Friday 31 December 2021

Statistics 2021

 

My statistics for the last years are here:
Going back to 2009-12, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
 
And these are the results of my reading lists for 2021:

* Statistics 2021 *
 
My regular posts are either weekly (Book Quotes, Top Ten, ThrowBack Thursday) or monthly (Happy Month), so I posted more or less the amount of weeks or months in a year.
Book Quotes of the Week (46 posts)
Happy Month (12)
Top Ten Tuesday (49)
ThrowBack Thursday (11)

Then I joined a few new interesting challenges:
Six Degrees of Separation (12)
Spell the Month in Books (6)
10 Year Challenge Book Tag
I loved this especially since I started my blog in 2011, so I could start at the beginning. And now I can carry on and mention 2012 in 2022.
Mid Year Freak-Out Tag
This is really a statistic you can do in the middle of the year, looking back on the last six months. I loved it. And it's a big help for this post. I had read 36 books by the end of July and now there are 82.

And then there are, of course, all the challenges I have done over the years.
I read books that contributed to the following challenges. Some of them count for more than one category:

Challenges (number of books read for the challenges in brackets)
The 100 best Non-fiction Books of All Time as Chosen by The Guardian (1)
100 Books by the BBC (1)
100 Greatest Fiction Books as Chosen by the Guardian (0)
101 Best Selling Books of All Times (0)
I didn't add any books to this list this year, maybe I never will?

Best European Literature (4)
Bildungsroman (1)

I'm sure I read more books in that direction but these are typical for this genre.
Book Bingo 2020
(finished)
Books That Changed the World (0)
A Century of Books (1)
Children's Books (7)
The Classics Club (28): The Classics Spin (3)
3 for the Classics Spin, 28 in total
Dutch and French Books (1 Dutch, 3 French)
Emma's Book Club - Our shared shelf (0)
An ever growing list of books about and for women, a group started by Emma Watson (better known as Hermione Granger), UN Woman Goodwill Ambassador.
Esperanto Books (1)
We read mostly short stories.
Favourite (German) Independent Books (0)
(Das Lieblingsbuch der Unabhängigen = The Favourite Book of the Independents)
German Books (23)
Helmet 2021 (50)
I joined this at the beginning of the year. The aim of this is to read 50 (or 25) different books to different given topics. I finished the challenge but haven't had the time, yet, to fill in the list.
Le Monde - The 100 Books of the Century (1)
My Favourite Books Ever (18)
Every year I find some more books I can add to my list of favourite books. 16 this year.
Nobel Peace Prize (2)
Nobel Prize Winners and Their Books (5)
Oprah's Book Club (0)
Oscar Winning Books (1)
Paris in July (3)
Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (2)

(German: Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels)
Read the Year Club (1)
Reading Challenge - Chunky Books 2021 (24)
I read 24 chunky books in 2020 of which 10 are considered a chunkster.
Reading the World (0)
Suggestions from Friends (1)
I read suggestions from friends all the time, just haven't kept up with who recommended which book.
The non-western books that every student should read (0)
The only thing I miss from our old place is the library that would get me any book I wanted. Not so easy here where we only have a small church library and they only get the biggest best-sellers. And all of them in German only, of course.
Top Ten Tuesday
I took part in 49 of the challenges, this is a great way of reminiscing or planning your reads.
Travel the World Through Books (0)
Twitterature (1)
Xanadu (12)

Some of the challenges are older and I only add to them if I happen to read one of the books.

Book Club 2017 etc. (8)
Esperanto Book Club (1)
Here, we read mostly short stories.

Books Read: 84
Pages read: 41,067
489 pages/book, 113 pages/day, 7 books/month
Last year I read 86 books with 30.650 pages which resulted in 393 pages/book, 84 pages/day, 6.5 books/month
This year, it's 84 books but 41.067 pages, so I obviously read a lot of larger and/or much larger books this year because my average book had 489 pages.
The average novel contains between 140 and 320 pages, i.e. 230 = 179 books in 2021 (that's 46 more than last year).

Books dating from which year:
Pre 1800s: 1
1800s: 15
1900-1949: 13
1950-1999: 14
2000s: 42 (2 of which from 2021)

Male Authors: 50
Female Authors: 31
Some are by several authors, so the number is not the exact number of books read.

