Neyhart's Nerdy Reading Recap 2022: Book stats, Graphs, and Charts!

I like that Goodreads tells me I'm really good at reading, and probably a lot of other things too!

2022 was the 11th year I tracked every book I read! The first year I did this I set my reading goal at a modest (for me) 52 books for the year because one book a week sounded pretty manageable. And the reason I decided to start tracking my reading was to help motivate me to read more than I already did.

2014 was the first year I started using a spreadsheet to help me collect and analyze more data than Goodreads allows. In 2019, I discovered that bookriot.com had a spreadsheet template with some built-in charts and graphs, beyond what I was already tracking. So I have used it for the past three years while modifying it to my liking. Here is a link where you can get their 2023 reading log template.

Now on to the nerd stats:

Number of books read: 200
Number of pages read: 37,753
Average book length: 188 pages

Mode of reading:

Audiobook: 67 (33.5%)

Ebook: 104 (52%) 

Print: 29 (14.5%)

(This breakdown is very similar to last year.)

Book Genres:

Similar to the past two years, I read more nonfiction than fiction (60/40 split), whereas in previous years this was more of a 50-50 split.

More specific genres and categories I tracked:

LGBTQ Studies: 15 books (some of these overlap with memoir/Bio and other genres)

Seminary: 75 books - 37.5% of the books I read were for my seminary studies

 (these overlap with Bible & Theology, obviously)

Bible: 52

Theology: 39

Fantasy: 39

Science Fiction: 39 (interesting that my sci-fi/fantasy was split 50-50 this year!)

    Almost 40% of the books I read were either Fantasy or Sci-Fi

Memoir/Bio: 12 (not as many as last year which was 19)

Children's: 9

General Nonfiction: 8

General Fiction: 2

Gender of Author:

Last year I was finally able to read slightly more women than men but this year it's back to 62% male, 36% female, and 2% non-binary. I'm going to have to try harder in 2023 to even this out! 

Books Read Per Month 2022:

This chart looks about like I would expect it to with me reading the most books between May and August when I have more time to read for fun, along with December and January because I'm also on break from classes half of December and all of January (other than auditing a J-term, which I will also be reading for).

Read vs. Re-reads:

First-time read: 132 books (66%)

Re-read: 68 books (34%)   

Here is an image of the 35 books I have labeled as my favorite books I read for the first time in 2022:

If you click this link it should take you to the list on Goodreads

screenshot of part of my spreadsheet

Feel free to tell me about your reading year in the comments or in an email back to me!  

If you are interested in reading progressive-type theology books and discussing them with me and other people, click on over to this page where you can find out more about that and join the fun! 

Link to my book reviews

Previous reading recaps and book lists:

2022 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2021 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2020 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2019 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2018 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2017 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2016 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2015 Reading Recap

What I read in 2022(200 books!)
What I read in 2021(202 books!)
What I read in 2020(151 books)
What I read in 2019 (203 books!)
What I read in 2018 (130 books)
What I read in 2017 (83 books)
What I read in 2016 (141 books)
What I read in 2015 (120 books)
What I read in 2014 (111 books)
What I read in 2013 (100 books)
What I read in 2012 (56 books)
What I read 2007-2011

2021 Reading Recap: Book stats, Graphs, and Charts!

2021 marked the tenth year that I tracked every book I read. The first year I did this I set my reading goal at a modest (for me) 52 books for the year because one book a week sounded pretty manageable. And the reason I decided to start tracking my reading was to help motivate me to read more than I already did.

2014 was the first year I started using a spreadsheet to help me collect and analyze more data than Goodreads allows. (Yes, I am an Enneagram 3, why do you ask?) Then, in 2019, I discovered that bookriot.com had a spreadsheet template with some built-in charts and graphs, beyond what I was already tracking. So I used theirs in 2020 and 2021 while modifying it to my liking. Here is a link where you can get their 2022 reading log template.

Now on to the nerd stats:

Number of books read: 202

Number of pages read: 43,364

Mode of reading:

Audiobook (76), Ebook (104), Print (22)

- Interestingly (to me, anyway), my audiobook format switched places with ebooks this year, (as compared to the last two years), probably due to an increase in ebooks read for seminary in 2020.

