I've been using goodreads.com for many years to track my reading but in 2015 I decided to also keep a spreadsheet so that I could keep track of the source of the books I read. What can I say - I'm a math major data geek! In 2015, I read 84 books and here is a pie chart break down of how I sourced the books I read.
As the chart shows, I clearly get most of my books from the library as 58 out 84 of the books I read came from the library. I did end up buying 5, but 4 out of 5 of the books I bought were book club books that I couldn't get from the library in time for our discussion. Overall, my spending on books was pretty low for the year, but if you included the books I bought as gifts for friends or my nieces/nieces and faux nieces/nephews, the number would be much bigger as I pretty much exclusively gift books to the little people in my life.
Here are some other stats about the 84 books I read, courtesy of goodreads.com:
- Total number of pages was 25,861
- The shortest book was 137 pages (I Feel Bad About My Neck)
- The longest book was 528 pages (The Engagements)
- The average length was 312 pages
- My average rating was 3.6
In 2016, I'm planning to track more in my spreadsheet, such as the genre of the book and the sex of the author as I'm curious about the breakdown of what I read each year.
Do you use anything to track your reading (goodreads, a spreadsheet, something else)? Do you use the library or do you tend to buy the books you read? If you are on goodreads and we aren't friends, please friend request me as I love seeing what others are reading!
I love this! I kinda love data too, which is not popular among teachers to say ha ha because it's gotten a little out of control in our field :)
ReplyDeleteI think I only read 1 physical book this year that Becky had given me a few years ago and I finally got around to reading because I never read physical books anymore ha ha. I almost exclusively get books from the library except for like you said book gifts (though i did learn how to gift an ebook ha ha) for kids especially or for my classroom or Max. I do occasionally buy an ebook for myself if I can't get it through the two libraries I belong to!
LOL! I love that you tracked this! I also am going to steal the faux nieces and nephew term, I need that in my life since I have so many! I primarily do my reading on my kindle and I primarily buy them because I find the library app here to be cumbersome and not user friendly. I also am terrible at returning books on time so it's cheaper for me to buy them. That being said I don't read as much as you do. I'm curious to see next years information I think you will like knowing genres, authors, etc!
ReplyDeleteI make shelves on my Goodreads! Almost exactly like what you did/want to do. I have a library shelf, graphic novel, kids book, romance and then broken down into historical/paranormal etc! So then at the end of the year, Goodreads does all the work for me in my Stats :) I love seeing what types of books I actually read and therefore what I'd be willing to spend money on vs look for from the library. When I read a book, I add it to whatever shelf is appropriate. I look at my stats constantly because I find it so interesting!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. This gives me something to think about. When I was in English Lit in High School, Miss Ludwig had us do our extra credit reading in English books and plays by the page. I think there was more to her assessment than how long a book was (including our discussion) but it played a part. I was thinking of that with my book list this year because of course when you pick a goal, it's easy to fill out the goal by being a bit of a slacker and reading shorter books! (Yes, I've done that, but not often!) But a big ol' tome can slow you down! I have a couple of those on my list this year -- so I'm less likely to pick them up because of worrying about the goal. I'd feel a little less bad about it if I keep length in mind!
ReplyDeleteI track in my little notebook I've had for years. Mostly I buy books I read, maybe swap with someone, and often used.
Very interesting! You are a power book reader - always amazes me!
ReplyDeleteI have never used a library because of the distance from here, but I hear that the new librarian has been bringing it up to day so may be able to read e-books. But, I have so many unread books on my shelves that I just keep plugging away and also on my kindle.
This data is nerdtastic! I love that you tracked all this. A couple of years ago, I just started adding books to a designated section on FB so that I have a record of the books I finished and when. I have a Goodreads account, but I never use it since I rarely prioritize writing book reviews I haven't used it in ages.
ReplyDeleteGoodreads all the way! It's my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI love the library. I get all my eBooks, physical books and audio books from them. Why I didn't do audiobooks earlier I'll never know :) I do get some books for free to review, postal book club and I will buy books if it's my favorite author and I collect their work (Adriana, Jennifer Weiner, etc.) I think last year, for myself, I bought maybe 5 books, maybe? The rest of the purchased books were for my bonus girls. I can't so no to buying books for them.
I know, I know, everyone tells me to get on Goodreads, but it just seems like one more thing I ave to do. On the other hand I'm always frustrated that I don't have a way to track books I want to read or even remember if I have read certain books.
ReplyDeleteI am a hardcore library girl and these days like 95% of my books are e-books.
I definitely use Goodreads! I love tracking my books for the year and all the data that goes along with that, plus I love seeing what others are reading. Most of what I read is based on what my Goodreads friends are reading and that rarely steers me wrong.
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to split my bookshelves up a bit more into smaller categories, instead of the standard Read, Currently Reading, Want to Read categories...perhaps I'll get to that this year :-)
Most of my books come from the library as well. I love that I can get ebooks, audio books, and physical books, and I have a library card for Seattle Public Library as well as my county's public library system, so there is no shortage of books! I also buy a few kindle books on Amazon each year, and if I find some good ones at local used book stores I'll pick those up too.
Yay! I'm glad you posted this. I love seeing how people's reading stacks up through the year. You are a power library user just like me. Woo! :)
ReplyDeleteI use Goodreads and a spreadsheet to track my reading. I love, love, love Goodreads and it's one of my top social media sites. I get so many great book rec's by using Goodreads.
I am a library user all the way. If I buy a book, it's usually because the wait is too long at my library or it's not available. And when I do buy books, it's almost always the Kindle edition. I rarely buy physical books!
I love this! It's so fun to see what others are reading and what their reading habits are. I had to do the same after reading this. My numbers are 70& eBooks from the library, 27% physical books from the library and 3% owned eBooks. I spent NO money on books again last year, but did not read any of my own physical books, which is one of my goals this year. I am also going to do the read harder challenge, which will be fun, as it spurs reading things that I normally wouldn't, but I will also try to use some of my own books (so far I found three that work) to complete the challenge.
ReplyDeleteI use Goodreads to track, but think that it's a bit limited on stats. I really like all the facts that you and Stephanie provided. Do you track all the data (pg numbers, how many days to read etc) on a spreadsheet as well or is there some way to export it from Goodreads?
I just saved a spreadsheet from a blog I follow who shared hers. It is a google spreadsheet so I will share it with you so you can see how she sets hers up! It's a book nerds dream. I haven't started recording info in it yet but want to try. I never remember to write down all the details when I try to record pages and what not. I hate when I accidently click the wrong version on goodreads and don't notice and then mess up my results. I also would be interested in how much I spend in books but that might not be good to see hahahaha.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I love that you kept track of this!! I'm totally a data/numbers girl :-) That being said, I don't keep track of anything in this way ... not even money. Ha! I need to work on that.
ReplyDeleteOh fun those are some good stats! Ok until reading this blog post I didn't even know that Goodreads could give you stats like how many pages you have read. I just spent way too much time on there clicking around and looking at my info haha :) I read 15,000 pages in 2015!
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