Reading Stats 2023
I read a total of 112 books in 2023. That is the lowest number of books read since I started recording it back in 2005! But changing jobs meant that I wasn't really in a headspace for reading, and when I was, it was generally audiobooks, which naturally takes significantly longer than reading myself.
(-/+ indicates difference from last year - comparing percentages where possible)
Total number of books: 112 (-)
Total number of pages: 22,732 (-)
Total number of hours listened to: 336 (new category)
Average number of pages per book: 303 (+) (Not counting audiobooks, so out of 75 books)
Average number of pages a day: 62 (-)
# Rereads: 42 / 38% (+)
Books in Danish: 18 / 16% (-)
Ebooks Read: 24 / 21% (-) (by a LOT)
Audiobooks Read: 37 / 33% (+) (by just as much)
Library Books Read: 11 / 9% (-)
ARCs Read: 4 / 4% (+)
New Authors Discovered: 32
# Physical Books owned at end of year: 41 (+ ... that number is artificially bloated though, as I found a bunch of books I'd forgotten to add to my "owned-physical-book" shelf on goodreads. I've aquired a total of 20 new books this year)
# TBR: 189 (-10!!! It's definitely going the right direction for once!)
Longest Book: (Not counting fanfics or graphic novels) "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". I did read 2 +1000 page fanfics though :-P
Shortest Book: (Not counting short-stories) "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" at just 80 pages
Ratings Total
5 stars: 30 / 27% (+)
4 stars: 55 / 49% (+)
3 stars: 22 / 20% (-)
2 stars: 5 / 4% (=)
1 star: 0 / 0% (-)
Average rating: 3.98 (+)
Ratings New Books Only
5 stars: 12 / 17% (+)
4 stars: 35 / 50% (+)
3 stars: 19 / 27% (-)
2 stars: 4 / 5% (-)
1 star: 0 / 0% (-)
Average rating: 3.79 (+)
So if I count rereads, 76% of all the books I read were 4 or 5 star books!!! That's crazy high! But I have been doing a lot of rereading comfort books, so it makes sense. AND I've been quite lucky with the new books I picked out this year, which shows, as even if I don't count rereads, I'm only down to 67% That's a huge increase from last year where both numbers were in the 50s.
Genres:
Childrens Fiction: 7 / 6% (+)
Young Adult Fiction: 6 / 5% (-)
Historical fiction: 0 / 0% (-)
Christian Fiction: 1 / 1% (+)
Fiction: 6 / 5% (=)
Fantasy/Paranormal: 14 / 13% (-)
Sci-fi/Dystopian: 12 / 11% (+)
Woman's fiction: 3 / 3% (-)
Romance: 13 / 12% (=)
Christmas: 7 / 6% (+)
LGBTQ+: 4 / 4% (=)
The Classics: 8 / 7% (-)
Mystery/Horror/Suspense: 12 / 11% (+)
Non-fiction: 0 / 0% (-)
Memoir/Autobiography/Biography: 5 / 4% (+)
Poetry/Short-stories/Essays: 0 / 0% (-)
Graphic Novels: 9 / 8% (+)
Novel-length fanfic: 5 / 4% (+)
Number of books read: (not counting audiobooks, so out of 75)
Under 250 pages: 21 / 28% (+)
Between 250-399 pages: 39 / 52% (-)
Between 400-499 pages: 7 / 9% (-)
Over 500 pages: 6 / 8% (+)
Over 1000 pages: 2 / 3% (+)
Best New Series:
The Scholomance by Naomi Novik. Granted, I haven't read the last one yet, but I LOVED the two first books!
Abandoned Books
Home - Harlan Coben. For good. Which is such a shame! I've enjoyed everything else I've read by him. But the writing style of this one was just annoying.
Into the Wild - John Krakauer. For good. Couldn't get into it.
The Evolution of Jane - Cathleen Schine. For good. MUCH too dry.
The Girl Next Door - ... forgot the author. For good. Wrong kind of chick-lit.
Awards:
Best Book I Would Never Have Read If Somebody Online Hadn't Told Me To: "The Wishing Game" by Meg Shaffer. Basically "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" for adults. The book suddenly became viral and I saw it ALL over the place. Fortunately it completely lived up to the hype and became one of my favourite books this year.
