Looking back at 2016 for Books and the Blog

As we kick off 2017, I wanted to take a glance back at 2016. 241 books read — I exceeded my goal (I don’t remember what it was at the beginning, but I revised it a couple of times and still beat it by 6), 444 posts (short of my goal by a couple hundred), I had some good gains in traffic — views and visitors (not as much as the previous couple of years, but that’s better than a loss). I’m also seeing good growth in followers here and on various social media fronts, which is encouraging as all get out.

So here’s my breakdown of books by genre, like the one I did last year. Mystery/Suspense took a hit this year percentage-wise, but not as much as I thought it did. SF and Fantasy jumped up to make up for that. it’s been forever since I’ve read a Western, I guess (at least one that wasn’t a hybrid with Urban Fantasy or SF or something). Theological books went down in actual numbers, not just percent — but I read some big, technical stuff this year that took a lot more time/energy to read, so I’m not too bothered by that. Still, for someone who doesn’t plan too thoroughly, the percentages stay remarkably the same from year to year — tastes (and series I follow) apparently stay the same.

Genre 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2012-16
Children’s 5 (2%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%)

5 (0%)
Fantasy 31 (13%) 17 (9%) 11 (7%) 15 (8%) 12 (6%) 86 (9%)
General Fiction/Literature 27 (11%) 17 (9%) 7 (4%) 30 (16%) 30 (14%) 111 (11%)
Horror 1 (.4%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%0 0 (0%) 1 (0%)
Humor 0 (0%) 1 (1%) 3 (2%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 4 (0%)
Mystery/Suspense 61 (25%) 64 (34%) 62 (37%) 63 (33%) 73 (35%) 323 (32%)
Non-Fiction 11 (5%) 8 (4%) 4 (2%) 2 (1%) 11 (5%) 36 (4%)
Science Fiction 37 (15%) 16 (8%) 17 (10%) 14 (7%) 11 (5%) 95 (9%)
Steampunk 2 (1%) 7 (4%) 3 (2%) 3 (2%) 11 (5%) 26 (3%)
Theology/Christian Living 33 (14%) 42 (22%) 42 (25%) 37 (19%) 10 (5%) 164 (16%)
Urban Fantasy 36 (15%) 19 (10%) 20 (12%) 26 (14%) 48 (23%) 149 (15%)
Western 0 (0%)

0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (0%) 1 (0%)

Previous

December 2016 Report

Next

Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich

8 Comments

  1. Every time I start feeling pretty ego-tastic about the number of books I read, I run into people like you or UrlPhantomHive. And your posts, in all honesty, are about twice the technical level of mine. Something to aspire to I guess.

    As for feedback, always glad to. Part of that insatiable desire to spew words. Thank goodness I’m not an indie or I’d be pumping out books like once a month. I’d also be one of those writers I love to hate on 🙂

    As for wordpress commenting, what is happening to you? I’m always curious about how this place mis-works just so I can be on the lookout. I know I’ve missed comments and stuff, which is why I have my home page bookmarked and I view unlogged in. Call me paranoid!

    • It’s the strangest thing, I’ll have my blog in one tab — editing something, have someone else’s open in another to try to comment. The comment thing will make me log in to WordPress, which will only work about half the time — and when it does, it logs me out of my blog. I’m sure I’m doing something wrong, but it drives me crazy.

  2. Wonderful end of the year review. As stated by bookstooge, every time i see something like your numbers (and bookstooge’s) i get mad…lol.

  3. What a great reading year! Well done, sir. And thanks for the mention!

  4. Thanks for the shout-out on your summary blog! I enjoy your surveys of literature, though your reading tastes are not the same as mine (or maybe I enjoy them BECAUSE they are not the same as mine) Keep it up and Happy New Reading Year!

Read Irresponsibly, but please Comment Responsibly

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén