Reading Habits 2007

With a little over three weeks to go in the year and 99 books read so far, it seems a safe bet that I'll meet my annual goal of 100. That's not a huge amount, but it's not too bad either. Anyway, before I post my Best of the Year lists, I thought I'd examine a few stats.

Of the 100 books I've read (or will read), the breakdown is as follows:

Fiction = 67
Non-Fiction = 33 (up from 25 last year)

I didn't break down the non-fiction, but I did place the fiction into categories. This is somewhat arbitrary, since some books could belong in multiple categories. For instance Laird Barron's The Imago Sequence could be labeled "collection" or "horror." In such cases, I've labeled the book by its function (if a book can "function" as something) rather than its genre, so Barron's book will fall into the "collection" category. (My list, my rules.)

So here's the fiction breakdown:

YA – 13
Collections – 11
Mystery – 9
Fantasy – 8
Horror - 8
Science Fiction – 6
Classics – 6
Literature (modern) – 5
Anthologies – 1

First of all, I think I'd like to keep my non-fiction reading at about 30% of all reading, maybe even up to 40%. Some of my NF reading is for research purposes but most of it is for pleasure, to learn new things. One of my goals for 2008 is to read more history, especially ancient history. And more literary criticism.

As far as fiction goes, I'd like to see the Literature and Classics numbers go up. I've always got a real battle going on over what I should read – to become a more intelligent reader and a better writer – and what I enjoy reading. I think the nine mysteries I read this year were all by either Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman or Rex Stout. I'll probably keep reading those authors – they're very enjoyable – but nine in a year seems a little high.

I was really surprised I read six science fiction novels! I figured I'd read three or four at most. And fantasy and horror came in with eight each. You mean I read more mystery than fantasy? More mystery than horror? Hmmmm. Wonder how that happened.

It could be that most of the fantasy and horror I really enjoy (and study) is in the short form. I mean eleven collections out of 100 books isn't too bad (and most of those were fantasy or horror collections), but I look for those numbers to increase next year.

I'd like to read a little less YA in 2008, but from what I've heard from other librarians working at the Information Desk, it's very likely I could end up reading even more YA (and children's books). We shall see.

Best of the Year lists will appear soon. In the meantime, go read something.