2018: By the Books

2018 is the year my reading exploded. It helped that a lot of it was required for classes, so I never felt guilty about reading all day and/or long into the night. It also helped that I was reviewing books at work, which meant a sizable portion of my day was spent paging through picture books and checking out new publications. I'm not sure I'll ever read the same quantity of books in a year ever again, but if I can read a similar quality of books in the future I'll be happy.

Books Read: 325

Shortest Book: All of the board books I read at work.

Longest Book: The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm (880 pages...but it should be noted that there were some pages I skimmed!)

Average Rating: 4.0 stars

Most Popular (according to Goodreads): Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling (read by 5.6 million & reread by me)

Highest Rated (by Goodreads): March: Book Three by John Lewis (4.69 stars)

Highest Rated (by me): 5-star books abounded this year once again - I've gotten to know myself!

Re-reads: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, The Outsiders by SE Hinton, The Pigman by Paul Zindel, The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde, and the first three Harry Potter books (the new illustrated versions!).

Series I Finally Finished: The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

Women Authors: 73% (236/325)

Authors of Color/Minority Authors: 27% (89/325) I definitely want to work on this number. I will say that race and ethnicity are not the only way to diversify your reading - though they are usually the most visible way. So while I want to seek out more non-white authors, I also want to be better at reading LGBTQ+ authors, nonbinary authors, disabled authors, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu authors, and authors whose first language isn't English.

Translations/Bilingual: This year I read 14 books that were translated into English from other languages including German, Japanese, and French - again, I'm going to keep looking out for books in translation in 2019!

Most Popular Authors: JK Rowling since I started her new adult series AND reread a few HP books, Marissa Meyer (Lunar Chronicles), Maggie Stiefvater (Raven Cycle).

Audiobooks: I got so much better at choosing audiobooks for myself this year! In total, I listened to 44 books. Lots of poetry, suspense, and mysteries kept me engaged.

Fantasy: 85

Horror: 32

Comedy: 18

Mystery: 35

Nonfiction: 40

Nonfiction for Adults: 14

Sci-Fi: 19

Biggest Surprise: I didn't think My Love, My Love: or The Peasant Girl by Rosa Guy would affect me so much. I cried a good cry after finishing that Little Mermaid retelling. The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming was another good surprise - it's a historical nonfiction book, but the drama had me staying up way past my bedtime.

Biggest Letdown: Jackson Pearce's fairy tale retelling series - I love fairy tales and I LOVE a good YA retelling, but these were just blah. I had to read Sweetly (Hansel & Gretel) for a class and barely made it through, then I tried Fathomless (The Little Mermaid) and was even more disappointed. Other people seem to enjoy the series, so maybe it's a me thing, but these retellings just don't compare to some of the others I read in 2018.

Still Thinking About: How funny Check, Please! by Ngozi Ukazu and Bull by David Elliott are.

Something I Learned (about reading): There's no wrong way to read. I've had many people (family, friends, patrons, students) tell me they "don't read" or "only read comics" or apologize for liking certain genres more than others. I'm not sure if other librarians get these Reading Confessions, but I'm here to say You Are Doing Just Fine. Whatever you read (genres, format, amount) - it's all good. Of course, I'd always suggest reading more...but even if all you have time/emotional and mental capacity for is reading work emails or letters to the editor or picture books to your kids before bed, that's still reading! Listening to audiobooks is reading. Listening to podcasts is reading. Reading comics is reading. Reading comics on your phone or a tablet is reading. Reading pulp sci fi is reading. Don't sell your reading short - people are diverse, and so are our reading tastes and preferences.

Goal For 2019: I want to be better about not separating books from their authors - there are SO.MANY.BOOKS. to read, I don't have to settle for ones written by problematic people. To help me, I found a tracking sheet that I'm going to modify for what I'm looking for. This will also help me read more diversely in general. I have a few older books on my to-read list for 2019, but I also want to make sure I stay informed about what's new (especially in YA), so I've got librarian and book reviewing blogs bookmarked to help me there. I'm excited for reading in 2019!

Extras: 2017 By the Books and 2016 By the Books.