2021:

Compared to 2020:

Book Genres:

As in 2020, I read more nonfiction than fiction, whereas in previous years this was more of a 50-50 split.

More specific genres and categories I tracked:

C. S. Lewis Studies: 8 (these overlap with various genres)

LGBTQ Studies: 22

Seminary: 56 (these overlap with Bible & Theology, obviously)

Theology: 71

Bible: 26

Memoir/Bio: 19

Fantasy: 52

Science Fiction: 17

General Fiction: 6

General Nonfiction: 11

Male/Female Authorship:

This might be the first time I've read slightly more women authors than men! 

Books Read Per Month:

2021:

Read vs. Re-reads:

First time read: 172

Re-read: 30

(This seems back to my normal amount from last year where 46% of the books I read were re-reads.)

According to Audible, I listened for 19,114 minutes (318.5 hours) which is up from 279 hours in 2020. It means I averaged 52 minutes of listening per day. Of course, I wonder if that takes into account the times I'm listening at 1.5x speed or 2x speed. But it doesn't really matter. The top genres graphic confirms that I tend to listen to fantasy and sci-fi more on audio and other fiction. And if I'm listening to non-fiction it's probably a biography or memoir.

I posted about 10 of my favorite fiction reads in this post. 

I intend to post about my favorite memoirs and other non-fiction in separate posts.

Feel free to tell me about your reading year in the comments or in an email back to me. 

If you are interested in reading progressive type theology books and discussing them with me and other people, click on over to this page where you can find out more about that and join the fun! 

And if you're not bored yet here are my previous reading recaps and book lists:

2020 Reading Recap and Book Stats

2019 Reading Recap and Book Stats

2018 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2017 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2016 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2015 Reading Recap

What I read in 2019 (203 books)

What I read in 2018 (130 books)
What I read in 2017 (83 books)
What I read in 2016 (142 books)
What I read in 2015 (120 books)
What I read in 2014 (111 books)

What I read in 2013 (100 books)
What I read in 2012 (56 books)

2020 Reading Recap (with charts and graphs for fun!)

This was year number nine of religiously tracking all the books I read. The first year I did this I set my reading goal at a modest 52 books for the year because one book a week sounded pretty manageable. 2014 was the first year I started using a spreadsheet to help me collect and analyze more data than Goodreads allows. (Yes, I am an Enneagram 3, why do you ask?) Then, in 2019, I discovered that bookriot.com had a spreadsheet template with some built-in charts and graphs, beyond what I was already tracking. So I used theirs this year while modifying it to my liking. Here is a link where you can get their 2021 reading log template.

Now on to the nerd stats:

Number of books read: 150

Number of pages read: 26,475

This was not as many books as I read last year because I was ridiculous last year and read 203 books. I was originally going to try to read 200 books again this year but then, you know, 2020 happened and I hit a reading slump for a few months before I got my reading groove back. But before last year, my highest number of books read in one year was 142 books in 2016, so you know. 

Mode of reading:

Audiobook (69), Ebook (43), Print (38)

- These percentages are very similar to last year.

Book Genres:

Fiction vs. Nonfiction is significantly different from my normal 50-50 split. This year it skewed heavily toward nonfiction, probably because of going back to seminary and not reading as much for fun during the first half of the year because of the aforementioned reading slump.

More specific genres and categories I tracked:

C. S. Lewis Studies: 10 (these overlap with various genres)

Seminary: 39 (these overlap with Bible & Theology, obviously)

Theology: 49

Bible: 43

Memoir/Biography: 10

Science Fiction: 27 (I read a lot more scifi than fantasy this year.)

Fantasy: 9

General Fiction: 2

General Nonfiction: 10

Male/Female Authorship:

This is much closer to the 50-50 ratio I would like it to be. But it continues to be something I have to be very aware of or it is easy to read way more men than women authors.

