Reading by the Numbers

Obviously, I love reading. Even as a kid before I realized I loved reading, I loved stories. But I didn't realize until I was much older that I love documenting my reading. I like to see it in charts and numbers and reviews. Goodreads feeds this like nobody's business.

So does my hometown library's wonderful Extreme Book Nerd Challenge. I'm on my fifth year of the 50 books in 50 categories in 50 weeks challenge. It has pushed me to read things I never would have picked up and to really think about my reading habits. A couple years ago, I decided to investigate the diversity of my reading habits. I will say upfront that this is a tricky thing to do and my documenting is absolutely imperfect, also I still question whether or not this is a good practice. But breaking down my personal list has helped me see where my attentions naturally go and when I might need to do a little thoughtful redirecting to keep expanding my reading horizons.

But overall, there's just something so satisfying about the graphs and numbers (something you'll rarely hear me say in other parts of life). This is probably why I love NaNoWriMo too.

I can directly thank my AP Lit teacher from senior year of high school for my Goodreads addiction. She had us make Shelfari accounts - a site later folded into Goodreads. The rest was history. Literally.

Goodreads will give you an annual look back, like so many other sites, but what's less obvious is their stats function. It's a little hard to find (go to your profile and then look for the word STATS beneath the list of your shelves) but they will show you number of books and pages read by year and over time. And my personal favorite, books by publication year. Why is this so fun? Because mine looks like this:

It makes me laugh every single time.

First, it is clear that most things I read come from the past century and even mostly the last 50 years. But because the scale is 250 years between each x axis line, it can be easy to lose perspective. I've highlighted a few things to help. Everything in the yellow highlight is Shakespeare. The blue is Arthurian legends focused on Gawain. The point hovering between 750 and 1000 CE is Beowulf, which feels impossibly ancient. But then....that point at the bottom. That point is Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. There is a larger span of time between Oedipus and Beowulf (approx. 1300 years) then Beowulf to today (approx. 1100 years). Which is just bonkers.

I know this chart isn't a 100% accurate depiction of my reading (because I know I've read more than one Greek tragedy, Ovid and Homer, some Ben Johnson, and at least part of The Arabian Nights). This is most likely due to the Goodreads algorithm reading edition dates instead of first publication dates. But after making me laugh at the absurdity of this chart, it is a strange lesson in time and history and how little we know about so much.

I'd like to accrue a few more data points trickling down the chart. Maybe I'll make a more accurate version when I'm procrastinating some day. In the meantime, what does your chart look like? What does your reading look like by the numbers?

Want to think more about just how long ago the peak of Greek tragedy was? Check out this Crash Course.