Book read furthest away from home (vacation reads?): "Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love" by isthisselfcare, which I read while on vacation in the US and Canada in August.
Book that took you the longest to read: "The Red" - took me 5 months to read 235 pages because I just kept forgetting about it! In the end I only finished it because I got stubborn - and it was so short that I could just power through.
Book you read on your birthday: "A Deadly Education" - the first book in the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik. Awesome book!
Most books read by one author this year:
Counting rereads: A tie between Douglas Adams and Alice Oseman with 5 each.
Not counting rereads: Catherine Walsh - 3 books.
Favourite new author you discovered
Probably Sangu Mandanna? I've only read one book by her, so it might be a fluke, but it ended up being my favourite book of the year, so I'm DEFINITELY going to keep a look-out for more books by her!
Best Romance Book "The True Love Experiment" by Christina Lauren. I liked it even better than "The Soulmate Equation".
Best TV Adaptation of a Book I'm going to count "Queen's Gambit" for this one, as I didn't read the book until this year, and was BLOWN AWAY by how good it was!
Best Young Adult Book "The First To Die at the End" by Adam Silvera. Heartbreaking, but SO good!
Best Non-Fiction Book Probably "Spare" by Prince Harry. I do realize how biased it obviously is, but I really enjoyed it and found it very interesting.
Best Mystery/Suspense Book "Billy Summer" by Stephen King. The start was quite similar to "11/22/63" in vibe, but then it changed and became totally it's own.
Best Fantasy Book "The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches" by Sangu Mandanna. Obviously! Since that was my favourite book of the year ;)
Best Fiction Book "The Wishing Game" by Meg Shaffer. HIGHLY recommend this one!
Best Setting "Christmas at Frozen Falls" by Kiley Dunbar. TOTALLY made me want to go to Lapland! Fortunately the book itself was really excellent too.
Epic that Completely Captured my Attention: Once again, I'm gonna say that fanfics count, as I could NOT get "Remain Nameless" by HeyJude19 out of my mind. Awesome story that managed to span 1000 pages without unnecessary angst, 3rd party breakups or any of the other shenanigans people tend to include to add pages.
(-/+ indicates difference from last year - comparing percentages where possible)
Total number of books: 112 (-)
Total number of pages: 22,732 (-)
Total number of hours listened to: 336 (new category)
Average number of pages per book: 303 (+) (Not counting audiobooks, so out of 75 books)
Average number of pages a day: 62 (-)
# Rereads: 42 / 38% (+)
Books in Danish: 18 / 16% (-)
Ebooks Read: 24 / 21% (-) (by a LOT)
Audiobooks Read: 37 / 33% (+) (by just as much)
Library Books Read: 11 / 9% (-)
ARCs Read: 4 / 4% (+)
New Authors Discovered: 32
# Physical Books owned at end of year: 41 (+ ... that number is artificially bloated though, as I found a bunch of books I'd forgotten to add to my "owned-physical-book" shelf on goodreads. I've aquired a total of 20 new books this year)
# TBR: 189 (-10!!! It's definitely going the right direction for once!)
Longest Book: (Not counting fanfics or graphic novels) "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". I did read 2 +1000 page fanfics though :-P
Shortest Book: (Not counting short-stories) "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" at just 80 pages
Ratings Total
5 stars: 30 / 27% (+)
4 stars: 55 / 49% (+)
3 stars: 22 / 20% (-)
2 stars: 5 / 4% (=)
1 star: 0 / 0% (-)
Average rating: 3.98 (+)
Ratings New Books Only
5 stars: 12 / 17% (+)
4 stars: 35 / 50% (+)
3 stars: 19 / 27% (-)
2 stars: 4 / 5% (-)
1 star: 0 / 0% (-)
Average rating: 3.79 (+)
So if I count rereads, 76% of all the books I read were 4 or 5 star books!!! That's crazy high! But I have been doing a lot of rereading comfort books, so it makes sense. AND I've been quite lucky with the new books I picked out this year, which shows, as even if I don't count rereads, I'm only down to 67% That's a huge increase from last year where both numbers were in the 50s.
