All the book statistics, thinking of reading and actively trying to read instead of scrolling Instagram gave me a reading boost and I have flown through a couple of books already.
At New Year’s Day, I said to myself “you don’t have to finish that other book, just read what you are in the mood for!” And I immediately picked up Blind Date with a Warewolf that I’ve been longing for since it came out. It’s a collection of short stories of dates that Asil (from the Alpha & Omega series) are challenged to go on. I devoured it! I really missed this world.
Next up, I read The Cycle Syncing Handbook. Basically it says that you should listen to your body and that you don’t have the same need throughout the month. It was an interesting read and even though I don’t think I will start living differently, it gave me a couple of things to think about. I might come back to this one and return to different parts of the book and see how I think it aligns with me.
After spending some time in the Alpha & Omega world, I wanted more so I continued with Wild Sign. It’s the sixth book in the series and in this one we get to know more about Leah. Really enjoyed this one!
I’ve tested out a book tracking app called Pagebound and they have different quests you can join. I joined a few where I already had read a bunch and then I joined a quest with cowboy romances, apparently that was something I felt I needed to tryout. First up in that quest: Done and Dusted. I liked it as a whole. I liked the plot, sweetness, horses and thought that the third act conflict was just small enough (not one of those big ones where I have to pause the book for several weeks before coming back). I didn’t like the possessiveness though and how different the main characters were in the intimate scenes versus the whole story, felt like different people? I preferred the main story personalities. I haven’t decided yet which cowboy book will be next in the quest, we’ll see what the mood reader in me feels like.
My current reads are plenty, I have no idea which book will be finished next. have you read anything good recently?
I pondered a little of what kind of stats I could include here that wasn’t just a repeat of the trimestral posts. I started to summarise my reading in a Google sheet and I might have gone overboard. I could generate diagrams and everything! Prepare for a long post.
In total, I read 79 novels, novellas, short stories, graphic novels and poetry. My two busiest reading month were July (unusual that I read so much during my time off) and December. I had a total average rating of 3.34 and an average book length of 309 pages. Grain of salt of the book pages, I had to try to convert the audiobooks to pages somehow.
My book collection grew with 18 books, and I read 15 from my own shelf that previously were unread, resulting in a growth of unread books by +3.
Book acquired
The majority of my books were aqcuired from my audiobook service. Even though the percentage is quite low on the library, I think it has increased a bit from previous years. I’m getting back to the library!
Book format
A non-surprising connection from book acquired to book format is that the audio and ebooks takes the biggest chunk, since I have access to both audio and ebooks on my audiobook service and can sometimes switch between them seamlessly.
Book genres
It was a bit tricky to divide them into only one genre each but in either case, fantasy was the winner here.
I read 68% in English and 32% in Swedish.
Original languages
The origin language of the books were mainly English. At the very end of the year, I read two graphic novels translated from Koren which entered a new language. Spoiler alert: we’re going to see more of this in 2026, I have eight more volumes to go.
78.5% were books in a series and 21.5% were standalone. I thought a while about how to do this one, because some of these series are books that really are interconnected books with different main characters but can be read as standalones, but ended up putting them in series since I thus far have chosen to read them in series order rather than as standalone books.
Series that I read the most from were: Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs (5), The Good Guys by Eric Ugland (5) and Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews (5). I were going to list top authors also but you also see them in this same list.
15% of the books I read were re-reads and 35% were authors I’ve never read from before.
Original publication years I read from the most were 2023 (7), 2021 (6), 2024 (6) and 2019 (4). What pleasantly surprised me was that I read 3 books from 1953, two of these were picked for the work book circle without us realising beforehand that they were published the same year.
