What I Learned From What I Read in 2019
It will surprise no one who has followed me on Instagram to learn that I kept track of the books I read and the books I did not finish (DNF) last year. Of course, a lot of the books I read I talked about on my Best Books to Read Now blogs. Some of them I didn’t. This isn’t because they were bad, really. It was usually because I didn’t think you, my blog audience, would be that interested. Or because I ran out of room/ time (I publish these blogs in the middle of the month and sometimes books fall in the cracks in between.)
And in 2019, for the first time ever, I started including my DNFs in my Inner Circle Newsletter. Now, I didn’t give people too many details about them. It would be unprofessional for me to identify the authors or titles of these books, especially when, like I said, there’s probably nothing intrinsically bad about the book. It’s usually just something that I, as a reader, don’t care for. Okay, sometimes it’s something that I, as an author, don’t care for. At this point, I can’t separate Reader-Me and Author-Me. It is what it is.
I kept track of all of this because I was curious. Were there any trends in my reading/ writing? Were there any glaring holes that could give me insight into my personality or writing? What reader wheels could I identify and would this be something that would be useful?
I’m not a super analytical person, but I think starting with some numbers could be interesting.
Books FINISHED: 53 (obviously this does not include the ones I DNF’d, in some cases, a significant way through.)
Genres:
Mystery: 2
Paranormal/ Some Type of Fantasy/ Speculative: 5
Memoir/ Non Fiction: 8
Contemporary Romance: 15
Historical Romance: 15
Historical Fiction / Women’s Fiction: 8
Random Observations About The Books I Finished:
There is a LOT of bleeding from the Contemporary Romance genre to the Women’s Fiction genre and vice versa. A lot of books could be classified as both and I made the decision based on how many friends and families I could remember from the plot. If all I could remember was a love story, I classified it as a contemporary romance, even though it might have been packaged as a women’s fiction / contemporary fiction. If I could mostly remember a story about sisters, or a job or a murder or something, I classified it as a not-contemporary romance.
It felt like I read a LOT more mysteries this year but I think this is because so many of the other books have a strong mystery subplot. I was getting my mystery fix in books of other genres.
My most recommended books this year were in all the genres.
Top DNF Reasons:
Headhopping - this is when the story skips between different points of view without a clear designation of whose “head” we’re in
Didn’t Connect with Voice - the “Voice” is the author’s voice. It can be simplistic, overly complicated, casual, formal, etc.
1st Person Present - my least favorite POV. I CAN and HAVE enjoyed books with this, but if it’s done poorly and I start noticing it, it starts to drive me crazy. #sorrynotsorry
Dragging Plot - self-explanatory
No Conflict – I know a lot of people are all about the cozy, snuggly feel-good reads right now and in theory, so am I. But in reality? I need some sizzle and crackle to keep me turning the pages.
Didn’t FEEL IT.
That last one is one that I didn’t talk a lot about in my newsletters. Because this, again, doesn’t mean that the book is bad. Or was written poorly. Or that I wouldn’t recommend it to someone, somewhere, out there. A lot of times I put books aside because I’m writing my own and for whatever reasons, I don’t want to read that book while I’m writing. I don’t even count that as a DNF. It’s just me saving it for another time. This is the hardest thing for me to explain to myself, let alone my Inner Circle, but it’s definitely a THING and it’s something I’d love to understand about myself.
What do I like to read while I’m working? And why? At the beginning of my career, I avoided certain “strong voice” authors while I was writing because I didn’t want their voice/ humor infiltrating my manuscript. But that’s not always the case anymore and I’m looking forward to keeping my records in 2020 and seeing if I can identify what kind of input I need and when. (I’m a #6 input on the Clifton Gallup Strengthsfinder - I talked about that a little bit here.)
What’s Going to Change in 2020…
Nothing… and maybe everything.
Because I have a new phrase of the year: Hell Yes. (Read about it HERE)
And if I’m going to live with it, it should apply to the books I’m reading, too. Meaning, I need to ask myself do I really want to read this book in my TBR pile? And if the answer isn’t HELL YES, then I’m not going to waste my precious hours on it.
I’ll need to ask myself, “Am I really enjoying this genre/ book / author?” And… you guessed it… if the answer isn’t HELL YES, then it’s going to be a DNF for me. And I’ll have to talk about why in the Inner Circle Newsletter secret posts.
It will be interesting to see if my DNFs go up in 2020. Or if they go down?
Also, as I’ve mentioned it on Instagram lately, I made a quarterly resolution to NOT BUY ANY MORE BOOKS.
I’ll explain more in my newsletter, but the main reason for this is that I have SO MANY good books in my TBR pile and I really wanted to focus on reading and enjoying those for a few months.
Why Does This Matter, Lindsay?
I don’t know, maybe it doesn’t. Except if you’re here, you might love books and reading as much as I do. And you might also be interested in how to maximize what you love. How to find great books and how to find them on sale. How to spend your precious reading hours immersed in exactly what you want to read. And if we want more of what we love, we might have to make sure we’re throwing the stuff out that we don’t love. If these things sound great to you, then you’re my people. Welcome to my journey.
I’d love to hear how you keep track of your reading journey, too! Follow me on Instagram and Facebook to chat about books and whatever and also make sure you’re in the Inner Circle for the secret posts about books that I won’t share publicly…