Genres:
Childrens Fiction: 7 / 6% (+)
Young Adult Fiction: 6 / 5% (-)
Historical fiction: 0 / 0% (-)
Christian Fiction: 1 / 1% (+)
Fiction: 6 / 5% (=)
Fantasy/Paranormal: 14 / 13% (-)
Sci-fi/Dystopian: 12 / 11% (+)
Woman's fiction: 3 / 3% (-)
Romance: 13 / 12% (=)
Christmas: 7 / 6% (+)
LGBTQ+: 4 / 4% (=)
The Classics: 8 / 7% (-)
Mystery/Horror/Suspense: 12 / 11% (+)
Non-fiction: 0 / 0% (-)
Memoir/Autobiography/Biography: 5 / 4% (+)
Poetry/Short-stories/Essays: 0 / 0% (-)
Graphic Novels: 9 / 8% (+)
Novel-length fanfic: 5 / 4% (+)
Number of books read: (not counting audiobooks, so out of 75)
Under 250 pages: 21 / 28% (+)
Between 250-399 pages: 39 / 52% (-)
Between 400-499 pages: 7 / 9% (-)
Over 500 pages: 6 / 8% (+)
Over 1000 pages: 2 / 3% (+)
Best New Series:
The Scholomance by Naomi Novik. Granted, I haven't read the last one yet, but I LOVED the two first books!
Abandoned Books
Home - Harlan Coben. For good. Which is such a shame! I've enjoyed everything else I've read by him. But the writing style of this one was just annoying.
Into the Wild - John Krakauer. For good. Couldn't get into it.
The Evolution of Jane - Cathleen Schine. For good. MUCH too dry.
The Girl Next Door - ... forgot the author. For good. Wrong kind of chick-lit.
Awards:
Best Book I Would Never Have Read If Somebody Online Hadn't Told Me To: "The Wishing Game" by Meg Shaffer. Basically "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" for adults. The book suddenly became viral and I saw it ALL over the place. Fortunately it completely lived up to the hype and became one of my favourite books this year.
Book read furthest away from home (vacation reads?): "Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love" by isthisselfcare, which I read while on vacation in the US and Canada in August.
Book that took you the longest to read: "The Red" - took me 5 months to read 235 pages because I just kept forgetting about it! In the end I only finished it because I got stubborn - and it was so short that I could just power through.
Book you read on your birthday: "A Deadly Education" - the first book in the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik. Awesome book!
Most books read by one author this year:
Counting rereads: A tie between Douglas Adams and Alice Oseman with 5 each.
Not counting rereads: Catherine Walsh - 3 books.
Favourite new author you discovered
Probably Sangu Mandanna? I've only read one book by her, so it might be a fluke, but it ended up being my favourite book of the year, so I'm DEFINITELY going to keep a look-out for more books by her!
Best Romance Book "The True Love Experiment" by Christina Lauren. I liked it even better than "The Soulmate Equation".
Best TV Adaptation of a Book I'm going to count "Queen's Gambit" for this one, as I didn't read the book until this year, and was BLOWN AWAY by how good it was!
Best Young Adult Book "The First To Die at the End" by Adam Silvera. Heartbreaking, but SO good!
Best Non-Fiction Book Probably "Spare" by Prince Harry. I do realize how biased it obviously is, but I really enjoyed it and found it very interesting.
Best Mystery/Suspense Book "Billy Summer" by Stephen King. The start was quite similar to "11/22/63" in vibe, but then it changed and became totally it's own.
Best Fantasy Book "The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches" by Sangu Mandanna. Obviously! Since that was my favourite book of the year ;)
Best Fiction Book "The Wishing Game" by Meg Shaffer. HIGHLY recommend this one!
Best Setting "Christmas at Frozen Falls" by Kiley Dunbar. TOTALLY made me want to go to Lapland! Fortunately the book itself was really excellent too.
Epic that Completely Captured my Attention: Once again, I'm gonna say that fanfics count, as I could NOT get "Remain Nameless" by HeyJude19 out of my mind. Awesome story that managed to span 1000 pages without unnecessary angst, 3rd party breakups or any of the other shenanigans people tend to include to add pages.