I always write down each book I read in a notes app as soon as I finish. There is something so satisfying about watching the list grow throughout the year. Plus, I am horrible with remembering the names of books so it’s a handy reference when I want to give friends book recommendations!
In 2021, I read 38 books — 33 fiction and 5 non-fiction. I used to read a more balanced mix but got on a real escapist kick around March 2020. 37 of the books I read were in English, and one was in French (Harry Potter, of course). Although I didn’t track reading time, Harry Potter et le Prisonnier D’Azkaban definitely took me much longer to read than any of the other books, but I’m proud that I stuck with it.
The charts below compare my ratings for the books I read in 2021 with their average Goodreads scores. Overall, I ranked these books slightly more favorably than the average Goodreads user (4.13 for me and 4.06 for Goodreads), but overall it was pretty close. However, the averages mask some notable disagreements between me and GoodReads. The Monster Baru Cormorant was my lowest-rated book for the year, but GoodReads users rated it at nearly a 4. On the other hand, I loved a book on the origins of the gang MS-13, but it was the lowest-ranked book, according to GoodReads, off of my 2021 list.
The diverging bar chart below highlights the titles where GoodReads users and I diverged the most. You can also find this interpretation on the scatter plot above, but I wanted to make it easier to pick out individual books and see where we disagreed. Besides the books I highlighted earlier, I was surprised to see the entire “cyberpunk techno-thriller” Centinal Cycle series by Malka Older was one of my biggest disagreements with GoodReads users (granted, I did give all the books a score of 5.) Whatever GoodReads, I still recommend the series!
