Books 2018

[schneefink]

Books I read this year: around 60, which I'm happy with ("around" because I'm never sure how to count novellas, longer short stories etc.) I read the most books in March and November and fewest in June and September, but I'm pretty sure I read roughly the same amount of words each month, just the distribution between original and fanfic was different.

Some stats: of the books I read 45 were by women, 12 by men, 3 by a non-binary author. That surprised me a bit when I realized, it wasn't on purpose at all, but apparently women just write more interesting books.
I think that 11 or more of the books were written by PoC, but I'm not sure about all of them and definitions are difficult anyway.
I also read only 4 books in German. Huh.
This is connected to the genres I read: 41 fantasy books, 9 supernatural romance, 7 science fiction, and just 2(!) other. Less science fiction than I would have guessed, and more supernatural romance for a genre where I almost only read books from authors whose fic I love.

Favorite books read this year: Musketeer Space, The Fire's Stone, TAZ: Here There Be Gerblins (one of only two comics I read), Bloodrights, Power and Majesty, The Aeronaut's Windlass.
Book I most look forward to in 2019: "Children of Ruin", the sequel of "Children of Time" – more space spiders, yay!

Comments

[starshipfox]

I find that the majority of the books I read are by women, without me trying much at all. Men just aren't writing things I care about!

[schneefink]

Well, I guess it's no surprise. Men just aren't as creative as women, they can't be expected to write good fantasy ;)

[naye]

I like reading stats! It's interesting how you gravitate toward books by women...

(I do find it hard to split books by author gender, because unlike they state their pronouns very clearly I never know how they actually identify?)

[schneefink]

I just go by first name and if it's unclear I google, but yeah I might be wrong about some of them, idk.

I haven't paid attention before and now I'm curious if it was an outlier and how it will be next year. In 2017, approximately 27 of 40 books were by women, and in 2016 I read only 17 books (according to Goodreads) and none of them were by men, huh.

[merit]

the majority of mine are also female. i usually find i enjoy most women writers more as well. a lot of authors don't have pictures up so that does make it more difficult to find out a few bits about them. i am trying to read more diversely!! ^^;;

i tend to read mostly fantasy with sci-fi a distant. i tried a few other genres this year, but i suspect i just like fantasy the most!

[schneefink]

Yeah, every time I try other genres, even when the books are quite good, I'm reminded why fantasy is my favorite :)