reading stats – meltotheany

happy new year, friends! i cant believe it is actually 2023. i know everyone says this, but it is because it is true – i truly feel like its 2019 still. 2023? i can’t wrap my mind around it! but i am sending you so much love and i hope this year is really safe and happy for you and your loved ones.

since september, i feel like i have really fallen back into organically picking up books and adding reading to my nighttime routine and its felt so good. i am tempted to make a goals post but i am always so scared to jinx happy things, which is also something i hope i can work on this year. but i would love to read more books this year (not that i am not extremely happy and proud of the 48 i was able to read) and i would love to make more bookish content again on here, and goodreads, and on bookstagram. lots of baby steps while also juggling kpop content and a life that can get pretty busy! the only other goal i have in terms of reading this year, is that i would love to read more anthologies and short story collections again. i have been thinking about it these last few weeks (maybe craving one?) but i miss it and i want to fix that!

also, i am sure most of you know, but holly black is dropping a new book from faerie in TWO days and then the final last hours books by cassie clare? january is gonna start off and end very happily, i think! so i am extra excited for january reading! and again, not to jinx anything, but i am just excited for this new year, new opportunities, and so many new stories.

but let’s get into some reading statistics and the yearly book stack picture tradition!

Thanks to the amazing Brock at Let’s Read, here are some 2022 reading statistics that I was able to gather from his amazing spreadsheet that I use every single year:

My Top Ten Favorite 2022 Publications:
➽ 10.) Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco
➽ 9.) Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
➽ 8.) Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
➽ 7.) Her Soul to Take (Souls Trilogy #1) by Harley Laroux
➽ 6.) Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
➽ 5.) Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun
➽ 4.) The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
➽ 3.) Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
➽ 2.) Misrule (Malice Duology #2) by Heather Walter
➽ 1.) Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang

okay, friends! happy new year! i really hope this new year is happy and healing for you. i hope you are able to be gentler on yourselves and more forgiving to yourselves as well. i am sending you and your loved ones my whole heart and i am wishing you so many blessings in this new year! and i hope so many stories make you feel seen and whole this year (and always)!

and thank you all for always being kind and being sweet friends while i have navigated these last few pandemic years. i know it’s still hard on everyone, but my blog has extra always felt so safe and happy and i appreciate all of your friendships more than you’ll ever know. also… please buddy read with me this year for extra happy motivations, hehe!

➽ My 2021 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2020 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2019 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2018 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2017 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2016 Reading Challenge
➽ My 2015 Reading Challenge

2020 is finally over, and somehow the year felt like it lasted a decade and a month at the very same time. I just want to wish you all (and all your families) the best in 2021, and I hope it is filled with love and happiness and good health and opportunities. I know 2020 was not only a hard year, but maybe the hardest year for a lot of us, and I will keep telling you that I love you, and that I see you, and that I’m proud of you. I promise, better days will come. But in the meantime, we can escape into some books, and blog posts, and reading statistics!

Thanks to the amazing Brock at Let’s Read, here are some 2020 reading statistics that I was able to gather from his amazing spreadsheet that I use every single year:

━━━★ in 2019 contemporary was catching up, but 2020 fully said “never again”

━━━★ this chart truly looks close to this every year lol

━━━★ i have NEVER read this many audiobooks in my entire life

━━━★ i had a hard time with anthologies this year, sadly

━━━★ i feel like if you read mostly SFF, this chart will just automatically look like this too

━━━★ 1.) i didn’t leave my house 2.) audiobooks

━━━★ i forever will be very aware of the privilege that comes from being a US book reviewer

━━━★ that 27% purchase is mostly audiobooks !! and very thankful for my loved ones, edelweiss, & comfort rereads

━━━★ again, edelweiss & those comfort rereads (and cursed audible)

━━━★ hachette & penguin are the pub houses that were kindest to me this year, so i am very surprised by this graph. but i think in 2021 i’m going to focus on the publishing houses that want to work with me, instead of me begging for earcs that non-ownvoices booktubers get and don’t even read (fully looking at harper and macmillan lol). not being paid is fine, but not being appreciated or seen? i’m over it in 2021 fully and completely.

━━━★ why does this make me laugh? i truly couldn’t be bothered to read one classic this year? okay

━━━★ i truly found a sweet spot, i guess

━━━★ may was the 2nd worst month of my life and december was the busiest month of 2020 for me so math checks out, but can we bring july melanie back for all of 2021 please? i am begging

My Top Ten Favorite 2020 Publications:
➽ 10.) How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black
➽ 9.) The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
➽ 8.) Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch (Eva Evergreen #1) by Julie Abe
➽ 7.) The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
➽ 6.) Chain of Gold (The Last Hours #1) by Cassandra Clare
➽ 5.) The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
➽ 4.) Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive #4) by Brandon Sanderson
➽ 3.) You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
➽ 2.) Night Shine (Night Shine #1) by Tessa Gratton
➽ 1.) The Burning God (The Poppy War #3) by R.F. Kuang

God, 2020 was such a weird year for my reading (and for falling in love with the publications from that year), but I am very thankful for this list, and these ten books, and the love and healing they made me feel for very different reasons at very different times throughout this year. I hope in 2021 I can be more confident and more unapologetic (with the book community and with other aspectS of my life) and I hope that I have an overflowing list of new favorite stories to pick from while I’m compiling that Year in Review blog post. What was your favorite read of the year? I feel like I switched between #1 and #2 many times before finally going with what felt more right. Okay friends, I’m sending each and everyone of you my whole heart and I hope 2021 feels lighter and brighter for you. I love you.