SERIESous Discussions: Every once and awhile I will post my random ramblings about a bookish or blogging topic. Feel free to join in by making a comment below or linking back!
This post is completely inspired by Cristina @ Girl in the Pages who created an awesome post looking at her reading habits back in January of this year. In it, she looked at the number of books she read on a month to month basis in 2016 and compared it to her 2017 stats.
While I keep track of the number of books I read in a month in my Monthly Inventory recaps (even comparing the results to the previous year), I never do anything with those numbers. I’ve never taken them into the context of a year to actually confirm what I always believe to be my most productive reading months. So, after reading Cristina’s post, I decided to investigate!
>> SERIESous Discussion: Where do my Books Come From?
My Thoughts Before Looking at the Numbers:
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when looking at my 2016 vs 2017 numbers since I went through some big life changes. In 2016, I was finishing up my last school term (ending in April), had a three months of simulated clinical practice (May to July), and then went to my actual clinical placement in September 2016 until January 2017. February 2017 was dedicated to my licensing exam and then a much needed vacation before starting my new (and current) job in March. Long story short: I was no longer a student and was entering the world of work! (And true “adulting“).
And as such, I expected my reading habits to really change once I left school. Truthfully, I anticipated that I would be reading less than before. I’m not sure why I thought that though. I mean, if anything, they should increase because I wouldn’t have to spend my free time studying. But I was entering the working world of shift work and as someone who did most of her reading in the morning before starting her day, I didn’t know what to expect when I had to work midnights or evening shifts on a regular basis.
>>SERIESous Discussion: How “Adulting” Changed my Reading Habits
In general, I expected that January and July would be my biggest reading months. I say January because I’m usually pretty gung-ho about sticking with my new reading plans and resolutions. And I say July because I think I read more in the summer since I love nothing more than to sit out on my patio with a book when I have a day off or after work. (And I live in Canada, so usually July is pretty solid for weather).
The Actual Results:
The Breakdown:
I’ll admit, this graph is a little all over the place so let me give it some context!
In 2016 I read 265 books according to Goodreads, averaging 22 books a month, DNF’d 7 and logged about 400 hours of reading time on my Kobo. In 2017 I read 244 books, averaging 20 books a month, DNF’d 17 books and logged 404 hours of Kobo reading time. Not a huge difference in the grand scheme of things but a noticeable shift for sure in the stats.
Why the spike in August 2016? That was the month I tried out Kindle Unlimited (read about my experience here!) and wanted to fit in as many books as possible before my trial was completed. I choose to do the trial then because I didn’t have any other obligations (like school or work) so I had a lot of free time. I also read a novella series (Calendar Girl) that had 12 parts in total which Goodreads counts as a full, completed novel even if they were half the length.
Why the dip in September 2017? I spent half the month away on a vacation that didn’t leave me a lot of free time to read.
My Thoughts After Looking at the Numbers:
For the most part, I was right about my busiest months. I seem to always read at least 20 books in the month of January; though December seems to be the same in that respect. Probably because I’m scrambling to get in some last minute points for my various reading challenges before the year’s end.
I guess August is actually more productive than July as I had hypothesized. I do know that the Make Me Read It Readathon took place in August 2017 as opposed to July like it did in 2016 so perhaps that shifted my results a bit? I am curious to know though what August 2016 would have looked like without my Kindle Unlimited Trial altering the results. However, in the same breath, I think it goes to show that August does allow me more flexible reading time because I was able to read so many books in both years.
Moving Forward:
It will be interesting to see what the comparison for 2018 to 2017 will be! My life has gotten into more of a routine now that I only work and I seem to have gotten the hang of this shift-work thing. Audiobooks are becoming more of an everyday staple in my life as well so I’m interested to see if that changes things up even more because I do think it played a role in maintaining some of my monthly numbers in 2017 once I started working.
>> Be on the lookout for a post next month were I look at what formats of books I read in a month!
I admire that you can read so many books in a year, that’s incredible! I also love these little graphics and how you kept track of everything, I really want to do the same kind of thing, I wish I could be… well, not lazy haha. I think that if I were to do something like that, I would maybe read a bit less in the summer though, because that’s when I usually travel a little bit and I usually read way less while I am travelling. That would be SO interesting to know though 🙂 I love that idea and I love that post 😀
Goodreads does most of the work for me 😛 I’m pretty compulsive when it comes to making sure my reading dates are in correctly so that helps a lot. I do transfer the info into a spreadsheet/list to keep track of what I read per month though after the fact. It takes a while to get it set up but once you do, it’s easy to maintain.
I know what you mean about travel. I’m the type to take completely relaxing trips so I am very go-go-go–with little downtime. In Canada, with school being out for the summer I find everything is so much more expensive so I do most of my travelling in the off season so I have more time at home to read in the summer.
I think this is a really interesting exercise. I read about the same every year, between 50 and 60 books (nothing compared to you!!) though I think it’ll be less this year. The last couple months I have been through the most prolonged reading slump I’ve dealt with in forever. I’ve stared reading some non fiction lately that I’m loving, so I’m hoping I’m almost out of it and can get back up to my regular reading pace again.
That sucks about the reading slump. I went through one of those a few years ago and it was the worst. I really changed my reading habits after that–and non-fiction audiobooks were one of the ways I did that. Sometimes it’s good to escape the everyday norm of what you read.
I think it’ll be less going forward for me as well. My hours at work are changing as is the rotation schedule so I’m not sure how that’ll all play out in the next few months but I anticipate less time to read.