The unexpected ways my reading habits changed in 2021

In 2020 and 2021 I used a reading spreadsheet in addition to Goodreads to track all of my reading stats. In addition to the categories shown, I started tracking categories in 2021 to challenge myself to read more diversely. For the purposes of this post, though, I'll be sharing how my reading habits changed in relation to genre, age range, and book format!

READING BY BOOK FORMAT

Starting off with the least interesting, I wanted to see how I've changed my physical reading habits. For example, in 2020 I read mostly audiobooks, followed by hardcovers. So how did I do things differently in 2021?

This was certainly an unforeseen change! For starters, I read significantly less audiobooks. Despite what I first though, this isn't because I've listened to less audiobooks! It's because I've read more actual books this year than last. While I only read 80ish books in 2020, I'm already over 100 for this year, so the percentage of audio is lower.

The most obvious difference is that I've read over half my books in ebook format! I think this can be largely explained by three things. First, I bought a Kindle Oasis this year and it is my new best friend. We go EVERYWHERE together! Second, I joined Kindle Unlimited and got a hankering for dark romance books that are almost all on KU. Finally, I started reading fanfiction and (obviously) that's in ebook format. My poor physical copies are feeling very lonely right about now. 

READING BY AGE RANGE

Next, I took a look at how I've changed my reading habits by age range. This blog started out and has remained a mostly YA book blog for several years, but that definitely changed this year!

Along with the introduction of dark romance and KU came significantly more adult books. This has definitely shown up around the blog in a way that I'm not entirely sure how to work with. What even is my blog if not mostly YA? I've still read young adult books this year, but not even close to how many I do in a normal year. While YA books made up 57% of my reading in 2020, they were less than 16% in 2021. Honestly, I'm a little worried for myself because I have a TON of YA books sitting unread on my bookshelves and I'm waiting for the inspiration to read them. Still, I've found a ton of new authors to love!

READING BY GENRE

Finally, the category I've been most excited to see as a graph: what genres I've read most. Surely I'm still reading mostly fantasy even if it's adult fantasy, right? 

*laughs nervously*

Well, I guess not. In 2020, fantasy made up exactly 50% of the books I read, while it clocked in at just 22.3% in 2021 (so far). So what else am I reading?? Well, I read 2.3% romance in 2020, but 23.7% romance in 2021. Hmm. That's... something. I've also read more graphic novels and have been introduced to webtoons and fanfiction!

Interestingly, some genres that have stayed roughly the same. Thrillers, contemporary, and non-fiction stayed pretty close, while I read a bit less horror and sci-fi. This isn't visible, but mystery dropped to less than 1% from 11% in 2020. I'm very curious to see how these trends change in the next year! 

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Do you track your reading habits?

How have your preferences changed?

Let me know in the comments!

Book Review: The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

Title: The Husband's Secret
Author: Liane Moriarty
Publication Date: July 30, 2013
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 396
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My darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died...

Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .

Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

The Husband’s Secret is another hit thriller by Liane Moriarty. The book starts with Cecilia Fitzpatrick who stumbled across a letter addressed to her by her husband to be opened after his death. Cecilia has a decision to make: to honor her husband’s wishes and wait to open the letter or to go with her curiosity and open it now; to open and read a letter that could change the trajectory of their entire lives by revealing her husband’s deepest, darkest, harrowing secret. This book is told from three points of view: Cecilia, Rachel, and Tess. Even though they don’t know each other well, their lives unexpectedly intertwine, and the repercussions of John-Paul Fitzpatrick’s actions create an avalanche that no one can stop.

My favorite character in this book was Cecilia. She felt like the most three-dimensional character to me. She had so much depth that others couldn’t even begin to imagine, and I also found myself empathizing with her the most. As always, Moriarty’s characters felt real to me. This was also yet another book that keeps you guessing. I found myself not even wanting to sleep because I wanted to reach the end of the book while simultaneously wanting more to the story. My favorite part of this book was the climax. Seeing everything come together was as pleasurable as biting into a triple layer fudge cake. This book made me laugh at times, but I didn’t find myself wanting to cry even though it did get emotional.