Books Read Per Month:

2020

You can see that reading slump I was talking about in February through July, bottoming out in April and June. And you can see where I started reading like crazy once my first semester back in seminary started. And here's last year's chart for comparison: 

2019

Read vs. Re-reads:

First time read: 81

Re-read: 69

I re-read a lot more books this year than normal. Part of that was re-reading the entire Bible from cover to cover and part of it was revisiting some familiar sci-fi stories I enjoyed as comfort reading. I also re-read some other theology books to refresh my memory. What I wouldn't give for an eidetic memory... oh well, C. S. Lewis said "The sure mark of an unliterary man is that he considers ‘I’ve read it already’ to be a conclusive argument against reading a work. [...] Those who read great works, on the other hand, will read the same work ten, twenty or thirty times during the course of their life” (An Experiment in Criticism, 2). And C. S. Lewis re-read countless books over and over again throughout his life, so at least I am in good company. =)

These are my favorite books that I read in 2020 (and yes, some of them were re-reads, but we've been over that already. =) You can see the list of these 24 books pictured here on goodreads.

According to Audible, I listened to 119 titles for a total of 279 hours. That doesn't quite match up to how many books I logged as audiobooks but I think it must be counting titles I started but didn't finish or something. And I don't include those in my reading tracking.

Audible also shows my emphasis on nonfiction this year: 166 hours of nonfiction vs 112 hours of fiction.

Feel free to tell me about your reading year in the comments or in an email back to me. 

If you are interested in reading progressive type theology books and discussing them with me and other people, click on over to this page where you can find out more about that and join the fun! We are planning on reading and discussing Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation towards the end of January.

And if you're not bored yet here are my previous reading recaps and book lists:

2019 Reading Recap and Book Stats

2018 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2017 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2016 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2015 Reading Recap

What I read in 2019 (203 books)

What I read in 2018 (130 books)
What I read in 2017 (83 books)
What I read in 2016 (142 books)
What I read in 2015 (120 books)
What I read in 2014 (111 books)

What I read in 2013 (100 books)
What I read in 2012 (56 books)

2019 Reading Recap (The one with the charts and graphs!)

I did it! I didn't think I was going to reach my goal, but I read like a maniac during the last few days of December in order to read 200 books in 2019! (I had a lot of time in the car to listen to audiobooks and a lot of other downtime when I was able to finish books in progress on kindle.

2012 was the first year I set a reading goal (52 books) and started keeping track of everything I read.

2014 was the first year I started using a spreadsheet to help me collect and analyze more data than Goodreads allows.

And then last year I discovered that bookriot.com had a spreadsheet with some built-in charts and graphs, beyond what I was already tracking. So I used theirs to jump off of this year, while still tweaking it a bit as I went along. Here is a link where you can get their 2020 reading log template if you so wish.

Now on to the nerd stats:

The above image is from the Goodreads infographic. Apparently, only 4 other people also read (and tracked on Goodreads) The Theology of Martin Luther by Hans-Martin Barth. Go figure? :-)

Number of books read: 203

Number of pages read: 43,268

Average Length: 213 pages

This was by far the most books I've ever read in a year. Previously, my highest number was 142 books read in 2016. 

Mode of reading:

Audiobook (106), Ebook (57), Print (38)

 - According to Audible, I listened to 371 hours of audiobooks in 2019 (Although that was before the last few days of December, so it was actually even more than that.).

Book Genres:

Fiction vs. Nonfiction is still very close to 50-50, like usual.

More specific genres I tracked:

C. S. Lewis Studies: 19

Seminary: 12

Theology: 58

Spiritual Memoir: 9

Science Fiction: 22

Fantasy: 59

General Fiction: 23

General Nonfiction: 18

Male/Female Authorship:

Female: 71

Male: 131

This continues to be difficult to balance. In 2018 I was able to get it to 55% men and 45% women, but in 2017 it was 80% men authors. This year it swung back a bit to 65% men authors and 35% women.

Books Read Per Month:

2019

It's interesting to compare my reading trends in 2018 vs. 2019. Both years spike up in December, but I read a lot more books in January of 2019 than January of 2018. I also bottomed out in April and October of this year. 

2018

Read vs. Re-reads:

First time read: 174

Re-read: 27

Favorite first-time reads of 2019:

See this list on goodreads

These 36 books are a pretty good mix of theology, fantasy/science-fiction, including some graphic novels, which is a pretty accurate representation of my typical reading patterns.

