In 2021, I set a goal to read 200 books and through this new-ish app/site, StoryGraph, I have tracked everything that I read throughout the year and the grand total is… 182 books out of 200, 91% of my original goal.
StoryGraph is amazing. It’s founded and run by a Black woman, Nadia Odunayo, that found that Goodreads just wasn’t cutting it for her and I completely understand, because Goodreads also doesn’t appeal to me!
Enter StoryGraph and the rest is history, it really makes tracking what I’ve read soooo simple and easy to look back on and reflect on, so that’s what I’ll be doing on the rest of this post.
The app is so simple and easy to use, there’s not a lot of frills, everything is pretty straightforward. I can see some areas for improvement in terms of streamlining it or making it more beautiful, but the functionality is completely there. I would highly recommend this site especially for those who don’t like how Goodreads style is, but if you do have Goodreads, you can also import your Goodreads data as well, so I hear from some other friends that I’ve gotten to download and test out the app.
Now for my own personal data, which I will be sharing here for those interested and for myself for the end of 2022 to look back on.
The majority of the books that I read were reflective, emotional, and adventurous. I didn’t mind this though, I think that it has been cathartic and I think it’s important to take time to be introspective. Also, I needed some book adventures if nothing else was going to be going on for me outside the house. It also makes too much sense that the smallest section of this pie chart were sad books, because I’m already sad and didn’t need more sad in my life in my coping mechanism.
I’m a bit surprised but happy that the nonfiction to fiction ratio is so high, since normally I don’t normally read this much nonfiction. I do plan on carrying on with reading more nonfiction in 2022 though and I’m excited to what I learn this year!
The pacing that I prefer is medium, but fast paced books are fantastic when I’m in the mood to race quickly through a story in one sitting. Slow paced stories usually bore me to the point that I don’t end up being able to finish them!
My happy medium when it comes to book length is in the 300–499 pages category, because I find that this is the best length for having a story be well-developed without demanding length as plot filler. I definitely enjoy shorter books as well, especially when I’m in a bit of a reading rut and need a little win to encourage me to get back to finishing books.
I discovered Terry Pratchett for the first time this year and thoroughly enjoyed reading his wit. Maya Angelou has such an interesting life, so I fell down the rabbit hole trying to find out more about it. I have also read a bunch of Neil Gaiman and I honestly enjoy his writing style. I discovered Andy Weir too and I love the way that Andy Weir writes about space even though I have never had any interest in going to space.
I’m apparently a huge fan of Fantasy, Young Adult, and Contemporary, but I’ve delved a lot into mystery, memoir, LGBTQIA+, romance, and thriller in 2021. I’m excited to see how my tastes will be changing over time and especially during 2022.
I definitely appreciate the inclusion of this line graph which shows me which months I am able to spend the most amount of time and attention on books. I had a high spike in January and February, unsurprising since it’s right at the beginning of the year when I set the goal. March/April were my weaker months, because that’s the time I spend a lot of focus on spending time with friends, especially since it’s my birthday. November was a weak month, because I spent three weeks in Cambodia visiting with my extended family, so every day was about meeting someone and doing something.
Are you interested in StoryGraph? Do you appreciate looking at data, but sometimes feel like you have too much to do to build your own system for data input and analysis? Look no further than StoryGraph!
