Statistics from Books I Reviewed in 2014

Statistics from Books I Reviewed in 2014
Note: If you’re viewing this in an email or RSS reader, I highly recommend you click over to view the post on the blog. That way you can check out the sortable, interactive tables!

For those of you who were a reader of Nose Graze in 2013, you might remember when I shared my 2013 reading statistics. Well it’s time to do the same for 2014! Woot woot!

In 2014 I reviewed 91 books on the blog. These statistics show where I got those books, who published them, how I rated them, and more. So let’s dig in and highlight some of the best and worse of the bunch. πŸ˜€

Where I got my books

This chart shows where I got all the books I reviewed in 2014! I purchased a lot less books in 2014 than 2013 (boo!). Last year I purchased 48 books, but this year it’s only 25. I got most of my books from Edelweiss, which is almost completely due to being auto approved by HarperTeen.

Name Number of Reviews Average Rating
ARC From Publisher 1 Review 3 Stars
Blog Tour 2 Reviews 3.75 Stars
BookExpo America 7 Reviews 3.14 Stars
Edelweiss 25 Reviews 2.70 Stars
Gifted 2 Reviews 4 Stars
NetGalley 22 Reviews 2.80 Stars
Purchased 25 Reviews 3.38 Stars

How many books I read in each genre (and average rating)

Last year, my most popular genres were: young adult (106), romance (96), contemporary (77), then science fiction (34). This year the rankings are very similar at: young adult (73), romance (62), contemporary (43), then fantasy (22).

In terms of ratings, last year the highest were: vampires (2 books, 4.25 rating), thriller (6 books, 4.17 rating), and time travel (3 books, 4 star rating).

My favourite contemporary romances

Name Number of Reviews Average Rating
Action 1 Review 4 Stars
Adult 7 Reviews 3.07 Stars
Aliens 1 Review 3 Stars
Angels 4 Reviews 2.88 Stars
Chick Lit 2 Reviews 3.50 Stars
Contemporary 43 Reviews 2.76 Stars
Crime 1 Review 3.50 Stars
Demons 3 Reviews 3 Stars
Drama 1 Review 1.50 Stars
Dystopian 11 Reviews 3.82 Stars
Family 2 Reviews 3.50 Stars
Fantasy 22 Reviews 3.05 Stars
Friendship 1 Review 5 Stars
Historical Fiction 1 Review 4.50 Stars
Magic 3 Reviews 3.33 Stars
Middle Grade 1 Review 0 Stars
Military 1 Review 3.50 Stars
Mystery 6 Reviews 2.83 Stars
Mythology 1 Review 0 Stars
New Adult 7 Reviews 2.57 Stars
Non-Fiction 1 Review 3 Stars
Paranormal 8 Reviews 2.94 Stars
Politics 1 Review 3 Stars
Post Apocalyptic 2 Reviews 3.50 Stars
Religion 1 Review 4.50 Stars
Retelling 2 Reviews 2 Stars
Romance 62 Reviews 2.81 Stars
Science Fiction 16 Reviews 3 Stars
Space 1 Review 3.50 Stars
Sports 3 Reviews 3.17 Stars
Survival 1 Review 4.50 Stars
Technology 1 Review 3 Stars
Thriller 4 Reviews 3.12 Stars
Time Travel 3 Reviews 3.17 Stars
Young Adult 73 Reviews 3.08 Stars

Excluding the genres that only had one review… it looks like dystopian won this year with an average rating of 3.82! Poor romance is waaaaay down there at 2.81 average rating. I think that’s because 99% of the books I read have some romance element, so they’re in the romance genre. So, naturally, I bet every single book I didn’t finish (thus, 0 rating in my statistics) was a “romance” book.

Fabulous YA dystopians

I also had bad luck with new adult books (2.57 average rating). That’s disappointing because I LOVED new adult in 2013 (average rating of 3.38 back then).

New adult books that disappointed me

How many books I read by each publisher (and average ratings)

Last year the top publisher counts were: HarperCollins (38), HarperTeen (16), Self Published (14), then Simon & Schuster (13). This HarperCollins still dominates! But sadly self published has fallen down to only 5. πŸ™ I wonder why that is.

HarperCollins books that rocked

This year the winner for best rating is Entangled Teen with an average rating of 4.08 stars (again, excluding the ones with only one review). Next up is Sourcebooks Fire with four stars. They also did really well in 2013, with an average rating of 4.17 stars.

Sadly I’m REALLY not doing well with Bloomsbury, which sucks because I love them. I only read three of their books this year: Dangerous by Shannon Hale (DNF), Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas (2.5 stars), and The Fire Artist by Daisy Whitney (3 stars). I guess it’s mostly that DNF that’s bringing it all down (DNF = 0 stars in my calculations).

Name Number of Reviews Average Rating
Atria Books 4 Reviews 3.38 Stars
Balzer & Bray 7 Reviews 2.43 Stars
Berkley Trade 2 Reviews 1.50 Stars
Bloomsbury USA Childrens 3 Reviews 1.83 Stars
Crown Publishers 1 Review 3.50 Stars
Delacorte Books for Young Readers 3 Reviews 2.83 Stars
Disney Hyperion 4 Reviews 3.38 Stars
Dutton Adult 1 Review 4 Stars
ECW Press 1 Review 2 Stars
Entangled Teen 6 Reviews 4.08 Stars
Farrar Straus and Giroux 3 Reviews 2 Stars
Feiwel & Friends 1 Review 5 Stars
Forever Romance 1 Review 2 Stars
Harlequin Teen 7 Reviews 2.43 Stars
HarperCollins 3 Reviews 4 Stars
HarperTeen 15 Reviews 2.87 Stars
HEA Publishing 1 Review 3 Stars
Henry Holt and Co. 1 Review 4.50 Stars
Katherine Tegen Books 3 Reviews 3.50 Stars
Keyword Press 1 Review 2.50 Stars
Little Brown Books for Young Readers 2 Reviews 2.25 Stars
MTV Books 1 Review 5 Stars
Razorbill 1 Review 2.50 Stars
Scholastic Press 1 Review 4 Stars
Self Published 5 Reviews 3.40 Stars
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers 1 Review 2.50 Stars
Simon Pulse 3 Reviews 2.33 Stars
Sourcebooks Fire 3 Reviews 4 Stars
St. Martin’s Press 1 Review 3 Stars
Tanglewood Press 1 Review 4.50 Stars
Vintage 1 Review 3 Stars
Washington Square Press 1 Review 5 Stars
William Morrow 2 Reviews 2 Stars

