Earlier this month, I met my “challenge” of reading 100 books this year. You can see them pictured above, beginning with my most recent read. Why not join me in reviewing the balance (or otherwise) of fiction versus non-fiction, type of publisher and percentage of translations versus English-language originals?
Although warned by the novel Broadcast to be wary of oversharing, I find it hard to resist the opportunity to play with data:
 | It’s no surprise to find that 93% of the books I read were novels, but slightly disappointing that only thirteen of those were books in translation. Although I do read diversely, perhaps I’m limiting my horizons by focusing so much on novels written originally in English? |
| I don’t use a star rating for reviews on Annecdotal, but I usually join in with the system on Goodreads. Although I don’t claim to be totally consistent in my ratings (I’m sure it depends as much on my mood as the quality of the book), the distribution is interesting. While reluctant to assign one-star reviews, I generally consider myself less generous than other reviewers, so I was encouraged to find I’d rated almost half (45%) four or five. |  |
 | Examining these favourite reads more closely yields a couple of surprises. Although there is a need for caution in extrapolating from small numbers, it looks as if I enjoy non-fiction more than I think I do (unless my guilt inflates those ratings), with 80% making the category, and translated fiction less than I think I should, only 20% of those thirteen novels and two short story collections receiving this accolade. |
| Looking back on my reading from 2016, I resolved to monitor my support of independent publishers. I’m not sure about my rough-and-ready classification into big, medium and small, but I’m impressed that almost 3/4 of my reads came from independent publishers, with medium and small presses well represented. |  |
 | Things get more interesting when we examine the books I really liked, with the bigger independents punching slightly above their weight and the small ones slightly under (but still performing pretty well in terms of my personal satisfaction given that these publishers probably have a smaller pool of quality books to select from). |
Hopefully I’ll have more to say on this when I review the year’s overall favourites in December. Until then, I’m interested to know what you think of the first 100.
| Meanwhile, check out my reviews of the 13 novels and one memoir reviewed this month by clicking on the image. |  |
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