So, I’ve been struggling to get these monthly stat round-ups out the last few months. I’m really sorry about that. I know this isn’t the most important thing in the world, but some of you look forward to them, I think.
Part of my problem was a lingering illness (which I can’t seem to shake), but part of it is, predictably, time constraints. As you can imagine, this is very time consuming (though, I do enjoy it), and it’s far from my only hobby. Beyond that, I do have a full time job and a family.
All of which is just another way of saying that I don’t know if I’ll be doing this for CBR10.
I still plan on maintaining the database (after all, I started doing it because I wanted there to be one), but compiling everything every month in this way literally takes up a couple nights of free time. I always have a panicked rush at the beginning of the month to get everything updated and sorted – and it’s just becoming too much of a project for me.
So, next year, I’m going to do something different. I don’t know precisely what, yet (I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments), but I’m thinking of a toned down version of this. Maybe a monthly all time tally, or a list of most popular books/authors for the month. Maybe a quarterly update. I don’t know. But I’ll probably still do the year-end wrap up (because, seriously, who doesn’t love those).
As much as I enjoy doing these, it’s just consuming too much of my free time. My reviews have fallen off significantly (at this point last year I’d reviewed 30 more books), and other projects I’m working on don’t get near the attention I’d like.
But, I’ll finish out the year, and have no plans on stopping our database. I’ll probably end up uploading the entire thing to a Google spreadsheet so that the community has access to the full thing. But these monthly round-ups probably won’t continue (at least in this form) next year.
Sorry, guys.
On with the stats!
October stats:
251 reviews (Last month: 245)
Average rating: 3.59 stars (Last month: 3.75)
Most popular book: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Gail Honeyman), In A Dark, Dark Wood (Ruth Ware), Perfect Little World (Kevin Wilson), Rebel of the Sands (Alwyn Hamilton), Turtles All the Way Down (John Green), Unbelievable (Katy Tur), Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King all reviewed twice
Most popular author: Kim Harrison (5 reviews, 4.0 average) and MC Beaton (5 reviews, 3.0 average)
Most reviews: vel veeter (congratulations on 41 reviews!)
Fiction: 185 reviews (Last month: 191)
Nonfiction: 62 reviews (Last month: 50)
Uncategorized: 5 reviews (Last month: 3)
Most popular genres: Fantasy (21 reviews), Young Adult (17) Science Fiction (13), Romance (34), Mystery (30), Memoir (26), Graphic Novel (10), History (8)
Male authors: 88 (Last month: 99)
Female authors: 154 (Last month: 144)
Oldest book read this month: The Castle of Otronto by Horace Walpole (1764)
Books from 2017: 65 (Last month: 59)
Books from the last 10 years: 185 (Last month: 180)
Most common languages: English (92.8%), Japanese (0.8%)
Avg. Goodreads rating: 3.92 stars
Avg. Goodreads vote totals: 41,324
Avg. page count: 313
Longest book: Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King
Average author age: 48
Youngest author: Charles Dickens (26 years old)
Oldest author: Joan Didion (83)
Books read for the first time: 132 (Last month: 132)
Book with the most CBR reviews: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (36 reviews)
Most popular book by Goodreads reviews: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (2m+ votes)
Total pages read: 73,000+ (Last month: 85,000+)
Top 8 Reviewers averages:
vel veeter (41 reviews, 3.43 stars, 288 pages, year 1988)
badkittyuno (27 reviews, 3.78 stars, 330 pages, 2012)
Caitlin_D (20 reviews, 3.75 stars, 241 pages, year 2015)
The Chancellor (11 reviews, 3.46 stars, 335 pages, 1970)
Ellesfena (10 reviews, 3.5 stars, 252 pages, 1997)
Mikki Blu (10 reviews, 3.10 stars, 403 pages, year 2013)
Malin (9 reviews, 4.0 stars, 396 pages, year 2014)
Halbs (9 reviews, 3.67 stars, 1897 pages, year 2007)
Our monthly review breakdown (and leader):
Jan – 502 (vel veeter)
Feb – 431 (Classic)
Mar – 446 (vel veeter)
Apr – 392 (vel veeter)
May – 280 (vel veeter)
June – 283 (vel veeter)
July – 337 (vel veeter)
Aug – 227 (vel veeter)
Sep – 245 (vel veeter)
Oct – 251 (vel veeter)
CBR Database:
16,787 reviews*
9,554 individual books reviewed
Top 16 Reviewers of All Time: (italics and bold for those who have been active recently, plum is someone who moved up this month)
1. Malin (947)**
2. badkittyuno (933)
3. narfna (735)
4. bonnie (681)
5. Jen K (523)
6. Sophia (448)
7. vel veeter (430)
8. alwaysanswerb (410)
9. Mrs. Julien (409)
10. faintingviolet (391)
11. scootsa1000 (378)
12. Valyruh (364)
14. Caitlin_D (365)
13. Travis_J_Smith (362)
15. Caitlin (329)
Just outside the top 15: Lollygagger (328) ElCicco (312) and emmalita (250)
I have Goodreads data on 86% of reviews, sex info on 97% of authors, and the nationality on 82% of authors.
I’m still, of course, in the process of going back through CBR3-5, along with various blogs for CBR1 and 2, not to mention the Pajiba reviews section of the mothership (though, I’ve only done a handful). I think I’ve got the total review counts for CBR4-9 (though I haven’t logged each review yet), and I’ve got most of CBR3 done. So my all time ranking is, I think, fairly accurate. Big changes to look forward to: badkittyuno might catch Malin this year (nearly 30 reviews in October!), bonnie and narfna are racing for 3rd on the all-time list, could vel veeter crack the top 5 in his first year?! (he jumped into the top 10 last month), and Caitlin, Lollygagger, and ElCicco are in a race for who is going to round out the top 15!
*My tentative user totals for CBR1-9 show that nearly 25k reviews have been written by the community to help raise money to fight cancer. I’ve catalogued roughly 68% of our reviews.
**Malin was gracious enough to go back through her blog and make it easier to search and count her reviews. I noticed a discrepancy in my counts compared to hers. I haven’t had the time to update her career review total – but I will. And I do appreciate all the hard work she put into helping us out in this.