The final count for my different time blocks: – 1919: 1 1920-1939: 4 1940-1959: 8 1960-1979: 3 1980-1999: 9 2000-2019: 28 2020-2025: 25
The final ambitious thing I decided to add to my book list was how much money I saved by not buying books. I here tried to find what it would have cost me to buy the book that I borrowed from the library or listen/read from my audiobook service. Here I removed the monthly cost from my audiobook subscription. I was perhaps not completely consistent in how I chose the price to count. Sometimes I did listen to an audiobook that I already own a physical copy and therefore picked what it would have cost to buy the audiobook. In some cases, I picked the the physical book even though I listened to it because if I would have bought it, I wouldn’t have bought the audiobook. And, in some cases, there was only one option to choose from regardless of format. It did total into 5842 SEK (about 544,5 Euro or 635,55 USD according to Google’s converter at time of writing this post).
Did I accomplish my 2025 reading goals?
Read 50 books – this one is both yes and no. I set the goal lower to give room for thicker books and at least one book in German. I did exceed the number by 29 so I did accomplish reading 50, but I didn’t read what I gave room for so maybe just a half tick on this goal.
Read at least two of my thickest books – at that time I had an list of books that I would tick off. I finished none on that list, I did start one though and spend a lot of time reading it in January.
Read one book in German – no, not even started one.
Make a Tetris blanket – not sure how much this was a goal and how much this was just an idea and project, I’ll include a summary of it anyhow. I’m sure I was very ambitious at the start of the year and thought that I would finish this with no problem. Didn’t think about that each book would generate 4 squares and that I might read more than intended. Life happened which put the project on a bit of a pause. I made 93 squares and have 107 to go. I have started blocking and attaching at the same time to avoid getting stuck in one task. I’ll give you the occational update on the blanket to let you know how it’s going.
While putting these statistics together, I’ve been playing around what my goals for 2026 will be. Some of these numbers inspired me to look in other areas this coming year. In 2025 I looked a lot at original publication year to get different squares for the blanket, in 2026 I’ll still keep track but I don’t think it’ll impact my reading choises as much. I’ll give it some more thoughts and have a separate post for that soon.
Do you keep track of what you are reading or just go with the flow?
Borrowed from library: 5 Self-owned: 5 Audiobook service: 19
English: 22 Swedish: 7 German: 0
Average rating: 3.28
How are the book goals coming along? Read at least two of my thickest books: 0 Read fewer books to take time to the thick ones: 79/50 Read at least one book in German: 0
The Case of the Waylaid Wolf was the last book I counted for the book blanket. After this, I did not think about when the books were published but I still kept track. Before 1920: 0 1920-1939: 0 1940-1959: 3 1960-1979: 0 1980-1999: 1 2000-2019: 14 2020-2025: 11
My unread book collection growed with 4 books over this time period, and a total of 3 over the whole year. I really used my audio book service this month. Averall I am quite pleased with the last couple of reading months, I am suprised I got that much read.
Books I rated 4 or 5 stars (in the order I read them): The Case of the Waylaid Wolf – Erle Stanley Gardner The Grift of the Magi – Ally Carter Frost Burned – Patricia Briggs (reread) Night Broken – Patricia Briggs (reread) A Business Proposal, vol. 1 – Haehwa, Narak A Business Proposal, vol. 2 – Haehwa, Narak Yes, My Accent is Real – Kunal Nayyar
It is time for another round of Down the TBR-hole, where I go through the books in my To Be Read shelf on Goodreads and try to decide if I still want to read them (should they stay) or not (should they go?).
