A couple months ago, I decided to break the Insta-ice and reveal my inner nerd to a small population of the world. And this is what they saw:
It’s an excel doc simply titled “2014 Books” because after tallying last year’s book reading results, I found myself wanting to know more. To which the general population responded with some of the following comments:
How do I love this? Let me count thy ways. #booknerd
This is great!! Can u email me this list?
I love you. [At least three times …which I take to mean, Cara, even though I am officially so much cooler than you, I embrace your inner nerd, wholeheartedly.]
Spreadsheet for books read? Wow. [Cough, cough, sarcasm.]
I don’t even know what to say about this… My OCD loves it & my lack of sleep makes me jealous?
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Because, you see, I wanted to have the following categories (and to-be answered questions) at my fingertips:
*Date read: How many books did I read in a given month? Why are there more books read in a particular month than in others? Is there a trend year-to-year seasonally?
*Title of book
*Author: What author(s) were “trending” for me this year?
*M/F: How many books by male authors, and how many books by female authors did I read this past year? When I’m more cognizant of book choice, do I tend to choose female authors?
[Last year I noticed I read a TON of male authors, but I also didn’t think through my choices as much: I just read whatever came my way. But given the choice of book (and given the books suggested to me), do I naturally gravitate towards my own sex? Does this matter? I think of some of my Christian male friends in particular who – sadly and wrongly – only read books by male authors. Do their reading-actions matter?]
# of pages: Really, how many pages did I actually read in a year?
Genre: Although I feel like I mix up the type of reading I do, do I still gravitate towards one kind of reading more than another? And, for instance, as a someday-to-be-published-memoirist, am I reading my fair share of memoirs?
Mode of reading: Was this book read in paperback or hardback form, on Kindle or via Audible? What types of books do I tend to read in any one category?
Rating: How many books do I rate 4’s or 5’s? When I look back at the end of the year, will I decrease some of my ratings? And since I’m reading books that have been more highly recommended than others, will I tend to have higher ratings? Will I even have a worst book read category like last year? Dun dun dun.
Year written: How many classics did I read this year? Do I tend to only read books published in the past couple of years?
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Even though all of this information can be found with a couple of clicks (check out Goodreads, if you haven’t already), for end-of-year purposes, I wanted to have it within reach. And, my book nerd friends, here’s some of what I’ve discovered already:
*Of the 64 books read so far this year, only nineteen have been written by male authors.
*I’ve read fifteen memoirs (including foodie-memoirs and spiritual memoirs), which to me means I’m learning more and more about the craft!
*This past month has yielded the most amount of books read in a month – of which I have one word for you: VACATION. (Another word: Grandparents. Another word: Pregnancy).
*And, I’d venture a guess that I tend to read most of the fiction books read via Audible, rather than in held in my hands …but am I missing something by reading in that way?
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On that note, we’ll put a close to this conversation, but I’m eager for your input! First of all, what’s your secret inner-nerd? Let him or her out of the bag! Second, what questions or categories would you add to this word-nerd list? Join the geeky conversation!
Cara Meredith 