Book Stats 2024
I discovered I'd actually missed adding a few books to my 2024 shelf, so the final numbers came in a little bit higher than what my final monthly books post said. I ended up with 122 books and a LOT of rereads!
(-/+ indicates difference from last year - comparing percentages where possible)
Total number of books: 122 (+)
Total number of pages: 19.615 (-)
Total number of hours listened to: 536 (+)
Average number of pages per book: 284 (-) (Not counting audiobooks, so out of 69 books)
Average number of pages a day: 54 (-)
# Rereads: 61 - so a whopping 50%!! That's even higher than I thought! (+)
Books in Danish: 16 / 13% (-)
Ebooks Read: 11 / 9% (-) (by a LOT! this was 21% last year!)
Audiobooks Read: 53 / 43% (+)
Library Books Read: 15 / 12% (+)
ARCs Read: 0 (-)
New Authors Discovered: 38 (-)
# Physical Books on my Shelves by End of Year: 1293 (+21)
# TBR: 185 (-4 ... I bought too many new books this year :-P But obviously read a lot of them too!)
Longest Book: (Not counting fanfics) "Go Tell the Bees that I'm Gone" by Diana Gabaldon (902 pages)
Shortest Book: (Not counting short-stories) "Lurituri" by Gunnel Linde (86 pages)
Ratings Total
5 stars: 30 / 25% (-)
4 stars: 51 / 43% (-)
3 stars: 31 / 25% (+)
2 stars: 6 / 5% (+)
1 star: 3 / 2% (+)
Average rating: 3.8 (-)
Ratings New Books Only (61 new reads)
5 stars: 6 / 10% (-)
4 stars: 20 / 33% (-)
3 stars: 27 / 44% (+)
2 stars: 6 / 10% (+)
1 star: 2 / 3% (+)
Average rating: 3.4 (-)
So if I count rereads, 68% of all the books I read were 4 or 5 star books.
If I don't, I'm down to a measly 43%!!! Yikes! No wonder it's felt like a bit of a "meh" year reading-wise.
Genres:
Childrens Fiction: 6 / 5% (-)
Young Adult Fiction: 1 / 1% (-)
Historical fiction: 5 / 4% (+)
Christian Fiction: 0 / 0% (-)
Fiction: 0 / 0% (-)
Fantasy/Paranormal: 27 / 22% (+)
Sci-fi/Dystopian: 6 / 5% (-)
Woman's fiction: 10 / 8% (+)
Romance: 12 / 10% (-)
Christmas: 9 / 7% (+)
LGBTQ+: 1 / 1% (-)
The Classics: 9 / 7% (=)
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense: 8 / 7% (-)
Non-fiction: 3 / 2% (+)
Memoir/Autobiography/Biography: 6 / 5% (+)
Poetry/Short-stories/Essays: 9 / 7% (+)
Graphic Novels: 6 / 5% (-)
Novel-length fanfic: 4 / 3% (-)
Number of books read: (not counting audiobooks, so out of 69)
Under 250 pages: 31 / 45% (+)
Between 250-399 pages: 27 / 39% (-)
Between 400-499 pages: 8 / 12% (+)
Over 500 pages: 3 / 4% (-)
Over 1000 pages: 0 / 0% (-)
Best New Series: None. I've started a few series that could end up earning this spot, but as I've only read one of each, I'm going to withhold judgment for the time being.
Abandoned Books
-- "Yes Man" by Danny Wallace. It suffered from the same issue as the movie - Danny just kept saying yes to some really STUPID things! It got annoying to read about. He could easily have kept the spirit of the resolution without saying yes to every Nigerian prince who came his way.
-- "The Gingerbread Christmas Village" by Kiley Dunbar. DNF at page 200 - waaaay too late! But I loved the other book I read by her, so gave it more of a chance than I should have. It was just way too depressing for a Christmas novel.
-- "This Wicked Fate" by Kalynn Bayron. The sequel to "This Poison Heart" which I really enjoyed, but the sequel took it from being a coming-into-your-powers fantasy (which I love) to a lesson in Greek mythology. Not what I'm here for.
-- "The Descendants" by Kaui Hart Hemmings. I liked the movie well enough, so figured I'd give the book a shot too, but after 60 pages I still had to force myself to pick it back up. It wasn't that I disliked it - I just didn't care.
Worst Books of the Year
I had three 1 star reads this year:
-- "Her Secret Bodyguard" by Day Leclaire. Decent enough beginning, but such a ridiculous ending!
-- "Brothers Lionheart" by Astrid Lindgren. Just an all-around unpleasant book, and it ought to come with a ton of trigger warnings - ESPECIALLY for a book aimed at children. Violence, death, murder, suicide, just to mention the most obvious ones.
-- "Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend" by M.J. Wassmer. Well ... 1 star, but definitely do not recommend. This went straight to the trash once I finished it.
.
Awards:
Worst Book That Everybody Raved About: A toss between "The housemaid" by Freida McFadden and "Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman. Both came very highly recommended (the latter especially) and both were only just okay. "The Housemaid" lost a few stars because of the unpleasantness of the second half, "Thursday Murder Club" because I just never got invested in neither the plot nor the characters.
Biggest Disappointment: Probably "Thursday Murder Club". I had had such high expectations of it ... which is also probably part of why it disappointed so much.
Book read furthest away from home (vacation reads?): "The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England" by Brandon Sanderson which I read while visiting Exeter in February. I picked it up just to check out the back blurb ... and then couldn't put it down again!
Book that took you the longest to read: I think probably "Go Tell The Bees That I am Gone" by Diana Gabaldon. It's 902 pages long (and large pages at that - with small type!), and not as much of a page turner as it ought to have been at that size. It never got boring - it was just LONG, and took me from April 2nd to August 11th to read.
Book you read on your birthday: "The House in the Cerulean Sea" by T.J. Klune. A reread in preparation for the sequel (which unfortunately couldn't live up to my expectations).
Most books read by one author this year:
Counting rereads: The "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder - all 8 books.
Not counting rereads: 5 graphic novels by Raina Telgemeier.
Favourite new author you discovered Sarah Beth Durst. I absolutely adored "The Spellshop" and definitely want to read more by her now.
Best Romance Book It's a novella, but I'm still going to count it - "The Exception to the Rule" by Christina Lauren. Really cute!
Best Non-Fiction Book "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" by Matthew Perry. Both interesting and heart-breaking.
Best Sci-Fi Book I've read surprisingly little sci-fi this year. I think I'm going to go with "The Last Murder at the End of the World" by Stuart Turton. It's a bit of a stretch, but I think I can get away with classifying it as sci-fi. Every time I thought I'd gotten some answers, new questions appeared. Fortunately the end tied them up nicely, so didn't feel like I was left hanging.
Best Mystery/Suspense Book "The Devil and the Dark Water" by Stuart Turton. So many characters and details to keep straight, but I loved that a detail mentioned in one chapter became relevant further down the line. Also, "closed room" mysteries definitely appeal to me :-)
Best Fantasy Book "The Spellshop" by Sarah Beth Durst. A lovely cozy fantasy that just hit all the right notes for me.
Best Setting I'm going to repeat myself here, but the island of Caltrey from "The Spellshop".
(-/+ indicates difference from last year - comparing percentages where possible)
Total number of books: 122 (+)
Total number of pages: 19.615 (-)
Total number of hours listened to: 536 (+)
Average number of pages per book: 284 (-) (Not counting audiobooks, so out of 69 books)
Average number of pages a day: 54 (-)
# Rereads: 61 - so a whopping 50%!! That's even higher than I thought! (+)
Books in Danish: 16 / 13% (-)
Ebooks Read: 11 / 9% (-) (by a LOT! this was 21% last year!)
Audiobooks Read: 53 / 43% (+)
Library Books Read: 15 / 12% (+)
ARCs Read: 0 (-)
New Authors Discovered: 38 (-)
# Physical Books on my Shelves by End of Year: 1293 (+21)
# TBR: 185 (-4 ... I bought too many new books this year :-P But obviously read a lot of them too!)
Longest Book: (Not counting fanfics) "Go Tell the Bees that I'm Gone" by Diana Gabaldon (902 pages)
Shortest Book: (Not counting short-stories) "Lurituri" by Gunnel Linde (86 pages)
Ratings Total
5 stars: 30 / 25% (-)
4 stars: 51 / 43% (-)
3 stars: 31 / 25% (+)
2 stars: 6 / 5% (+)
1 star: 3 / 2% (+)
Average rating: 3.8 (-)
Ratings New Books Only (61 new reads)
5 stars: 6 / 10% (-)
4 stars: 20 / 33% (-)
3 stars: 27 / 44% (+)
2 stars: 6 / 10% (+)
1 star: 2 / 3% (+)
Average rating: 3.4 (-)
So if I count rereads, 68% of all the books I read were 4 or 5 star books.
If I don't, I'm down to a measly 43%!!! Yikes! No wonder it's felt like a bit of a "meh" year reading-wise.