Dragon Wing – Margaret Weis I think I had this at home from the library at some point a bunch of years ago and was meaning to read it. I started it and then I do not remember what happened. Why did I stop? Was it bad? Did I start something else instead? I guess I will have to borrow it again and find out. Verdict: Stays
Tortall: A Spy’s Guide – Tamora Pierce Not sure if I want to buy this to read it but it is not available at library or audiobook service. I guess we will keep it for now and figure out how to read it later. Verdict: Stays
Lending a Paw – Laurie Cass This sounds like a really cosy read, a library on wheels with a cat as a sidekick. It is a keeper. Verdict: Stays
Kungens fånge (King’s Cage) – Victoria Aveyard This is number three in the Red Queen series. I think I really enjoyed the first one, was a bit more neutral to the second one and now I do not really remember anything of the series. They are in both English and Swedish on my audiobook series so I am considering rereading the first two before deciding on this one. Verdict: Stays
The Way of Shadows – Brent Weeks I have been glancing at this one for quite a while in my boyfriends shelf, I think I also started it at some point but lost track. Still intended to read it. Verdict: Stays
All My Friends are Superheroes – Andrew Kaufman This sounds like it could be funny, but it might also be one of those depressing ones. Probably not a book I am going to pick upp so I will let it go. Verdict: Goes
How did it go this time? Books in the TBR shelf at start: 240 Number of staying books: 11 Number of leaving books: 1 Total amount of leaving books: 54 Number of reserved books at the library: 0 Number of books put in to-borrow-shelf: 0 Number of books added to audiobook-account: 1 Current amount of books in my TBR shelf: 264
I cannot remember adding anything to my TBR shelf since making the last post but even though I removed one in this post, I have one more in the shelf than last time. I might have made a mistake last time, or added books in my sleep. Not sure, hehe.
An interesting mix of books this time, I might have already started reading The Grift of the Magi as soon as I saw it here – I could not wait!
I just sat down in the sofa to wind down a bit after a really nice weekend attending a friend’s wedding. It was a very beautiful occasion!
I brought my e-reader with me on the trip and read quite a chunk of Powerless by Lauren Roberts. It is a book that is very easy to just keep reading, it is a very good pace forward. Part of the story is this competition taking place and as with a couple of other stories I have read that have this competition side of the story (Lightlark, Trial of the Sun Queen and perhaps also The Selection), the competition is a not taking as big part of the story that I might have wanted or assumed. I know that they need some interactions with certain people to build up a relationship, but in the majority of the story it is like the other contestants does not exist.
I am continuingly making my blanket. I am on my way to have made half of the required squares, these squares have been my coffee break companion at work for a while. It is not too bad crocheting while people are talking. I have also started to connect some of the squares!
The two-ended knitting project have also risen again from a paus, not sure it has been shown here before? My mother is teaching me how to two-end knit (with some support of a book, I try to read in it first and then I ask mum). I have started to make a pair of mittens and I love the colours in them!
I think this will have to be the update for this week. I am tired after dancing late in the night and might do a round on my mittens before I turn in.
It is time for another round of Down the TBR-hole, where I go through the books in my To Be Read shelf on Goodreads and try to decide if I still want to read them (should they stay) or not (should they go?).
Like Mother, Like Daughter – Catherine Clark, Amy Sherman-Palladino I have really liked the TV series Gilmore Girls and when I saw that there were books released I felt like I had to give them a go. These books seem to be pretty hard to come by now, the editions you see are quite expensive. It is not something I will read soon but maybe some day. Verdict: Stays.
Hunted – Meagan Spooner This one was available as both ebook and audio on my audiobook service. This is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and I am intrigued. Verdict: Stays.
Burning Bright – Melissa McShane Sounds like something I could like. Is available at my audiobook service as an audiobook so I am adding it to my shelf there. Verdict: Stays.
Eat Like a Gilmore – Kristi Carlson, Bonnie Matthew This is a cookbook with recreated dishes from the TV series Gilmore Girls. Cookbooks are tricky to place in a read or to read shelf because they are usually not something you read in one sitting. I do own this book and am thinking that I need to try a couple of recipes before I can count it as read and move it from here. I have tried one so far, I think, and that one did not turn out so good. Might have to re-do it and see if it was me doing something wrong. Verdict: Stays.
Inte för nära (Close Enough to Touch) – Colleen Oakley this one was not available on my audiobook service but they had another one that sounded really nice. I guess I will read the other one and if I like it I will take a look at this one as well. Verdict: Stays.
