I’m way, WAY behind schedule in posting my reading wrap-up for 2016, but here it finally is! Overall, I had a really fantastic reading year–I discovered a bunch of authors that I want to read more and more from; I was able to pick up new books from writers that I already love; I listened to way more audiobooks than I ever thought was possible for me; I expanded the range of genres I tend to read from; and I had a lot of fun, which is the most important part.

Number of books I read in 2016: 95 (!)

Pages read in 2016: 28,877

Longest book I read in 2016: The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (1,107 pages)

Most popular book I read this year, according to Goodreads: Bossypants by Tina Fey

Least popular book I read this year, according to Goodreads: Death My Own Way by Michael Graziano

#readmyowndamnbooks: 47 (49%)

Number of live author events attended: 4 (N.K. Jemisin, Marlon James, Alyssa Palumbo, Amelia Gray) (all were awesome) in addition to a wonderful small press book fair

Readathons I participated in: Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon (x2), Bout of Books (x2), 24 in 48 (x2)

% of books by female authors: 78.9% – I think I almost always tend to read more female authors than male in a given year, but usually I think I hover around 2/3 female authors. This year, I hit almost 80%!

% of Adult Books: 80%. I wanted to include this in my stats because I was curious how much YA I was actually reading; sometimes I feel like I’m not reading enough adult literature, but the pie chart doesn’t lie–I’m clearly reading adult books the vast majority of the time.

Books by format: Print books (75%) still comprise the vast majority of my reading, although I definitely added a lot to my reading totals by getting into audiobooks.

2016 Reading Challenges:

Book Riot Read Harder 2016 Challenge

✓ 1. Read a horror book
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
✓ 2. Read a nonfiction book about science
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
✓ 3. Read a collection of essays
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
✓ 4. Read a book out loud to someone else
✓ 5. Read a middle-grade novel
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
✓ 6. Read a biography (not memoir or autobiography)
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon
✓ 7. Read a dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel
Enclave by Ann Aguirre
✓ 8. Read a book originally published in the decade you were born (1980’s)
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
✓ 9. Listen to an audiobook that has won an Audie Award
Bossypants by Tina Fey
✓ 10. Read a book over 500 pages long
The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
✓ 11. Read a book under 100 pages
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
✓ 12. Read a book by or about a person that identifies as transgender
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
✓ 13. Read a book set in the Middle East
The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg
✓ 14. Read a book by an author from Southeast Asia
Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
✓ 15. Read an historical fiction book set before 1900
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
✓ 16. Read the first book in a series by a person of color
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
✓ 17. Read a non-superhero comic that debuted in the past three years
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
✓ 18. Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate which is better.
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
✓ 19. Read a nonfiction book about feminism or dealing with feminist themes
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
✓ 20. Read a book about religion (fiction or nonfiction)
The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
✓ 21. Read a book about politics, in your country or another (fiction or nonfiction)
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
✓ 22. Read a food memoir
Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson
✓ 23. Read a play
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
✓ 24. Read a book with a main character that has a mental illness
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

 

2016 Colorful Covers Challenge

Red Cover

Orange Cover

Yellow Cover

Green Cover

Blue Cover

Purple Cover

Pink Cover

Black Cover

White Cover

Gray Cover

Brown Cover

Colorful Cover