Alison Cherry Books

Middle Grade and Young Adult Author of Red, For Real, and other books.

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Alison’s 2012 book-buying/reading statistics

December 26, 2012 By Alison Cherry

There are a lot of nerdy things about me, but perhaps the nerdiest of all is my book spreadsheet. Every year, I carefully track my reading and book-buying in an extremely complicated color-coded document, and then I calculate all my reading and buying statistics at the end of December. I get ENDLESS grief from my friends about this spreadsheet, but someday I’ll get the last laugh when they’re like, “When did I read WONDER? I can’t remember,” and I’m like, “*click click click* Hmm, looks like I finished it on May 29th, 2012, and I also know where and when I bought it and how much it cost, SUCKER.” (Yes, I realize this conversation will never happen. JUST HUMOR ME, okay?? Also, you should read WONDER.)

Behold, for your viewing (and nerding) pleasure, my 2012 book statistics.

THE BUYING STATS:

In total, I bought 130 books this year, five more than last year. (My book-buying seems to increase every year, despite my repeated proclamations that I’m going to cut back.) The genre breakdown is as follows:

50% young adult; 

20% middle grade;

18% adult fiction;

10% adult non-fiction;

2% graphic novels and art books.

(Weirdly enough, those are EXACTLY the same percentages as last year, except that 2% moved from the adult fiction category to the middle grade category. I am shockingly consistent.)

I bought 20% of those books used.

3% were e-books, down from 10% last year, and one of the four e-books I bought was one I already owned in print.

15% of those books were free, due to credit card rewards points or gift cards.

50% were purchased from indie bookstores.

8% were books I’d read before but felt the need to own.

Of the books I purchased this year, I finished reading 64%. (Not quite as good as last year, when I finished 67%.)

First book I bought this year: WINTER TOWN, Stephen Emond

Last book I bought this year: MORANTHOLOGY, Caitlin Moran

Month in which I bought the most books: February, when I bought 22 books, but that was entirely due to the Park Slope Two-Dollar book sale. September ranks second, with 17 purchases, ALL of which were at indie bookstores.

And I’m not going to tell you how much money I spent on books this year because it is utterly horrifying and you would all judge me forever. But I will tell you this: in keeping with my New Year’s resolution, not one single dollar of that embarrassing amount went to Amazon.

* * * 

 

THE READING STATS:

Assuming I finish both the books I’m currently reading, I will have read 120 books this year, down a disappointing 12% from last year. However, that makes sense, since I started working from home at the end of May and therefore eliminated about 250 hours of commuting time from my year. (That’s almost TEN AND A HALF DAYS, you guys.) I also started an additional nine books that I didn’t finish. The genre breakdown, not counting the half-read books, is as follows:

62% YA;

21% middle grade;

12% adult fiction;

4% adult non-fiction;

1% graphic novels.

Only 8% of those books were from the library. That is completely depressing, but I used to work right next to the library, and now I don’t. 

11% were re-reads.

16% of the books were by authors I know at least well enough to have lunch with.

I read 15% of those books before their publication dates.

Months in which I read the most: February, May, September, and December, with twelve books a piece.

Month in which I read the least: June, with a measly six books.

* * *

Stay tuned; tomorrow I’ll post my favorite reads of the year!

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