In which there are my book stats, 2015
My book stats, 2014. I did some of this year's stats while under the influence so if any of the maths looks especially dodgy... lol.
In 2013 I was asked some questions about general trends in the types of books I read so I began recording some stats. The following categories are flexibly defined and I picked them because they’re relatively easy to track. In 2015 I noticed that other people tracking their stats seem more focussed than me on author stats, whereas I feel more driven by my interest in the content (subjective perception, obv, but I note that my original list of stats to collect has fictional characters ahead of authors).
In 2015 I also paid attention to how much book-form fiction had women over forty as the primary point-of-view character and, as you've probably already guessed, the answer is unimpressive at 10 / 152 or 7%, although there were more who were secondary or tertiary pov characters or supporting characters. As I'm almost certainly biased in favour of this demographic this result is notably low. They're so rare I decided to keep a full list (Growing Up by Angela Thirkell might also qualify via Lady Harriet Waring but I recall it mostly being Leslie Waring and Lydia Merton's story):
• The New Moon's Arms, by Nalo Hopkinson (magical realism, a very menopausal 53)
• Larque on the Wing, by Nancy Springer (magical realism, protag only just qualifies on age and gender)
• Velvet v.1, Before the Living End, by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting (graphic novel, spy thriller, early 40s)
• Velvet v.2, The Secret Lives of Dead Men, by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting (graphic novel, spy thriller, early 40s)
• Breakaway, by Louise Field Cooper (road trip and coming of middle-age, can't remember if precise age given)
• Mary Ann in Autumn, by Armistead Maupin (soap opera, 50-something?)
• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, by Winifred Watson (romantic comedy, does Miss Pettigrew even qualify on age?)
• Fair Play, by Tove Jansson (literary realism, short stories, lesbian romance, 60s+)
• The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson (literary realism, family saga, 60s+ cos her granddaughter is 6)
• Before Lunch, by Angela Thirkell (family saga, assuming Catherine Middleton qualifies?)
• Northbridge Rectory, by Angela Thirkell (family saga, late 40s)
- I read 167 books (2014: 160 books). I also read extensively outside book formats.
- I read 126 or 75% books aimed at adults and 41 or 25% aimed at children (2014: 133 or 83% adult, 27 or 17% children).
Definition and methodology: children = 0-12ish. Adult = 11ish-???. Yes, I know these overlap but each book was only counted in one category. Sometimes I used my own judgment and sometimes I relied on the publishers' printed guidance.
Non-fiction: 4 or 2% .......... (2014: 11 or 7%)
Poetry: 22 or 13% .............. (2014: 39 or 24%)
Play script: 2 or 1% ............ (2014: 0 or 0%)
Short stories: 7 or 4% ........ (2014: 3 or 2%)
Novel: 67 or 40% ............... (2014: 28 or 18%)
Graphic novel: 65 or 39% ... (2014: 78 or 49%)
Anthology: 10 or 6% .......... (2014: 5 or 3%) - anthology is an overlapping category
- I read 123 or 74% books by female creators and 97 or 58% books by male creators, but the numbers are partly an artefact of my counting methodology because graphic novels usually have more than one creator (2014: ratio 50% / 50% ish).
- I read at least 35 or 21% books by non-white creators which is 16% of the total number of creators, i.e. higher than the proportion of non-white people in my society/nation but not globally - I don’t know the proportion of published anglophone books by non-white authors globally (2014: 24 or 15% of books and 11% of creators).
- I read at least 30 or 18% books by non-het creators which is 14% of the total number of creators (2014: 18 or 11% of books and 9% of creators).
- I read at least 2 or 1% books by disabled authors which is 1% of the total number of creators, which seems pitiful but see ↓ below (2014: 2 or 1% of books and 1% of creators).
Definitions and methodology: for x/f/m/u/poc/disabled/non-het/y categories of creator I didn’t actively seek out biographical info so these stats are an incomplete representation, especially for disabled creators but also for non-het and poc creators. I’m also unaware of any non m/f creators but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any. Variable disabilities are also difficult to count, e.g. is an author with mental health problems always disabled, or disabled only after their first experience of mental illness, or disabled only while experiencing disabling consequences of mental health problems? Self-definitions (plural because they can change) would be part of many possible methodologies for counting.
- I read 104 or 64% pieces of book-form fiction with female protagonists, and 48 or 30% with male protagonists, and 8 or 5% with non-binary gendered main characters, and 2 or 1% with ungendered protagonists, using the broadest possible definitions of sex/gender (2014: 86 / 66% f, 39 / 30 % m, and 5 / 4% nb ← pun).
- I read 58 or 36% pieces of book-form fiction with a non-white protagonist and/or other main character (2014: 36 or 29%).
- I read 31 or 19% pieces of book-form fiction with a non-heterosexual protagonist and/or other main character (2014: 33 or 26%).
