Programming Note: Over the next few days, I’ll be looking back over 2020—but I’ll trying 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—a few years ago, pre-blog, the last thing I read (finished on 12/31, as I recall) just blew me away and was easily the best thing I read that year. Ever since then, I just can’t start to think about it until January 1.
As we kick off 2021, as is my custom, I wanted to take a glance back at 2020. 263 books finished (plus comics, picture books, short stories, and the like that I don’t know how to count)—and that’s with pretty much taking one month off! I exceeded my goal (nothing like exceeding an arbitrary number to boost the ol’ ego), too; around 80,000 pages; with an average rating of 3.77 Stars. I only DNF’d one book, which is nice (and man, it was bad).
On the blog front, I put up 480 posts—128 more than last year!! (and again, that’s with some time off). I had some strong gains in traffic—views and visitors—actually, strong gains doesn’t quite cut it. Consider my mind boggled. I’m also seeing good growth in followers here and on various social media fronts, which is encouraging as all get out—not just growth in numbers, but the level of and amount of interaction is up to the point that my socially awkward self doesn’t really understand it.
I didn’t finish two of my projects for the year—my trip through The History of Tom Jones and my survey of the first twelve Spenser novels. I’m getting back to both of those in the coming days (and I might lengthen the Classic Spenser series by three or four, we’ll see).
In addition to the changes in lifestyle brought on by the global pandemic (perhaps you heard of it), I moved my blog to a self-hosting platform. That created more headaches than I want to think of (comments went down at least 3 times, for example). But I think it’ll be worth it in the long-run. And not just because I can save some money. And then, my family had to move, which was a lot more disruptive than I expected. I know I’ve talked too much about it already, just a little more…in the first decade or so that my wife and I were married, we lived in 6 different places, moving was just a thing that happened. In the next 13 years, we lived in one place and planned on at least two more years there. That’s a lot of inertia to overcome—but we’re almost settled, most of my books have a place to be, and I’ll soon shut up about it all.
As is my habit, here’s my breakdown of books by genre (and I’m going to have to change things soon, this chart doesn’t show up well anymore, I just like showing the trends). Genre labeling is more difficult lately 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. Basically, everything’s the same, with just a percent or two of adjustment. It’s been forever since I’ve read a Western or a Horror novel—and “humor” is pretty useless, as a lot of things I read could be considered that. Once again, for someone who doesn’t plan too thoroughly, the percentages stay remarkably consistent from year to year—tastes (and series I follow) apparently stay the same.
| Genre | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Children’s | 5 (2%) | 7 (3%) | 11 (4%) | 7 (3%) | 5 (2%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
| Fantasy | 35 (13%) | 28 (10%) | 30 (11%) | 7 (3%) | 31 (13%) | 17 (9%) | 11 (7%) | 15 (8%) | 12 (6%) |
| General Fiction/ Literature | 16 (7%) | 21 (8%) | 22 (8%) | 29 (10%) | 27 (11%) | 17 (9%) | 7 (4%) | 30 (16%) | 30 (14%) |
| Horror | 0 (0%) | 1 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 1 (.4%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
| Humor | 2 (1%) | 4 (1%) | 3 (1%) | 1 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 1 (1%) | 3 (2%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
| Mystery/ Suspense/ Thriller | 90 (34%) | 105 (38%) | 107 (38%) | 102 (37%) | 61 (25%) | 64 (34%) | 62 (37%) | 63 (33%) | 73 (35%) |
| Non-Fiction | 28 (10%) | 25 (9%) | 22 (8%) | 10 (4%) | 11 (5%) | 8 (4%) | 4 (2%) | 2 (1%) | 11 (5%) |
| Poetry | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 1 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) |
| Science Fiction | 20 (8%) | 30 (11%) | 25 (9%) | 27 (10%) | 37 (15%) | 16 (8%) | 17 (10%) | 14 (7%) | 11 (5%) |
| Steampunk | 2 (1%) | 1 (0%) | 3 (1%) | 1 (0%) | 2 (1%) | 7 (4%) | 3 (2%) | 3 (2%) | 11 (5%) |
| Theology/ Christian Living | 23 (8%) | 34 (12%) | 25 (9%) | 30 (11%) | 33 (14%) | 42 (22%) | 42 (25%) | 37 (19%) | 10 (5%) |
| Urban Fantasy | 42 (16%) | 25 (9%) | 29 (10%) | 45 (16%) | 36 (15%) | 19 (10%) | 20 (12%) | 26 (14%) | 48 (23%) |
| Western | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 1 (0%) |
Thanks to the nifty spreadsheet made by the Voracious Reader, I was able to get a few more stats. I find them interesting, maybe you will to.
I keep saying I want to re-read more, I’m doing okay on that front, but want that to get higher.
I knew I was listening to more audiobooks this year (just the nature of my work enables me to do a lot of these, plus gym time—before March, anyway), but that it’s the majority of what I “read” in 2020 is pretty surprising. A lot of the “Borrowed” and re-read slices above are tied to that.
