Reading Report Card: 6 Months into 2014

Written by: Kelly on July 11, 2014.

Last year in December, I took a look at what I’d read that year and broke it down into quantifiable categories. Was I reading more debuts than the year before? Was I reading more male writers than female writers? What about the sort of diversity I was reading, either in terms of authors of color or stories featuring a main character of color?

I’ve noted this has been a slower reading year for me, and because of that, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at my reading at the half-way point of 2014 and see where I have been and figure out what, if anything, I should be doing better in the second half of the year. As of writing this post, I’ve read 45 books, or about two books per week. I did not include any of the manuscripts I’ve read this year (probably between 8 and 10) but rather, books that are available now or will be available before the end of the year.

The entire list of my titles read with how I categorized them is accessible here, if you’re curious. I had planned on looking at genre as a key part of my breakdown, but I read mostly realistic fiction for many reasons, and it wasn’t surprising that was the bulk of this year’s titles already.

Book Audience and Format

Let’s look first at the types of books I’m reading in terms of who the general audience is:

One thing I’ve wanted to do is read more adult books, and I don’t think this is too bad so far.

So far, I’ve read 7 adult books this year and 38 YA books. Of the adult books, one title was non-fiction and of the YA books, one title was non-fiction (or rather, it’s a collection of poetry and images, which I’d categorize under non-fiction, rather than fiction in terms of it being like a novel).

Since I’m on format with this, might as well get a look at where my format reading is so far.

The majority of my reading has been fiction this year. I’ve read 2 graphic novels, one novel in verse, a poetry collection, and one non-fiction title. I separated the last two out in this chart, as opposed to the chart above.

I think I’d like to try to sneak in a little more non-fiction reading this year. Last year, I got to read so much non-fiction, and this year, I have not been reading it much at all. The title I did read was danah boyd’s It’s Complicated, about teens and their use of technology and the internet. I think picking more titles up in that realm is a goal I’ve got before the end of the year.

Books by Gender of Author and Main Character

So what about gender? This is of particular interest to me this year with the “Year of Reading Women” campaign. Do I tend toward more female authors or male authors? I haven’t been keeping tabs on this this year or spent a lot of time being conscious of this on purpose.

Out of the 45 books I read, there were 47 authors writing them.

I read more females than males this year, roughly 80% to 20%.

And how that translates in terms of the gender of the main characters of the books I’ve read this year:

This breakdown was very tricky. Part of it was because I had to identify “main character” when the novel was told from more than one point of view. I decided if it was only 2 points of view, I could count both. If it was more than two, I threw it into a catch-all “cast of characters” category; in this instance, all four of those titles featured both male and female voices. The not applicable category went to my poetry collection and the non-fiction title, which didn’t have a dominant main character voice (though the poetry collection is geared toward female readers).

The numbers here show I read more female main characters than male (32 compared to 6). Of those female characters, four of the books I read featured 2 female characters each. Interestingly, I haven’t read a title this year yet that features two male main characters, but I have read 5 titles that feature a male and a female main character.

Publication Year and Publication Debut

It has been a very slow year for debut novel reading for me. I haven’t been seeing as many pop up, and I’ve definitely not been seeing as many review copies pop up on Edelweiss nor in my mailbox that are debut or speak to me. It may be the case there are many more debut genre novels this year than in the past, which I am less inclined to read than realistic debuts.

Hre’s how the debut vs. not a debut titles look. I define debut in the purest sense: first book, period. I don’t care if they wrote an adult novel before or self-published a book before. I only looked at debut novels from 2014 — if a novel was a debut from another year, I did not include it.

Maybe it’s not as bad as I thought. Almost 20% of the titles I read were debut novels. I’d like to amp that up in the second half of the year, but it’s better than I expected.

I looked, too, at the publication year of the books I’m reading, in order to get a sense of how much backlist I’m reading. Of the 45 books I’ve read, 6 were not published in 2014. As of this writing, the book I’m reading and the one following it are backlist, which should help those numbers a bit at the end of the year.

Likewise, I looked at the series vs. not a series titles I’ve read. Of the 45 books, only 4 were from a series. And actually, calling those four books series titles is true, but three of them are stand alone series titles: Biggest Flirts by Jennifer Echols, Dirty Wings by Sarah McCarry, and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han can all be read alone, without context from previous/forthcoming titles. Sex Criminals I threw into the series category, though. I know I can pick up the single volumes, but I prefer my graphic novels in a larger edition, so I’ll be waiting eagerly for the second volume here.

Diversity

One thing I have paid far more attention to with my reading this year has been diversity. I don’t like making specific reading goals, since I think it can kill my reading interests, but I have been very conscious of reading more books written by or featuring main characters of color. Talking about these books is important to me, and I’ve been trying to be better at highlighting them.

Out of the 45 titles I’ve read, I looked at a general breakdown of the books either written by or featuring a character of color. Some of these books have overlap to them — Pointe by Brandy Colbert, for example, is written by and features a person of color — but I kept the tally for it at one. In this count, I included Nina LaCour’s Everything Leads to You because the main character’s racial makeup, while not at the forefront of the story, is important.

More than 1/4 of the books I read were written by or featured main characters of color. I think this is better than in past years, and what’s maybe more interesting to me is that increasing that number has not been hard. I don’t make to-read lists or get fussy about what order I read books in. I make a tall stack and go as the interest reaches me. Reaching for more diverse titles has not been a challenge in the least. Maybe the hardest part is what comes before that though — learning what those books are and seeking them out.

I think that’s the real battle we’ll keep having. Once they’re accessible, they’re a lot easier to pick up and talk about.

It seemed worthwhile to look at sexuality in terms of diversity in my reading, too. How many books featured non-straight characters, either as a main part of the story or as a part of the character’s identity, regardless of how it wove into the greater narrative. Out of 45 books, four featured non-straight characters for me so far. Those four include Everything Leads to You, One Man Guy, Grasshopper Jungle, and Far From You. Two of those books feature bisexual characters, on features a lesbian main character, and one features a gay character.

The Second Half of 2014

I don’t like goals, like I said before, but I think in looking at my breakdowns, I know where I can be a better reader. I know, too, where I’d like to be a better reader. Seeing the quantitative breakdowns helps shape my thinking about reading and where/what I could be a better advocate for, as well. It’d probably be beneficial to look at what the breakdown of titles reviewed here is, too: am I talking up enough diverse titles? Could I do better at it?

I’m hoping to blow past 100 books before 2014 rolls to an end, and I don’t think that’s an impossible goal.

I’m curious to hear from you: what have you seen with your reading this year? Any interesting or noteworthy trends? Have you had any favorite reads that surprised you or you think other people should know about and read? Lay it on me!