It’s time for my annual navel-gazing post – indulge me as I look back at my year in reading…
2018 new-to-me authors
I read 45 new-to-me authors over 2018, a huge jump from 2017’s 36 (which in turn was way up on 2016’s 21). A large part of that was due to my Kindle Unlimited subscription, which was a cheap way (cost-wise, if not time) of trying new authors.
Of this group, the authors I’m really glad I discovered over 2018:
Robyn Bennis: Loving her steampunk-ish mil-fantasy series, and cannot wait for the next ones
Anna Butler: I’m potentially starting to sound a bit like a broken record, but I suspect I’ll read anything she writes in any genre.
Aster Glenn Gray: Her Beauty and the Beast retelling appears to be her only release at the moment, fingers crossed for more from her.
Rachel Neumeier: I know. I could have sworn I’ve read her books before, but no. Love her style of fantasy (and they’re standalone books as well!).
Megan Reddaway: I finished her take on Pride & Prejudice on Dec 31, and it was the best way to end the year.
Author most glommed over 2018
MCA Hogarth – I read ten books of hers (and yes, that boxset thing applies, so technically twelve?).
Next was Glynn Stewart (who topped my 2017 list) with nine books – I thought I had swept through his backlist in 2017, but he somehow managed to release nine(!) new books in 2018. I’m not complaining.
Also worth mentioning is Mercedes Lackey – I (re-)read eight of her books (or technically ten – those boxsets are really messing up my counts!). I did go on a bit of a Valdemar re-read spree over 2018 with mixed results – some were as good as I remembered, others less so…
Kindle Unlimited usage
I’m sneaking this in as a new section, as last year was the first full year of KU for me.
As I said earlier, it was a low-risk way to try new-to-me authors, but I also had quite a few duds (and DNFs). I read books by 23 KU authors, of which eleven were new-to-me – that’s a pretty high proportion.
I finished 43 KU books over 2018 – at £7.99/month, that equates to around £2.30 a book (not counting DNFs, which I don’t track). Rating-wise, around a quarter was 4* or higher reads for me, so I think that’s a win!
I do suspect I finished a lot more 2* books than I normally would have though. I’m going to make sure that I’m better in 2019 at calling it quits as opposed to forcing myself to finish a book (or series even).
And as for the numbers…
I read 179 books (give or take a few boxsets and short stories/novellas), slightly down on last year, but still a relatively high number for me. Just over half of these were published before 2018 – yay for the backlist.
Breakdown by genre and numbers over 2018:
And finally 2018 v. previous years – I’ve basically rediscovered my love for SF over the past couple of years:
And that’s it – another annual tradition completed! If you want to have a look at my 2018 reads in more detail, my Goodreads summary is here, with a few more random stats.
Me and My Books 