2012 Ratings by Publisher

In an effort to minimize the books I suffer through, I've started tracking my ratings by both publisher and imprint in a giant spreadsheet. Basically, if a certain publisher or imprint always results in bad ratings for me, I will know to just say no, at least to review copies, where I'll have to send an awkward email to a publicist.

In just a year, I don't have a ton of data for some of the pubs, so I'll just be including those where I've read a reliable sample, which I'm going to call 5 books or more. Even then, a couple of these averages are, I think, misleading, but most of them are about right. So first, here are my average ratings by publisher. Then I'll break it down further for those with imprints.

As you can see on this somewhat ridiculous bar graph, the averages range from 2.8 to 4 in the publishers I've read enough books from to include. Candlewick's, though, is one that is a bit skewed, because 4 of the 6 books I read by them this year were part of a terrible series. I'd requested book four from NetGalley, so I felt like I HAD to read them all. Because of this basic data, I've been seeking out more books from Tor and Bloomsbury, as they obviously get me.

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Random House

Over the course of the year, I read 49 books from 14 different RH imprints, but in only three of them did I read more than 2 books. 

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Delacorte BFYR	17	3.76
Knopf BFYR	7	3.71
Random House BFYR	9	3.44

Note how much higher two of these are than the average of 3.5 for Random House as a whole. I don't know that I've learned anything definitive yet, but Delacorte seems to be the most likely imprint for me with regards to RH teen books.

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Macmillan

I only recently started working with Macmillan, so I haven't read nearly as many of their books. I read 22 books published by Macmillan from a total of 6 imprints.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
St. Martin's Griffin	4	2.9
Farrar, Straus and Giraux	8	3
Feiwel & Friends	5	2.8

What I've mostly learned here, I think is that their imprints don't tell me much. Ironically, if I were going to avoid a particular one of their imprints, it would be FSG, since I seem to be almost entirely 2.5 and 3 ratings, where the others are all over the place. I won't take any action on them until I have more data though. Besides, my first Macmillan read of the new year, Marissa Meyer's Scarlet (Feiwel & Friends) was a 4.5, so...

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Penguin

Penguin's the publisher I've had the longest relationship with, but, ironically, this means that they also have much lower ratings than they otherwise might have, because it took me a long time to realize that I didn't have to accept every book to for publicists to be willing to work with me. I read 49 Penguin books over 14 imprints, which is, very oddly, the exact same as for Random House.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Penguin Books	7	3.21
Viking Adult	13	3.5
Pamela Dorman Books	4	3.88
Razorbill	5	3.7

Overall, I've had a pretty good experience with Penguin's young adult offerings, but they don't work with me much, so my most read imprints, with the exception of Razorbill, are all from the adult group. In the next year, I'm going to be much more cautious accepting books from the Penguin Books imprint, since I generally like those less well than the other adult imprints.

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Bloomsbury

Oh, Bloomsbury, don't you guys want me to review your books for you? No? Well, that's okay. We're still friends. I read 22 Bloomsbury books broken across 3 imprints.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Bloomsbury USA Children's	13	3.81
Walker Children's	8	4.19

Lesson: read ALL of the Bloomsbury children's books. Well, not all, but pretty much any that look good, because out of those 21, I only had one 2 and one 2.5. For me, that's insane!

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Simon & Schuster

S&S didn't like me much on NG, and I only recently met any of their publicists, so there's a serious lack of data here. I read 14 Simon & Schuster books in 2012, across 7 imprints. Since I mostly read review copies, I just haven't read many of these. I wouldn't include the break down here at all, except that I find the data interesting.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Simon Pulse	4	4.38
S&S BFYR	3	3.5
Touchstone	3	3

The reason I find this so interesting is that at one point on Goodreads, I observed a conversation about how some folks thought Simon & Schuster was publishing some of the worst YA books out there, and I thought it was funny how high my averages are for S&S. Now, maybe they do publish some terrible stuff, but they also publish some amazing things, obviously. Simon Pulse, especially seems awesome, but I haven't read enough for this to be definitive. Touchstone is the imprint I've gotten some review copies from, but, obviously, there books haven't stood out for me yet.

