2010 Stats So Far (The Meme)

Well, I’ve resisted joining in on the latest SFF blogger meme going around about books read to date because I think it’s a bit pointless and defensive. But I really don’t have anything better to do, so I suppose I’ll jump into the mix. Since I actually track these things, it’s easy enough for me to do and easy enough for me to provide a bit more.

My life is busy and reading time limited, so I’ve only read 15 books this year. Here’s how the break down by publisher:

Angry Robot: 1
Ballantine: 1
Daw: 1
Del Rey: 1
Harper: 1
Orbit: 3
PS Publishing: 1
Pyr: 2
Roc: 1
Spectra: 1
Tor: 2

I suppose it’s worth mentioning that very little separates Ballantine, Del Rey and Spectra, so that is probably better reported as 3 for Random House. Likewise, Daw and Roc aren’t that far apart either and could easily be reported as 2 for Penguin Group.

Of those, 13 were provided by the publisher for review, 1 came from a contest and 1 was purchased by me. 6 were first published in 2009 and 9 are 2010 publications.

The demographic breakdown: 6 were written by women and 9 were written by men. At least 3 were written by persons of color (yes, the stats I keep track of include this as best as easily knowable).

13 fit the broad definition of fantasy and only 2 fit the broad definition of science fiction. 3 fit into the more classic category of epic fantasy. 5 meet a broad definition of urban fantasy, 1 fits into steampunk, and one is alternative history. Some books may meet more than one category and a few really don’t fit any of them. 11 are at least loosely part of a series, the remaining 4 stand completely alone, but may yet have sequels. 8 were novel debuts. 4 were written by authors I’ve read before and 11 were new to me. I’ve interviewed 5 of the authors at some point or another. The average rating for these books is 7.8, with a low of 6.5-7 (3 books) and high of 9 (three books). One was a novella and so far I haven’t read any anthologies/collections.

Thoughts?

Others that have participated: Adam, Pat, John, Larry, and Rob (aren’t I cool since I use the blogger’s first names :)