My Year in Books 2021 — Laurel & Iron

Jan 7

Jan 7 My Year in Books 2021

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New year, new reading goals but before we move on to my very, probably overly ambitious 2022 reading goals…let’s talk about what I read in 2021.

First off, I set the goal reading 32 and I met that goal with 32 books! Right on the money. It was a tight squeeze with me finishing book 32 on New Years Eve. Would I even be me if there wasn’t just a little chaos in my life? 2021 was hard…so, I’m just happy I hit the goal at all. Here at Laurel and Iron we take our wins where we can get them.

Although I read 2 fewer books than in 2020, I did read more total pages coming in at 12,554 pages. I read some long books this year.

I also read some short ones! My shortest book, Virgins by Diana Gabaldon* was 86 pages. My longest book, Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas*, was 803 pages. On average, the books were 369 pages.

Pages per Book

Here is the breakdown of the number of books I read per month:

Jan: 1 Feb: 1 Mar: 5
Apr: 1 May: 3 Jun: 4
Jul: 4 Aug: 1 Sept: 2
Oct: 4 Nov: 4 Dec: 2

On average, I read: 2.6 books per month. My best reading month was March with 5 books read. I read 4 books per month 4 times.

I read from 8 different categories this year.

Book Genres I Read in 2021

I read from 22 authors. Of the 22 authors I read from, 10 were new to me. I read the most from Leigh Bardugo - I read 5 of her books this year (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy* and The Six of Crows Duology*).

I read 8 physical books and I read 24 eBooks. The 8 physical books I purchased. All of the 24 eBooks, I borrowed from my public library via the Libby app.

My favorite book of the year was Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas*. It is a grown-up fantasy story that touches on grief, trauma, and loneliness balanced by a fast-paced adventure plot line. I have read other Sarah J. Maas stories and felt like I knew what I was getting into - a spicy romance, high fantasy, and a battle of good versus evil. That is the SJM format. What I got was actually so much more. If you like fantasy but want the human experience of contemporary fiction, I think you’ll like this one. Oh, and it’s a forced-proximity, enemies to lovers romance. I mean…could we ask for more? I pre-ordered the sequel. So, pick up this book now and we can read House of Sky and Breathe together in 2022.

My most disappointing book of 2021 was Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner *. I absolutely raved about Mrs. Everything in my review in 2019. So, I was excited to pick up a new release by Jennifer Weiner. I think this book had the potential to be just as good - featuring the complexities of female friendships, growing up and growing apart, and feeling comfortable in your own skin. But then…halfway through the book, it turned into a murder mystery. If you like books with sketchy PIs or rag-tag groups solving crime, you’d be better off picking up the Cormoran Strike series*. You can definitely skip Big Summer and go read Mrs. Everything instead.

Here are a few more honorable mentions:

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle *
The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister *
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah * (my review)
Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo *
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig *