but I didn't realize it was that much LOL. I guess I'm really a contemporary reader and I don't mean the genre. I have to admit, a lot of authors that I read are fairly new authors. My favorite authors who have back-list, I've been through most already. Also, I don't really like to read older authors who don't write anymore... because you end up wanting more and there's just no more :(
This year, I've signed up to the TBR Challenge hosted by Wendy. We'll see if I'll pick up more books from the TBR pile with older publishing date...
A = 8 (15)
B = 94 (115)
C = 81 (43)
D = 15 (8)
Okay, so I have this reputation to be a fairly tough grader... well it seems I've become even tougher LOL. In a way, I'm happy with the grade distribution. In 2011, I modified my grading system and as a result, I was more objective and that was the whole purpose. It works well and so I'll be continuing on with this grading system :) At the same time, I don't think it's just me... I also think it's the books that were published. Ames and I were discussing our Best of 2011 post for Breezing Through and it seems 2011 was a so-so year. There were some good books, but they were rare... Hopefully, 2012 will be better!!
Did I share my thoughts with you?
Number of reviews = 68
Mini-reviews (from monthly reads posts) = 68
Books I still want to review = ?!?
Okay, so this year was pretty up and down when it came to reviewing. 68 full review means that I've reviewed 34% of the books I've read, 1/3. It's really not bad at all and actually, much better than what I was expecting. However, it also means that I have 62 books waiting for a full or mini-review... Yeah, I'll definitively try to do better in 2012 LOL.
Random numbers
New Authors = 53 (40)
I'm always astonished at this number, because it always seems so high to me. 53 new authors, that means about 1 out 4 books I read was from an author I did not know! I think YA contributed to this number a lot considering I've only started reading this genre one or two years ago. Still, it's good because I'm trying to discover new authors and that will work to my advantage in the long run right? :)
Books read part of a series = 143 (139)
Not surprising at all since there are very few stand-alone books published out there nowadays. Although I didn't think it'd be as consistent as I've given up some series... but I guess that I've picked up some new ones along the way as well :) And I'm really good at staying up-to-date in series. Usually, if I fall behind, then it means something about my love of a series.
***
And voila, those were my numbers in 2011. Quite consistent with the numbers in 2010. I think the biggest surprise came from the shift in genres and that really speaks of over-dose LOL.
Overall I'm really happy with the numbers. How could I not when it's my highest in year? LOL. Let's hope I'll best these in 2012!!
Hope you enjoyed the post! As usual, there were no titles as Ames, Monroe and I are preparing a series of Best of 2011 posts over at Breezing Through for next week :) Stay tuned!
