Here’s where I look back on everything I read in the past year and see how well I did, based on entirely arbitrary and often vague goals I have set myself.
Goal: read at least 100 books
As with most years I set my goal as 100, but then upped it to 150 when I hit 100 in July. Having made it to 156 books read, that’s my second highest number since having Brodie (the highest was in 2020 when I was furloughed and had a lot more time to read.)
Goal: read more new books than rereads
As much as I love rereading my favourites, it can be too easy to stick with those and not explore new things.
I haven’t looked at the stats yet, I expect the rereads will be quite high (last year was 39 vs 111 new), seeing as I’ve read so many Blyton’s with Brodie.
And yes, this year was 50 rereads and 106 new. I think that’s OK! Seeing as my goal was initially to read 100 books, and I’ve read over 100 new ones, the rereads are just a bonus. Out of those rereads, only 13 weren’t either Jodi Taylor or Enid Blyton.
Amongst those were 50 new-to-me authors (and 84 different ones in total, not including those in the Collin’s Annual). Last year I suggested that this goal could become more new books and new authors? I feel like I did keep that in mind a bit as I have tried a lot of new ones.
Some of them were responsible for my favourite reads this year – Sweetpea by CJ Scuse, The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood and the Nosey Parker series by Fiona Leitch.
Amongst my reread books are some familiar author names to the blog.
Enid Blyton, Jodi Taylor, Amber Eve, Jenny Colgan, Molly Harper, Jennifer Worth and
Donna Douglas.
Goal: read some books I’ve always meant to
This covers a lot. I have books I mean to read for various reasons. I like to try for an adult classic each year (children’s ones are a bonus), I aim to read some things that I’ve had on my to-read list for ages, and I like to try to read books where I’ve seen a TV or film version.
Last year I specifically made a goal of reading more of my favourite kind of book – ones about bookshops and libraries.
Let’s start with the classics.
My grown-up classic was Pride and Prejudice. I liked it more than some of the ones I’ve read in previous years but it was still quite tedious at times. But I can now say that I’ve read it, and understand references to it when they inevitably crop up.
I think only one children’s one would count – Anne of Avonlea, the second Anne of Green Gables book by LM Montgomery. Though I have seen Blyton’s books being categorised as classics more often recently!
Anything else ticked off?
I did well on books about bookshops and libraries. In 2022 I read 14. In 2023 I read 33. And in 2024 I read 32. I was convinced it would be more than that, but then I did also read one about a book club, one about a book collector, three about publishing/writing novels and one where the main character finds herself living inside the fictional world of her favourite novels.
Goal: Find a good balance between books for children and books for grown ups
As before, I love children’s books. But it can be too easy to stick with them for their ease of reading.
I read 111 adult books, 6 for teens and 39 for children, which is very similar to last year’s split.
Read more non-fiction
I seem to read non-fiction in fits and starts. More in fits, to be honest.
Included in this goal is to specifically read books on subjects like feminism and race, and I didn’t do very well on those.
I read 14 non fiction books which incidentally is exactly the same as last year. It’s more than one a month so it’s not bad exactly, I just feel as if I haven’t read many that were particularly worthy.
Fern Brady’s Strong Female Character was great, though, as was Len Pennie’s Poyums (both had a strong feminist slant) and Hayley Morris’ Me Vs Brain. I also enjoyed Jose Luis Gonzales Macias’ Atlas of Lighthouses and Marisa Crawford (et al)’s Babysitters Club Essays.
Other reading stats
Those were my goals, but I’ve been keeping a note of the split between physical books, ebooks and audiobooks. This is just out of interest as they’re all equal in my mind.
I read 67 physical books, 46 audiobooks and 43 ebooks. Thats less ebooks but a lot more audiobooks than last year. Good for my value for money from audible, perhaps less so for Kindle Unlimited.
Two years ago I started recording how many books came from the library (which was 43). Last year I decided to record where my all of books came from.
I got 36 books from Audible
I bought 9 (well, I bought more than 9 but I read 9 that I bought that year)
I received 5 as gifts (again, I probably was given more than that including ones I got in past years, but I read 5 I was given in 2024)
I read 30 on Kindle Unlimited (this is good – I think, I will work out the costs later).
I borrowed 35 from the library.
I read 37 I already owned (only 2 for the first time!)
I read 1 I was sent to proofread
I read 1 which was free in exchange for a review
I read 1 I found in a holiday house
I read 1 which was just free online
That then led me to wonder how much I spent on books over a year, and so… I kept track. Sort of. This is tricky because I bought several I didn’t read. So do I count them as part of 2024, or when I read them? (I’m leaning towards when I read them, as it makes this year look better, seeing as I’ve marked loads as “already owned” without being able to attach a cost to them…)
I spent £27.53 buying books this year – books that I read, that is. I’m not getting into how much I spent on ones I haven’t read, but I can only think of maybe three or four of those so it probably wasn’t loads.
But of course I also have my Audible and KU subscriptions. I’m not thrilled at the prospect of working out how much those cost me…
Audible is £69.99 for 12 credits. Theoretically that’s £5.80 per audiobook which is actually very good, considering how expensive they are to buy up-front, and that’s even less than a lot of paperbacks or even ebooks would be. I got 36 books from Audible, though. Some of them were in two books for one credit sales, others were from the Plus Catalogue that’s only accessible with a membership. So essentially I paid £1.94 per audiobook!
Kindle Unlimited is £9.49 a month, which works out at £113.88 a year. My 30 books worked out at £3.80 each. That’s not bad value, but I’ll have to have a think about whether to keep subscribing or not.
In total I spent £211.40 on 75 books last year. That seems pretty reasonable, considering that the average paperback now costs over £10.
Something else I logged was days read, thanks to using Bookmory. It has been interesting to see the pattern emerge, which is of me generally reading anywhere from 1-6 different books every day. And I mean, every day. Logging it this way encouraged me to read all 366 days of 2024. With the exception of 22 days I’ve picked up at least two books a day.
The Blytons
Blyton was my most read author of the year, though Jodi Taylor gave her a good run for her money with 18. The vast majority were me reading them to Brodie, otherwise Blyton would be languishing with just three read – two of which were continuation books with her name on.
In past years I’ve read:
2019 – 5
2020 – 5
2021 – 6
2022 – 6
2023 13
And 2024? 26. Twice as many as last year, and over four times as many as the previous years. I counted and I read Enid Blyton on 287 days last year – that has to be a record for me!
Blyton adjacent titles were Celtic Cross the final Mirabelle Bevan book by Sara Sheridan and Studies by Jenny Colgan (both from series I recommend as Blyton for grown-ups), plus Six in a Caravan by Bridget Mackenzie and The Challenge of Palores Point by Zoe Billings.
Did you set a reading goal for last year, if so, how did you get on? Have you set one for 2025?
Fiona
pippastef
worldofblyton
World of Blyton 