Timglaset (Firstlife) – Gena Showalter I have been meaning to read this book ever since it came out. I have heard mixed things but I still want to give it a go. Verdict: Stays.
Ett testamente från helvetet – Kristina Ohlsson This is a short story that I was prepared to let go but it is available as both ebook and audio at the audiobook service so I am adding it to the shelf. Verdict: Stays.
Magnolia – Kristy Cook Do I want to read this one so much to buy it? I think I will have to read the excerpt, available sometimes where you buy ebooks, to see if I click with the writing. Then I will decide if it goes or not. Verdict: Stays.
How did it go this time? Books in the TBR shelf at start: 240 Number of staying books: 10 Number of leaving books: 2 Total amount of leaving books: 53 Number of reserved books at the library: 0 Number of books put in to-borrow-shelf: 1 Number of books added to audiobook-account: 4 Current amount of books in my TBR shelf: 263
It is really fun to make these kinds of lists. it is sometimes hard to make the decision whether to let it go or not but I do get very eager to read everything at the same time. There was a couple of books leaving this time but also a few that I felt I could start reading right now.
Let us take a look at what I have been reading the last four months, May – August. I think I called it a quarter reading update last but I just realised that it was not. Trimestral?
Books read in May – August, in reverse reading order
Read books: 26 Read short stories: 1 Read novellas: 1
Borrowed from library: 2 Self-owned: 13 Audiobook service: 13
English: 16 Swedish: 12 German: 0
Average rating: 3.4
How are the book goals coming along? Read at least two of my thickest books: 0 so far (one started though) Read fewer books to take time to the thick ones: 16 ahead of reading goal (49/50) Read at least one book in German: 0, not started yet
Since I am still counting books for the book blanket, I have kept track of when the books are originally published. This time we squeezed in a classic, quite a good spread overall I would say. Before 1920: 1 1920-1939: 1 1940-1959: 4 1960-1979: 2 1980-1999: 4 2000-2019: 8 2020-2025: 8
My unread book collection shrank with 9 books over this time period, and a total of 1 over the whole year so far. I did not make any goals specifically towards shrinking my unread book collection, this year was all about reading and buying what I was in the mood for. But I enjoy following the stats anyway.
I still need to finish at least one of my thickest books. And start a German one. I have been good at reading from different time periods, the book blanket has certainly encouraged me to pick up some books that probably would have spent a little more time on the shelf before I picked it up.
Books I enjoyed reading the most (in the order I read them): Clean Sweep – Ilona Andrews Let Sleeping Vets Lie – James Herriot Iron Kissed – Patricia Briggs (reread) The Crooked Candle – Erle Stanley Gardner Delat byte – Janet Evanovich
I am currently reading my last book for the book blanket: The Case of the Waylaid Wolf by Erle Stanley Gardner. I am really enjoying it and am equally wanting to know how it ends but do not want it to end. It has a little of everything, investigating, good courtroom action and trying to outsmart the other component in the legal battle. We know who is innocent, because it is a Perry Mason after all, but I always find these quite clever and hard to guess who the killer is. I am mostly enjoying the ride and not trying to figure it out but in some stories it is very obvious without even trying.
I have started to block my squares and any day now I will start attaching them, I think I have decided on which joining method I want to try. I wanted to make it so that there was no front or back of the blanket but I think I will have to cave and have a front.
We have been reading Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett in my work book circle and next week is our final time. I am reading it in Swedish (I lagens namn) and the translator has done a tremendous work with this one, it could not have been an easy book to work with. I have not read a lot of Pratchett before and I am a bit curious to read more. This one I have found quite demanding to read, there is a lot of details and information at the same time as the story is moving quite slow. The writing is very relaxing and comforting so if I read it in bed, I cannot read many pages before I fall asleep. I do like it though, it is funny and clever and even though we are like 40 pages from the end, I do not think that we have managed to predict how it is going to end (unless it actually is the very super obvious thing that we do not think will happen because it is too obvious, would not put it past Pratchett).