Enough about me. 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 2019:
- Thanks to everyone for your comments/feedback—texts, emails, comments here/BookLikes/Goodreads, tweets, 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 better writers—some of you push me to read better books. I’m going to give a particular thanks to Bookstooge, Allyson Johnson, W&S Bookclub, Lashaan, Emma, and Noelle for their encouragement, retweets, and interaction.
- Flattered thanks to (in no particular order): Lou des Anges, Don Jimmy Reviews, Žygimantas Krungolcas, penelopeburns, TL Wright, Mugilan Raju, aloysius5, writingeatingwalking, Dora , Hâf, Susan, Shell-Shell’s, travelingcloak, clareblanchardbooks, Store Of Unicorns, jamesdeeclayton, fluffyluggage, waytoofantasy, Betty, Matt Kaster, jellyfishentity, Wednesday Reads, Eamon, Graphic Design Eye, ARJung, Familiar Diversions, Sorry kids, no feet. , WhiskeyintheJar Romance, 99 problems, and a book ain’t one, Just Olga and her books, Burfobookalicious, Linda Hilton, Darth Pedant, brokeassmother, Angels With Attitude Book Reviews, Elentarri’s Book Blog, Lora’s Rants and Reviews , Mike Finn, Written Among The Stars, surjit2009 , Rachel Bridgeman, One Book More, imyril, KetoJENic Vibe, Shreya Roychoudhury, tiffosaur, *Flora*, posssumpapaya, Shayleene MacReynolds, beyondthecryptsandcastles, Uniquely Portable Magic, Daniel MacKillican, J.R.Spiker, Caffeinated Reviewer, Odah Ebubechukwu Nelson, ontheshelfbookblog, Rajesh khanna, sandomina, LDW, just_tommye, Mayank Sharma, youngcreativepress, Oaks CastleCollections, the reading chemist, Quinn Patrick Fernandez, Neriman K., Not Quite Home, Caroline Paquin, SarahSansom, Chiddicks Family Tree, ginnymalbec, Narun Garg, jyvurentropy, Om Prakash Khare, Sakari Lacross, The Apocalypse Daddy, Stine Writing, Murder by Death, EmilyJane1995, Tea With Stevie (which I first misread as “Tea with Stevia” and thought “ew”), Christine, Katie @ Melting Pages, pen2m3, Matt Sweeney, indiefan20, Susan, Bookworm Blogger, wonderouspages, Freda Mans, ellisnelson, Lola, Mary Grace Dañas, DL Orton, johnnyholidayesq, Being Zab, Chris Green Reads!, Frankie | Chicks Rogues and Scandals, Turtle Quotes, Jacob Collins, San, Anketsu, benjamingohs, Umairah @ Sereadipity, writingfest, Elaine Howlin, Cathy746books, Kiara McCabe, educater34 MSc, NickMay, NewDogNewTricks, Ed A. Murray, Evelina @ AvalinahsBooks, Crystena’s Books, Afrin, leighhecking, Morgan, NewDogNewTricks, francescocat, penelopeburns, tensecondsfromnow, beyondthecryptsandcastles, Tannie LowA.C. Stark, Mike Finn , ilaria.muzzi, bookshelflife, angelicreader,consideringthebibletogether, Faith’sPen, Books Are 42 (possibly the greatest blog name ever), The Godly Chic Diaries, ankushmaster, samfsm, Elias Graves, T.Tazaki, samfsm, S.D. McKinley, crimsoncodexebooks, Char, I.F, BookerTalk, Spellbound Librarian, Mina @Stacked, ravensprouts, Ollie, Anna, P.L. Stuart, Masha, Shoppen met Marceline, Dellybird, Anjana, Dr. Ndubuisi E. Ojo, and last but not least, Miss Katherine White for being new followers (at least for a post or two) of the blog (in one of its forms) this year—the size of this list shocks me, and I hope you all got at least something out of it. (I sincerely hope I didn’t miss anyone)
- 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!). (I typically link to them all, but honestly, who reads it, and it was taking too long to put together the links for all 271 names involved).
- More thanks to all those who requested that I read and talk about your (or your clients’) books. I know how much the 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 didn’t do as many Q&As this year as I intended to, but many thanks to those who took time out of their busy schedules to answer my questions: Shellie Bowdoin, Matthew Hanover (again), Noelle Holten, Michael Landweber (again), Reyna Griffin and Jeff Quest of the Like the Wolfe Podcast, Paul Levine (I still can’t believe I was given this opportunity, I’ve been reading him so long), Ronald Hera,
Nick Kolakowski (the fifth time he’s done this!!, Gray Basnight,
and D. B. Borton! I thoroughly enjoyed picking all of your brains and hope I can again. - Owen and Machen, my sons, provided a lot of the technical support I needed this year. Owen’s my best editor (sadly, it’s all after I post something…), too, and he’s saved me from looking stupid on more than one occasion.
- Micah Burke…the only reason this thing isn’t smoldering ruins since I tried to migrate to my own host is because of your efforts. I can’t thank you enough. The instant I make a dime on this thing, you’ll get the first nickel!
- 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. Honestly, each time I get a notification of 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 2021, hope you find plenty of good things to read!
