The Year In Reading 2007: The Numbers

It's a new year, which must mean it's time for me to break down the previous year's adventures in reading. For the last several years I've kept a rudimentary database that covers authors, titles, genres, publication dates and my own rating system. It's not terribly involved, but it helps me keep track and being the dork for making lists that I am, I find it fun in a perverse sort of way.

2007 saw me reading 72 books. This is good. That's more than a book a week. Of course when you compare it to the fact that I read 95 books in 2006 and 105 in 2005 - well it ain't that good. I largely blame this slump on my slow descent into Reviewer Burn Out Hell, and prior to leaving The Romance Reader in July I had only managed to review 18 books for them. Yikes! Hopefully 2008, and no hard core review commitments, will see my reading totals climb.

As far as the quality of my reading, well that was pretty much par for the course. Over the years I've learned that the bulk of my reading lands around the B/C territory with a few books rising to the top, and the stragglers sinking to the depths. 2007 was no different.

• A grades = 3
• B grades = 33
• C grades = 26
• D grades = 9
• F grades = 1

As far as sub genres, there are a few interesting things here. Keep in mind, I tend to give books multiple labels, so these won't add up to 72 books. Also, these are all romances unless otherwise specified.

• 4 Anthologies
• 4 Single Title Contemporary
• 1 English Historical
• 12 Erotica
• 1 Urban Fantasy
• 1 Futuristic
• 1 Historical Mystery
• 12 Mystery
• 2 Historical Fiction
• 3 Paranormal
• 3 Romantic Suspense
• 10 Series (Harlequin/Silhouette)
• 3 Suspense
• 16 Historical Western
• 1 Young Adult

The thing that jumps out at me here is that I only read one English Historical romance. Since 2006 I've read a whopping 6 English Historicals. Wow, how telling is that? Nothing else really leaps out here. Given I read 20 fewer books this year than last, everything is slightly down. That said, my Erotica total was the only sub genre that showed a significant increase (no pun intended) up from 9 in 2006 to 12 in 2007.

This year I thought I'd breakdown publication dates as well. Given I still had a reviewing commitment for the first part of the year, these numbers should come as no shock.

• 2008 = 1
• 2007 = 41
• 2006 = 6
• 2005-2001 = 19
• Prior to 2000 = 5

Given that I'm no longer doing any heavy-duty reviewing, I hope to put a dent in the old TBR in 2008. I expect these numbers to be very different this time next year. Hope springs eternal for those of us suffering from TBR Anxiety.

Next up? When I get around to it, I want to highlight some of the great and good books I read in 2007. Stay tuned.