- I read 25 or 15% pieces of book-form fiction with a disabled protagonist and/or other main character (2014: 11 or 9%).
- I read 31 or 19% pieces of book-form fiction with a non-human protagonist and/or other main character (2014: uncounted)
General observation: my experience is that fiction with one non-white / non-het / disabled character who is more than a token, i.e. protag or other main character, will often include two or more characters in the same category but that this can’t be generalised across categories, e.g. having more non-het characters won’t necessarily imply more non-white or disabled characters in the same (author’s) fiction.
- Individual creators I read most.
UA Fanthorpe: 9
Tove Jansson: 8
Angela Thirkell: 8 (2014: 5)
Elisabeth Beresford: 6
Colleen Coover: 6
Courtney Milan: 6
Paul Tobin: 6
Kurt Busiek: 5
Gail Carriger: 5 (2014: 6)
Kieron Gillen: 5
Jamie McKelvie: 5
[...]
Chris Riddell 3 (2014: 5)
(2014: Alison Bechdel 11, Gillian Clarke 10, Danielle Corsetto 9, Gail Carriger 6, Chris Riddell 5, Angela Thirkell 5)
- In translation: 7%-ish, of which 8 from Swedish, 1 anthology from Arabic to Zapotec, 1 untranslated nation language / English Creole, 1 with some Spanish (2014: Bulgarian, French, Mexican Spanish, Polish, Welsh, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean)
- Oldest first publication date: 1611 - only the oldest book I read, not the oldest text, obv (2014: 1609)
- Newest first publication date: 2015 (2014: 2014)
- Most books read in one calendar month: 20 (2014: 30)
- Fewest books read in one calendar month: 4 (2014: 1)
- Most books read in one day: 3 (2014: 7)
- Books borrowed, and read, from library: 28 or 17% (2014: 33 or 21%)
- Books read wholly onscreen: 6 or 4% (2014: 15 or 9%)
- Books given away: 52 (2014: 44)
- To Read pile bookcase: I refuse to divulge how many books are currently languishing on my To Read pile but they might be roughly proportional in number and content to the books I read this year... if we don't subtract the number I borrowed from the library. Ooops. (2014: 104-ish)
Are there any other stats that would be interesting to know and easy to collect (e.g. not "reading hours" or "word count") that I missed?
Rec me books you think I would enjoy? Extra points will be awarded if I’ve already read and enjoyed your suggestions or if they’re waiting on my To Read shelves, lol.
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/563867.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.
In 2013 I was asked some questions about general trends in the types of books I read so I began recording some stats. The following categories are flexibly defined and I picked them because they’re relatively easy to track. In 2015 I noticed that other people tracking their stats seem more focussed than me on author stats, whereas I feel more driven by my interest in the content (subjective perception, obv, but I note that my original list of stats to collect has fictional characters ahead of authors).
In 2015 I also paid attention to how much book-form fiction had women over forty as the primary point-of-view character and, as you've probably already guessed, the answer is unimpressive at 10 / 152 or 7%, although there were more who were secondary or tertiary pov characters or supporting characters. As I'm almost certainly biased in favour of this demographic this result is notably low. They're so rare I decided to keep a full list (Growing Up by Angela Thirkell might also qualify via Lady Harriet Waring but I recall it mostly being Leslie Waring and Lydia Merton's story):
• The New Moon's Arms, by Nalo Hopkinson (magical realism, a very menopausal 53)
• Larque on the Wing, by Nancy Springer (magical realism, protag only just qualifies on age and gender)
• Velvet v.1, Before the Living End, by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting (graphic novel, spy thriller, early 40s)
• Velvet v.2, The Secret Lives of Dead Men, by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting (graphic novel, spy thriller, early 40s)
• Breakaway, by Louise Field Cooper (road trip and coming of middle-age, can't remember if precise age given)
• Mary Ann in Autumn, by Armistead Maupin (soap opera, 50-something?)
• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, by Winifred Watson (romantic comedy, does Miss Pettigrew even qualify on age?)
• Fair Play, by Tove Jansson (literary realism, short stories, lesbian romance, 60s+)
• The Summer Book, by Tove Jansson (literary realism, family saga, 60s+ cos her granddaughter is 6)
• Before Lunch, by Angela Thirkell (family saga, assuming Catherine Middleton qualifies?)
• Northbridge Rectory, by Angela Thirkell (family saga, late 40s)
- I read 167 books (2014: 160 books). I also read extensively outside book formats.
- I read 126 or 75% books aimed at adults and 41 or 25% aimed at children (2014: 133 or 83% adult, 27 or 17% children).
Definition and methodology: children = 0-12ish. Adult = 11ish-???. Yes, I know these overlap but each book was only counted in one category. Sometimes I used my own judgment and sometimes I relied on the publishers' printed guidance.