The only thing I disliked about this book was Rachel. Without spoiling anything, all I can say is she was one-dimensional to me, and she was also just extremely annoying. I found myself wanting to throw my book across the room, and then I got mad because I it was a library book so I couldn’t. She was an overbearing grandmother, a lackluster parent, a terrible mother-in-law, and she tended to see what she wanted to see and to ignore what she didn’t want to see. For many reasons I found it difficult to care about Rachel.

This book was another amazing five star read for me and I would DEFINITELY recommend it to others!

Top Ten Tuesday #307: Books I loved as a child/teen

Today's Topic: 

Books I Loved as a Child/Teen

Happy Tuesday! This week we're taking a trip down memory lane and I couldn't limit myself to just ten! I split this week's books into books I loved as a child and books I loved as a teenager. I definitely had eclectic (and questionable) tastes! Haha!

AS A CHILD

Midnight on the Moon by Mary Pope Osborne

Karen's Worst Day by Ann M. Martin

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle

AS A TEEN

Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip

The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

The Knight and the Dove by Lori Wick

The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

Warrior's Song by Catherine Coulter

The Crown of Eden by Thomas Williams

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Weekly(ish) Recap: 11/7 - 11/27

HAPPENINGS OFF THE BLOG

Hi, everyone! Another few weeks of reading a ton of fanfiction, but I did finally get around to reading some "real" books too. Shockingly, they were mostly (dark) romance. Who even am I? My friend talked me into reading Ice Planet Barbarians with her and, well, that was an experience. XD For Thanksgiving I ended up doing absolutely nothing but reading and watching the first episode of Wheel of Time (which made me want to finish reading the series because yikes). I'm definitely glad I'll have family here for Christmas! I'm already making plans to go look at lights and drink hot chocolate. 

NEW BOOKS THIS WEEK

  

THIS WEEK I READ

 

   

  

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Book review of Into the Dark

Book review of The Other Woman

I talked about books I've preordered but haven't read

Book review of The Last Widow

I did the Thanksgiving book tag

UPCOMING REVIEWS

 

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I'm linking up to Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post!

Thanksgiving Book Tag

Happy Thanksgiving, American friends! I haven't done a book tag in quite awhile and, since today I'm thankful for my blog and all of my amazing bookish friends who have stuck with me over the years, I decided to do one! I found this tag at Amanda's Book Nook!

FRIENDS AND FAMILY
A Book With Characters That Feel Like Family

Cliche probably, but I think everyone who has read these books a couple times feels like the Inner Circle is family. I honestly only LOVE the first two books, but every time I read ACOMAF I feel like I'm visiting friends. 


FALLEN LEAVES
A Book That Fell Flat (Didn’t Meet Your Expectations)

Controversial opinion time! I loved the Grisha Trilogy so much that I fully expected to be blown away by Six of Crows! Unfortunately, this is the one that made me realize I do not enjoy heist books very much. The characters were wonderful, but the plot didn't do much for me.


THANKSGIVING DINNER
A Book You Want To Read Every Year During This Season

Honestly, is there any other answer for a winter re-read? I first read these books as a pre-teen (I think) and I've read them a few times since. I know they're super heavy handed on the allegory (which I don't care for), but they're just so magical.

TURKEY

A Book With A Bird In It

I really had to think about this one, but then I remembered the giant talking eagles in Beyond the Shadowed Earth! This author really brings all the fairy tale vibes and I have never read a book by her that I didn't love!


HAM
A Book That Made Your Eyes Glaze Over (Boring)



I was so disappointed by this one because I loved the author's first book, but Small Favors was a snoozefest. I was bored out of my mind by the end!


DINNER ROLLS
A Book That Melted Your Heart And Made You Feel Warm

Need I say more? When I think of a book that's heartwarming and gave me the warm fuzzies, House in the Cerulean Sea definitely comes to mind!


MASHED POTATOES
A Book With A White Cover

Quality literature, Crush. I truly can't wait to dive into the fourth book and the spinoff as soon as I possibly can.


GRAVY
A Book You’re Not Totally Sure Why You Love, But You Do



I know my friends laugh at me for loving this book, but I was HERE FOR IT! I devoured Edward's perspective in a couple days. I'm aware the whole Twilight Saga is universally regarded as trash, but it's MY trash.


