My Year in Charts: 2025

Friends!

Happy new year! I hope you've had a lovely holiday season. Just like the end of every vacation I take, I am read to get back into a normal routine. And what better way to do that than my SIXTH annual Year In Charts! This is where I look at what I read and make pretty graphs about it. Yay graphs! Yay spreadsheets! If you'd like to see my previous years in charts, here's some to look at.

This year I used BookRiot's Reading Log, which is a wonderful spreadsheet already set up for you, and which automatically generates the charts on another tab. This further proves my theory that the best technology is just a well-designed spreadsheet. This one had more info built in than I needed, but that's better than too little.

So, let's start with overall books read. For the record, I count all books I read (including graphic novels, audiobooks, print, ebooks, manuscripts) and if I read a book more than once, as I do often for my clients, I count each read as a separate book. Why? Because I want to and these are my charts. I don't count books I do not finish (and I don't track those at all, because maybe I'll pick it up again one day) and I don't count picture books because when I started tracking and I was reading dozens to my kid at night (they're 9 now) it felt like padding my numbers to add those. So those are my rules! You can make any rule you want!

Oh look, apparently I started counting this in 2018. This year, I didn't set out to read a specific number of books, like I did in 2023 when I hit 100. That was a fun goal, but tbh I don't need to do it again, like that time I ran a half marathon. I read 72 books this year, which is a fantastic number and probably about my average-ish over the last few years. And you know what? Good job, me. Sometime around October I looked at my numbers and was like oh I bet I could hit 80 if I hustled. But I didn't want to hustle. I didn't want to read more just to make the number go up. I wanted to read more because the books were good, and this was how good the books were for me this year.

Over 2025, I was relatively consistent in how many books I read a month. Mostly.

I don't know what happened in September, except I do. I took August to catch up on reading queries (of course I'm behind again) and it kinda cooked my brain. I realized I was burnt out right about then and I started to give myself a break. I picked up some crocheting and did crafts with my kid to unwind, instead of reading. September is a notoriously busy month for me (and everyone else) with school starting and the publishing season ramping back up after summer. Sometimes you just have an off month. Or quarter. I really do think I was burnt out in the last bit of 2025 (compounded by my book promo I'm sure) and this graph is a good indicator of that.

Then in October I listened to the audiobook for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and it blew my mind. It was thirty something hours long and one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to. I love this book with my whole heart and I am sure I'll read it one day in print to get the full impact of the footnotes. It also gave me a book hangover. I had such a hard time getting into something else after that one because nothing could measure up. (Burn out might have also had something to do with this.) I recovered, but even now, I'm having trouble revving up to start a new book once I've finished one, and I've started a dozen books since. This is ok and will pass, and is just part of the ups and downs of a reading life.

Next, let's look at why I read what I read:

That I read just about the same number of books for work (i.e. client manuscripts) and for fun (i.e. just because I wanted to) is a major accomplishment. Hard proof of work/life balance! Even a little more for fun vs work! Good job, Kate. Let's do that again in 2026. Just under 10% of my reading is for my book club, which I've been in for over 20 years, and that feels right, too. Sometimes I can't go, sometimes I don't finish the book, sometimes we skip a month. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's both fun reading (because I like the books usually) and work reading (because my book club is all publishing people) so it needed its own category. Oh and that "personal development" category? Those are the self-help books I read that are a little bit fun and a little bit (self-)work and also warranted their own category. (My charts, my rules.)

Sorta related to the above is my Where'd I Get That Book? chart, because, as you can see, 40% of my books came from my clients, which means they're mostly manuscripts, or sometimes a galley when I'm re-reading a final version. Work! I was also interested to track this year how many books I read from my own collection (in part represented by Purchased 2024) and how many newly purchased books I actually read from 2025. I could have also tracked what I bought in 2025 vs what I read on this spreadsheet but I love myself too much to look at those numbers. When I was compiling this chart, I thought oh good, this year won't have my own book on it because it was published this year! (I read my book eight times through in 2024.) Nope, lol. I read my book twice this year–once for the final, final, final read through and once while I recorded the audiobook. (Yes, that counts.) Here's to not reading my own book again in 2026!!!!! And those Borrowed books represent the several times this year I actually read the books my husband recommended to me, after 11 years of marriage, and those are from his collection. (We are Separate Book Collections household.) Because so much of my life is reading what I have to read for other people, I find it hard to read books that someone says oh you have to read this, even my very smart and very well-read husband. Turns out, it's fun to read the same book as your favorite person so you can talk about it! This is just me being stubborn for the last decade or so. Sorry, Josh. I'll let you know what I think about A Marriage At Sea when I'm done with it in a week or so.

Shocking no one, least of all me, the vast majority of the books I read this year were for Adults. My book club is actually geared towards YA and Middle Grade, so that and some client books account for the 20ish% up there. I'm just having a hard time finding YA that holds my interest, that I care about, that I am driven to read. This is a me problem, and not likely an oh no this is a sign the whole industry is collapsing (though it has been a rough few years for the kids market on the whole). So if you're writing YA or MG, don't panic. I'm curious about this trend in my reading, and I bet that will make me more interested in finding YA/MG I want to read in 2026.

And what kinds of books did I read, format wise? A bunch! I am not a strict must read print or only ebooks pls reader. All the manuscripts I read are ebooks (which is why that's separate from digital (aka published ebooks) in this chart. I get sent or request galleys, and I like to tally those separately, too. Reading paperbacks is definitely easier than reading hardcovers for fun, but sometimes I cannot wait until the paperback comes out. Most of the time when I read an ebook I've purchased or gotten from the library, it's a book I know I don't want to keep. And if I find I do, I'll just go buy it later. The bookshelves are getting preeeeeety full over here at Chez McKean, so I think I'm going to evaluate what hardcovers I buy this year (well, attempt to anyway) because it's often that I buy the hardcover and don't get around to reading it until the paperback is out. (Bookstores, please offer a hardcover amnesty program. Let me return my purchased hardcover and exchange it for the paperback, and I eat the price difference. [I know this doesn't actually work in anyone's favor, but I wish it did.]) Another thing I'm doing re: format this year is listening to the audiobook (usually from Libby) of those titles I bought a long time ago and haven't gotten around to reading. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The book gets read either way! I've done that twice this month and put my hard copy in the Little Free Library on my block. Literally everyone wins. I get to read the book. The author gets paid on my hardcover purchase. The library gets circulation credit from my checkout. And someone in my neighborhood gets a free book.

Last but not least, here are all the genres I read in 2025. Look at all those nice slices of pie! Obviously, some things are hard to categorize. What you might call General Fiction someone else might call Contemporary, but whatever. Genres are a construct and I make the rules for these charts. I can't believe I actually read a mystery (eh) and a thriller (👍) this year! Next year, I want to read more Romance, Fantasy, and Horror, for business and for pleasure. Also, you're welcome for me personally keeping the historical fiction market afloat. This is my favorite genre and I intend to do my part to keep it going.

At a glance, this is what my reading year looked like:

• Total Read: 72
• Total Pages Read: 11,747
• Total Hours Listened: 11 days, 5 hrs, 57 minutes
• Average days per book: 11
• Average pages per day: 16

I am not the fastest reader in the world, and not the slowest. I read more books that 99% of the population so I don't have a single bad feeling about my year in reading. For those who are curious, here are most of the books I read, minus ones I redacted because, as my grandmother said, you don't have to tell everything you know. And minus repeats.

 Here's to a 2026 full of books and peace.

XOXOXOXOX,

Kate