The Irresponsible Reader in 2024: Thoughts, Thanks, and Stats

Programming Note: As is my custom, over the next week I’ll be looking back over the year that was—but I’ll try to come up with some new material, too. Many/most others have already done their best-of/year-end wrap-up posts, but I’m a stickler—I can’t start doing this kind of thing ’til the year is over. My brain doesn’t allow me to work that way (I just hate projecting things in general—and some years ago when I just read irresponsibly but hadn’t adopted the name, the last novel of the year was so far beyond the rest that I can’t start looking back until 12/31 at the earliest).

As we kick off 2025, I wanted to take a glance back at 2024—276 books finished—a little less than some years, but given all the Life Stuff™ in my life this year, I expected that number to be far lower. That’s over 82,000 pages (too many audio-only things and beta reads to get an accurate count); with an average rating of 3.7 Stars. The page count is likely a little higher than last year, as is the stars. So, yay for consistency.

On the blog front, I put up 573 posts—a drop from last year, but not huge. Thanks have to be given for all the contributors I hada  couple of series of posts this year that made that possible (I’ll get to this below). I had another year of solid gains in traffic—views and visitors—I’m not big-time (never going to be), but those numbers consistently weird me out (which is why I only look every 6-12 months). My follower count (here and on social media sites) is encouraging and humbling, I really feel like I ought to do more to earn them. Maybe there’s a book on how to be more interesting as a person that I should grab.

The blog series continue to go–mostly. I (yet again) didn’t get back to my Classic Spenser series (which is grating), and I got too caught up in other stuff and abandoned my monthly Highlights: Lines Worth Repeating series (it’ll be back soon). But on the positive side, my Literary Locals series slowed a bit, but it’s still chugging along. Grandpappy’s Corner, slowed a bit. My contribution to Self-Published Author Appreciation Week, Spreading the Self-Pub Love, ended up taking more effort than I thought, but the results were worth it. Lastly, there was the return of Top 5 All-Time Desert Island Books series of guest posts, which I particularly enjoyed. The YouTube channel hasn’t quite taken off as I hoped, but I had fun doing what I’ve done, and have some ideas to keep at it (and those who’ve given me feedback has been positive, so, that’s all good for me)

As is my habit, here’s my breakdown of books by genre—I tweaked the table a bit, so it actually fits on the screen (or should). Genre labeling continues to be more difficult as I’m reading a lot of hybrids (most of us are, they’re being produced more), but I tend to go with the overarching genre. Once again, for someone who doesn’t plan too thoroughly, the percentages stay remarkably consistent from year to year—my tastes (and the series I follow) stay the same as is to be expected. The growth in Fantasy and SF makes sense, but I didn’t expect it to be that noticeable. The decrease in Children’s books is odd–but, I do tend to only count the ones I read by my choice (not the Grandcritter’s) and that I’m going to write up–and I did less of that than I expected to in 2024.

Here’s a few more stats I typically share. I find them interesting, and maybe you will, too.
That’s a 3% uptick in re-reads. Which is nice (I expect that next year will see a big jump, but we’ll see how that works out. I’m neither a prophet or a son of a prophet and my predictions tend to demonstrate that.
“Bought” went down (phew) and everything else went up–which is nice to see.
The percentage of Hardcovers and Audiobooks went up, and everything else went down. I felt like I read more eBooks than the numbers say, which is interesting.

Enough about me. Now we get to my favorite part—I want to talk about you, who keep me going and show an interest in what I’m doing here, and give some thanks to people for their impact on The Irresponsible Reader (the blog and the person) in 2024:

• Thanks to everyone for your comments/feedback—texts, emails, comments here/Goodreads, tweets/Twitter-replacement posts, FB comments, even the occasional Face-to-Face conversation. Keep it up! I really appreciate the time you took to leave feedback. Hopefully, you can tell that you’ve shaped the conversation here—it has, I assure you. Many of you are pushing me to be a better writer—some of you push me to read better books. I’m going to give a particular thanks to Robert Germaux, The Write Reads, Allyson Johnson (you really push me to think about what I’m reading!), W&S Bookclub, Lashaan, Emma, and Noelle for their encouragement, retweets, and interaction.
• A hearty thanks to all the authors, editors, illustrators, translators, and other people behind the production of the books I spent time with this year—this blog would be nothing without your efforts, your blood, sweat, tears, fears, work, love, dreams, hopes, art, and words. Your books were my companions throughout this year, and I can’t thank you enough for them (and I hope I get to spend time with many of you again soon!).
• More thanks to all those who requested that I read and talk about your (or your clients’) books. I know how much work, effort, heart, and everything else that went into your books. It’s super humbling, I know you all didn’t like what I said, but, I am grateful for the opportunity.
• I cannot thank every participant in the Q&As from this year enough. I got to ask “A Few Quick Questions” to:  Steven Max Russo, Armanis Ar-feinial, Marilyn Peake, T. Olsen, Savanna Mayer, Shannon Knight, Jocele Skinner of Shared Stories, M.D. Presley, and J.M. Gulmire.
• Beyond those, I really want to thank R.M. Scott, Norelle Smith, Jerome Goettsch, Carla Crane Osborne, Arnold Ytreeide, Sarah Hill, Christi Nogle, Melaney Taylor Auxier, and Steve McGill for answering my questions about writing in Idaho.
• And I do have to thank Adrian M. Gibson, John Simons, JCM Berne, and Jodie from Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub for sitting down with me on camera.
• I also hosted a record number of Guest Posts this year. Many thanks to Shannon Knight (and again), Robert Germaux, Mary Kendall, Carol from Reading Ladies Book Club, and Mary Camarillo.
• My son Owen provided a lot of the technical support I needed this year. Owen’s my best editor (sadly, it’s largely after I post something…), too, and he’s saved me from looking stupid on more than one occasion.
• All my kids have acted as sounding boards this year—helping with some graphics, jokes, themes, etc. They (and Owen) do a solid job of pretending to care about what I’m saying about books, reading, and whatnot. A hat tip to Calvin, Katrina, Carleigh, Taylor, and Machen, too.
• A lot of thanks need to go to the Grandcritter, and my pack—Tanny and Athena. Not only have you brought me joy and inspired some reading, you’re also great at reminding me to stop all this nonsense and pay attention to life around me.
• A special thanks to my wife. Without your support, indulgence, and patience this thing wouldn’t exist—and I’d read a lot less (the horror!). Thank you. I love you.
• And thank you all for reading. This may feel obligatory and insincere. It is not. Honestly, each time I get a notification of a comment, or a like, or a share, or a follow, etc. it makes my day. To know that someone took a couple of seconds or more out of their day to glance at this? It means the world to me. Thanks.

Have a great 2025, and I hope you find plenty of good things to read!