Nobel Prize Winners: 7

Fiction: 62
Non-Fiction: 23

Chunky Books - more than 450 pages: 24, more than 750: 10
Library: 5
Re-Read: 3
TBR Pile: 39


Oldest Book: 1598/99
Shakespeare, William "Much Ado About Nothing" - 1598/99
Newest Book: 2021
Kaminer, Wladimir "The Lost Summer. Germany Smokes on the Balcony" (GE: Der verlorene Sommer. Deutschland raucht auf dem Balkon) - 2021
Longest book: 968
Ford, Ford Madox "Parade's End" (Tetralogy: Some Do Not, No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up, Last Post) - 1924-28
Shortest book: 30
Jackson, Shirley "The Lottery" - 1948 (short story)
Longest book title: 60
A
ndersson, Per J. "From the Swede who took the train and saw the world with different eyes" (aka Take the train: on the track through history, present and future) (SW: Ta tåget: på spåret genom historien, samtiden och framtiden) - 2019
Shortest Book Title: 6
Sapolsky, Robert M. "Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst" - 2017

Funniest Book:
Stelter, Bernd "The killer comes on quiet clogs: camping thriller" (GE: Der Killer kommt auf leisen Klompen: Camping-Krimi) - 2017
Weiler, Jan
"Teenosaurus Rex" (GE: Das Pubertier) - 2014
Saddest Book:
See, Lisa
"Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" - 2005
Weirdest Book:
Le Guin, Ursula K. "The Left Hand of Darkness" - 1969
Most disappointing:
Ford, Ford Madox "Parade's End" (Tetralogy: Some Do Not, No More Parades, A Man Could Stand Up, Last Post) - 1924-28
Scherzant, Sina; Notter, Marius "3 More Loyalty Points Until the Pan Set" (GE: Noch 3 Treuepunkt bis zum Pfannen-Set) - 2021

New author (for me) that I would like to read more from: 10
Muriel Barbery, Jason Elliot, Kamala Harris, Frederik Hetman, Odile Kennel, Min Jin Lee, Paula McLain, Robert Menasse, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Amor Towles

Translated Books:
7 from 5 languages
2 ea from Russian and Swedish
1 from Greek, Hungarian and Spanish

Books read in another language:
Dutch: 1
French: 3
German: 25
Spanish: 1

Numbers in Book Titles: two
Place Names in Book Titles:
Afghanistan, Boston, Deutschland, German, Iran, Italian, Jerusalem, Missalonghi, Moscow, Paris, Paul Street, Russian, Scotland, Swede
Names in Book Titles:
Alice, Basch, Binchy, Douglass, Dracula, Ethan, Fadette, Finn-Luca, Frederick, Frome, Goldmund, Grace, Hercule, Howard, Ida, Jeeves, Joan, Katherine, Maeve, Maigret, Margarita, Narcissus, Nina, Paul, Poirot, Pole, Precious, Ripley, Snow Flower, Yentl
Colours in Book Titles: White

My Favourite Books: 18

Brooks, Geraldine "Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over" - 1997
Elliot, Jason "An Unexpected Light. Travels in Afghanistan" - 1999
Hansen, Dörte "Lunchtime" (GE: Mittagsstunde) - 2018
Harris, Kamala "The Truths We Hold. An American Journey" - 2019
Hislop, Victoria "One August Night" - 2020
Kennel, Odile "Was Ida sagt" [What Ida says] - 2011
Krug, Nora "Belonging: A German Reckons With History and Home" (GE: Heimat. Ein deutsches Familienalbum) - 2018
Lee, Min Jin "Pachinko" - 2017
McLain, Paula "The Paris Wife" - 2012
Obama, Barack "A Promised Land" - 2020
-
"Of Thee I Sing" - 2010
Orth, Stephan "Couchsurfing in Iran: Revealing a Hidden World" (GE: Couchsurfing im Iran - Meine Reise hinter verschlossene Türen) - 2015
Pamuk, Orhan "The Naïve and the Sentimental Novelist" (TR: Saf ve Düşünceli Romancı) - 2011
See, Lisa "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" - 2005
T
owles, Amor "A Gentleman in Moscow" - 2016
Weiler, Jan
"Teenosaurus Rex" (GE: Das Pubertier) - 2014
-
"In the realm of the puberty animal" (GE: Im Reich der Pubertiere) (Pubertiere #2) - 2016
Zusak, Markus
"The Messenger" (US: I am the Messenger/Der Joker) - 2002
 
With my books, I visited places in the following countries:
Africa (1):
Botswana
Asia (8):
Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Korea, Palestine
Central America (1:)
Caribbean
Europe (20):
Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, The UK
North America (13):
USA
South America (1):
Chile
Australia/Oceania (1):
Australia
Extra-terrestrial (1)
Everywhere (5)
Countries "visited" in total: 32

Authors come from:
Africa (0):
Asia (2): India, Korea
Europe (13): Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom
North America (17): USA
Australia/Oceania (1): Australia
South America (1): Chile
Author countries in total: 18

See also "My Year in Books" on Goodreads.

You may find some even greater statistics by better bloggers than me, e.g. at "Stuck in a Book".
 
If you want more information on any of the lists mentioned, please, let me know.

28 comments:

  1. I think the word I'm thinking of here is: Comprehensive! (and impressive!).

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    1. Thanks, CyberKitten, I just love lists and work on this one all year long. LOL

      Delete
    2. Agreed! And I would like to add 'exhaustive' and 'incredibly thorough'!

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    3. Haha, Sarah, I always enjoy your lists, you just do them every week or month. So no need to hide your light under a bushel.

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  2. Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Davida. I enjoy reading it and I enjoy lists, so what could be easier?

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  3. So impressed by the number of challenges you manage to participate in! (not sure I could keep track of that many).

    I've read a couple of the books on your favourites list - the graphic memoir by Nora Krug made my favourites list in 2020.

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    1. Thanks, Kate. A lot fo the time, I just read what I like and then see whether it fits a challenge. Mind you, I did a few new ones this year where I had to find certain books but that way, my TBR book got smaller.

      I'll have to see your list now. See you on your page.

      Delete
  4. This is wonderful! I love seeing how diverse your reading is, and these statistics are such a cool way to break down your reading.

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    1. That's what I love about it. And challenges like TTT because they bring back the memory of great reads.

      I guess my reading is diverse. I'm just interested in almost every topic and always want to know more. But thanks for all your praise. I don't deserve it.

      Delete
  5. That is some kind of statistics, impressive! You have read so many different authors, from different countries, different language groups. Such variety in reading. I will try vary my reading somewhat this year.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Lisbeth. As I just said to Sarah ^^ I'm just interested in almost every topic and always want to know more. However, I think your reads are just as diverse as mine. Having lived in several countries certainly inspires us to different reads. Plus this community always gives us new ideas.

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  6. I always love how detailed your end of the year reading stats are!!

    I love Geraldine Brooks's writing, but I have not read "Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over." It does sound like an interesting read!

    Wow, you read in many languages! That's so wonderful!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Lisa. I work on them the whole year. LOL

      I loved "Foreign Correspondence". Geraldine Brooks describes how she started writing to many different people from all over the world because she felt so far away from everything. That was the same for me, even though I lived in the middle of Europe. But at the time, the little village in Northern Germany might as well have been on the moon.

      So, I really liked her story becaues it was also mine.

      And the different languages, European habit. We have to learn several languages at school if we want to achieve anything and the best way of laerning a language well is using it.

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    2. Yes, use a language OR LOSE IT! My undergraduate degree is in Russian. I haven't spoken Russian regularly in years, so have forgotten a lot of it. :-(

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    3. Yes, Lisa, it's sad if you don't have the possibility to use a language but what can we do. If it's not good enough for reading novels and you don't have a tv channel that shows films in the language ... Well, I always thought reading children's books helps a lot. Maybe you can find a few in Russian?

      Delete
  7. Cool detailed recap! I'll come back when I post mine. Have you just posted my favorite books so far. My stats will be live on Wednesday

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    Replies
    1. Well, I saw your favourite books, Emma. That is always the hardest part for me but I have included them in the stats for a couple of years now.

      Looking forward to yours. You are always doing so well.

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  8. This is a great post with lots of detail! I love seeing other bloggers' statistics and their summaries of their reading years. So interesting.

    Here's to another great reading year in 2022!

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    1. Thanks, Susan. So do I. Makes me feel less of a nerd. LOL

      Yes, another great reading year and another great blogging year with all those lovely people here. Cheers.

      Delete
  9. Lovely stats - impressed you finished Parade's End when it was one of the most disappointing books! And read 7 Nobel prizewinners - I'm pretty sure I read none at all.

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    1. Thanks, Simon. I'm sure you have read a few, maybe not this year. I always have challenges where I didn't read any in a year, as you probably have seen. But there are a few Nobel Prize winners that are also my favourite authors (Thomas Mann, Orhan Pamuk, Albert Camus, Günter Grass ...), so I will probably always have at least one. And since I try to read a book by the last winner, that will be the second and so on.

      Anyway, your list is pretty diverse, I'm sure you've read several Nobel Prize winners.

      Delete
  10. Happy to see Pachinko and Gentleman in Moscow are on this years favourites for you - both fabulous books.

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  11. I'm glad you agree, Brona. They definitely had to be on the list, I knew that the moment I read them. I have Amor Towles' other books on my wishlist.

    Thanks.

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  12. Great yearly wrap up! I always love to see how other people review their year of reading—you keep track of so many different elements. I don't even know if any of the books I read made it onto any big book lists! Also, interesting to see how international/global your reading is :) I hope you have a wonderful year of reading in 2022!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Dini. And the same to you.

      I started my blog ten years ago when I was leading a book club and always searched for interesting books, that's how I found those lists. And once I started posting them, I just have to add the links to the books I read in the meantime.

      Also, having lived abroad and among many international people, I just have so much input from them that my reading always will be international.

      I hope you find one or two new books on my lists during the year but even if not, I know you will always find interesting reads.

      Happy reading 2022.

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