2018 Year in Reading and Writing Review
And here we are at the end of another year! 2018 was a great reading and writing year for me so I’m pleased to offer my 2018 Year in Reading and Writing Review!
My goal was 30 books and I hit 53. I wrote and published more this year then usual as well: some 25 reviews, a couple of articles, and I signed a book contract.
I have one more piece of good news coming that I hope to be able to share soon, so stay tuned!
This post will include information about my year in reading overall.
Thanks to all of my followers and readers: I hope your year was everything you imagined it would be! Happy New Year!
Books I read: 44
Pages read: 11, 125
Books I listened to: 9
My favorite books of the year included Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi, A Little in Love with Everyone by Genevieve Hudson, and, most recently, blud by Rachel McKibbens.
My favorite audiobook I listened to this year was Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime, hands down. I laughed and I cried. I love South Africa and so loved this book. I also really enjoyed Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich.
My least favorite books of 2018? Well, they would be Every Body has A Story by Beverly Gologorsky and Angels: The Women of Room 12 by Tara Vanhonacker. My least favorite audiobook this year was Libby Bray’s Beauty Queens. Ugh.
On average, I enjoyed 5 books each month but 6 in each of June and September and only 2 in April.
Of the 44 I read, 18 were ARCs and 17 were new. Thank you to all the publishers and authors who sent me your books! I appreciate you.
I enjoyed books from a wide variety of genres including memoir (10), contemporary (9), nonfiction (8), dystopian (6), YA (5), classics (4), and more.
On my site, I wrote 20 reviews, 15 Reads for the Rest of Us, and 5 resource guides. See below for more detailed info.
Reads for the Rest of Us posted: 15
- One for each month February through December
- 12 Must-Reads for the Rest of Us – 2018 – Part I (posted in January)
- 15 Must-Reads for the Rest of Us – 2018 – Part II (posted in July)
- 100 Classic Reads for the Rest of Us (posted in August)
- Best Reads (and Book Gifts) for the Rest of Us – 2018 (posted in December)
Resource guides I created: 5
- Black Women Authors from South Africa (posted in February)
- Literary Websites (posted in February)
- Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women #MMIW Resource Guide (posted in May)
- Women in Puerto Rico in the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria (posted in July)
- Women in Music Bibliography (posted in October)
Monthly Wrap-Ups I posted: 7 (June through December)
What I’m Reading/What I’m Writing posts: 9 (December 2017 through June 2018)
I set out to read mostly womxn authors and succeeded.
A couple of the books I read by men were requests for reviews. I couldn’t turn down an ARC of Kevin Powell’s new book and was so intrigued by Ogenna Ojukwu’s that I had to read both and am happy that I did. The others I read or listened to by men were mainly titles from my TBR such as If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin or new ones I had to try out like Jose Olivera’s Citizen Illegal.
65% of the books I enjoyed in 2018 are #OwnVoices. The authors’ backgrounds and topics of the books were as varied as the genres.
I don’t take part in many cover reveals so only participated in two this year:
I am taking part in the Classics Club reading challenge and did not hit my goals this year, not even close! I only read one book off my list! I really like this challenge though and so will continue and hopefully catch up to where I want to be soon.
Any other challenges or discussions I thought I would participate in or host totally fell off my to-do list by the end of the year. I just ended up being too busy! Will reevaluate these in the coming weeks.
Overall, I am pleased with my reading and writing accomplishments for 2018. 2019 is looking to be even more exciting than 2018 in the reading and writing arena for me. More on this soon…
Looking forward to a productive and fun new year!
That was my 2018 Year in Reading and Writing Review. How do you feel about your 2018 in reading or writing? What were your favorite books? Least favorite? What are you excited to read in 2019?
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25 thoughts on “2018 Year in Reading and Writing Review”
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Sounds like you had a great year. Hope 2019 is even more awesome.
Thanks, Jo! You too!
53 books is really good! And I love that you enjoy reading diverse books
Thanks, Susanne!
Wow! I love the way you broke down your reading year – great post!
Thanks, Christina! I am a nerd.
Ahh I love these stats and layout of the article! You’ve had a great year by the looks of it. Hope your 2019 is going to be at least as great!
Thanks, here’s hoping!
I’m throwing down a dare that your total goes over 60 during 2019
There may be 60 in my future…
Wow.. I can’t say how comprehensive your post is. I really liked reading all the details and Congrats on the book contract!!! I am sure you are going to rock 2019! Happy New Year!
Thanks so much! I gained a lot of satisfaction by seeing how it all broke down. Happy new year to you!
You had a fab 2018, here’s to an even better 2019. Looking forward to reading your posts.
Thanks, you too!
Your stats look great! I hope you have a great 2019!
Oh my gosh, I love this post. I love dissecting and graphing and charting my reading habits! I will have to live vicariously through your post this year, I am afraid. I need to push Trevor Noah’s book back higher on my TBLT pile. I have it on audio, but I just haven’t listened.
I can’t imagine reading Noah’s book is at all as good as listening to him read it. For real. So good, I hope you love it as much as I do!
Love your posts. They’re comprehensive and amazing. Born A Crime is on my TBR but maybe I’ll listen to it instead because I do love Trevor Noah’s voice.
Thanks! And YES to listening to Noah’s book – see above reply to Kristine lol
It looks like you had a great year. I bet you read and write even more in 2019!
I liked how you looked at the types of books you read over the past year!
I liked all the detailed graphs and charts! It made me feel weirdly like an intellectual while reading them but that’s beside the point. I really admire how you read from a wide variety of genres and how diverse the books are! That’s definitely something I should work and improve on… Anyway, I hope you have a great year filled with more enjoyable reading and writing, all the best!
Thank you so much for the kind and thoughtful message! Happy new year to you!
Looks like you had a good reading year!
As someone who loves charts and graphs I spent way too much time on your post than required. Looks like you had a great year.