Note: this post has absolutely nothing to do with my mental breakdown. If and when I share it, that will be its own separate beast.
Journaling. Bullet journalling. Tracking things. In fact, the second post on my Instagram grid is pretty much all about it.
It’s fun to me. I want to be consistent in it. So in 2022, I decided to start a reading journal; I found a few challenges I wanted to try in an attempt to broaden my reading horizons and more than that, simply rediscover my love of books.
I started with the goal of reading 52 books in 2022. And because I doubted myself so much, I decided to include 2 novels that I read in late December 2021.
Of course, the fact that this has been a tumultuous year for me – in and out of hospital, an extended period of leave from work – has meant that I’ve had far more free time that I anticipated and I have, in fact, exceeded my goal.
Here are some photos of the monstrosity that I created:
Here are some photos of the monstrosity that I created – I tried to do too much. Although I have creative ideas, I don’t have stylistic handwriting. Tracking how many pages I read every day, that got exhausting fast. Recording my reads was perfect I just didn’t allow enough space and thinking I’d actually write a review of everything that I read, well, no.
BUT, because there’s a part of my brain that wanted to see the data laid out, I transferred the information from my journal to a spreadsheet. And yes, I fully intend to maintain a handwritten and spreadsheet version in years to come. Although, I definitely intend on tweaking the written journal. I had hoped to write a simple review of each book but that fell to the wayside, so in 2023 I will assign one page per month to list my reads. And I’ll include a few challenges. Beyond that we shall see.
But back to the fun bit and the point of this post…
My spreadsheet is simple (a bit like me, I need to work on my excel skills, especially when using google docs), where I tracked the following:
- Title
- Author
- Genre 1 (Considered the main genre)
- Genre 2 (Considered a secondary genre but then I wondered, should there be an option for Genre 3… I’ll consider that for my 2023 document)
- Length
- Fiction or Non-Fiction
- My rating out of 5
- The month I read it
- The year I read it (seems silly because I have a separate tab for each year BUT, I have grand plans to create a master list)
And from there, you better believe I created pivot tables.
I hope this is fairly self explanatory – this looks at the main genre, the number of books I read in said genre and my average rating.
| Genre | Number Read | Average Rating /5 |
| Coming of Age | 1 | 4.50 |
| Fantasy | 15 | 3.73 |
| General Fiction | 7 | 3.71 |
| Historical Fiction | 5 | 3.90 |
| Mystery | 3 | 2.67 |
| Philosophical | 1 | 4.00 |
| Psychological Thriller | 8 | 3.56 |
| Romance | 20 | 3.68 |
| Self Help | 1 | 4.00 |
| Social Horror | 1 | 3.50 |
| Supernatural | 4 | 3.63 |
| Supernatural | 2 | 2.75 |
| Thriller | 3 | 3.50 |
| Grand Total | 71 | 3.64 |
This was fun for me because I branched out into fantasy/supernatural (why is that on there twice???) more than I ever have, I think because for a long long time I wasn’t “allowed” to. I tend to stick with thrillers, crime, romance etc.
When I look at the data for the secondary genre, I see a greater rise in LGBTQIA+ novels, which again, was something that I steered away from in the past (hello, conservative upbringing). Granted, 3 might not seem like a lot, but this is where I wonder if I add an extra genre column for the year ahead?
| Genre 2 | Number Read |
| 15 | |
| Adventure | 2 |
| Comedy | 5 |
| Fantasy | 2 |
| Feminism | 1 |
| General Fiction | 4 |
| Historical Fiction | 2 |
| LGBT | 3 |
| Myster | 1 |
| Mystery | 13 |
| Paranormal | 3 |
| Romance | 14 |
| Sci-Fi | 1 |
| Suspense | 2 |
| Thriller | 2 |
| Time Travel | 1 |
| Grand Total | 71 |
It’s also interesting to me, that of 71 books, 15 didn’t seem to have a secondary genre. Although, to be fair they were primarily romance novels.
That’s the other thing, not sure if you’ve noticed, I don’t really read non-fiction. Only one book made it to the list in 2022. Perhaps I could make that a 2023 goal? Or nah, this blog is about me finding things I enjoy, things that bring me happiness, and if that’s novels, then so be it!
A couple more interesting stats:
- I read a total of 26,833 pages (I wonder how many words that is)
- Of the 71 books, only 6 received a 5 star rating from me
- 4 received a 4.5 (perhaps for 2023 I rid myself of the dreaded 0.5, I have to choose!)
- A whopping 22 received a 4
- The lowest rating I gave a book was a 1.5 which hurt, because it was an author I used to love
- I read a total of 56 different authors
If you’d like to know my 4 and 5 star rated books leave a comment here or on my instagram, I’m more than happy to oblige (or if you’d like to see the entire list).
In the meantime, here’s a glimpse at the mess I have created for 2023
It’s the same notebook but I added some stickers to the front to differentiate from my other journals. Wow, original, I know. I’ve given each month it’s own page to track what I’ve read. And I’ve got a couple of challenges written out.
I’m excited to hold on to this hobby and love. I didn’t realise how much I had missed it until I picked it up again last year. My goal this year is 52 books but I’m secretly (although I guess not so secretly because I’m sharing it here) is to surpass the 71 I read in 2022.
Anyway, like I said above, if you’re curious about the exact books that I read in 2022 – or even those that I rated 4-5 stars, let me know! Also, let me know what you’re reading in 2023 – I’m always looking for recommendations!