How I rated books

My top rankings are similar for 2013 and 2014. In 2013 I gave out the most four star ratings, followed closely by three stars. That also applies this year!

However, I didn’t finish more than two times as many books (3 in 2013 compared to 9 in 2014). But I think that’s actually because I learned to DNF books. In 2013 I may have only not finished 3 books, but I also gave 4 books one star and 8 books 1.5 stars. Compare that to 2014 where I gave ZERO books one star and only four 1.5 stars. I’ve stopped torturing myself with books I’m not enjoying. Instead of reading through to the end, I just stop reading.

Rating Number of Books
5 Stars 8
4.5 Stars 8
4 Stars 17
3.5 Stars 10
3 Stars 15
2.5 Stars 9
2 Stars 11
1.5 Stars 4
1 Star 0
0.5 Stars 0
0 Stars 0
Did Not Finish 9

Four books I absolutely hated

That’s it!

If there’s one thing that’s clear about 2014 it’s that I read a lot less books than in 2013. I think it’s a combination of a few things:

  • I’m busier. I’m working full time and always have a lot to do.
  • I’m pickier. I think this is natural with the more books you read. Fewer books sound “amazing” to me so I pick fewer up.
  • I’ve gone through a few slumps. They’ve been coming and going a lot throughout 2014. I’d pretty much be thrown into a new slump after every DNF.

How did you do in 2014?

If you have UBB, you can use the statistics shortcodes to see for yourself! Example: [sourcestats year="2014"]

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28 comments

    1. No, I coded it to be calculated automatically for all the reviews published on my blog. πŸ™‚

  1. Loved seeing all the stats and I love that this is a feature on UBB. I must have a look at mine! Well done with the DNF’s, I never see the point of reading a book you are not enjoying. It’s pointless.

  2. Holy crap, our ratings stats are disturbingly similar! I had 1 less 5 star, but the exact same amount of 4.5, 4, and 3.5 star ratings. O_O
    I had much less 3 star ratings, but I also read 30 books less than you did. I also had a high amount of DNFs this year – 12! It’s funny that we both had low numbers of 4.5 and 5 star ratings…fist bump for picky raters! (Or “tough” raters as some have called me >.<)
    I love how you included the sections of 4 books in there!

    Jessi @ Novel Heartbeat recently posted: 2015 Prequel & Sequel Challenge
    1. Thank you! πŸ™‚ This actually requires zero work from me. I know some people who keep crazy detailed spreadsheets—I could never do that. I’m way too lazy, haha.

      I just coded boxes in the WordPress admin panel where I fill in the book info for each book I review (rating, publisher, etc.) then the HTML gets formatted for me automatically using that info. Then, since I’ve filled in those details, I can use code to have it automatically calculate all these statistics.

      I’ve included a feature just like this in the Ultimate Book Blogger Plugin.

  3. I love your stats. More importantly, I think I’m convinced about not having two book blogs, one for Adult and one for YA-NA. Although you read very little Adult material, I see a wide range of sub-genres listed here melding all contents on NoseGraze rather nicely.

    thebookref recently posted: Review: Black Lies by Alessandra Torre
    1. Yeah I really don’t think there’s a need to have two book blogs. I think that would just be so much work.

      Think about it like this: there are a lot of readers out there who don’t confine themselves to one genre. So if there are readers like that out there, there will be people who read your blog who also read those genres, so what’s the point in splitting it all up?

  4. WOW i love the way you put the post: the gallery, the tables, the stats…amazing! i want to know how to do it XD

    I love dystopians novels and i hear a lot of goodies from the lunar chronicles but i will look at the others too πŸ™‚ i’m planning to read more in english because it sucks to have one book of the series in portuguese and the others releases got cancel by the publisher

    Hope your readings in 2015 will be even better and have a great new years eve πŸ˜‰

    One of my best 2014 things was to discover your blog and add myself to your host πŸ˜€ and altough i don’t know a lot right now of wordpress self host site, i am learning and loving it!

  5. Awesome statistics! Dystopian was probably at the top of my list this year and I have so many I still want to read, like Pawn and Captive. I read a lot more this year, but this was my first full year on the blog, so I think that’s why. I bought so many more books than you this year – I’m going to do a book buying ban to an extent next year though, so I can concentrate on all the goodies I have.

    Anywho, thanks for sharing, happy new year!

    Berls @ Fantasy is More Fun recently posted: Out With The Old & In With The New | September 2014
  6. I’m going to be adding some of your favourites to my list! I really need to get going on the Marissa Meyer series … EVERYONE is raving about that one!

    I love how you broke everything down, especially by publisher! I might have to start doing that, to see what publishers I read the most of …

    You had a great reading year!

    Kristilyn (Reading In Winter) recently posted: 2014 End of Year Book Survey
    1. The Lunar Chronicles series is EXCELLENT! It’s so unique and each book is different, but still connected. I definitely recommend it. πŸ™‚

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