My reading year in 2019

Top 10 Books!

• The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo – a family saga
• 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff – letters written between a woman in NYC and a bookseller in London
• The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary – a British rom-com
• The One by John Marrs – a multi-perspective thriller
• An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green – modern day science-fiction
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett – a historical family saga
• Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – a space opera
• Recursion by Blake Crouch – memory bending science-fiction
• The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle – heartwrenching contemporary fiction
• The Mother In Law by Sally Hepworth – contemporary fiction and a thriller/mystery

Honorable romance mentions:

• One Day in December by Josie Silver
• Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
• The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis-Graves
• The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez
• Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
• The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
• Bromance Book Club by Lysa Adams

Honorable fantasy mentions:

• A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
• Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty
• The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Best books published in 2019

• Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah – magical realism contemporary fiction
• Miracle Creek by Angie Kim – family courtroom drama
• Park Avenue Summer by Renee Rosen – fun fast fiction
• The Stationary Shop by Marjan Kamali – historical fiction
• Gravity is the Thing by Jaclyn Moriarty – contemporary fiction
• After the End by Clare Mackintosh – dual timeline family fiction
• American Royals by Katharine McGee – YA royalty
• Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia – fantasy ish mystery
• Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson – friendship fiction

Reading Statistics
In 2019, I read 165 books encompassing 64,022 pages. That’s an average of 175 pages per day! It’s worth noting that I do listen to about an hour of audiobooks every day and that factors into the final number and page count.
Just over a quarter, 26% of books I read this year were published this year which is on par for me because I love all things new and shiny. 87% of books were written by female authors — I tend to find their writing more realistic.

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I did a lot more romance reading this year than I ever have in years past. In 2018, I didn’t split out what I would consider the sub-genre’s of fiction (fantasy, thriller, mystery, historical) like I did this year. Briefly glancing at the list, I would say that about 5 total books were romance, so a little more than 5%.

In 2018, I read 77 books. In 2019, I more than DOUBLED that. I don’t know if the big difference was the blog, or finally joining a real life book club, but either way, I’m very proud and pleased with myself. Looking over the list of books I read in 2019 gives me a great sense of peace and pleasure. I thoroughly enjoyed this year of reading, and actually saved myself a lot of money, because my library usage went up from 40% of books to 60% of books.

One of my goals for next year is to see if I can crack the mystery of 200 books a year. But I will only input my Goodreads goal as 150 books, so that I can most likely crush it earlier on in the year and give myself a sense of accomplishment (which I will have whether or not I meet that goal). I am going to prioritize reading my backlog of Book of The Month picks. I’ve been a member for 2 years now and have not read a good amount of them.

Here’s to a new decade and another stellar year of reading, friends!

To view the full list of all of the books I read, and review graphs associated, you can see that here. Disclaimer: the majority of the end of year stats (besides page count and book number) were calculated in early December.