Genres:
Childrens Fiction: 6 / 5% (-)
Young Adult Fiction: 1 / 1% (-)
Historical fiction: 5 / 4% (+)
Christian Fiction: 0 / 0% (-)
Fiction: 0 / 0% (-)
Fantasy/Paranormal: 27 / 22% (+)
Sci-fi/Dystopian: 6 / 5% (-)
Woman's fiction: 10 / 8% (+)
Romance: 12 / 10% (-)
Christmas: 9 / 7% (+)
LGBTQ+: 1 / 1% (-)
The Classics: 9 / 7% (=)
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense: 8 / 7% (-)
Non-fiction: 3 / 2% (+)
Memoir/Autobiography/Biography: 6 / 5% (+)
Poetry/Short-stories/Essays: 9 / 7% (+)
Graphic Novels: 6 / 5% (-)
Novel-length fanfic: 4 / 3% (-)
Number of books read: (not counting audiobooks, so out of 69)
Under 250 pages: 31 / 45% (+)
Between 250-399 pages: 27 / 39% (-)
Between 400-499 pages: 8 / 12% (+)
Over 500 pages: 3 / 4% (-)
Over 1000 pages: 0 / 0% (-)
Best New Series: None. I've started a few series that could end up earning this spot, but as I've only read one of each, I'm going to withhold judgment for the time being.
Abandoned Books
-- "Yes Man" by Danny Wallace. It suffered from the same issue as the movie - Danny just kept saying yes to some really STUPID things! It got annoying to read about. He could easily have kept the spirit of the resolution without saying yes to every Nigerian prince who came his way.
-- "The Gingerbread Christmas Village" by Kiley Dunbar. DNF at page 200 - waaaay too late! But I loved the other book I read by her, so gave it more of a chance than I should have. It was just way too depressing for a Christmas novel.
-- "This Wicked Fate" by Kalynn Bayron. The sequel to "This Poison Heart" which I really enjoyed, but the sequel took it from being a coming-into-your-powers fantasy (which I love) to a lesson in Greek mythology. Not what I'm here for.
-- "The Descendants" by Kaui Hart Hemmings. I liked the movie well enough, so figured I'd give the book a shot too, but after 60 pages I still had to force myself to pick it back up. It wasn't that I disliked it - I just didn't care.
Worst Books of the Year
I had three 1 star reads this year:
-- "Her Secret Bodyguard" by Day Leclaire. Decent enough beginning, but such a ridiculous ending!
-- "Brothers Lionheart" by Astrid Lindgren. Just an all-around unpleasant book, and it ought to come with a ton of trigger warnings - ESPECIALLY for a book aimed at children. Violence, death, murder, suicide, just to mention the most obvious ones.
-- "Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend" by M.J. Wassmer. Well ... 1 star, but definitely do not recommend. This went straight to the trash once I finished it.
.
Awards:
Worst Book That Everybody Raved About: A toss between "The housemaid" by Freida McFadden and "Thursday Murder Club" by Richard Osman. Both came very highly recommended (the latter especially) and both were only just okay. "The Housemaid" lost a few stars because of the unpleasantness of the second half, "Thursday Murder Club" because I just never got invested in neither the plot nor the characters.
Biggest Disappointment: Probably "Thursday Murder Club". I had had such high expectations of it ... which is also probably part of why it disappointed so much.
Book read furthest away from home (vacation reads?): "The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England" by Brandon Sanderson which I read while visiting Exeter in February. I picked it up just to check out the back blurb ... and then couldn't put it down again!
Book that took you the longest to read: I think probably "Go Tell The Bees That I am Gone" by Diana Gabaldon. It's 902 pages long (and large pages at that - with small type!), and not as much of a page turner as it ought to have been at that size. It never got boring - it was just LONG, and took me from April 2nd to August 11th to read.
Book you read on your birthday: "The House in the Cerulean Sea" by T.J. Klune. A reread in preparation for the sequel (which unfortunately couldn't live up to my expectations).
Most books read by one author this year:
Counting rereads: The "Little House" series by Laura Ingalls Wilder - all 8 books.
Not counting rereads: 5 graphic novels by Raina Telgemeier.
Favourite new author you discovered Sarah Beth Durst. I absolutely adored "The Spellshop" and definitely want to read more by her now.
Best Romance Book It's a novella, but I'm still going to count it - "The Exception to the Rule" by Christina Lauren. Really cute!
Best Non-Fiction Book "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" by Matthew Perry. Both interesting and heart-breaking.
Best Sci-Fi Book I've read surprisingly little sci-fi this year. I think I'm going to go with "The Last Murder at the End of the World" by Stuart Turton. It's a bit of a stretch, but I think I can get away with classifying it as sci-fi. Every time I thought I'd gotten some answers, new questions appeared. Fortunately the end tied them up nicely, so didn't feel like I was left hanging.
Best Mystery/Suspense Book "The Devil and the Dark Water" by Stuart Turton. So many characters and details to keep straight, but I loved that a detail mentioned in one chapter became relevant further down the line. Also, "closed room" mysteries definitely appeal to me :-)
Best Fantasy Book "The Spellshop" by Sarah Beth Durst. A lovely cozy fantasy that just hit all the right notes for me.
Best Setting I'm going to repeat myself here, but the island of Caltrey from "The Spellshop".