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.
Thank you for crunching these numbers and stats so diligently, ingres77! It’s been a tremendous effort and greatly appreciated by all of us. I’m so grateful that you and so many others volunteer so much time for CBR, it’s really amazing. <3
These posts are among some of the most commented upon, so you can tell how much everyone likes to discuss this info.
I'll be in touch to talk with you about CBR10 (w00t!!), and if anyone's interested in taking up ingres77's reins please email me or drop me a line via the Contact form.
Thanks for your hard work! It has been so interesting to see what others are reading and/or interested in, and how it compares to past years. Thanks for your hard work!
You have done amazing work putting this together every month, plus reviewing. Thank you so much for your work. I hope you are feeling better soon. That lingering feeling of unwellness is a real soul crusher.
Hmm… I could maybe be Top Ten next year…
And, while I would miss monthly round ups, real world commitments should come before online ones. Particularly those involving family. What about a pared down quarterly update using only the stats people are most interested in reading about?
Thanks for all you do!
I think that would work. Now we just need to figure out which ones everyone is most interested in.
Survey time!
I can make that happen!
Thank you for all you do! While I love these posts, I think we all understand that you need to take care of yourself first. A hobby shouldn’t become a source of stress or anxiety. I hope you are feeling better soon.
Yeah, it’s time to step back when something that used to be fun becomes a burden. We enjoy these posts, but not at the expense of your free time and sanity :)
Thanks so much for working so hard on this for the past few cannonballs. I’m always fascinated by the information you discover and am always horrified that I haven’t written more reviews after kicking around for such a long time!
Like so many others, thank you so much for the incredible work you’re doing. I have problem just getting my regular reviews written this year, I can’t imagine what a commitment it is getting the stats assembled every month.
These posts have all been super interesting, though, and I suspect that your various lists of how many reviews the top posters have done each month have helped motivate more than one Cannonballer throughout the year. Seeing the break-down of the various genres and so forth is also lots of fun.
I think a survey of some sort to see exactly what people enjoy the most about your round-ups, and changing the stat roundups to every quarter would make a lot of sense. Although, if even that becomes too much of a burden rather than fun – you shouldn’t be afraid to say so.
Another voice of thanks for all the effort, time, and care that you put into this project. The all time leaderboard and such have helped me get out of slumps a few times :)
We’ll all work to find a way to keep these going even if you personally decide its best to step away for a bit to focus on what does give you joy, especially quality family time.
Thanks for all you do with these lists. I can’t imagine what a big pain in the neck it is to gather everything up and disseminate it all here, even if it is a fun pain in the neck!
Your posts always make me realize how woefully behind I am, and yet I can never quite kick myself enough to get caught up.
Hope you are feeling better soon!
Add me to the parade of thanks! I’m always impressed with people who can wrangle words AND numbers. No wonder you need a rest! Well done, you!