20 years of reading- the numbers

 I realised last year that I started keeping a record of the books I read way back in 2003- which means that 2023 marked 20 years of tracking my books! Also equalling my whole adult life. I started writing them down in the back of my year planner, then added them to my blog as well, and then moved from pen and paper to Librarything and then Goodreads. Sadly in the pen and paper era I managed to completely lose 2009, so now at the end of 2023 (technically now we are in the start of 2024 I know) I have 20 years worth of lists. I thought that I should mark the occasion somehow, and what better way than to put all those books into a spreadsheet and run some numbers? Maybe make a few graphs? Can't think of anything better!

The numbers

So this is the big question, I guess, how many books did I manage to read in 20 years? I think this needs a little introduction... So way back in 2003 I really wanted to keep track of which books I had read and hadn't read. But it seemed vain to me to count how many books I read in total. So I counted new books only. They had to be books read for the first time and read in full- all books finished in a year count, even if I started them the year before. I sort of regret this because I would love to see which books are my most re-read of all time (also, let's face it, I did want to know how many books I read in a year). 

Back in 2003 I estimated I would read about 100 books a year. I had recently come to the existentially horrifying conclusion that there was no way I could read all the books in the world, or even all the books I might want to read, but 1,000 books a decade was enough to put a respectable dint in the TBR by the end of my lifetime. Imagine my horror when I had read less than 80 by the end of that first year.

But finally, at the end of 20 years I have hit over 1,000! 1,124 in fact. What does that look like by year? Here's where a graph is handy!

My biggest reading year was 2013, with 88 books, and lowest number was read in 2016, with just 21, or an average of 56 books a year.

So far I have never hit 100 books in a year. But I've encountered readers who read several hundred in a year, as well as a Pew research study which found the average American reader read 12 books in a year (as reported in several places, including this Penguin blogpost). There's so much variation! And so many things to read- keeping stats has made me think about what I count- I count graphic novels, but not comic books issues unless they're collected into a volume. And how would I count webcomics? So they're out. And not picture books. So many arbitrary decisions. And so many books I will never have time to read.

But what did I actually read in that time? Well, it's too long to list but I have some more stats for next time!