Hi hello to my first post of the year!

I didn’t realise it was the first until now and in general, it’s very late. I tried to get this recap post up a lot earlier, but I’m going to cut myself some slack because last year I highlighted how I once posted this in April so… I think I deserve a pat on the back, eh?

Anyways, I’m here semi on time and perhaps less enthusiastic than usual. But I’m a stats freak now and at least I’m getting out some content, right? I hope you’re okay with Ruby being slightly off-beat today. 2021 absolutely sucked and I hated it and am glad its over, but hey, the reading was good!

Mostly keeping this post the same as last time, though adding a couple of sections to it. I didn’t do a mid-year check-in because,,, life. Since I didn’t get the chance to build any anticipation, here’s your chance to take your guesses on whether or not there will be a high amount of ebooks and romance in this post *hides*

But anyways, let’s dive right in!

READING STATS AND OVERVIEW

You know, I’m actually really chuffed with reading overall last year. I read over 2 thousand more pages than the previous year and I have a great list of favourites. My only “sadness” is that I missed my goal by one book. However, I surpassed my 2020 goal by like 8 books and considering my slow year, it’s okay.

But since I didn’t hit my goal and I have no idea what 2022 is going to bring (I’ll be back on campus and just a lot is happening), I’ve decided to keep my goal the same. I’ve been increasing it by approx 5 books every year but I just don’t need to pressure myself.

Can you tell I’m nervous about 2022? Let’s just get into the stats <3<3<3

CHARTS!!

AGE CATEGORIES READ

Last year the majority category was young adult, mainly due to rereads (which we’ll get to in a sec) but this year changed quite a bit. I decided to add a new adult category since I read 8 of them, as you can see. But if you combine NA and YA, it’s about 50/50 with adult, and I’m fairly happy with that.

Also, I apparently read no middle grade or children’s books last year which is sad,,, so let’s try to change that.

GENRES READ

*deep breath*

I have to say I don’t quite know if I’m happy with that romance percentage BUT I did categorise some YA contemporaries as romance, so it’s not all adult romance. That’s me trying to make excuses for myself. Not that romance is bad by ANY MEANS, but I just picked random ones that I didn’t enjoy half of the time instead of reading a book I was excited about from my shelves oops. I was reading on my Kindle and ignoring the 123456789 unread books I own. I made small progress but not enough.

I also read only ONE fantasy sksks. And she was my Six of Crows reread so that hardly counts. Though I do like the fabulism and mystery stats, very chuffed about those books.

Don’t want to embarrass myself further so let’s move on.

NEW VS REREAD

Round of applause for this one friends I RESISTED MY SCANDALOUS URGES!!! Please do boost my ego in the comments *wink wink*

Anyways, because the list is so short, here are the books I reread, for anyone who was curious:

1. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
2. You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry
3. A Million Junes by Emily Henry
4. Beach Read by Emily Henry

Yes, you are reading that correctly. Not only did I read 3 of Henry’s books last year, I actually read You and Me on Vacation TWICE IN THE SAME YEAR. Obsessed much?

FORMATS READ

I mean yikes is the only appropriate answer,,,

Don’t get me wrong, I read some great ebooks, some of which turned out to be new faves from authors I already love. It was a great time. But I also have too many unread physical books and I can’t quite excuse myself so I would like to get better at reading them.

I shan’t be setting set-in-stone goals, because I just won’t stick to them, but I will say I’m going to work on trying to only allow myself to read an ebook if it is an anticipated release or a book from an author I already love.

STAR RATINGS COMPARISON 

Okay, now this one makes me feel a lot better. Technically, my 5 star percentage was a lot higher last year but that was made up of 5-star rereads and therefore hardly count. My official top 2021 list consisted of 8 books, which makes the pie chunk seem small but I think it’s quite big in comparison to 2020’s list of only 5 books.

Anyways, we do also love to see the 4 star chunk, glad I loved most of the books I read. I also only disliked about 5 books in total, so 2021 was good in the star ratings department.

And according to Goodreads, this was my average rating (it’s kinda skewed because I round up my half star ratings):

PAGE COUNTER & POPULARITY

Is this useful information? Not really, but it’s kind of fun.

