2022: My Year In Reading - The Stats
After two years of feverishly trying to compile my year end reading stats, this year I got wise and started tracking them manually each month. This was an easy way to monitor progress towards my diversity reading goals, course correct if needed and have a little fun (secretly I’m a hardcore data nerd).
My 2022 reading goal was to have 45 percent of books read be written by authors not like me, defined by being a white, cis-gendered male as well as all authors that identified as gay men.
As the year went on, I amended this slightly to define diverse authors as non-white individuals or writers with non-racial distinctions such as non-binary, transgender, disabled or a sexual identity other than gay (i.e. bisexual, lesbian, asexual, etc.).
This amendment was made primarily because white, cis-gendered females were the largest demographic of authors I read, and my overall author count of male-identifying versus female-identifying was trending to be 50/50. This tweak pushed me to truly seek out the diverse experiences I was intending to reach.
Only one novel didn’t make my author count since it was a compilation by 16 different writers, but the content was not attributed to them individually. That small asterisk aside, here are some highlights:
44% of authors read were non-white
42% of authors read had other identity markers such as being disabled, queer or non-binary
At 29%, the largest author demographic read was white, cis-gendered, heterosexual females
Factoring in all diversity markers (and multiple books by the same authors), 53% of books read qualified under the “not like me” umbrella.
I’m incredibly proud to have exceeded this goal, and I credit forums like #Bookstagram, library reading challenges and my favorite independent bookstore for exposing me to titles I otherwise would’ve missed.
I’m not setting any reading goals for 2023 as life circumstances have shifted, and I’ll likely have less time to read and write. Therefore, I’m going to focus on making the time to read books that interest me, first and foremost, and creating boundaries to keep this as a fun hobby rather than a chore.
With that said, I’m going to continue stat tracking and am committed to ensuring diverse perspectives remain a cornerstone of my reading. Follow me on Instagram to see my monthly progress.
Note: Stats are tracked manually each month via an Excel spreadsheet with data inputs collected from Goodreads, StoryGraph and internet research. All numbers are rounded to the nearest whole number. Since manual and automatic calculations were used, they do not always sync up perfectly, but are still generally reflective of my reading activity. When information about an author is not readily available, I make my best guess.
Explore more of my 2022 reading and listening:
