My Year In Books: 2017 Novels And Nonfiction Wrap-Up

It feels good to be back from my blogging break and also back to real life after a blissful 2 week vacation in Milan with my family. All I did was read, eat, sleep and repeat – you may have noticed the constant uptick in read books on my Goodreads/Twitter. I ended up reading 9 books during the vacation, as well as starting several more. Not too shabby.

While there I also started this post taking a look at all the books I read in 2017 so as to glean some insights on the genres I’m gravitating towards. At the end you’ll also find my blog goals for 2018 (which I’ve tried to keep pretty simple and realistic). I’ll be back with Links I Loved this week as well on Sunday as usual, and hopefully one or two more posts in between.

Happy 2018 to everyone and good luck on all your personal and blogging resolutions!

If you’re looking for which titles I loved most out of the books I read in 2017, look no further than the post I published in December with my Top Ten. Among these my favorite title was definitely Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.

Click the image below to access the full list.

I ended up completing 114 books in 2017, just shy of my 120 Goodreads goal. I actually thought I had read 115 but it turns out I had logged one title twice by mistake. I’m very satisfied with this result since it’s well above 100 but I’m trying for 120 again this year.

Out of the 114 books I read, I had a pretty even division between Fiction (60 titles) and Nonfiction (54 titles) all pictured below.

If you want to read reviews of any of the titles that I’ve read this year, you can see links to all available reviews for them in my new Book Review Index page, organized by category (Fiction/Nonfiction) and rating.

New Book Review Index Page

It’s limited to reviews I’ve written for books read in 2017 at the moment, but I plan to expand it to all reviews posted on the blog asap.

Fiction Read In 2017

Nonfiction Read In 2017

Since I am a data analyst I couldn’t help but want to look at my reading based on a few different key parameters, like the split by genre, reading format and source of the material.

It’s clear that in terms of fiction, I’m particularly drawn to historical and contemporary fiction, which made up over half of my fiction reading for the year combined. I really slacked on reading classics this year, which is an issue since I technically have a whole series dedicated to them on my blog (the 1000 Novels Series). I’ve definitely neglected it, especially in the second half of 2017, so I hope to get back to work on reading and reviewing classics in 2018.

In terms of nonfiction, I’ve gravitated towards political titles in particular this year – and no surprise considering the fractious political times we live in. I’m still reading towards the Election book list I want to post likely in February 2018.

Aside from politics, I’ve also read a ton of historical nonfiction (heavily skewed towards World War II titles) and also memoirs – two categories I’m always drawn to. I only read one self-help title in 2017 and fewer scientific titles than I expected, which I’ll probably correct in 2018 since I’m working on a book list on genetics.

Looking at the reading formats it’s clear that I’m mostly pretty divided between ebooks and hardcovers. I like to alternate between the two. Sometimes I really crave that physical feeling of an actual book in my hands (and thanks to Book Of The Month I’ve had plenty of gorgeous hardcovers to choose from), and then at other times I like the convenience of the lightness and internal lighting of my kindle.

I “read” (or listened to, for the purists) 20 audiobooks in 2017 – almost 2 per month. It’s definitely made my commute more and more enjoyable. Paperbacks are a format I’ve never particularly liked – they just feel uncomfortable to read – so no surprise that I only picked up 6 of them this year.

Book Of The Month was the single largest source of books I read this year, since I receive 3 hardcovers from them every month. I love how recent the titles are, how convenient the service is, and also that most of the titles I’ve read from them so far have been in the 3 to 5 star range. I will definitely continue my subscription in 2018.

The Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL in the chart below) has been an invaluable source of free books for me this year, and I love how responsive they are to recommendations for new titles. Of the 25 books I read instead from Amazon purchases this year, it’s likely several of them were kindle deals that I discovered through Modern Mrs. Darcy’s ebook deals page. I’ve been able to snag titles on my TBR by checking her list every morning (pro tip).

And of course very appreciative for having Net Galley available as a source of recent (and free) releases. I definitely want to better my Net Galley review percentage this year.

I’m really trying to make blogging as sustainable and fun for me as possible, but I’ve still decided to identify a few things I’d like to improve on for Novels In Nonfiction in 2018:

1. Read 120 books (as mentioned above, setting the same goal for my Goodreads Challenge in 2018 as I did in 2017)

2. Bring my Net Galley review percentage from 45% to 60%

3. Increase my WordPress followers to at least 500

4. Bring my monthly views consistently to over 5000 per month

5. Finish the Les Miserables 2018 Chapter-A-Day Reading Challenge

6. Dedicate more time to reading and reviewing classics for the 1000 Novels Series

7. Participate in Top Ten Tuesday once a month

How many books did you read in 2017 and what genres/formats/sources were they from? What are your 2018 personal or book blogging goals?

For other recent posts from Novels and Nonfiction you can read my review of Isabelle Allende’s recent release In The Midst Of Winter, my Author Spotlight of Andy Weir with reviews of The Martian and Artemis, and my list of December 2017/January 2018 releases I’m looking forward to.

If you’d like to keep up to date with posts on Novels And Nonfiction, make sure to follow me on WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest.

This post contains affiliate links from Book Depository (free delivery worldwide).