In 2018, I read a few good books. Find the full list of books at the bottom of this post.
Here are a few statistics and general observations gleaned from the list:
- SHEER NUMBERS: Total pages read (or listened to) was 19,925.
- RATINGS: I rate books out of 5, with 1 being a bust (and probably unfinished) and 5 being totally awesome. The average book rating was 3.8.
- SERIES: 23% of books were in a series
- AUDIO/VISUAL: I listened to nearly half of the list–just 49% were audiobooks. This is down from 2017 when nearly 60% of the list was an audiobook.
- THOSE WHO DO NOT READ HISTORY: 19.6% of the books were history, while another 15.7% were biographies (or biographical). If I let myself, I could fill the list with all histories. It’s easily my favorite reading material.
- Shelby Foote’s The Civil War: A Narrative Volume 1 and Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August were my favorite histories, though Grant by Chernow gets runner-up, along with The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
- WORLDS OF WONDER: 29.4% were science fiction or fantasy.
- LENGTH: The longest book was Grant (1,074 pages) by Ron Chernow, while the shortest was Of Mice and Men (119 pages) by John Steinbeck.
- 12% of books were over 500 pages long, and 6% were over 800 pages long.
- BY SEX: the ratio of author gender was one female author for every three male authors, or 25% of the authors I read were women. I don’t make reading selections based on the gender of the author, but I do try to read across the spectrum when it comes to gender, ethnic background, perspective, and politics. All of the authors with multiple selections on this list–Barbara Tuchman and Naomi Novik–are women.
- FOCUS ON THE CIVIL WAR: I read a bunch of Civil War histories–nearly one in 10 of the books I read this year. I’m halfway through two more Civil War histories that I’ll finish this spring.
- THE FIRST AND THE LAST: One Man Great Enough by John C. Waugh was the first book completed (on January 16th), and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari was the last (on December 29th).
- FAMILY READING TIME: I read a few to the kiddos: Alcatraz and the Evil Librarian by Brandon Sanderson, The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling.
- ROLLERCOASTER: Educated by Tara Westover was the most emotional read of the year. Each of the next three book I picked up after that was pure brain candy.
- DARWIN’S LAW: I did not finish 6 of the books on the list. Life is just too short to waste time on books that aren’t worth reading.
- Did I miss any stats you want to hear or see in this list?
And here’s the full list:
- One Man Great Enough by John C. Waugh
- The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
- History of the Supreme Court by Peter Irons
- Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum
- Artemis by Andy Weir
- Evolving Faith by Steven L. Peck
- We are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis Taylor
- As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl by John Colapinto
- Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
- Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
- Scalia Speaks by Antonin Scalia
- 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History by Charles Bracelen Flood
- The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
- Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
- Grant by Ron Chernow
- American General: The Life and Times of William Tecumseh Sherman by John S.D. Eisenhower
- John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger
- All Systems Red by Martha Wells
- The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
- The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Lost Connections by Johann Hari
- Educated by Tara Westover
- The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan
- Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
- The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore
- Churchill and Orwell: The Fight For Freedom by Thomas Ricks
- Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling
- The Civil War, Vol 1: Fort Sumpter to Perryville by Shelby Foote
- A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey
- The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
- The Zimmerman Telegram by Barbara Tuchman
- Dreamland by Sam Quinones
- Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
- Munich by Robert Harris
- Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
- Decision Points by George W. Bush
- The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
- Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
- Every Single Day: A Simple Prescription for Transformation by Bradley Charbonneau
- My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start the Day Inspired by Benjamin Spall
- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
- Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
- Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
- Unworthy: An Autobiography of the Imposter by Paul Mero
- 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote for Chaos by Jordan Peterson
- Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft
- Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari