Blog Stats for 2018

I managed to read a book a week for most of 2018. I did hit a few periods of burnout when I needed some time off - though for most of these I had reviews queued up or was able to squeeze in a graphic novel review so it wasn't apparent.

In total I read 49 items, which included 4 graphic novels, 1 book on writing and 2 history books. I read 23 science fiction novels (including 3 YA), and 14 fantasy novels (also including 3 YA). I read only 3 urban fantasy novels (my least favourite subgenre) and 2 horror novels.

Of the novels, 17 were by men and 25 by women, and I managed 10 books by non-white or LGBTQ authors.

I'm quite happy with the number of books I read, though it meant I had very little time for other things. As mentioned, I also hit burnout a few times, because I was forcing myself to read at such a fast pace.

Normally I'd including my reading resolutions for the new year in this post, but I've been thinking about it a lot and change is coming to the blog this year. Depending on how things go these changes may become permanent or will only affect 2019. I'll be doing a post on my plans that later this week. 

2017 Book Stats & 2018 Goals

Stats:

I read 49 books last year, of which 4 were history and 8 were rereads of things I’ve already reviewed. I also read 7 comics.

Of the books, 19 were science fiction (2 of which were Young Adult). Twenty were fantasy (with 5 YA), 6 urban fantasy, and 4 horror.

I usually get roughly even genders in my books, but I went heavy on men this time. Part of this was due to the series I finished (all of my rereads were books by men so I could read sequels). Thirty-two of the books I read were by men and only 15 by women. Two were by a transgender woman. 

Last year I made several reading goals and wrote down titles with check boxes to help me achieve them. I’ve looked over my lists and while I didn’t stick to them as strictly as I’d planned, I did a fairly good job of keeping most of them.

History: 4 of 5

Diverse books: 7 of 5 

Older books from my overflowing shelves: 9 of 10

2017 releases: 20 of 10 

Story collections: 1/2 of one book + a bit of another book out of 2

Graphic Novels: 7 of 10

Magazines: 1 of 5

For 2018 I wasn’t going to make any specific goals. The truth is that if I don’t tackle my shelves of older titles I’m going to have problems. I keep meaning to do this and side-tracking myself with shiny new books. In the past I’ve had a habit of requesting too much and then feeling pressured to read them all as quickly as I can. I’ve tried to request/accept fewer books but I still pushed myself hard to get enough review material for a review a week last year. Several other projects were abandoned (history posts, craft projects) as I felt the need to read so much. So I’ll be cutting down on my reviews this year. I’m aiming for a review every second week so that I have more time for other things. If I can manage more I will, but I’m trying not to stress myself out over my review hobby. I realize this means I’m only planning to review 26 books - but I’m sure I’ll read (and thereby review) more. 

This means that again I won’t be accepting many review requests this year. 

Tuesdays will remain review day. I'll alternate book and movie reviews. I'll be keeping Wednesday video and Thursday shout-out posts. Fridays will have a variety of posts. I want to do more medieval stuff. I'm hoping to get my medieval plant, saint, and cathedral posts going again. As those are all time heavy to prepare, I'll likely pad things out with photos of medieval objects I've seen at various museums, articles on other sites that I found interesting, etc. If there's something you'd like to see, feel free to suggest it in the comments.

2018 is a new year and I'm hoping to get a lot of great work done.