Non-fiction: 4 or 2% .......... (2014: 11 or 7%)
Poetry: 22 or 13% .............. (2014: 39 or 24%)
Play script: 2 or 1% ............ (2014: 0 or 0%)
Short stories: 7 or 4% ........ (2014: 3 or 2%)
Novel: 67 or 40% ............... (2014: 28 or 18%)
Graphic novel: 65 or 39% ... (2014: 78 or 49%)
Anthology: 10 or 6% .......... (2014: 5 or 3%) - anthology is an overlapping category
- I read 123 or 74% books by female creators and 97 or 58% books by male creators, but the numbers are partly an artefact of my counting methodology because graphic novels usually have more than one creator (2014: ratio 50% / 50% ish).
- I read at least 35 or 21% books by non-white creators which is 16% of the total number of creators, i.e. higher than the proportion of non-white people in my society/nation but not globally - I don’t know the proportion of published anglophone books by non-white authors globally (2014: 24 or 15% of books and 11% of creators).
- I read at least 30 or 18% books by non-het creators which is 14% of the total number of creators (2014: 18 or 11% of books and 9% of creators).
- I read at least 2 or 1% books by disabled authors which is 1% of the total number of creators, which seems pitiful but see ↓ below (2014: 2 or 1% of books and 1% of creators).
Definitions and methodology: for x/f/m/u/poc/disabled/non-het/y categories of creator I didn’t actively seek out biographical info so these stats are an incomplete representation, especially for disabled creators but also for non-het and poc creators. I’m also unaware of any non m/f creators but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any. Variable disabilities are also difficult to count, e.g. is an author with mental health problems always disabled, or disabled only after their first experience of mental illness, or disabled only while experiencing disabling consequences of mental health problems? Self-definitions (plural because they can change) would be part of many possible methodologies for counting.
- I read 104 or 64% pieces of book-form fiction with female protagonists, and 48 or 30% with male protagonists, and 8 or 5% with non-binary gendered main characters, and 2 or 1% with ungendered protagonists, using the broadest possible definitions of sex/gender (2014: 86 / 66% f, 39 / 30 % m, and 5 / 4% nb ← pun).
- I read 58 or 36% pieces of book-form fiction with a non-white protagonist and/or other main character (2014: 36 or 29%).
- I read 31 or 19% pieces of book-form fiction with a non-heterosexual protagonist and/or other main character (2014: 33 or 26%).
- I read 25 or 15% pieces of book-form fiction with a disabled protagonist and/or other main character (2014: 11 or 9%).
- I read 31 or 19% pieces of book-form fiction with a non-human protagonist and/or other main character (2014: uncounted)
General observation: my experience is that fiction with one non-white / non-het / disabled character who is more than a token, i.e. protag or other main character, will often include two or more characters in the same category but that this can’t be generalised across categories, e.g. having more non-het characters won’t necessarily imply more non-white or disabled characters in the same (author’s) fiction.
- Individual creators I read most.
UA Fanthorpe: 9
Tove Jansson: 8
Angela Thirkell: 8 (2014: 5)
Elisabeth Beresford: 6
Colleen Coover: 6
Courtney Milan: 6
Paul Tobin: 6
Kurt Busiek: 5
Gail Carriger: 5 (2014: 6)
Kieron Gillen: 5
Jamie McKelvie: 5
[...]
Chris Riddell 3 (2014: 5)
(2014: Alison Bechdel 11, Gillian Clarke 10, Danielle Corsetto 9, Gail Carriger 6, Chris Riddell 5, Angela Thirkell 5)
- In translation: 7%-ish, of which 8 from Swedish, 1 anthology from Arabic to Zapotec, 1 untranslated nation language / English Creole, 1 with some Spanish (2014: Bulgarian, French, Mexican Spanish, Polish, Welsh, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean)
- Oldest first publication date: 1611 - only the oldest book I read, not the oldest text, obv (2014: 1609)
- Newest first publication date: 2015 (2014: 2014)
- Most books read in one calendar month: 20 (2014: 30)
- Fewest books read in one calendar month: 4 (2014: 1)
- Most books read in one day: 3 (2014: 7)
- Books borrowed, and read, from library: 28 or 17% (2014: 33 or 21%)
- Books read wholly onscreen: 6 or 4% (2014: 15 or 9%)
- Books given away: 52 (2014: 44)
- To Read pile bookcase: I refuse to divulge how many books are currently languishing on my To Read pile but they might be roughly proportional in number and content to the books I read this year... if we don't subtract the number I borrowed from the library. Ooops. (2014: 104-ish)
Are there any other stats that would be interesting to know and easy to collect (e.g. not "reading hours" or "word count") that I missed?
Rec me books you think I would enjoy? Extra points will be awarded if I’ve already read and enjoyed your suggestions or if they’re waiting on my To Read shelves, lol.
This entry was originally posted at http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/563867.html and has
comments Please comment there using OpenID.