01 September 2013

Reading Roundup Year in Review, 2012/13

The reading year is over! It runs September - August for historical reasons, but that also nicely corresponds to the school year, which is one of the things that has a big influence on my reading habits... especially this year. How did I do this year?

Year Books Read
2003/04  151
2004/05  129
2005/06  141
2006/07  129
2007/08  152
2008/09  161
2009/10  157
2010/11  139
2011/12  184
2012/13 195
SUM 1538

This is the second year in a row where I've set a new record for how many books I've read in the year-- quite obviously, this can and will be blamed on all the books I had to read for my exams.

Here's what I've been reading this year: (I broke out series/authors only if I read more than one book of that series/author)

SERIES/GENRE/AUTHOR # OF BOOKS BOOKS/ MONTH % OF ALL BOOKS
Doctor Who 12 1.0 6.2%
Star Wars 2 0.2 1.0%
Star Trek 1.51 0.1 0.8%
Other Tie-Ins 2 0.2 1.0%
Media Tie-In Subtotal 17.5 1.5 9.0%




J. R. R. Tolkien2 10 0.8 5.1%
Ursula K. Le Guin 7 0.6 3.6%
H. G. Wells3 3 0.3 1.5%
M. T. Anderson 2 0.2 1.0%
Robert Shearman 2 0.2 1.0%
Other SF&F 18 1.5 9.2%
General SF&F Subtotal 42 3.5 21.5%




Crisis Crossovers4 12 1.0 6.2%
The Sandman4 6 0.5 3.1%
Legion of Super-Heroes 1.51 0.1 0.8%
Other DC Comics4 30 2.5 15.4%
Other Comics5 8 0.7 4.1%
Comics Subtotal 57.5 4.8 29.5%




George Eliot 2 0.2 1.0%
Thomas Hardy 2 0.2 1.0%
Wilkie Collins 1.51 0.1 0.8%
Charles Dickens 1.51 0.1 0.8%
Other Victorian Literature6 22 1.8 11.3%
Inspector Lynley Mysteries 2 0.2 1.0%
Other Literature 4 0.3 2.1%
General Literature Subtotal 35 2.9 17.9%




Other Nonfiction7 43 3.6 22.1%

1. Books that cross over two series (i.e., Star Trek / Legion of Super-Heroes) or were written by two authors in collaboration (i.e., Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins's The Frozen Deep) are counted as half a book for each category.
2. This also includes books related to Tolkien (e.g., The Last Ringbearer).
3. This also includes Steven McLean's The Early Fiction of H. G. Wells: Fantasies of Science, a book about Wells.
4. These also include novels and nonfiction about these comics-originated characters/premises.
5. Comics based on a particular series (e.g., Star Trek or Star Wars) are included with that series's count.
6. This also includes nonfiction written by Victorians (e.g., Charles Darwin's On the Origins of Species by Means of Natural Selection), but not nonfiction about Victorians (e.g., James A. Secord's Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation).
7. Nonfiction connected to a particular series is included in that series's count.

Surprisingly, it wasn't in Victorian literature that I had a huge surge over last year (though there was one, from 19 to 29), but in "other nonfiction," where I went from 14 to 43. Tie-ins continue to no longer play a huge role in my reading (though I've got a heaping pile of unread ones).

As always, I selected a "Pick of the Month" each month; here are this year's in alphabetical order by author:
Ostensibly, I usually select a "Pick of the Year" between all of these, but I'm not even sure that's possible in this bunch. Probably Objectivity, Middlemarch, or Arrowsmith, but in the right mood Where on Earth or The Treason of Isengard or Superman. The full list of "Picks" going back four years is here.

The trends in my reading can be expressed in this handy chart:


2003/04  2004/05  2005/06  2006/07  2007/08  2008/09  2009/10  2010/11  2011/12  2012/13 ALL
Star Trek 41.1% 38.0% 25.5% 14.7% 21.1% 13.7% 8.9% 4.3% 0.5% 0.8% 15.8%
Doctor Who 16.6% 15.5% 18.4% 11.6% 13.2% 6.2% 10.2% 3.6% 14.7% 6.2% 11.4%
Star Wars 10.6% 11.6% 11.3% 15.5% 12.5% 11.2% 2.5% 6.5% 7.1% 1.0% 8.6%
Other Tie-In 0.7% 6.2% 3.5% 3.1% 1.3% -- 1.3% 0.7% 0.5% 1.0% 1.7%
SF&F 9.9% 6.2% 21.3% 15.5% 21.7% 22.4% 21.0% 25.9% 10.3% 21.5% 17.7%
DC Comics -- 4.7% 0.7% 2.3% 7.2% 9.3% 19.7% 25.9% 13.6% 25.4% 11.5%
Other Comics -- -- -- 3.1% 4.6% 2.5% 1.3% 7.9% 23.9% 4.1% 5.2%
Victorian Lit -- -- 1.4% 7.0% 0.7% 7.5% 7.6% 1.4% 10.9% 14.9% 5.7%
Other Literature 14.6% 10.9% 14.9% 24.0% 14.5% 21.1% 20.4% 14.4% 10.9% 3.1% 14.4%
Nonfiction 6.6% 7.0% 2.8% 3.1% 3.3% 6.2% 7.0% 9.4% 7.6% 22.1% 8.0%

Or graphically (click to enlarge):


Goodbye Star Trek, hello DC Comics! Some would say I've traded down.

You can compare this to previous years if you're interested: 2007/08, 2008/09, 2009/10, 2011/12. (I didn't do one for 2010/11.)
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