2018 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2017 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2016 Reading Recap and Book Stats
2015 Reading Recap

What I read in 2018 (130 books)
What I read in 2017 (83 books)
What I read in 2016 (142 books)
What I read in 2015 (120 books)
What I read in 2014 (111 books)

What I read in 2013 (100 books)
What I read in 2012 (56 books)

What I'm Reading Wednesday

My friend, Brenton, has inspired me to write this post today. Like Brenton, I am teased, on occasion, for how many books I tend to be in the middle of at the same time. (It's roughly 11 right now, not counting some that have been on the back burner for far too long now - ever since I started seminary!) Part of the reason for this is that I read a variety of types of books in different ways. Brenton has a good post on this as well: Different Kinds of Reading, Different Kinds of Books.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman
          I just started listening to this audio book. I love the John Donne poem he quotes at the beginning: Song: Go and catch a falling star

"Go and catch a falling star,

    Get with child a mandrake root,

Tell me where all past years are,

    Or who cleft the devil's foot,

Teach me to hear mermaids singing,

Or to keep off envy's stinging,

  And find what wind

Serves to advance an honest mind."

I'm reading three commentaries on Galatians as I prepare to teach a Bible Study on Galatians on Thursday nights:

• Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians by N. T. Wright
• Galatians (The NIV Application Commentary) by Scot McKnight
• The College Press NIV Commentary: Galatians & Ephesians by Kenneth L. Boles

The Word in the Wilderness by Malcolm Guite

          I knew I needed to go through this book as soon as I read some of the excerpts and listened to some of the poems on Malcolm Guite's blog.

"Lent is a time to reorient ourselves, clarify our minds, slow down, recover from distraction and focus on the values of God's kingdom. Poetry, with its power to awaken the mind, is an ideal companion for such a time. This collection enables us to turn aside from everyday routine and experience moments of transfigured vision as we journey through the desert landscape of Lent and find refreshment along the way." - Amazon

Glimpses of Grace: Daily Thoughts and Reflections by Madeleine L'Engle

I love this book as devotional reading in the evening. There are passages from her fiction and non-fiction organized for daily reading. I enjoy re-reading particularly meaningful passages from The Wrinkle in Time series in this way, as well as being exposed to much of her non-fiction which I have not read yet.

The Divine Hours (Volume Two): Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime: A Manual for Prayer by Phyllis A. Tickle

The Divine Hours is a literary and liturgical reworking of the sixth-century Benedictine Rule of fixed-hour prayer. It makes primary use of the Book of Common Prayer and the writings of the Church Fathers, I am indebted to my friend Dana, for introducing me to this resource. 

Classic Christianity: A Systematic Theology by Thomas C. Oden

This is a massive book (944 pgs) that I am reading for my Basic Christian Doctrine class at Asbury.

"Written for clergy, Christian educators, religious scholars, and lay readers alike, Classic Christianity provides the best synthesis of the whole history of Christian thought." - Goodreads

Theology in the Context of World Christianity: How the Global Church Is Influencing the Way We Think about and Discuss Theology by Timothy C. Tennent

          This is another book I am reading 

for my Basic Christian Doctrine class: "While the truths of the Christian faith are universal, new contexts bring new questions, new understandings, and new expressions. What does this mean for theology? Is the Christian faith not only culturally translatable, but also theologically translatable? Timothy Tennent answers this question with a resounding yes. Theological reflection is alive and well in the majority world church, and these new perspectives need to be heard, considered, and brought into conversation with Western theologians." -Goodreads 

Between Vision and Obedience. Rethinking Theological Epistemology by George Ille

           This is on the recommended reading list for my Basic Christian Doctrine class, so I'm trying to wade through it also. This is part of the description of the book on Goodreads:

The present study seeks to respond theologically to current discussions about ideas of self from the perspective of God's action in and towards the world. Its aim is to trace a view of rationality that follows the drama of God's engagement with the world, thus involving dying and resurrection, ascesis and abundance, suffering witness and Eucharistic communion. 

Called to Teach by William R. Yount

This book is for my other class I'm taking this semester: Teaching the Bible to Youths and Adults. I'm about half-way through this one. But I will be finished with it by tomorrow night because I have to turn in a brief review of it by Thursday night!