2023 ~ #JenBsBooks

 

2023 is in the books, the annual review. I don't really set a goal per se, but input 223 (where a goal was requested on GoodReads and Storygraph) to match the year (2023), and easily surpassed it. I am a numbers nerd, and it's always interesting to get the data crunch at the end of the year. Books and pages, average pages, average rating, the book shelved by the most other people/by the least amount of others (basically unknown! The title "Pride and Prejudice and Pickleball" just caught my eye, and it was included in KindleUnlimited, so I grabbed it). The long and the short of it ...

Here's a look at tiny covers and ratings. 

38 of the 289 got a 5* rating from me. 

Lots of 3* and 4* books too. 

I discovered Storygraph at the start of 2023 ... and while I'm a GoodReads gal all the way, Storygraph has been a great backup, and it has a lot of great visual data ... graphs and charts.  I don't know how much stock I put in the "moods" ... but it is interesting to see and compare to others. I challenged myself in October to see if I could get the pie chart to shift to dark/tense/mysterious (with Halloween that month) ... orange/emotional does seem to get top billing most of the time.

The pie chart for Fiction/Nonfiction definitely pushed me to go for a larger slice of non-fiction pie (again, a personal challenge #nonfictionNovember, non-fiction portion larger than the fiction part). I've tried to make sure I get in some longer reads (500+), at least one per month, and for format, trying to get in some ebooks, and even physical reads, so I'm not all audio. 

On GoodReads, I have 100+ shelves to track all sorts of things. On Storygraph, I've kept my tags streamlined to track some specific stats. Where I get my books (library, KU, purchases, etc. There is actually ONE "review copy" on the graph ... once upon a time I did quite a few reviews, getting a free book in exchange for a review), Stand Alone vs Series, and tense, POV, narration, and if it has the F-bomb in it (only started tracking that part way through the year ... just curious). 

A few other stats collected by Storygraph's Reading Wrap-Up for the year ...

• Longest book listen was 43 hours 59 minutes (let's just round up to 44 hours, right?)
• Book Length Average: 323 (close, but a little different than GoodReads). 
• Highest Rated Month: January, 3.89
• Most Pages Read: October, 9212
• New Authors: 180
• Books in a Series: 87 (by my record, 94)
• Re-Reads: 11 
• DNF: 12 Books

2023 ...some memorable additions:

• Joined two bookclubs: I posted in a neighborhood group asking if anyone knew of any local book clubs, and there was one right in the neighborhood. I found out on a Sunday in January, and the meeting was on Wednesday, but I got the book and finished it before the discussion. This neighborhood bookclub meets the 4th Wednesday of each month (taking off July and December). In a city group on FB, another gal posted about a book club, and we've been meeting on the first Wednesday of the month at Kneaders in Jordan Landing. It's been fun to discuss books, and be challenged to read some that might not have been ones I'd select myself. 
• The Boys: #3 changed jobs (from residential electrical to commercial) and had fairly easy/repetitive work, where he could have an earbud in. He decided to try some audiobooks rather than just listening to the same music repeatedly. #4 decided to try some audiobooks during his work shift as well. I. Was. Thrilled. SO fun to have some books to recommend to them, the hear what they thought. Unfortunately, work shifted for both so the "book brothers" only lasted a couple of months ... but I enjoyed it while it lasted!
• Audio Speed: I've heard of a ton of people speeding up their audio ... I've never done it. While my personal reading speed is much faster than audio narration, the time or two I tried shifting the speed, it just didn't sound natural. Midway through the year, one narrator was very slow. I upped the narration a little for that book ... then forgot to turn it back down, and it felt fine for the next book too. I tried it more and more. Just 1.25 speed for the most part, but it has upped my book count. 
• Graphic Novels/Physical Books: I re-read "To Kill a MockingBird" (one #3 had read in school and decided to listen to during his book time) and when looking it up to record it, saw a graphic novel version. While digital copies were available, they were hard to navigate. I ended up grabbing a physical copy from the library. I've not been one for graphic novels, but I found the adaptation fascinating. The different format made me notice different things. I checked out some more graphic novels ... and they are adding my "slice of pie" to the format chart in Storygraph. 
• BookNotes: While listening to my audiobooks, I'll often quickly pause and jot down things. Words, phrases, connections, questions, just little nudges to help me remember something when it's time to write up my review of the book.

Here's a look at my reads (via GoodReads)

Check out the post on the family blog for the monthly collages.