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Hachette Book Group

Hachette used to be very good to me on NetGalley, but, actually, I think most of these are books I bought, borrowed from the library, or got from Orbit. I read 20 books, spread across 7 imprints.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Orbit	9	3.83
Little, Brown BFYR	5	3.6

Fun fact: Orbit is the one and only example of me sending a request for a review copy and that leading to a relationship with a publicist. All the others found me when they deemed me worthy, one way or another. In case you're curious, I requested Mira Grant's Blackout. They were kind enough to also send me Deadline. Plus, my average rating is close to a 4. Is it any surprise that I love Orbit?

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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

HMH's averages for me definitely suffer from what I like to term NG syndrome. I would request anything that looked remotely interesting on NG, and, for a while there, I read ALL of the books I requested, thinking DNFing was  rude. Thus, I ended up forcing myself through a lot of books I otherwise wouldn't have read. Now that I don't really use NG, I have zero relationship with HMH, and I'll probably read like 3 of their books this year.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt	4	3
Graphia	4	3.38
HMH Books for Children	3	3.5

Honestly, though I'm not sure how representative this data would be of my reading had NetGalley not been part of the equation, I'm not feeling a burning desire for HMH books. Well, except for Gina Damico's Croak series, which is published under the Graphia imprint; those books rock and everyone should love them.

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HarperCollins

Harper I've actually not really had much of a relationship with, but I won a couple of their giveaways on FB when they did that, and they have the prettiest covers, which lured me into buying/borrowing more of their books. Oh, also, their adult group makes good use of TLC Book Tours, which I love. Thus, I read 46 Harper books over 10 imprints.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Katherine Tegen	3	3
HarperTeen	8	3.06
Balzer + Bray	9	3.56
HarperCollins	4	3.75
Harper	4	3.5
Harper Audio	10	3.45

Harper's one of the publishers where I feel like imprint can be most telling. I feel like I definitely need to watch out for HarperTeen books in particular. While I do really, really like some (Something Strange and Deadly, I'm looking at you), they tend to fall flat for me really reliably; I have two 1.5s and a 2 for HarperTeen books. Katherine Tegen's average is from a 2, a 3, and a 4, so I really don't think that's enough to make a judgment. I believe the HarperCollins imprint is where they publish their premier titles, like Lauren Oliver, so I'm not surprised it's the highest average. Pretty much all Harper books are hit or miss for me, though.

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Tor

While Tor is not a big publisher, they attract my attention often, because they publish the sort of books I love, namely fantasy. Over 2012, I read 10 Tor books across three imprints.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Tor Books	5	3.8
Tor Teen	4	4.13

Basically, I love fantasy. I mean, look at those ratings. Fantasy is my home genre, the one I've been reading the longest. Tor publishes primarily fantasy and science fiction, and I eat that stuff up. I hope to have more Tor in 2013.

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To Sum Up

I'm sharing this just for fun, though I don't know if it will be interesting for anyone but me. A year's data isn't necessarily enough to make any big decisions off of, but I will continue to track this as time goes on, which will hopefully help guide me to books I love and save me from falling for pretty covers.

Books Read in 2012

Alright, now that the year is over, I can actually start trying to come up with lists of my top reads, which will be by genre in groups of ten. Deal with it. Here's what I'm pulling from: all of the books I read in 2012. For a list of all reviews by author (not just 2012), check my Reviews.

1. Black Cat - Kentaro Yabuki
2. Ouran High School Host Club - Bisco Hatori
3. Ditched - Robin Mellom
4. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
5. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
6. The Gathering Storm - Robin Bridges
7. Machine Man - Max Barry
8. Revealing Eden - Victoria Foyt
9. A Wind in the Door - Madeleine L'Engle
10. The Winter Palace - Eva Stachniak
11. Tempest - Julie Cross
12. The Dispatcher - Ryan David Jahn
13. Fracture - Megan Miranda
14. Goliath - Scott Westerfeld
15. The Way We Fall - Megan Crewe
16. Tantalize - Cynthia Leitich Smith
17. A Swiftly Tilting Planet - Madeleine L'Engle
18. Eternal - Cynthia Leitich Smith
19. A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness
20. Blessed - Cynthia Leitich Smith
21. The Baker's Daughter - Sarah McCoy
22. Diabolical - Cynthia Leitich Smith
23. Fullmetal Alchemist - Hiromu Arakawa
24. New Girl - Paige Harbison
25. Drowning Instinct - Ilsa J. Bick
26. The Tea Rose - Jennifer Donnelly
27. Boys Over Flowers - Yoko Kamio
28. Compulsively Mr. Darcy - Nina Benneton
29. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
30. Halflings - Heather Burch
31. Drifting House - Krys Lee
32. Erebos - Ursula Poznanski
33. Midnight in Austenland - Shannon Hale
34. The Fox Inheritance - Mary E. Pearson
35. The Darlings - Cristina Alger
36. Pure - Julianna Baggott
37. Fever - Lauren DeStefano
38. Scarlet - A. C. Gaughen
39. Wonder - R. J. Palacio
40. The Declaration - Gemma Malley
41. The Orchid House - Lucinda Riley
42. Lockdown - Alexander Gordon Smith
43. The Detour - Andromeda Romano-Lax
44. Double - Jenny Valentine
45. The Kama Sutra - Vatsyayana
46. Solitary - Alexander Gordon Smith
47. Dead Beautiful - Yvonne Woon
48. Eye of the Storm - Kate Messner
49. The Royal Wulff Murders - Keith McCafferty
50. Death Sentence - Alexander Gordon Smith
51. Life Eternal - Yvonne Woon
52. Fugitives - Alexander Gordon Smith
53. Allegiance - Kayla Cluver
54. Blue Monday - Nicci French
55. Brewster's Millions - George Barr McCutcheon
56. This Is Not a Test - Courtney Summers
57. The Inferior - Peadar Ó Guilín
58. InuYasha - Rumiko Takahashi 
59. The Humming Room - Ellen Potter
60. Memento Nora - Angie Smibert
61. The Hunt - Andrew Fukuda
62. Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom - Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin
63. The Child Who - Simon Lelic
64. The Académie - Susanne Dunlap
65. Magic Under Glass - Jaclyn Dolamore*
66. ReVamped - Ada Adams
67. Cheeky Angel - Hiroyuki Nishimori
68. Magic Under Stone - Jaclyn Dolamore
69. Katana - Cole Gibsen
70. The Deserter - Peadar Ó Guilín
71. Chobits - CLAMP 
72. Glow - Jessica Maria Tuccelli
73. Cross My Heart - Sasha Gould
74. Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen - Donna Gephart
75. Love, Fiercely - Jean Zimmerman
76. Starters - Lissa Price
77. The Three Colonels  - Jack Caldwell
78. One Day -  David Nicholls
79. Love & Leftovers - Sarah Tregay
80. Croak - Gina Damico
81. Ichiro - Ryan Inzana
82. Fruits Basket - Natsuki Takaya
83. Chomp - Carl Hiaasen
84. Sisters of Glass - Stephanie Hemphill
85. The Coming of the Dragon - Rebecca Barnhouse 
86. After the Snow - S. D. Crockett
87. Escape from Camp 14 - Blaine Harden
88. Peaceweaver - Rebecca Barnhouse
89. Goddess Interrupted - Aimée Carter
90. Spellcaster - Cara Lynn Shultz
91. My Beating Teenage Heart - C. K. Kelly Martin 
92. Invisible Sun - David Macinnis Gill
93. The Selection - Kiera Cass
94. Hot Gimmick - Miki Aihara 
95. Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver
96. The New Republic - Lionel Shriver
97. Dying to Know You - Aidan Chambers
98. Mr. Darcy Forever - Victoria Connelly
99. Kiss the Morning Star - Elissa Janine Hoole
100. A Beautiful Dark - Jocelyn Davies
101. Midori Days - Kazurou Inoue 
102. Grave Mercy - Robin LaFevers
103. The Candidates - Inara Scott 
104. The Lifeboat - Charlotte Rogan
105. The Marked - Inara Scott
106. The Other Countess - Eve Edwards 
107. Blue Asylum - Kathy Hepinstall
108. Unraveling - Elizabeth Norris
109. The Book of Blood and Shadow - Robin Wasserman
110. The Queen's Lady - Eve Edwards
111. Midnight in Peking - Paul French 
112. The Wicked and the Just - J. Anderson Coats
113. Shadows on the Moon - Zoë Marriott
114. The Singles - Meredith Goldstein
115. Possess - Gretchen McNeil
116. The Girl in the Park - Mariah Fredericks
117. Helen Keller in Love - Rosie Sultan
118. Breaking Beautiful - Jennifer Shaw Wolf
119. The Immortal Rules - Julie Kagawa
120. Play Ball - Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir
121. Narcopolis - Jeet Thayil
122. Welcome, Caller, This Is Chloe - Shelley Coriell
123. Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink - Stephanie Kate Strohm
124. The Killing Moon - N. K. Jemisin
125. Swipe - Evan Angler
126. Ladies in Waiting - Laura L. Sullivan
127. Two Crafty Criminals! - Philip Pullman
128. Starter for Ten - David Nicholls 
129. The Origins of Sex - Faramerz Dabhoiwala
130. The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls - Julie Schumacher
131. Baby's in Black - Arne Bellstorf
132. Deadline - Mira Grant 
133. Cold Kiss - Amy Garvey
134. Struck - Jennifer Bosworth
135. Ordinary Magic - Caitlen Rubino-Bradway
136. Pretty Amy - Lisa Burstein
137. The Weepers - Susanne Winnacker
138. The Mapmaker and the Ghost - Sarvenaz Tash
139. Next to Love - Ellen Feldman
140. Blackout - Mira Grant 
141. Gilt - Katherine Longshore
142. Sisters Red - Jackson Pearce 
143. Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
144. The Orphanmaster - Jean Zimmerman 
145. Angel Wars - Miwa Ueda 
146. The Forgetting Curve - Angie Smibert
147. The Coldest City - Antony Johnston
148. Unbreak My Heart - Melissa Walker
149. Inhale - Kendall Grey
150. The Prince Who Fell from the Sky - John Claude Bemis
151. Baby Pop - Yayoi Ogawa 
152. Angel Eyes - Shannon Dittemore
153. Defiance - C. J. Redwine
154. Of Poseidon - Anna Banks
155. Indigo Springs - A. M. Dellamonica 
156. So Far Away - Meg Mitchell Moore
157. Never Enough - Denise Jaden
158. Shadow and Bone - Leigh Bardugo
159. A Blight of Mages - Karen Miller 
160. Believers - Naoki Yamamoto
161. The Borrower - Rebecca Makkai 
162. All These Lives - Sarah Wylie
163. Smart Girls Get What They Want - Sarah Strohmeyer
164. Tokyo Heist - Diana Renn
165. Dead Beautiful - Melanie Dugan
166. The Understory - Elizabeth Leiknes
167. Good Neighbors - Ryan David Jahn
168. Monument 14 - Emmy Laybourne
169. Dead Reckoning - Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill
170. Level 2 - Lenore Appelhans
171. The Shadowed Sun - N. K. Jemisin  
172. Amped - Daniel H. Wilson
173. The Bellwether Revivals - Benjamin Wood
174. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake - Jenny Wingfield 
175. The Far Side of the Sky - Daniel Kalla
176. The Bay of Foxes- Sheila Kohler  
177. The Glimpse - Claire Merle
178. The Last Policeman - Ben H. Winters 
179. Divergent - Veronica Roth
180. Lies Beneath - Anne Greenwood Brown
181. Shadow of Night - Deborah Harkness 
182. Burn Mark - Laura Powell
183. Something Like Normal - Trish Doller
184. The Apothecary - Maile Meloy 
185. Seraphina - Rachel Hartman
186. Dust Girl - Sarah Zettel
187. Something Strange and Deadly - Susan Dennard
188. The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker
189. Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury - Sam Weller and Mort Castle, eds. 
190. Altered - Jennifer Rush
191. The Thing About Thugs - Tabish Khair
192. Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact - A. J. Hartley
193. Secret Letters - Leah Scheier
194. House of Shadows - Rachel Neumeier
195. One Moment - Kristina McBride
196. Pushing the Limits - Katie McGarry
197. Stormdancer - Jay Kristoff
198. Darker Still - Leanna Renee Hieber
199. Velveteen - Daniel Marks
200. Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas
201. For Darkness Shows the Stars - Diana Peterfreund
202. Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft - Jody Gehrman
203. Dualed - Elsie Chapman
204. What's Left of Me - Kat Zhang
205. Article 5 - Kristen Simmons
206. Eve & Adam - Michael Grant & Katherine Applegate 
207. Incarnate - Jodi Meadows
208. Under the Never Sky - Veronica Rossi
209. Origin - Jessica Khoury
210. Glitch - Heather Anastasiu
211. A Million Suns - Beth Revis
212. The Loners - Lex Thomas
213. Magisterium - Jeff Hirsch
214. Yesterday - C. K. Kelly Martin
215. Anthem - Ayn Rand
216. Once - Anna Carey  
217. Ashen Winter - Mike Mullin
218. Zom-B - Darren Shan 
219. False Memory - Dan Krokos
220. Tomorrow Land - Mari Mancusi
221. Crewel - Gennifer Albin
222. After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia - Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, eds.
223. Eden's Root - Rachel Fisher
224. Above World - Jenn Reese
225. Above - Leah Bobet
226. The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
227. Beta - Rachel Cohn
228. The Testament of Jessie Lamb - Jane Rogers 
229. Alice in Zombieland - Gena Showalter 
230. Blood Red Road - Moira Young 
231. Black City - Elizabeth Richards
232. When the Sea Is Rising Red - Cat Hellisen
233. Masque of the Red Death - Bethany Griffin
234. The Dark Unwinding - Sharon Cameron
235. The Farm - Emily McKay
236. Skylark - Meagan Spooner
237. The Age of Desire - Jennie Fields 
238. Sneak - Evan Angler
239. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller 
240. Fair Coin - E.C. Myers
241. Before the Rain - Luisita Lopez Torregrosa
242. Princess Academy - Shannon Hale 
243. The Iron Wyrm Affair - Lilith Saintcrow 
244. Through to You - Emily Hainsworth
245. Size 12 and Ready to Rock - Meg Cabot 
246. The White Forest - Adam McOmber
247. Dark Companion - Marta Acosta
248. Violins of Autumn - Amy McAuley
249. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
250. Wicked Sense - Fabio Bueno
251. Palace of Stone - Shannon Hale 
252. Endlessly - Kiersten White 
253. Cold Magic - Kate Elliott 
254. Ordinary Beauty - Laura Wiess 
255. Love, in Theory: Ten Stories - E. J. Levy 
256. The Sweetest Dark - Shana Abé
257. Don't Turn Around - Michelle Gagnon 
258. The Calling - Neil Cross 
259. The Miseducation of Cameron Post - Emily M. Danforth
260. Murder in the Rue Dumas - M.L. Longworth 
261. Catching Jordan - Miranda Kenneally
262. Valkyrie Rising - Ingrid Paulson
263. Ask the Passengers - A.S. King
264. Judging a Book by Its Lover - Lauren Leto
265. Juliet Immortal - Stacey Jay
266. Quantum Coin - E.C. Myers
267. Scorch - Gina Damico
268. Belong to Me - Marisa de los Santos
269. From What I Remember... - Valerie Thomas & Stacy Kramer
270. Sacrifice - Cayla Kluver
271. Stealing Parker - Miranda Kenneally
272. Starling - Lesley Livingston 
273. Falling Together - Marisa de los Santos
274. The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy - Nikki Loftin
275. Carnival of Souls - Melissa Marr 
276. First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde 
277. Full Blooded - Amanda Carlson 
278. Romeo Redeemed - Stacey Jay 
279. Ironskin - Tina Connolly
280. Middle Ground - Katie Kacvinsky
281. One of Our Thursdays Is Missing - Jasper Fforde 
282. The Girl of Fire and Thorns - Rae Carson
283. Blood Zero Sky - J. Gabriel Gates
284. The Woman Who Died a Lot - Jasper Fforde 
285. Dear Teen Me - E. Kristin Anderson & Miranda Kenneally, eds.
286. Dark Star - Bethany Frenette
287. American Grown - Michelle Obama 
288. The Bookie's Son - Andrew Goldstein
289. Wildwood - Colin Meloy
290. Gravity - Melissa West
291. The Crown of Embers - Rae Carson 
292. Touching the Surface - Kimberly Sabatini
293. Drama - Raina Telgemeier
294. The Spindlers - Lauren Oliver 
295. Have Mother, Will Travel - Claire and Mia Fontaine
296. A Train in Winter - Caroline Moorehead 
297. Renegade - J. A. Souders
298. The Diviners - Libba Bray 
299. Meant to Be - Lauren Morrill
300. Pirate Cinema - Cory Doctorow
301. The Tower Treasure - Franklin W. Dixon
302. Lucky Bunny - Jill Dawson
303. Flight Behavior - Barbara Kingsolver 
304. Splintered - A. G. Howard
305. The Unfailing Light - Robin Bridges
306. Red Rain - R.L. Stine
307. All You Never Wanted - Adele Griffin
308. The Opposite of Hallelujah - Anna Jarzab
309. Under Wildwood - Colin Meloy 
310. Scent of Magic - Maria V. Snyder
311. Daughter of Smoke and Bone - Laini Taylor 
312. The Confidant - Hélène Grémillon 
313. A Temptation of Angels - Michelle Zink
314. Earth Unaware - Orson Scott Card & Aaron Johnston
315. Prophecy - Ellen Oh
316. Catalyst - Laurie Halse Anderson
317. The Angel Esmeralda - Don DeLillo 
318. The Art of Wishing - Lindsay Ribar
319. A Midsummer's Nightmare - Kody Keplinger
320. The Corpse Didn't Kick - Otto Penzler 
321. All Men of Genius - Lev AC Rosen
322. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares - David Levithan & Andrea Cremer
323. Eyes to See - Joseph Nassise 
324. Austentatious - Alyssa Goodnight 
325. Orleans - Sherri L. Smith
326. One Lonely Degree - C. K. Kelly Martin 
327. Just One Day - Gayle Forman 
328. James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl 
329. May the Road Rise Up to Meet You - Peter Troy 
330. King of the Dead - Joseph Nassise 
331. Obernewtyn - Isobelle Carmody 
332. These Things Happen - Richard Kramer
333. What I Saw and How I Lied - Judy Blundell 
334. Paper Valentine - Brenna Yovanoff 
335. Moonglass - Jessi Kirby
336. The Madman's Daughter - Megan Shepherd
337. Austensibly Ordinary - Alyssa Goodnight
338. Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone - Kat Rosenfield
339. Nobody But Us - Kristin Halbrook
340. The Sky Is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson
341. Girl, Stolen - April Henry 
342. The Boyfriend List - E. Lockhart
343. One Breath Away - Heather Gudenkauf
344. The Boy Book - E. Lockhart
345. Cascade - Maryanna O'Hara
346. The Treasure Map of Boys - E. Lockhart 
347. Astray - Emma Donoghue
348. Real Live Boyfriends - E. Lockhart
349. Zombies: A Record Year of the Infection - Don Roff
350. Guardian - Heather Burch
351. Small Medium at Large - Joanne Levy
352. Easy - Tammara Webber 
353. Everneath - Brodi Ashton
354. Dreamland - Sarah Dessen 
355. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight - Jennifer E. Smith
356. Salvation - Anne Osterlund
357. Teeth - Hannah Moskowitz
358. Me Before You - Jojo Moyes
359. Shades of Earth - Beth Revis 
360. Ashes of Twilight - Kassy Tayler
361. The Dust of 100 Dogs - A.S. King 
362. Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities - Mike Jung
363. So You Want to Be a Wizard - Diane Duane 
364. Everbound - Brodi Ashton
365. Dracula - Bram Stoker
366. Scarlet - Marissa Meyer
367. Mothership - Martin Leicht & Isla Neal

