It’s that time of year. Tax time. Ugh. It’s definitely not my favorite thing to do, but one of the only interesting parts of the process for me is looking at my bookish stats.
As an author, I get to claim the books I buy as a business expense because part of the job of being an author is reading what is being published and knowing the market. So each year, I put together a spreadsheet with every book I’ve purchased. Then, just for my own curiosity, I divide them by format (print, ebook, audiobook, subscription book club, etc.) and highlight the ones I’ve read.
This gives me some valuable (and often enlightening) information. The first bit of information is consistent year to year—holy crap, how did I buy so many books?
What can I say? I don’t have a lot of vices, but acquiring books is definitely one of them. I’m not murdering people or selling drugs, so I guess as far as vices go, it’s okay.
But the other thing gathering this information gives me is insight into my reading habits and how they change (or don’t.) Over the years, I can see genre shifts for sure. And now format shifts are what’s sticking out. I’ve shifted much more into print reading and audiobook listening than e-reading in the last few years.
When I looked at the stats of what I bought in 2023 and which ones I actually read, here’s how it broke down. (I’m leaving audiobooks out because most of my audiobooks were library listens or Libro.fm early copies and so I didn’t purchase a lot of them. But 31% of my overall reading in 2023 was on audiobook.)
Purchased in 2023:
37% ebooks
62% print books
But here’s the more telling stat…
I read 25% of the print books purchased but only 8% of the ebooks. Ouch.
So, I’m still buying a good number of ebooks (mostly on sales/daily deals) but I’m not actually reading many of them. (At least not the ones I purchased. I’m still reading ebooks from the library if that’s the only format available.)
This probably means I need to stop getting lured in by the sales. I’m stocking up my Kindle, but then those books get lost and languish on my TBR. Ebooks are so much more out-of-sight-out-of-mind than things on my physical shelves. Even though I keep everything in Goodreads, when I’m searching for what to read next, I go to my physical shelves first.
I also think I just enjoy the act of reading a physical book more these days. This might be because we’re on screens all day now and my Kindle feels like more of the same. When I read, I want it to feel like a different activity from everything else. Plus, I like seeing the progress of making my way through a book—moving my bookmark, getting a view of how much is left, etc.
So based on this info, I’m setting a goal to be more discerning about which ebooks I snap up. I also want to put more focus on reading the books I already own (in all formats) because there are A LOT, y’all. My TBR is ludicrously long.
I’ve set this goal before without much success, but I haven’t given up hope! :) I have a few new things I’m going to try. We shall see.
So how about you?
Have you found that your reading has changed over the last few years? Do you have a preferred format? Has anything shifted in your reading tastes? I’d love to know!
