Bookish Quarter in Pie Charts 1/2025

Hi and welcome to FromBelgiumWithBookLove!

This is my sixth year of keeping a spreadsheet to keep track of my reading in a more organised fashion than Goodreads offers. I’m not a numbers person, never have been, but I do like stats and pie charts so once again I’m going to have a look at my bookish year through pie charts, and see what they might reveal about me as a reader, and how I might have evolved since I first started keeping track.

This is what my bookish January, February and March look like in pie charts:

First of all: format. As always, a mix of audiobooks, eBooks and paper books, what can I say, I love books in any shape or size! I did listen to more audiobooks, apparently to the detriment of all other formats. The percentages of hardcovers and paperbacks seem to dwindle a little more every quarter, which is not surprising as I’m still watching my book budget (and therefore buying more eBooks) as well as reading digitally on Everand.

I have been trying to diversify my reading, finding I’m really enjoying historical fiction, so I started keeping track of When I was reading. As always, the present takes up the largest chunk, even larger than this time last year, but I did manage to visit a few other eras as well.

I was equally excited to find out Where I was reading. Apparently, even more more books than usual were set in the USA, while England hit an all-time low. I also visited quite a lot of other countries in only three months, one more than I did in the first quarter of 2024.

Once again the race is on to visit as many US states as possible. I didn’t manage to visit them all last year and I’m really hoping to do so this year. So far so good.

And for those of you who like maps:

Looking at Source, where my books come from, I read almost twice as many of my own books, and a few more books on Everand, compared to the first quarter of 2024. This is somewhat due to the fact that I read fewer ARCs, NetGalley and otherwise, but mostly because I didn’t have a Kindle Unlimited subscription this time around. In the meantime, I did sign up for a heavily discounted three-month KU subscription so I’m sure this chart for the present quarter will look completely different.

Looking at Genre, I am flabbergasted that “only” 28% of what I read was thrillers. Usually, this percentage is almost twice that. I read more horror and historical fiction this time.

Looking at known-to-me vs new-to-me Authors I read, I reached a nice balance. I wonder if I’ll read more known-to-me authors as the year progresses, as that’s what happened last year and the year before.

This is always the most exciting chart for me: did I manage to read more books from my backlog TBR, i.e. books bought or added to my Everand list in or before 2024 (#BeatTheBacklog) or was I more seduced by the new 2025 releases (#BallsToTheBacklog)? I am so happy to say I beat the backlog, and with 6% more than in the first quarter of 2024! Obviously, I read many books I bought or added last year, so once again, I have a sneaking suspicion the tables will turn soon enough. But I will try my best to keep that backlog in check!

In terms of standalones, series or duologies, I read quite a few series. I expect this number to rise throughout the year since many of my favourite series will have new instalments.

In terms of books in their original language vs books in translation, I don’t have specific goals, but I do want to read translated books as I feel you can learn so much from them and it allows you to read authors you couldn’t otherwise. I’m happy with this chart, 10% is not bad at all.

I always want to reread books but oh that glaring TBR… This is where I usually share my First time vs Reread chart, but I didn’t bother cos I didn’t reread a single book so the chart is looking very monotone indeed 😬

Well that’s it for today, if you made it here thanks for joining me and sticking it out 😄 Do you keep track of your reading, would your pie charts look anything like mine or not at all? Let me know below!