2022 Reading Wrap-Up

Last year I deleted my GoodReads account and signed up for StoryGraph. Between the awful GoodReads experience on mobile and sharing unnecessary  amounts of reading data with Amazon, I decided enough was enough.

I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t have an alternative, though, because I like having an easy way to track my books. No laborious spreadsheets for me, thanks! And that alternative was StoryGraph, which proved not only to be an adequate GoodReads replacement but an actual improvement. In addition to a much smoother and functional interface on mobile (though there is a web version as well!), it tracks a greater variety of data and uses it to help you better understand your reader rather than to feed the Bezos beast. It also lets you play with that data in better detail. What better way to show that off than by sharing my 2022 Reading Wrap-Up from StoryGraph!

A screenshot from the StoryGraph website with reading statistics. Here it says that I read 53 books in 2022. My first book of the year was SPQR. My last book was Orlando.

A line graph for a full year. The line starts slightly below halfway in January, dips slightly until May, and then increases to slightly above halfway in December.

It’s unclear how they are categorizing “light” and “dark” books on the site, precisely. StoryGraph gives you the option of selecting “moods” for books as you add them, which I assume this graph is referring to. (“This would be good for someone in the mood for something…”) My guess is that moods like “tense” or “sad” count as dark, and that ones like “hopeful” or “adventurous” count as light, but that’s just hypothesizing. Apparently I was in a real bummer reading mood for the entire spring!

Another line graph comparing pages read and books read over 2022. At the bottom of the image are celebrating emojis and the text "Congratulations on meeting your reading goal!" Below that is green progress bar with the text 110%.

A bar graph showing my most-read genres. Science fiction: 12 books. Classics: 10 books. Literary: 9 books. Queer: 8 books. Contemporary: 5 books.

No surprise that science fiction tops the list. Austin Feminist Sci Fi Book Club keeping me on my toes!

The longest and shortest books I read this year. The longest was The Big Balloon (A Love Story) at 648 pages. The shortest was Uppläsningen at 47 pages. The average length of the books I read was 324 pages.

A bar graph showing the authors I read the most during the year. Muriel Barbery: 2. Stefan Zweig: 2. Marcel Pagnol: 2. My average rating for books 3.75/5 stars.

 

A small collage of book covers that I rated 5/5 stars during the year.

Ones that I discussed here were:

A bar graph showing my ratings breakdown. 0 stars: 1 book. 2 stars: 6 books. 3 stars: 10 books. 4 stars: 23 books. 5 stars: 13 books. My average rating 4.5 stars in March. I read the most pages (2,590) in December.

Sometimes numbers surprise you. Despite the 3.75 star average, I wasn’t expecting to see quite so many 4 star ratings in my stats (I promise I know how math works). My philosophy is that if your average rating over a whole year reaches or exceeds 4 out of 5 stars, you are either being overly generous with your opinions or insufficiently adventurous with your choices. Or you are possibly DNF-ing every single mediocre book you pick up, which is a choice I respect.

Another great thing about StoryGraph: it lets you give 0 star reviews, which is exactly what I gave Into the Drowning Deep.

The most shelved book (by other users) that I read was My Year of Rest and Relaxation.

StoryGraph also provides the “least shelved” book you read—the book you read that the fewest number of users have added to their own lists, whether they’ve read it or only intend to—and the “highest rated” book you read—the book you read that has the highest rating on the site. My “least shelved” book was a self-published novel that I panned (seems pointlessly cruel to share that) and my “highest rated” is niche and of no interest here, so I’m omitting those two.

I read 44 new to me authors this year, including Ryka Aoki, Lori Gottlieb, and Ingegerd Enström. Nine of the books I read were part of a series. I re-read 2 books.

Speaking of re-reads, I’ll take the opportunity to point out that adding re-reads of books in different languages (which was both of those re-reads) is much easier to do on StoryGraph than on GoodReads.

I finished all of the books I added this year. Compared to 2021, I read 5% fewer books but 21% more pages.

Pie charts of the moods of books I read during the year and their pace. I favored reflective, informative, and emotional books (42% total). They tended to be medium-paced (54%).

A list of the common components of my highest-rated books. Moods: mysterious, dark, challenging. Pace: slow. Book type: nonfiction. Genres: biography, feminism, reference. Story style: character-driven. Characters: flawed, diverse, well-developed.

So there you have it! Maybe that enticed you to give StoryGraph a shot? Nothing about this post is paid or sponsored, I just think the service is that cool and I want it to succeed wildly.

Author: katherine

Stockholm-based translator and copyeditor of American extraction.

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