Quarterly Reading Stats // Reading More Books and Getting Rid of (Most) Challenges

I looked back at the goals I set for myself in my first quarterly reading stats of the year. I've concluded that being intentional was something I didn't pay attention to very much as the months went on. My reasoning is that I've been in large periods where I just don't feel like reading. That's why I've made it my goal to read only books I am the most excited to read. The reading challenges I set for myself at the beginning of the year are mostly gone and I'm only focusing on a couple. It's time to have the best possible time I can with my reading!

This past quarter my reading has been very up and down. It's been difficult to find gems in my reading. In the last two weeks, I've been enjoying reading more and getting excited about what I'm going to read next.

Art by Punzi Ella

I read 27 books from April - June. That's up by 8 from last quarter! 😄 I started April with a strange mix of books, mainly manga and kid's books. I had a fun time reading poetry books for the first time later on. Then, May became an odd reading month. I read a mix of horror, manga, graphic novels, and kid's books. In June, my reading picked up more in an organized fashion. I got rid of creating a list of TBR's for everyone to see every month however, I've been keeping a list for my eyes only. My goal is to have books that I'm highly anticipating and with pretty covers. I can delete books I'm not interested in and replace them with one's I am intrigued by. I have more direction in my reading so I don't get swayed to pick something up that the likelihood is I won't enjoy. The pretty covers part of this is just because they are more aesthetically pleasing to look at. Not all the covers I choose will be gorgeous or whatever but a pretty cover makes me want to read the book more. 

My goal for next quarter is to read 30 books. I don't have a yearly goal. If I don't complete this quarterly goal it's fine. I just want to try to read a little more each quarter. As long as I read quality books I am fine if I read less.

Stats by Genre

Fantasy and Contemporary Fiction are always my favorite genres. It's interesting to see how high of a percentage horror is but I feel like I haven't read enough this year. I wish I read some straight-up romance but I haven't yet. It's usually mixed in with my contemporary reads. I want to make sure I keep a variety of contemporary, fantasy, mystery, horror, sci-fi, and nonfiction for the next quarter. 

Genre Breakdown: I read 5 contemporary, 7 fantasies, 2 fiction, 4 horrors, 3 mystery/thriller, 3 poetry collections, 1 adventure, 1 superhero graphic novel, and 1 magical realism story.

Stats by Age

My goal is to have at least 40% adult reads. I'm not at 40% but at least I am even with YA which I doubled the amount read since last quarter. I expect to read more children's and middle-grade books but hopefully not as much as my adult reads.

Challenge Progress

I've decided to take out all my challenges except for two: The Get Back to Your Culture Reading Challenge and Operation Deepen Faith. My decision to do this was that I was so focused on keeping a balance of genres that it got tedious as a result I went into two reading slumps. I still want to keep my genre reading balanced but not the strict way I was doing it before. I actually completed 3 of the challenges - mystery, sci-fi, and horror challenges - but I wanted to discontinue all the genre challenges.

• Get Back to Your Culture Reading Challenge - 3/6

I did so well this last quarter. I didn't read any Spanish books from January - March so this is a great improvement. I've stopped for a few weeks but this is the motivation I need to get back into the game. I want to read at least 2 Spanish books from July - September.

• Operation Deepen Faith - 8/120 Days

I literally just read the same amount of days as I did last time... I'm pretty frustrated with myself. I wanted to keep this as a goal because it's important to me that I read the Bible continually. I've never read the whole thing so now is the time. This is my priority. I want to get to 60 days total read from the Bible by next quarter. 

Note: I've taken out the stats for author gender as it doesn't really matter to me. I would like to read more male authors in the future but it isn't a priority.

This chart represents the amount of books with characters who are the minority of the population in the U.S. including those that have disabilities and are neurodiverse. I want to have my yes portion of books with minorities to be at 43% which means a little bit of an improvement over last year. 

I did so much better this quarter than last! I do think it's mainly thanks to manga which is fine for now. I don't want to force myself to read books with minority characters. That's not the point. Reading from different viewpoints keeps reading exciting and less stagnant. I haven't focused on Hispanic characters and characters with disabilities like I wanted to but I have a few coming up. Otherwise, I just want to add more books with minority characters to my TBR and incorporate them into my reading naturally when I feel like reading that particular book. I am happy that the natural incorporation process is working already 🤗.

Favorite Books of this Quarter

Last quarter I loved all contemporary reads and this quarter is an interesting mix of poetry, contemporary, and mystery. I would have never thought a poetry book would make it on this list but I loved so many poems from What Kind of Woman. The flow and relatability were perfect. I have to have a contemporary favorite or something would have to have gone really wrong. I loved the atmosphere of Summer of Salt the most. It feels magical. And then at the last minute, Finlay Donovan is Killing It comes in as a 5 star read. I've only rated two other books 5 stars this year and they were rereads so they don't count. I loved this book. It was exactly the type of mystery comedy shenanigans that I needed in my life.  

Are you freaking out in the middle of the year? 

What are some of your favorite reads this year that you would recommend?