2024: My Year in Books (By the Numbers)
121 Books, 38,883 Pages, and Countless Meaningful Conversations About Reading!
Welcome to my first Substack post! To kick things off, I’m diving into one of my favorite nerdy obsessions: reading stats.
For over a decade, I’ve tracked my reading, but this year I’ve taken it to the next level, analyzing everything from my favorite genres to how many books I’ve read from new-to-me or repeat authors. If you’re the type of person who loves data-driven insights about books, welcome to WellDoneBooks: Substack Edition. Let’s get into it!
The Big Picture: 2024 Overview
Total Books Read: 121
Average Star Rating: 3.77
Total Pages Read: 38,883 (average: 320 pages per book)
Average Reading Time: 2 hours per day (116 pages per day)
For the last 10 years, I’ve read between 90-130 books annually. This year fell squarely in that range, and most importantly for me, I never felt like I was pushing myself to read more just for the purpose of hitting a goal or flying through books. Based on my schedule and work life, this is what works for me at this time in my life and I’m happy with it!
Books by Format and Source
Formats:
Physical books: 78%
Digital (E-books & Audiobooks): 22%
Top Sources:
ARCs/finished copies from publishers: 25.6%
Library: 21.5%
Local indie bookstore purchases: 14% (shoutout The Book Catapult!)
Owned backlist: 10.7%
Fun fact: One of my favorite books of the year came from an unsolicited publisher mailer—a great reminder that surprises can lead to new favorites!
Exploring Translated Literature
One of my big goals for 2024 was to read more translated books. I’m thrilled to say I made real progress against my goal of reading at least 30 books in translation:
Translated Books Read: 34 (28% of my total reading)
Top Languages: Spanish, Japanese, and French
Average Star Rating for Translations: 3.35 (lower than my overall average of 3.77)
I think this lower rating reflects two things:
Many translated books I read came from prize lists, where I took risks on titles I wouldn’t normally pick.
I’m still discovering my taste in translated literature, just as I’ve honed my preferences for literary fiction over the past decade.
Beyond ratings, exploring world literature has been rewarding in unexpected ways—opening my eyes to new cultures and styles of storytelling. I am excited to continue this in the years to come! This 2024 goal has truly shifted my reading and buying habits toward a more global mindset.
New-to-Me Authors
A personal highlight of 2024 was discovering new voices. Out of the 121 books there were 105 unique authors:
New-to-Me Authors: 69 (66% of total reading)
Debut Authors: 36 (34% of total reading)
Reading debut authors was particularly rewarding. There’s something exciting about getting in on the ground floor of a writer’s career. My top debuts of 2024:
Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah
Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg
Genre Breakdown
Here’s how my reading stacked up by genre:
Literary Fiction: 56% (my most-read genre pretty much always)
Fantasy & Historical Fiction: 7.4% each
Horror: 6.6%
Nonfiction/Memoir: 12.4% (highest average rating: 4.3 stars)
Other Genres (Graphic Novels, Poetry, etc.): 10%
Memoirs and nonfiction stood out as high points this year. I don’t pick them up nearly enough, but when I do they almost always hit. Someone remind me to seek out more of these in 2025!
Tackling Big Books
I wanted to challenge myself with longer reads this year, specifically to read 8 books over 500 pages (which I did!), and here’s how it broke down:
500+ pages: 8 books (6.6% of total reading)
401–500 pages: 12.4%
301–400 pages: 24%
201–300 pages: 40.5%
101–200 pages: 14.9%
0–100 pages: 1.7%
I’m not surprised that a majority of my reads were between 200-400 pages, since a standard novel is around 300 and that’s most of what I read. Moving forward, I don’t think I’ll focus on reading long books specifically, because achieving this goal didn’t really illuminate anything in my reading life. But I’m glad I did it nonetheless!
Let’s Look at Gender
Author Gender:
Female: 56%
Male: 41%
Non-binary: 1.6%
Multiple authors: .8%
I typically do read more female authors, but I noticed that my 5 star books were split 50/50 between male and female authors, and of my top 10 favorite reads of the year 6 were by men, 4 by women. I will admit that this is not something I pay much attention to throughout the year, and I don’t really have a desire to set a goal or change it in any way.
Ratings and Standouts
Average Rating: 3.77
5-Star Reads: 24 (21% of total reading); if you count re-reads then I read 28 (23%)
Top 3 Books of 2024: See Top 10 Here!
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, translated by Ros Schwartz
My Friends by Hisham Matar
The History of Sound: Stories by Ben Shattuck
Looking Ahead to 2025
2024 has been quite a memorable and invigorating reading year. Expanding my horizons with way more translated literature has truly changed my reading habits and I can’t wait to see how that continues in the years to come.
I have some ambitious goals for 2025, though of course my main reading goal will always be to enjoy my reading and share it all with you. Maybe my next post will be a summary of my 2025 reading goals, if that’s something people are interested in. Let me know in the comments!
If you made it this far, you are a superstar! I love you and appreciate you caring enough about me and my reading habits to go through all of this with me. Cheers to a fantastic reading year together and wishing you the best in 2025!
Love the data SO MUCH!! I look forward to reading more about the books you love here
I’m thrilled to see you here on Substack! I’ve followed your reviews for years and have gotten many great recommendations. I just picked up The History of Sound based on your praise, so I’m eager to dive into that one.