2019 Reading Debrief
As 2019 draws to a close, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my reading habits this year. It’s a year where I started out wanting to try to be more deliberate in my choice of books, both in terms of reading more widely in genres but also in the diversity of the authors and characters. So, in a fit of compulsive organization, I made a good form and generated a full list and charts. While there’s definitely been a huge growth in the diversity of my choices, it’s also a good reminder that I can do better. I’ve read so many brilliant books by authors of color this year, and I want to be deliberate about reading more of them.
Overall, the genre breakdown of my reading this year is more varied than usual. I think a lot of that has to do with listening to audiobooks as I work and exploring the family audiobook archives as well as finding some great biographies and histories earlier in the year.
Unsurprisingly, my authors of choice are overwhelmingly more female than male. There were some great books by male-presenting authors that I read, but women authors speak to me. I had to mark several books by men as “did not finish” because their perspective was skewed or less complete than others. I do, however, want to make a resolution to read more trans and nonbinary authors in the coming year.
This year I definitely read more POC authors than in years past. I don’t have the data, but I know it would be closer to 10% last year. I still want to do better though. Luckily, there’s a full slate of new books by authors of color I discovered this year coming up in 2020. Can’t wait!
This is another area where I made a lot of strides, but I also acknowledge I can do better. I’m going to try to find more books with LGBT protagonists and POC protagonists in 2020. Hold me to it and help me with it.
This is the first year in a long time when I’ve had such an even split between audiobook and ebook. Paperback is also higher than usual, mostly because I went to conferences where I got fantastic books that I could read months before they came out if I reverted to ancient times and read physical books.
And last, but certainly not least, a breakdown of the number of books I read from each author over the last year. As a chronic re-reader, this list probably shows the most obvious growth. Aside from my Lisa Kleypas binge early in the year, I mostly explored new authors instead of constantly revisiting the same ones. Another note is that one of the second most-read authors is an Author of Color, Alyssa Cole (she’s brilliant, I love her, and give me all the new books from her). It was fun to meet new friends and try new things. I’ll definitely try to keep it up in 2020.
What does your reading breakdown look like? Do you plan to try to be more diverse in the new year? I plan to keep a detailed log in 2020 so I can monitor my own habits and reflect on them as I go. I hope you’ll join me!