Midyear Report

Now that we’re fully halfway through 2020, it seemed like a good time to check in and see how I’ve been doing this year. I decided to do an overview/stats report because I thought I’d already done the Midyear Freakout Tag, though a search of my own blog reveals I have not (maybe I was thinking of the End of Year Tag).

But oh well, getting to analyze all my data is always fun. Even if this post is massively self-indulgent.

Stats are as of July 9, 2020.

First Half of 2020

[drawn from my Goodreads Year in Books + my books/blogging spreadsheet, heavily based on Kal @ Reader Voracious’s template]

• 209 books (66,777 pages) read; 51 books DNF’d
  • Average rating: 3.59
  • Shortest: Nevertheless, She Persisted: Flash Fiction Project (47 pages)
  • Longest: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1,316 pages)
  • Most Popular: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (also read by 894,979 people)
  • Least Popular: Nesting Beasts by Naiche Lizzette Parker (also read by 2 people)
• First Book of 2020: This Is How You Survive by Lana Rafaela Cindric [reread] 
• Most Recent Read: When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & asha bendele

I know the screenshot above isn’t super clear, and that was intentional — I didn’t want to make this post too long by listing out or separately showing each graph (and wasn’t sure anyone besides me would care), and you can probably get a clear enough view of the trends if you’re curious. 

Here are my main takeaways/highlights:

• I have only read eight 5-star books so far this year, literally half of them rereads … but I’ve read thirty-eight 4.5-star books, so I may need to adjust the scale.
• As was the case last year, I read by far the most backlist books (176 so far), though for what it’s worth many of them are from 2019 and 2018. This is in large part because I draw readathon TBRs from my existing TBR, and also because I’m participating in #StartOnYourShelfathon.
  • In second place, surprisingly, are rereads (39 so far).
• That June was my worst reading month, with my lowest read count (29 books + 11 DNFs) and lowest average rating (3.23) so far, was definitely a big surprise. And a disappointing break in the upwards trend, as least as far as read count.
• I’ve started tracking the number of new books I acquire and whether I’ve read them (the last two columns in the “per month” chart). It’s a lot higher than I thought it was — mostly due to freebies and promotions, plus also library ebooks — so I’ve really been pushing myself to slow down and read what I’ve already had for a while.
• Lately I’d been curious about my genre preferences, so I decided to track both my read count and DNF count for each.
  • I knew I read but also DNF’d the most contemporary (42 read + 12 DNF = 78%) and fantasy (53 read + 19 DNF = 74%), but
  • I actually had a surprising success rate with sci-fi (37 read + 4 DNF = 90%) and nonfiction (24 read + 6 DNF = 80%).
  • There were also genres that I’m very selective about, so the few books I read, I enjoyed enough to finish, including mystery/thriller and poetry.

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Second Half of 2020

• My 2020 on Goodreads “review” has been updated; I’ll update it again at the end of this year/beginning of next.
• I’ve been making good progress but have yet to complete my Reading Challenges, so those are ongoing. Though I may finish early, I don’t have plans to pick up any new ones … but I may join readathons and readalongs that pique my interest.
  • Goodreads challenge: 209 / 300 (70%)
  • Beat the Backlist Challenge: 157 / 200 (78.5%)
    • Beat the Backlist Bingo: 68 / 80 prompts (85%)
  • #StartOnYourShelfathon: 101 Read + 21 DNF
    • 89 remaining on #SOYS TBR
    • 90 on second #SOYS TBR, to start on if I finish the first set
  • Year of the Asian 2020: 40 / 51 = Giant Panda badge
  • Books and Tea Challenge: 10 / 12 prompts
• Since my senior year of college/uni starts in two months, I anticipate that my reading pace will slow down — considering I’m taking 19 credits and writing a senior thesis and applying for post-grad stuff — but maybe not by a ton, since my classes will be online-only like the second half of last semester.

This post is backdated.

• How does your year in books look so far?
• Do you track your reading stats, or do you let Goodreads (or another site/app) do the analysis for you?
• Will you be changing your approach to reading in the second half of the year, based on what you’ve learned (if anything) in the first half?