All The Right Reads

Today we’re taking a look at Tabatha’s 2023 book statistics. Few things you should know before we start:

1. Tabatha reads a LOT. 
2. She was also sort of a math geek growing up. This means she ADORES statistics. 
3. She reads really, really, really fast. Like audiobooks on 2 or 2.5 times the original speed sort of fast (actually that’s a little slow if she’s reading herself but it’s the way she does her audiobooks).
4. She always has a book going … usually she has 2. 
5. She loves to share what she’s reading and enjoying, but she absolutely doesn’t judge anyone for what FORMAT, SPEED, QUANTITY, or GENRE they read. Reading is reading. It should be for enjoyment. 

Let’s get to it, shall we?

The Overall Numbers

• 145 Books
• 50,249 Pages
• 28% Independently Published

Genre

The majority of Tab’s reads this year were classified as fantasy. The bulk of what she takes on from our review requests is fantasy, so this makes sense. It’s a genre she enjoys (and one she writes). Her second biggest chunk was mystery/thriller books. Again, that makes sense. If you were to set Tab loose in a bookstore, the first place she’d visit is the mystery/thriller section. She just gravitates there naturally. There was a wide range of other genres though including poetry, nonfiction, and even some romance (not usually her preferred genre). 

Age Category

This is a satisfyingly obvious one. The older a book’s intended audience, the more likely it is to wind up on Tab’s list. She reads everything, but a vast majority of her reads are written for an adult audience. 

Let’s combine those two statistics. 

This way we can see the one children’s book was a fantasy book, middle grade tends toward fantasy or contemporary fiction, young adult tends toward fantasy (but appears in many of her other genres as well), and the rest of her genres are dominated by adult. Aren’t statistics fun?

One question we get asked is if Tab is reading mostly short books. We didn’t think so, but we like to back things up with data. 

Page Count

Pretty expected, as far as that beautiful bell curve goes. It looks like the vast majority of the books she reads hit right in that 301-400 page count. Typical.

For note, the shortest book she read this year was that 40 page children’s book she was sent to review and the longest was 671 pages. 

Speaking of review requests, how many of her books were provided by authors or publishers?

A total of 42. In addition to those sources, 84 of her reads were borrowed from someone else or the library (most from the library), 2 were gifts or giveaways that she won online, and the remaining 17 were purchased. 

What format were all these books?

Mostly audiobook, which isn’t really surprising. Tab works a day job that involves packing books, a task you can complete without really thinking too much. This means she can listen to audiobooks during that part of her day. She’s also discovered she adores audiobooks for driving, cooking, or cleaning. 

Let’s combine those two stats. 

Whew, this one was fun to make! For reference, we did the best we could to make this accurate. There were some books Tab actually read in MULTIPLE formats (audiobook and paperback, for example). We only documented ONE (the one she read first or the one she read most of the book as). As you’ll see, most of the books she borrows are audiobooks. Actually, she’s NEVER purchased an audiobook. They’re either provided by the author for review purposes or she borrows them. 

Star Rating

Absolutely no 1-star reads this year (wow) but otherwise, this looks pretty normal. 

How old are these books she’s reading?

Valid question. Tab has been TRYING to read the books she already owns (in addition to taking on new review requests from all of you) so sometimes they’re pretty old! The oldest book she read was published in 1937 and the newest was an ARC that wasn’t officially released until 2024. And before you ask, we know the groupings of numbers are not evenly spaced so this data set is a little wonky. We think this works for our purposes. A box-and-whisker plot would be better but we didn’t feel like drawing it by hand. 

Let’s combine those stats. 

Each of these year bands looks about the same relative shape. So, we guess this proves the year a book was released really has no impact on Tab’s star rating. 

Well, that seems like a solid amount of analysis on Tab’s reading for 2023. Her goal was to read 104 books (that’s 2 books per week) and she obviously beat that. She did make a point to say she wouldn’t have met her goal without audiobooks. She then said maybe she’d try to make that 104 goal without counting her audiobooks this year. We’re pretty sure she was joking but you never know with her. She’s keeping the same 104 book goal in 2024 and has already started in on it. You can follow her on Goodreads if you want to monitor her progress (goodreads.com/tabathashipley) or, of course, you can follow us right here because she reviews EVERYTHING she reads!

Need a review and think these stats show she’s your gal? Check out our review policy here.

And, as always, if you need recommendations you’ll LOVE snag yourself a Surprise Reads Box here and we’ll take care of building you a unique book recommendation box and ship it right to your house!

Happy Reading!