I do love Kate Constable’s annual Reading Roundup – thank you, Kate! Each year I plan to be more committed to record keeping, and each year I fail. My husband has set me up with a Goodreads account so I can keep a tally, but I have read six books so far this year and haven’t opened it yet. Doesn’t augur well, does it? However I would like to track my reading through the year. I have a few hunches; comfort reading probably peaks in winter, and my appetite for crime may increase with hot weather. We shall see.
By going back over my book group and library histories, plus my posts, I have pieced together a rough Roundup. The stats are:
57 books completed.
Of the books I actually read,
32 were fiction and
25 were non-fiction.
I generally didn’t count gardening, cookery and art books if I only looked at the pictures
15 were by Australian authors
27 were by UK authors
and there were a smattering of European and Japanese authors.
I only read 2 children’s books (!!!!) this year, which I find hard to believe…
20 books were from my own library,
of which 14 were books I bought this year.
I read 6 Kindle books, usually while I was travelling, but sometimes because I couldn’t borrow the book from the library or buy it cheaply.
I finished 24 library books this year, but I borrowed a lot more. For instance, I borrowed 33 novels that I didn’t finish. A few pages was enough with some of them. Which is why libraries are so wonderful!
The gender split was 38 female and 19 male authors.
The 2025 novels that have stayed with me are Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, The Bees by Laline Paull and Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner. And for non-fiction, Place of Tides by James Rebanks, Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee and Somebody Is Walking On Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez.