The Books of 2022 - Round Up

How many books read in 2022?

108! I had just one Did-Not-Finish of the year, which was Young Mungo, which was a shame because I LOVED Shuggie Bain, but I just couldn't seem to get into Young Mungo. I am so happy to have read over a hundred books. As I said previously this was helped a lot by the fact I read fourteen books in July! I've set my Goodreads challenge to 90 again for 2023 but I'd like to smash that again. 

How many were on paper and how many electronic?

I read 59 paperback books, 16 in hardback, and 33 electronically. I challenged myself to read only e books in September as I was on holiday for twelve days of it and thought it would be a good challenge to get some of Netgalley books read. That definitely did help! I also tried to read only e books in December, as I was again away, and I managed that for the final few weeks of December. 

Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio?

I generally read very little non-fiction as it generally doesn't interest me, but I did read I Want You to Know We're Still Here by Esther Safran Foer, Lost in the jungle by Marja West and Jurgen Snoeren, One Track Minds and Kristian Brodie and Adam Shakinovsky, Everything I Need I Get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany, Threepenny Memoir by Carl Barat, The Five by Hallie Rubenhold, Love That Journey for Me by Emily Garside, and a book about the new remake of All Creatures Great and Small. That's eight I think! All reviews can be found on the blog.  

Male/Female authors?

Of books by sole authors, I read, as far as I know, 19 books by male authors. There's quite a few that had various authors, or two authors, but the rest were women, with I think one nonbinary author. That's not unusual for me - I usually read more women than men.

Most books by a single author?

I read three books by Graham Norton, three by Alice Oseman, but the outright winner is seven books by Elly Griffiths and one she featured in. Wow! 

Favourite book(s) read?

So many, but Brother of The More Famous Jack has got to be up there as a fave 

Least favourite?

I guess Young Mungo since I just couldn't get into it. I may try again in the future, and I'll definitely look at what Douglas Stuart writes next, but I just didn't gel with it. 

Oldest book read?

It's got to be Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald which was published in 1980. 

Newest?

Probably The Guest by Emma Cline, which won't be published until May 2023. Thank you Netgalley! 

Longest book title?

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid has got to be up there, but I felt like I read a lot of books with long titles last year! 

Shortest title?

H.A.W.K.S by M A Bennett 

How many re-reads?

The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffths was the only one, I think. I don't tend to reread books at all (always new books to get to!) but someone chose this for my book club and it was actually a pleasure to reread! 

Any in translation?

Just one - The Mystery of Henri Pick, translated by David Foenkinos 

How many of this year's books were from the library?

I tried hard to request books from the library in 2022, to stop myself from buying so many books, and I think it generally worked. I read twenty three library books which is around a fifth of my total! 

I Completed My Goodreads Challenge!

I realised that when I finished I Am I Am I Am, I also finished my Goodreads challenge for 2019! I'm really happy about this because it's only the middle of August so I'm well ahead of schedule. I'd like to think that I could hit one hundred books by the 31st of December, but we'll have to see!

Last year I read 81 books. In 2017 I read 78, in 2016 82, in 2015 69. I usually set myself quite a low challenge because the year I didn't, 2017, I felt bad that I didn't manage to beat the challenge. My post from last year shows that I smashed my challenge in October so I'm really happy to beat that this year. I do have lists on paper of what I read prior to 2015, but I wasn't using Goodreads until then. I am a prolific list keeper - I keep lists of books read and films watched in the back of my bullet journal. I love bullet journalling, although I also use mine as a general journal and memento book, it's got a bit of everything in it. It works for me though which is the main thing.

I feel like I have made more time for reading this year. I try to read every lunchtime when I'm at home, and I sometimes read while tea is cooking in the evening. I always read before bed, it's very rare that I don't. I've read some short books this year, too, but generally I read full length novels, so I'm really proud of my progress so far!

You can add me on Goodreads here.

I Passed My Goodreads Challenge!

I set myself a challenge on Goodreads to read sixty books this year, and I've now done that! I'm really pleased because anything I read for the rest of the year feels like a freebie!

In 2015 I set myself the fairly low challenge of 50 books, and I read 69. In 2016 I upped my game and set myself a challenge of 70 books, and I managed to smash that with 82 books read. Last year I got cocky and tried to get to 80 books, but I didn't manage it - I only read 78. I felt bad about it and I felt like I'd compromised myself a bit. So for 2018 I set my bar low again and also tried to implement better reading habits.

I am one of those people who always reads before bed. Lee and I generally head to bed around 10.30 and I scroll Twitter, then I read for probably half an hour before going to sleep. I often read at the weekend before lunchtime, and sometimes at tea time too (although sometimes I get distracted and just play games on my phone instead). If a book really grabs me I will do nothing but read it, Lee always thinks it's funny when that happens! If I'm going somewhere I usually take a book, but I don't commute or anything like that. I could read more, sure, but I do also do a lot of crafting which keeps me occupied too.

Next year I will try to read more, I think. I might put my challenge up to 65 books, because that feels achievable. I can implement better reading habits, for sure. I should read more books that I totally fall in love with.

For the last ten weeks for 2018 I would like to read another ten books, which would take me to 70. That feels like something I can do!