Happy 2017!!

A belated, but highly anticipated, post. I’ve been waiting all year for this! I’ve never been one to keep an active list of anything, especially my reading, but when I first started blogging in March, I figured it was time for a change. And what a change it’s been! The beginning of 2016 was a rocky time in my life – I’d been laid off the year before, and I was still getting used to being a temporary employee in a new field. With oil in a down-turn, I made the switch from geology to purchasing, a drastic change that still leaves me feeling uncertain of what’s to come. That’s where books came to my rescue! Same as everyone, I hadn’t picked up a book since college, but with a whole lot of freed up time on my hands I decided to hit the books – quite possibly the best decision I ever made! Now, reading is an important part of my life. It’s an escape from every-day stresses, a chance to learn something new, and a door to endless inspiration. To everyone reading this, thank you! I started this blog to share my passion with others, and unexpectedly found an incredibly welcoming community of fellow book lovers – I couldn’t be more grateful!

This year I read 250 books and a total of 80,595 pages! For 2017, I’m hoping to keep my reading pace high, but my no means out of control. I don’t want to reach the point that I’m skimming pages to reach a silly goal – what would be the point? For those who are asking – how do I read so much? Almost HALF of my books are audiobooks – 101 to be exact. Followed by 115 in print and 34 E-books. Luckily, most of my workday consists of spreadsheets, leaving me the opportunity to multitask with an audiobook. And don’t forget that lunch hour! That’s an extra 5 hours of reading every week! (Although, these days, half of that is spent blogging or reading other blogs…). One of my biggest goals in 2016 was to reach a balanced ratio between Male and Female authors – and I did it! My ratio ended up at 42% Male and 58% Female. I also read an average length of 327 pages per book with an average rating of 3.8 stars. Not too shabby!

My only disappointment is alarmingly apparent in the chart above – my top read genres directly correlate to the locations the books were set! Can you tell I love a good WWII novel? The chart clearly shows my top loves: American YA and European historical fiction – both shown by the overwhelming clusters of pins on the map. For 2017, my main reading goal is to even out my map. No more empty continents this year! You can read my other reading goals for 2017, here.

Outside of my reading life, I’m hoping to take more of an advantage of living in Houston, Texas. We’re honored to have 3 independent bookstores in the city, each hosting a multitude of authors every month! Tomorrow I’ll be attending a talk by Zadie Smith and I hope to attend a reading by the esteemed Amor Towles next month!!

How was your 2016 in reading?