This post has went through a bit of an evolution, as I’m making my own version of Lauren’s post that she in turn made after being inspired by a conversation that we had with each other about where we’re getting our books lately. Since I’ve read 80 books this year (more than I can ever remember reading), I wanted to dive a little deeper, as Lauren did, into where I am acquiring my books, especially as there are SO MANY new releases these days and there’s always the struggle of wanting to keep up vs. wanting to save money. When Lauren over at Seriesous Book Reviews did her own version of the post, I knew it was time do make my own, too!
Luckily I keep track of the books I read in the amazing bookish spreadsheet started by Crini, but I fell off the wagon in terms of keeping track of the books I have purchased/acquired. So while I won’t have those stats (I’ll track them better in 2018, I swear!), I DO have the stats of where the books I’m reading are coming from.
Statistics on Book Sources
(Many thanks to Lauren @ Seriesous Book Reviews for inspiration for this spreadsheet!
These stats are as of 12/29/2017..it’s possible I may squeeze one or two more reads in!
As you can see, I generally read books that I’ve purchased/own over borrowed books, however library books make up about a quarter of the books I read. I had a bit of a significant decrease in reading the number of books I own (10%) and a slight increase in the percentage of ARCs (6% increase) and library books (4% increase) that I’m reading. Of the 47 books I read in 2017 that I own, only 10 were 2017 releases, so I obviously read a LOT of back list (which is reflected in the fact that 60% of the books I read were back list books published prior to 2017).
Books I’ve Read- Purchased/Owned/ARCs
Lauren @ Bookmark Lit has a wonderful breakdown of the books she’s read that I’m going to follow here for a closer look at where the books I’m reading are specifically sourced from.
Owned Books I’ve Read: 45 books
of my read books
Physical copies I Read
Owned hardcover from previous years: 3
Purchased hardcovers from 2017: 7
Purchased paperbacks from 2017: 1
Owned paperbacks from previous years: 31
Digital copies
Ebooks purchased in 2017: 3
Ebooks purchased in previous years: 0
Advanced copies- 15 Books
Physical ARCs from the publisher or author: 7
Egalleys from the publisher or author: 8
Books I’ve Read- Borrowed
Borrowed Books I’ve Read: 20 books
25% of my read books
Borrowed hardcover from library: 0
Borrowed paperback from library: 0
Borrowed audio book from library/Overdrive: 1
Borrowed ebook from library/Overdrive: 18
So this year, with having my first ever Kindle, I didn’t borrow ANY physical copies of books from the library. This has been a game changer for me and caused me to use the library even more than I did in 2016 when I was using Overdrive solely on my phone because it cuts out the need to drive to the library, worry about due dates, etc. I also tried an audio book and actually finished it (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) but I think this was largely due to Max and I listening to it in the car together during a long car trip that motivated me to continue on with it, since we all know I don’t have the best track record with audio books.
Conclusions
I read more back list books this year.
I was shocked to see not only how many more back list books I read, but how I was reading so many physical books but most of them were back list as well!
My Kindle has led to an uptick in the amount of library books and ARCs I read.
Both the amount of ARCs and library books (which have almost all been ebooks) have increased and it’s likely due to the ease of downloading books to read on my Kindle, and the ability to go back and forth between reading on my actual Kindle and on the Kindle app on my phone.
I still prefer reading paperbacks over hardcovers.
I read 10 hardcovers this year and 32 paperbacks! That’s more than triple the amount of hardcovers! I feel like I BUY more hardcovers now with preordering new releases and whatnot, but I actually still prefer paperbacks from a comfort standpoint (and 99% of the time if I’m purchasing a back list book I will buy the paperback if it’s available!)
Let’s Discuss!
Have you ever analyzed where the books you’re reading are coming from? Did you read more 2017 releases or back list books this year? Do you buy books faster than you read them? Let me know in the comments!
This was a very cool post! I don’t tend to look at my stats about the books I read, but I think I should start. That’s awesome about reading so many backlist books — I always try to, but I’m not always successful. The allure of new titles is always there! 🙂
Thank you, Em! I only started tracking reading stats within the past 2 years or so but it’s really eye opening! I now need to be a bit better on actually reading new releases when I buy/pre order them…or then they just become backlist books hahaha!
Yay! I’m glad you were able to put something together! This is great!
I’m a little envious that you actually read the books you buy. I’m really bad at that (as my stats showed). I’m hoping now that I’ll be losing my big city library card (since I don’t live there for school anymore) I’ll be more proactive about reading the books I own on a more regular basis.
I was also a little curious after reading the number of backlisted books how many new releases vs backlisted titles I read. From a quick glance, I read ~71 books that were released in 2017 or about 30% of the books I read this year. Most of those were ARCs from what I can see. I really didn’t think I had read that many but that was a nice surprise!
Thanks Lauren! It was actually really fun to look back on all of this, and I definitely want to keep track of even MORE stats in 2018 than I did this year! While I did read a lot of the books I own, I’ll admit that I bought a TON of books this year so I didn’t really make a huge dent overall in m physcial TBR lol (next year I’m going to actually keep track of the books I buy so I’ll know exactly how much of a dent I make). I’m glad I’m not the only one who read a lot of backlist books! I just want to focus on reading what I want to read and not always fall into the trap of reading super hyped new releases.
I think this is a great post. It is always fun to look back on statistics of the books we read over the years. I think it is great that you read the books you own. I’m always looking to read more of those books. I just need to take a break from library reading.
Thank you, Rachael! One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year is these wrap up posts, not only because it’s fun to look back on what I read, but because it provides so much inspiration for blog posts!
[…] my reading statistics at the end of 2017, and I’ve already analyzed some information such as Whose Books Am I Reading? and How I Used My Kindle the First Year. However, another piece of data I was interested in looking […]
[…] Date: In 2017 I read more back list titles than anything else (60%) but in 2018 increased my “reading books actually published in the current year” […]