It’s official: I have completed my reading for the year. Well, I’ve got a handful of pages of Brian McClellan’s In the Shadow of Lightning left to read, but they won’t change my overall enjoyment of the book, plus it’s a fantasy novel, which means from a reviewing and analysing perspective, I have wrapped everything up for this blogging year. And what a trip it has been. My traditional monthly roundup will release tomorrow, but at this stage I’m going to take a step back and look at the year as a whole.

READING STATISTICS

Every year I set myself the goal of reading 120 books, with the expectation of ten books per month. It’s a goal I continually meet, but I don’t want to increase the target as that runs the risk of burning out and ceasing to enjoy the books. Plus, as an almost entirely physical reader, my finances can only go so far. This year I read 150 books. Breaking it down a little more we get:

• 109 novels
• 2 fix-ups
• 7 novellas
• 22 anthologies and collections
• 10 omnibuses

That puts me a little lower on the novel side than I typically find myself, but with the advantage of having compensated with shorter fiction. Though it’s not a wholly accurate measure due to font size, formatting, and so on, all of these books together give me the following page counts:

• 58056 pages in 2022
• 159.06 pages per day

I started tracking my reading at this level in 2017, and these are the lowest figures I’ve had since that time. Again, I don’t see the need to push myself towards higher numbers, and a busier work life and an attempt to get out of the house a bit more both contribute, and it’s hard to complain about either of those. The most important thing is that I enjoy the books I read, which brings us to the star ratings. Star ratings are far from perfect, but they’re generally a good indicator of how I feel about a book, so in spite of going back and forth on the idea, I continue to use the star rating system. Here are my ratings from the past year:

• 1* Ratings: 6
• 2* Ratings: 17
• 3* Ratings: 64
• 4* Ratings: 44
• 5* Ratings: 19
• Average * Rating: 3.35

3.35 is the lowest average since I started tracking my reading habits, and 2022 had by far the lowest number of 5* reads (the previous lowest was 2017’s 31). I don’t feel like I’ve become a harsher reviewer, so I put this down to taking more chances with my reading, which naturally takes me from my comfort zone and into books that I am less enthusiastic about. There’s probably a lesson in there, but how else am I supposed to find new favorites?

Speaking of favourites, out of the ninety-eight authors I read this year, eight authors managed to maintain a perfect 5* rating through 2022. They were:

• Edoardo Albert (Based on 2 books)
• Christopher Ruocchio (Based on 2 books)
• Jack Campbell (Based on 1 book)
• Robert A. Heinlein (Based on 1 book)
• Justin D Hill (Based on 1 book)
• George Mann (Based on 1 book)
• Robert Rath (Based on 1 book)
• Alec Worley (Based on 1 book)

In addition, two genres maintained a perfect 5* rating, while two more scored 4* or higher overall. These genres were:

• SF Crime (5* Rating/2 Books)
• Steampunk (5* Rating/1 Book)
• Hard SF (4.14* Rating/7 Books)
• Time Travel (4* Rating/2 Books)

In 2022, I read books from 35 publishers/publishing imprints, of which three maintained a star rating of over 4. These publishers/imprints were:

• Planet 9 Press (5* Rating/1 Book)
• Del Rey (4.66* Rating/3 Books)
• Hodder & Stoughton (4.5* Rating/2 Books)

These statistics are kept for my own interests, because I love tracking my own reading, but if they help people choose which authors to read and whcih publishers to support, then you are most welcome. That’s it so far as the reading side of things goes. Now let’s take a look at the blog itself.

BLOGGING STATISTICS

2022 has been an unqualified success so far as At Boundary’s Edge has gone. I have smashed through every target I could have dreamed of setting, to the extent that I’m not sure where to point my aspirations next. I’ve been blogging for four years now, and two thirds of my views have come in 2022 alone. Here are the ten book reviews that got the most views in 2022:

• Leviathan Falls, by James S. A Corey – 1519 views (Review Published 2021)
• God Emperor of Dune, by Frank Herbert – 943 views (Review Published 2021)
• Avenging Son, by Guy Haley – 923 views (Review Published 2022)
• The Vincula Insurgency, by Dan Abnett – 884 views (Review Published 2022)
• The Infinite and the Divine, by Robert Rath – 719 views (Review Published 2021)
• The Redemption of Time, by Baoshu – 615 views (Review Published 2020)
• Sandworms of Dune, by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson – 437 views (Review Published 2021)
• Heretics of Dune, by Frank Herbert – 437 views (Review Published 2021)
• Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh!, by Nate Crowley – 406 views (Review Published 2022)
• Pariah, by Dan Abnett – 390 views (Review Published 2021)

You’ll probably notice a pattern there. Three Dune novels, Five Warhammer 40,000 novels, and one novel with a famous adaptation. The surprise is The Redemption of Time, which I suspect benefited heavily from the adaptation(s) in the works of The Three Body Problem. It’s nice to see a mix of old and new reviews being viewed however, as it suggests the algorithm has started favouring me. And who doesn’t want to please our AI overlords?

Aside from reviews, plenty of articles were read in 2022. Excluding my review index pages, the ten most viewed posts were as follows:

• THE WISHLIST: Black Library 2022 – 1274 views (Posted 2022)
• Where To Start With Black Library – 724 views (Posted 2022)
• A TROUBLESOME TROPE: Why I Hate Found Families – 718 views (Posted 2019)
• THE EDGELORD PROBLEM: What Is It & How Do We Fix It? – 623 views (Posted 2019)
• GRIMDARK: What Is It & Who Is It For? – 275 views (Posted 2022)
• SPSFC AT BOUNDARY’S EDGE: Meet the Semifinalists – 246 views (Posted 2022)
• THERE & BACK AGAIN: Looking Back At The Star Trek Voyager Relaunch – 220 views (Posted 2022)
• SPSFC2 AT BOUNDARY’S EDGE: Meet the Team – 220 views (Posted 2022)
• SPSFC2 AT BOUNDARY’S EDGE: Slushpile Books 1-7 – 212 views (Posted 2022)
• FUN, FANDOM, & FILK: Carmen Miranda’s Ghost – 210 views (Posted 2020)

As you can see here, Black Library continues to drive much of my traffic, with the SPSFC contributing a sizable amount too. There are some much older, rant-style posts up there that demonstrate the sad reality that anger gets more views than positivity, but overall nothing here is much of a surprise.

CONCLUSIONS

The overall conclusion here is that if I post something, at least a few of you are going to read it. That’s a healthy place to be in, as it means this whole exercise isn’t entirely pointless. From a blogging perspective, talking about franhcises, classics, and established properties seems to draw the views in, but possibly at a detriment to my own reading enjoyment. There’s a fine balance to be struck here, but I’m always going to err on the side of my own happiness. All I can really do is hope that you enjoy what i read as much as I do. There are far worse positions to be in.

COMPARING THE YEARS

As an additional treat for those who have stuck with me, or who have scrolled to the bottom of the page, here is my overview comparison of the past six years of reading. May you find it enlightening.