2021 Books in Review

This year I read 62 more books than last year. I tagged a few books as "good books", but that was mostly at the start of the year. (Did that mean I read a bunch of bad books, or just didn't bother with tagging.) There did not seem to be a dominant author or series this year. There was a lot of exploring different topics, though science fiction and history tend to be near the top. I also enhanced my personal NodeJS script for summarizing the data.

Total Books read: 235
Audiobooks: 195
Books: 234 (Audiobooks are also tagged as books unless there is no print edition. This year, I listened to a Brandon Sanderson audiobook that did not have a print version.)

Great Books

No books this year tagged as great books

Good Books

Seven books tagged as great books:

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
The Dark Forest
Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding
Bell Jar
Calculated Risks: How to Know When Numbers Deceive You
The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter
The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design

By month read

January: 18
February: 21
March: 14
April: 24
May: 27
June: 15
July: 26
August: 13
September: 8
October: 18
November: 28
December: 23

Books by year written

Oldest book was Moll Flanders written in 1722. 30 books were written in 2021. There is definitely a bias towards more recent books. Some books may be tagged with multiple years. (This is often the case with older works that may be translated or reissued at a later date.)

Stats on years written

mean: 2004
median: 2014
mode: 2020

Total books by year written.

1722: 1
1835: 1
1871: 1
1897: 1
1913: 1
1920: 1
1924: 1
1937: 1
1938: 1
1939: 3
1940: 1
1943: 1
1957: 1
1959: 2
1960: 1
1961: 1
1962: 1
1963: 1
1965: 2
1966: 2
1968: 1
1969: 1
1970: 1
1971: 1
1975: 1
1976: 1
1978: 3
1979: 3
1985: 3
1990: 1
1991: 1
1993: 1
1994: 1
1995: 1
1996: 3
1997: 1
1998: 1
1999: 2
2000: 6
2001: 3
2002: 2
2003: 5
2004: 4
2005: 2
2006: 3
2007: 5
2008: 2
2009: 5
2010: 13
2011: 7
2012: 10
2013: 6
2014: 6
2015: 9
2016: 15
2017: 9
2018: 18
2019: 13
2020: 40
2021: 30

Most popular tags (other than year and book)

Most books are tagged with author, narrator, genre, translator and subject. The only author to show up in the top 20 was Chinese science fiction author Cixin Liu. The top subjects/genres were history and science fiction. This seems fairly typical.

history: 24
science fiction: 23
fantasy: 19
psychology: 18
social science: 16
science: 14
politics: 14
self help: 9
business: 8
childrens books: 8
economics: 8
biography: 8
young adult fiction: 7
literature: 7
short stories: 7
Cixin Liu: 7
good books: 7
middle grade: 6
translated literature: 6
music: 6
Audiobooks: 195
Books: 234 (includes audiobooks also available in book form)