I am in a book mode where I want to read all and everything at the same time. When I have finished The Case of the Waylaid Wold, there is no blanket to take into account when choosing my next finish (I have not wanted to have a bunch of the same color right after each other because that would have made the blanked rather a bit boring). But I am not sure what I want to pick up first.
Handcraft project wise I am all over the place as well. The Tetris blanket takes a lot of time to do, a few squares at the time, so I do have other projects alongside and it is always such fun to start a new project. The most recent is a granny square made out of the scraps from the Tetris blanket. This square is something I want to turn into a phone case for my grandmother, she loves colourful things so I think this is going to be perfect!
What are you currently reading? And what are you currently making?
It is time for another round of Down the TBR-hole, where I go through the books in my To Be Read shelf on Goodreads and try to decide if I still want to read them (should they stay) or not (should they go?).
The Naming — Alison Croggon This sounds like something I could like. Not available at library or audiobook service though. Verdict: Stays
I ljusets makt (Shadow and Bone) — Leigh Bardugo I was going to remove it but then I saw that my audiobook service had this one as a both audio and ebook. I will test a chapter or two before I decide to remove it (or finish it). Verdict: Stays
The Chemist — Stephenie Meyer Another one I’m not super excited about but would like to give a chance. I did really like The Host by the same author. Verdict: Stays
A Letter of Mary — Laurie R. King Another series I really like. I am going to reread the previous book in Swedish before I get in to this one. Verdict: Stays
Half Bad — Sally Green A book I have been gifted and been intending to read for a very long time! Verdict: Stays
Little Fuzzy — H. Beam Piper I think this was recommended to me by a sibling, will read this any year now. Verdict: Stays
Worm — Wildbow Another sibling recommendation. Verdict: Stays
How did it go this time? Books in the TBR shelf at start: 240 Number of staying books: 11 Number of leaving books: 1 Total amount of leaving books: 51 Number of reserved books at the library: 0 Number of books put in to-borrow-shelf: 0 Number of books added to audiobook-account: 3 Current amount of books in my TBR shelf: 266
I should do these posts a little more consistently so that I do not have time to add more than I remove in between, or so that I might have a chance to get to the end. I am also a bit excited to try to do a challenge series where I read the books I have saved.
Not many books going this time around, I guess that is a good thing – having books here that I want to read!
Any books here you have read and recommend (or do not recommend)?
I think I am a bit of a bored time optimist. I think that I will have time to do a lot during a limited time slot aaaaand it is often more fun to start a new project than to finish the one I started previously.
Since last time, I have been laying low on making squares for my blanket and started a bunch of other projects. I have about 125 squares left to do before I am up to speed—might have been a bad idea to have four squares per finished book— but I have actually made about a third of the squares now! I think I will stop the blanket at 50 books, it currently looks like the blanket is at a good size then. Which gives me time to actually catch up and perhaps it is possible to be finished with the blanket this year.
I finished The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald yesterday, block number 49. A bit boring book, I sadly liked the afterword more than the book itself. I am very pleased that I now managed to get at least one block of every colour! One more block and then I will stop adding books for this blanket.
Sometimes when I get bored I do unnecessary calculations. For example, if I were to read my all my unread books in a year, how many pages would I have to read per day? 98. If I were to read 50 pages per day the rest of this year, how much would it be for one year? 70 pages per day. First thought in those occasions is That could actually be possible but then I give it a second and remember that I read a bunch of other books than from my shelves and I also do other things than read so that it totally not a reasonable thing to do. And I am pretty sure that the app where I take my page numbers from, it is probably missing some numbers and when I have tried to keep it as a tracker for how many pages I have read and acquired over a month, the numbers do not add up. It is a fun thinking experience though.