Welp I did not see Wait For It coming, that book did not feel like 670 pages at all. Have I now developed a god complex? Maybe so…

On the topic of pages, my average page length bumped up by about 50 pages, which is pretty cool. I didn’t reach my goal but boy was I reading some lengthy books amirite?

I also find it very funny that the most “popular” book of both 2021 and 2020 have been rereads. I wish I could exclude the rereadz because I’m kind of curious but idk how Goodreads works. It’d probably be a TikTok book because I’m an awful person.

DECADE PUBLISHED

Sneaking in a new category because I saw someone else do this and was so intrigued to see what mine looked like.

I’m actually really surprised by this number, to be honest. I read quite a few books that were published in 2018/2019, which I think make up the bulk of that section but STILL. I’m impressed in a way *wink wink*

Also the one book from 1980 was a book I read for English class lmaooo

BLOGGING STATS & CHARTS

I wish I could be more accomplished in this section but I truly abandoned this blog. Blame mental health and life my friends.

Anyways, WordPress won’t let me see January of last year so I’ll just have to give you the number myself = 4 posts.

Pretend May is not there,,,

WHAT I ACTUALLY POSTED

Again, like last time this is excluding recaps because… idk I don’t think they’d be of use to this section.

I’m not surprised about the amount of reviews, and I’m not mad about it either. I struggled with creativity, and all I did manage to post were reviews as I ~usually~ have thoughts about books right. Did you note my sarcasm? Haha. I am proud of all of those reviews and the effort I put into them, which involved a lot.

Anyways, a couple other stats:

• Total posts of 2021 = 33 posts, including recaps (this number is significantly less than 2020 unfortunately, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it)
• My average word count was 1825 words, which sounds accurate as I’m incapable of writing short posts

Overall, we didn’t have a terrible blogging year and though it could have been better, 2021 was hard and I think that’s okay.

2022 GOALS (REVISED)

Um, I’m not going to check in with last year’s goals. I hardly accomplished any of them and idk I don’t want to type out a list about how I didn’t do well. So we’ll just say that I want to keep working on all of them. Especially about reading diversely and posting more often. However I’m not going to set specific goals with numbers or anything, 2022 needs to be chill.

So these will be very hesitant goals:

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➵ Read 50 books

I usually like to increase this number every year by at least 5 books, which I have been doing for some time now. But because I didn’t reach it last year, I’m going to stick to the same number to be safe. I also don’t really care about the number and I might even lower it if I feel like it, because we’re 3 weeks into the year and I only just finished my first read. I started another a while ago but my anxiety spiked so I put her down momentarily welp.

➵ Focus on my physical TBR

Yup, here she is again. I’m not allowed to read random books that I think will be fairly good. You all have to stop me. I will shun myself if I have to. Instead, I’m looking at my shelves and choosing something from there. I CAN DO IT!!!

➵ Get back to blog hopping

Oops I’m… a year (ish) behind on all of your lovely posts and it’s god awful of me and I miss you so I need to get back into reading blog posts smh,,,

➵ Work on my WIP

This is a tentative goal, but it’s something I’d like to keep in the back of my mind. I have writing ideas that I love and I know I will enjoy writing so we’ll softly try to get to them this year.

—

Okay that’s it! Wish me luck.

2022 TBR

As I keep mentioning, 2022 needs to be low pressure. However, I would like to be conscious about the books I’m reading and make a dent in my physical TBR, so I made an Instagram reel with the books I’d like to read this year. Idk why posting a reel over a blog post feels like I’m pressuring myself less, my logic never makes sense welp. In my head I’m saying an official blog post is more chill haha

There are many many more that I’d like to read, but I tried to narrow down the list to books that have been on my shelves the longest and that I know I’ll love. Plus a couple of stragglers that I’m just really keen to get to. Feel free to hype them up in the comments and motivate me to read them *wink wink*

An unofficial goal is to listen to more audiobooks and I’m going to try to chose them based off books on this tbr. We’ll see how that goes…

Okay, I think that’s it. I honestly don’t know what else needs to be in this post and I think I’ve covered all the bases. I hope you enjoyed *cue nervous laughter*

I took far too long to get this post up so let’s just end right here

Lots of love friends xoxoxo

HOW WAS YOUR 2021? HOW MANY BOOKS DID YOU MANAGE TO READ? DID YOU COMPLETE YOUR GOAL? WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCOMPLISH IN 2022? I’D LOVE TO KNOW!