2012 Stats + Some 2013 Goals

After looking at some other blogger's charts to wrap up 2012, I decided to look at some of my own reading statistics. In 2012, I read 367 books. My definition of a book works as follows: a book (for any age group excluding picture books), graphic novel (individual or whole series), manga (individual or whole series), audiobook, or play.

Now here are some charts on my reading:

You can maybe see why I don't worry too much about children's books throwing off my book totals, since I only read four, and they weren't even ridiculously simple ones. I really thought I was a bit more balanced with YA and adult reading, but that might have been more true by time spent reading, since most adult books tend to go much slower.

2013 Goal: I'd like to keep YA to no more than half my total reading, but I guess I won't be that upset if it continues to dominate, because I do love YA. The important thing is to love what I'm reading. I would like to read more middle grade books, but I doubt I'll read much more childrens' fiction. I mostly just read classics within that genre.

Alright, I know this data isn't precisely accurate, since those numbers do not quite add up to the number of books that I read, but I've already spent a lot of time on this, so you'll just have to deal with it. Series books definitely won, though I did count companion novels as series books, and I know some might not have done so; using those calculations, it would probably be about even.

2013 Goal: I don't necessarily want to read less series, but I would like to stick to series more. If I read a book in a series and want to continue, if the other books are already out, I should go ahead and read them. I was a bit all over the place, and, with my memory, I end up having to reread books I didn't much like the first time so that I can read the sequel.

For those who are curious about the formatting on my books, they break down like this. Most of the ebooks were from the first 3/4 of the year, when I used NetGalley heavily. Most of the ARCs are from BEA. The majority of the hardbacks and paperbacks were finished review copies, followed by the library. I read very few of my owned books this year.

2013 Goal: Read more of those books you own, self! Why on earth do you keep buying them if you prefer books from the library? *waggles finger at self* The e-galley figure should fall quite a bit, because, even with all of those that I read, there are another hundred I did not get to. I've realized that I have no self-control as it comes to e-galleys, so they will be accepted sparingly and as needed, like for gym or travel reading.

Yikes, right? Almost three-quarters of the books I read this year were for review. This, right here, is why I end up begging for review copies of things I really want to read. Yes, I could buy them or get them from the library, but experience has shown me that I don't have much time for books that I'm not reviewing.

2013 Goal: I'm going to try to be more careful accepting review copies, and I will try to strike a better balance. The solution might just be to read MORE, but I don't know if I can. Of the books that I read that aren't for review, I would like to get to more of the ones I own but have been neglecting. The library has proved too tempting in the past.

This data goes off of every rating tag I have in blogger right now, which should be mostly 2012, since I only added ratings at the very end of 2011. There are a couple of scheduled 2013 posts in there too, but I think it's a pretty fair representation of 2012. Now, my ratings for this year are flawed for two reasons: 1) My rating system was new and it took a while for me to quite feel out what they mean. The 2.5 and 5 ratings have probably been most abused. 2) This won't change, but I review right when I finish a book, and hindsight often changes my opinion.

The rating spread is pretty good, and I'm not surprised the bulk of my reads have been from 3-4 stars. Basically, this means I've been doing a pretty good job choosing books to read in 2012. As much as I think about myself as a critical reviewer and tend to rate lower than the average person, I still try to find books I will enjoy, and, as you can see, don't have two many books that I give very low ratings to. Many of those low ratings were review copies I could not DNF for one reason or another.

2012 Goal: Basically just to have less ratings I later regret. Most of that was due to not knowing quite what I wanted my own personal rating scale to be. 5s will probably occur less, but I hope to see a good deal of 4s and 4.5s! Oh, I also hope to do a bit more DNFing, so that I don't waste my time on books I hate, though I feel bad DNFing review books, so that probably won't change.

That's it for this wrap up post on my readership habits. I'm planning to do another on my ratings broken down by publisher and imprint, something I'm really interested in, all in an affort to avoid books I probably will not like. Look for those in early 2013!