PUMPKIN PIE
A Dessert Book That You Love

I have no idea what a dessert book is, but I'm going with something sweet and fluffy that I enjoy between heavier reads. Remarried Empress is a Webtoon that took me by surprise with how wonderful it was! I'm several seasons in and I absolutely adore it, especially when I'm in a slump.

Book Review: The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter

Title: The Last Widow
Author: Karin Slaughter
Publication Date: August 20, 2019
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 446
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A mysterious kidnapping

On a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. Vanished into thin air, the authorities are desperate to save the doctor.

A devastating explosion

One month later, the serenity of a sunny Sunday afternoon is shattered by the boom of a ground-shaking blast—followed by another seconds later. One of Atlanta’s busiest and most important neighborhood’s has been bombed—the location of Emory University, two major hospitals, the FBI headquarters, and the CDC.

A diabolical enemy

Medical examiner Sara Linton and her partner Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, rush to the scene—and into the heart of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to destroy thousands of innocent lives. When the assailants abduct Sara, Will goes undercover to save her and prevent a massacre—putting his own life on the line for the woman and the country he loves.

The Last Widow is the 9th book in Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series. I didn’t even know this was a series until I finished the book and looked it up on Goodreads. I plan to read the rest of the series but I’m glad that Slaughter doesn’t make you feel lost if you haven’t read books 1-8. From what I can tell, the characters are all the same, but each book has a different plot, kind of like standalone episodes of a cop drama. This book was a palpitating five-star read for me!

This gripping and complex book is about Will Trent and Sara Linton. Will is a police officer with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and Sara is a medical examiner. This book starts with a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) scientist, Michelle Spivey, being kidnapped in a shopping center parking lot. If I remember correctly, this happened on the third or fourth page. One month and just a few pages later, Will and Sara were at her Sara’s aunt’s house, near Emory University in Atlanta, when they heard and felt an explosion. It turns out the neighborhood surrounding Emory University, two major hospitals, the FBI headquarters, AND the CDC had been bombed. As first responders, Will and Sara quickly head to the site of the explosion when Sara is abducted by the same assailants who took Michelle.

I was NOT prepared for this book. Even if I’d read a description of this book before reading it, I still wouldn’t have been prepared. I’ve been reading a lot of thrillers lately, but this one was on another level because it was real. The reason being that it touched on themes extremely close to my heart. Will and Sara ended up in the middle of a terrorist conspiracy, one that was headed by a Nazi who believed the world needed to be cleansed of everyone not straight and white. In an effort not to give any spoilers, that is all I will say of the book’s plot.

There are many disturbing themes in this book that readers should be aware of. These themes are rape, pedophilia, domestic violence, racism, terrorism, Christian extremism, Nazism, cult-like behavior, homophobia, misogyny, and a lot of death and violence. If you can handle these themes, then I HIGHLY recommend this book because it was thought-provoking and strong. It is obvious that Slaughter conducted an intense and thorough background into the aforementioned topics for this book. I can only imagine what she had to read to write alt-right characters as convincing as the ones in this book. It’s easy to tell that as she immersed herself in each character as she was writing them. After writing some of these characters, I’m sure she had to go and take a shower hot enough to take off her first layer of skin.

Between 2015 and 2020, the rise of hate in the United States few ten-fold and this book was a statement about that. Slaughter gave us a bone-chilling insight into the hateful minds of the Alt-right. This book is hard to read. It is stomach-clenching. It is brutal. It is yell-inducing. It is insomnia-inducing because not immediately finishing this book as soon as possible is unthinkable.

My favorite character in this book was a tie between Will and Sara. They are both written so well that you just can’t help but to love them both. Each of these characters in the book felt real to me and that’s what made it so terrifying. No matter how despicable, low, and extreme Slaughter’s writing went, absolutely none of it surprised me because it was really how some people think. There are people who hate me for being black. There are people who hate me for being a woman. There are people who hate my friends for being LGBTQ+. There are people who hate my friends for being nonbinary. Unfortunately, these people will always exist, but there will always be the minority, not the majority.