In a sign of how burnt out I was last January, I failed to note that this was eleven years of obsessing reading stats. So, now we're at twelve.
Total Number: 160*. Near the higher end, as years go. 10 of these were novellas or episodes.
I read 129 different authors**. 65 of those were new to me. There was a three way tie for most read author between Nora Roberts, Jackie Lau, and Talia Hibbert, which amuses me as an interesting mix of long-term, medium term, and newish authors.
I continue to track book diversity primarily by characters, since there is not reliable data on authors but I can try to pay attention when I read. (I am aware that I read books by Asian-American, Afro-British, native American, neurodiverse, disabled, and LGBTQI authors this year. But characters is still a little easier to track.) I read 88 this year, and some of them were even intersectional, and/or non-fiction. It is true that the more you read about diverse characters, the more your various recommendations tilt that way and it gets easier to find.
The oldest book was from 2004. 85 were from 2018. One had been lingering in the TBR since 2012. May was the banner reading month with 26, which I know seems like a typo but I made a big effort to finish off some stuff that had been almost finished for a while. Romance was the highest read category with 96. YA was next highest with 40.
Only 1 paper book this year, 16 audio, everything else was ebook.
And some faves from the 2018 haul are:
Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X was heartbreakingly wonderful story of a teen grappling with finding herself within (and without) the confines of super strict parents. I listened to the audio and then bought the paper version.
Jeevani Charika's Christmas at the Palace is in many ways, thinly veiled royal fic, but it was fun. The romance is resolved fairly early so really the story is about how the couple navigates internal and external pressures.
Alyssa Cole's A Princess in Theory had me recommending it to the sciencey people in my life before I was done. This series has made me very happy.
Maureen Goo's The Way You Make me Feel has food trucks, having to work with your school rival, and summer crushes.
Talia Hibbert's Merry Inkmas was a delightful holiday centric story about kindness and love.
Mia Hopkins' Thirsty had a recently released from prison hero and created a believable and wonderful story. (Just for clarity, I don't have trouble believing formerly incarcerated folks deserve love, but I have read books where they get their happy ending only by being proven retroactively innocent, and not by just demonstrating growth.)
Justina Ireland's Dread Nation is antebellum zombies. I am not a zombie fan in general, but this look at the post-Civil War US if the war had been called on account of zombies kept my interest. Intrigued for book 2.
Tiffany Jackson's Monday's Not Coming is a book that sounds so DC that I had to put it down and just revel. It is the story of a teenager who's friend disappears and she can't figure out why no one else seems worried.
Claire Kann's Let's Talk About Love was a wonderful story about a biromantic asexual college student grappling with both having the hots for a new co-worker and navigating relationships with friends who are dating that gave me flashbacks in the thank god I'm an adult now way.
Jackie Lau's Not Another Family Wedding had a friends to lovers when one of them needs backup for her family gathering.
Lillian Li's Number One Chinese Restaurant is a book where I disliked almost everyone and still enjoyed reading it. The audio had me taking longer walks to finish up.
Shilpa Mudiganti's Startup Fiance I confess I saw somewhere and misread it as starter fiance and thought the idea of a training fiance was fascinating. It's actually about two rival app owners who get matched together, and decided to fake it for a bit, and was just lots of fun.
Cynthia Letitch Smith's Hearts Unbroken looks at finding out the stuff your school may have left out and figuring out what to stand up for. And there are smoochies.
Elyse Springer has an amnesia book, that I enjoyed, but Thaw, the story of a bisexual model/actress and an asexual librarian just grabbed me.
Julian Winters' Running with Lions was a book about a soccer team at soccer camp and crushes and old friends who might also be new crushes.
*I counted re-reads if I re-read the whole thing a didn't just skip to my favorite parts. Novellas released singly counted as one, anthologies counted as one.
**I counted authors, not pen names, where possible. I counted anthologies as one author, because it was just too unwieldy otherwise.
