This is my last week of the year working (I guess I come back on the 30th for a minute), so I decided to do some analysis of my year. I like data and numbers, so I’m looking at a few aspects of life this year with data I’ve compiled from previous years.
Today I’m looking at the books I read. I read a lot to get away from my chaotic life and this has been one of the things I’ve tracked for many years. I use GoodReads to track my reading, and I’ve done this since 2018. I used to do some book reviews or track counts on my blog, but I gave that up as Goodreads has great Kindle integration.
The Numbers
The numbers are constantly in flux, as I never stop reading, but as of this writing (12/16), here are the totals by year:
- 2024 – 131 – updated 12/16
- 2023 – 111
- 2022 – 105
- 2021 – 118
- 2020 – 82
- 2019 – 128
This was my biggest year, likely because of all the time I spent in airports and on planes. I tend to read a lot during those stretches.
A book isn’t a book, and I’m not sure how to easily get a count of pages read. Even then, with forewards of different lengths, citations/references/etc. it’s hard to know if I read more of less this year. However, from Goodreads, I could get this:
- 2024 – 51753
- 2023 – 34157
- 2022 – 29517
- 2021 – 29058
- 2020 – 22932
- 2019 – 42349
More pages in books this year.
I tend to read a lot of series, and this year, I had 18 authors of whom I read multiple books. I don’t have a series grouping, but these are the top authors:
- J.N. Chaney 15
- Douglas Pratt 10
- Jeffery Deaver 9
- Jack Slater 9
- Steven Konkoly 9
- Stephen Taylor 8
- Harlan Coben 6
- Robert Dugoni 6
- Brad Lee 6
Harlan Coben has a series (Myron Bolitar), but I think most of these were standalone books. Most of the Deavers were either the Colton Shaw series or ones from Lincoln Rhyme that I hadn’t read. The Douglas Pratt, Logan Ryles, Steven Konkoly, and J.N. Chaney series were new ones I discovered. I ripped through quite a few of these in trips, storing them in my Kindle app and reading offline.
- Devices used: 3
I only used my computer a few times to read during lunch, but almost all my reading is on my mobile phone. It’s a 6”+ screen and it works well. The third device was also a phone, which I replaced this year.
I tried to use a small Kindle device in the past, but my daughter appropriated it last year and I haven’t used it since. I don’t miss it and while I carried a Kindle Fire a few times on trips, I ended up barely using it for video and never for reading.
Genres
I tend to read mostly fiction, as this is an escape for me. However, I do try to keep a few business/career related books in play. This year, by my count, I read these genres:
- Thillers: 81
- Sci-fi: 19
- Mystery: 17
- Legal: 6
- Nonfiction: 4
The nonfiction books were mostly for work, though I did read Geddy Lee’s bio, which I enjoyed. I roughly categorized these by author, so keep that in mind. Some of the thrillers likely fall into mysteries or something else, but I wanted just a quick look at my world.
The Highlights
I’ll recommend a few different items. I read a lot from my Kindle Unlimited subscription as well as a local library borrowing. If you buy from a link, you’re funding my reading habits.
I’d recommend all the non-fiction books I read, which were these:
- My Effin’ Life
- The Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition
- Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It
- The JOLT Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision
I got lucky as I have a couple others in progress that I am not sure I’d recommend. In the sci-fi area, I really enjoyed the Sentenced to War series. It’s 15 books, so a nice long time to learn the characters. The main one is a little immature, but we watch him grow up, which was neat.
I’ve also been trying to catch up on the Spinward Fringe series. I loved Hunters: Broadcast 16, but if you want to start, Broadcast 0: Origins is free.
In the thrillers area, The Never Game caught my eye. It’s the Colton Shaw series from Deaver, and the basis for a new series on CBS. I enjoyed these 4, though the short story wasn’t great (1.5). These got me to look back for Lincoln Rhyme books I’d missed.
I tried some Crighton’s I’d missed, but didn’t love them. I did, however, really enjoy the Prosecution Force series, book one is Brink of War. It’s a crazy tale, but I enjoyed the character and how he can’t quite trust anyone. I need to get a few more from this author.
In the legal area, I’ve enjoyed the books of Robert Dugoni. This is an area I’ll get stuck in sometimes, usually with a new (to me) Grisham novel, but in this case, the Trace Crosswhite series was good last year and I liked the David Sloane series this year. The first is The Jury Master.
That’s the year in reading, which was a fun one for me. Who knows where next year will go. Right not I’m in a bit of a sci-fi channel, with 2-3 business books on tap.