2021 Reading Recap: Book stats, Graphs, and Charts!

2021 marked the tenth year that I tracked every book I read. The first year I did this I set my reading goal at a modest (for me) 52 books for the year because one book a week sounded pretty manageable. And the reason I decided to start tracking my reading was to help motivate me to read more than I already did.

2014 was the first year I started using a spreadsheet to help me collect and analyze more data than Goodreads allows. (Yes, I am an Enneagram 3, why do you ask?) Then, in 2019, I discovered that bookriot.com had a spreadsheet template with some built-in charts and graphs, beyond what I was already tracking. So I used theirs in 2020 and 2021 while modifying it to my liking. Here is a link where you can get their 2022 reading log template.

Now on to the nerd stats:

Number of books read: 202

Number of pages read: 43,364

Mode of reading:

Audiobook (76), Ebook (104), Print (22)

- Interestingly (to me, anyway), my audiobook format switched places with ebooks this year, (as compared to the last two years), probably due to an increase in ebooks read for seminary in 2020.

2021:

Compared to 2020:

Book Genres:

As in 2020, I read more nonfiction than fiction, whereas in previous years this was more of a 50-50 split.

More specific genres and categories I tracked:

C. S. Lewis Studies: 8 (these overlap with various genres)

LGBTQ Studies: 22

Seminary: 56 (these overlap with Bible & Theology, obviously)

Theology: 71

Bible: 26

Memoir/Bio: 19

Fantasy: 52

Science Fiction: 17

General Fiction: 6

General Nonfiction: 11

Male/Female Authorship:

This might be the first time I've read slightly more women authors than men! 

Books Read Per Month:

2021:

Read vs. Re-reads:

First time read: 172

Re-read: 30

(This seems back to my normal amount from last year where 46% of the books I read were re-reads.)

According to Audible, I listened for 19,114 minutes (318.5 hours) which is up from 279 hours in 2020. It means I averaged 52 minutes of listening per day. Of course, I wonder if that takes into account the times I'm listening at 1.5x speed or 2x speed. But it doesn't really matter. The top genres graphic confirms that I tend to listen to fantasy and sci-fi more on audio and other fiction. And if I'm listening to non-fiction it's probably a biography or memoir.

I posted about 10 of my favorite fiction reads in this post. 

I intend to post about my favorite memoirs and other non-fiction in separate posts.

Feel free to tell me about your reading year in the comments or in an email back to me. 

If you are interested in reading progressive type theology books and discussing them with me and other people, click on over to this page where you can find out more about that and join the fun! 

And if you're not bored yet here are my previous reading recaps and book lists:

2020 Reading Recap and Book Stats

2019 Reading Recap and Book Stats

2018 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2017 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2016 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2015 Reading Recap

What I read in 2019 (203 books)

What I read in 2018 (130 books)
What I read in 2017 (83 books)
What I read in 2016 (142 books)
What I read in 2015 (120 books)
What I read in 2014 (111 books)

What I read in 2013 (100 books)
What I read in 2012 (56 books)