2015 Books and Reading Recap

Is there anything more fun for book nerds than tallying up all our reading stats at the end of the year? Nope! Let’s do this.

I read 127 books in 2015, which is the most books I’ve read in one year since I started keeping track, and probably the most since I was in middle school and endlessly reading Babysitter’s Club & Sweet Valley Twins books. I read over twice as many books as in 2014 (62), which I think is kind of awesome. Before I dive into the charts & lists of favorites, here are a few notes about how this year in reading played out:

  • I read more diverse books in 2015 in terms of quantity (and quality!), but due to reading more books overall the percentages are down a bit. I’d like to continue working to improve this in 2016.
  • Audiobooks: I listened to 11 audiobooks in 2014, and 40 in 2015. This is mostly due to two factors: getting a waterproof speaker for my shower for Christmas last year (thanks Mom!) and the fact that I now walk to work (35 minutes each way = 1 hours and 10 minutes guaranteed audiobook time every weekday).
  • I read 48 books in 2015 that were published in 2015. This is definitely a record for new books. I’m not sure how I feel about this – I want to read more books I already own, but the books I did read were, for the most part, fantastic.
  • I started being able to use the library again (due to a branch being located on my new walk to work, and the branch near my apartment finally expanding its hours to beyond 9-5 on weekdays). This helped with my goal of buying fewer books, especially given how many 2015 books I read (new hardcovers add up!).
  • I continued my trend of reading more non-fiction than fiction, and increased the percentage of non-fiction from 2014.
  • It was very hard to pick my favorite books of the year, especially in the non-fiction category. A long list of my favorite non-fiction titles from 2015 is available here.
  • A list of all 127 books I read is available on GoodReads.

My previous Books and Reading recaps: 2014 2013 2012 2010 2009 2008 2007

This year’s Polysyllabic Spree posts (a breakdown of the books I bought and read each month, including mini-reviews): January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Without further delay, here are the stats:

 

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So that’s the year in books! As always, I’m so grateful for everyone who reads this blog – I love connecting with you and talking about books and life and penguins and tacos with you. Thank you! Cheers to 2016!

By Emily

Book-hoarding INFJ who likes to leave the Shire and go on adventures.

16 comments

  1. Looks like you had a great year! I’m definitely going to go back and re-visit some of your nonfiction posts, since diving further into that genre is one of my goals for 2016! I have yet to put together my best of and stats post… and wasn’t even going to do it… but all these fun pie charts are tempting me in a major way!

    P.S. Tell me more about this waterproof speaker situation….

    Reply

    1. Thank you! It was a wonderful reading year. I hope you encounter some wonderful non-fiction in the year ahead!

      I adore my waterproof speaker! It’s this one:
      http://www.amazon.com/Photive-Waterproof-Wireless-Bluetooth-Shockproof/dp/B00K589F8A/

      I like to listen to audiobooks while I shower and get ready, and this extends the time I get to listen in the morning, since I can actually hear the book in the shower. I have one of those little shower head hanging racks and I keep it on the top shelf of that. I can turn the volume up and down and pause/play/skip tracks while in the shower. (A dock in the bathroom works ok for music, but it’s not loud enough to make out words over the sound of the shower for audiobooks.)

      Reply

  2. This post is fantastic, such fun to read and so beautiful. I wish I had 1/10th of your creative/artistic talent. That map? Those pies? Love them. Some great favorites on your lists, I would say you had a pretty darn good reading year. Here is to more this year!

    Reply

    1. Thank you Lauren! This year I cheated a bit and used all the same graphics as last year – just changed to reflect the new stats / info. Much easier than redesigning it all. Last year I was unemployed at this time of year, so there was a lot more free time to design. :D

      Cheers to a wonderful year in books ahead for us both! :D

      Reply

  4. So cool to see the map! We had similar peaks and valleys in our months – I had a low March, September, November, too. I keep trying to figure out what the deal with March was, but I think it was just some bad reading.

    Reply

    1. My March was definitely due to travel – even though I left for South America half way through the month, the first two weeks I was completely overwhelmed with final plans / packing. I think I actually read more ON the trip than before, which is strange. I think my bad September was due to bad reading too – several DNF’s that month!

      Reply

  5. Wow, you really had an amazing reading year.
    I’ve always liked your reading recap posts and this one is no exception! The map and all the graphs are so cool.

    I have read only one book from your list of favorites of 2015: The Dead Ladies Project. I really liked it and the way she combines her travels and the artists/writers. I think my favourite part was the chapter about Sarajevo and Rebecca West; also, the one about Claude Cahun, because I’d never heard of her before and it was really interesting.

    Happy 2016 Emily!

    Reply

    1. Thank you Lu! I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed The Dead Ladies Project too. The Rebecca West chapter was one of my favorites too – I read her book “The Fountain Overflows” last year too, and so it was awesome to learn more about her.

      Happy 2016 to you too Lu!

      Reply

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