In 2020 and 2021 I used a reading spreadsheet in addition to Goodreads to track all of my reading stats. In addition to the categories shown, I started tracking categories in 2021 to challenge myself to read more diversely. For the purposes of this post, though, I’ll be sharing how my reading habits changed in relation to genre, age range, and book format!
Starting off with the least interesting, I wanted to see how I’ve changed my physical reading habits. For example, in 2020 I read mostly audiobooks, followed by hardcovers. So how did I do things differently in 2021?
This was certainly an unforeseen change! For starters, I read significantly less audiobooks. Despite what I first though, this isn’t because I’ve listened to less audiobooks! It’s because I’ve read more actual books this year than last. While I only read 80ish books in 2020, I’m already over 100 for this year, so the percentage of audio is lower.
The most obvious difference is that I’ve read over half my books in ebook format! I think this can be largely explained by three things. First, I bought a Kindle Oasis this year and it is my new best friend. We go EVERYWHERE together! Second, I joined Kindle Unlimited and got a hankering for dark romance books that are almost all on KU. Finally, I started reading fanfiction and (obviously) that’s in ebook format. My poor physical copies are feeling very lonely right about now.
Next, I took a look at how I’ve changed my reading habits by age range. This blog started out and has remained a mostly YA book blog for several years, but that definitely changed this year!
Along with the introduction of dark romance and KU came significantly more adult books. This has definitely shown up around the blog in a way that I’m not entirely sure how to work with. What even is my blog if not mostly YA? I’ve still read young adult books this year, but not even close to how many I do in a normal year. While YA books made up 57% of my reading in 2020, they were less than 16% in 2021. Honestly, I’m a little worried for myself because I have a TON of YA books sitting unread on my bookshelves and I’m waiting for the inspiration to read them. Still, I’ve found a ton of new authors to love!
Finally, the category I’ve been most excited to see as a graph: what genres I’ve read most. Surely I’m still reading mostly fantasy even if it’s adult fantasy, right?
Well, I guess not. In 2020, fantasy made up exactly 50% of the books I read, while it clocked in at just 22.3% in 2021 (so far). So what else am I reading?? Well, I read 2.3% romance in 2020, but 23.7% romance in 2021. Hmm. That’s… something. I’ve also read more graphic novels and have been introduced to webtoons and fanfiction!
Interestingly, some genres that have stayed roughly the same. Thrillers, contemporary, and non-fiction stayed pretty close, while I read a bit less horror and sci-fi. This isn’t visible, but mystery dropped to less than 1% from 11% in 2020. I’m very curious to see how these trends change in the next year!
