I recently felt that my reading tastes have changed (in my head quite drastically) since when I started really reading a half-decent amount each year. So, naturally, the stat nerd in me got all excited and decided Pie Charts were the way forward. I lumped it into seven categories: Historical Fiction, Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy. Thriller, Non-Fiction & Other (Other is a mix of graphic novels and other muddled genres I rarely pick up.)
It wasn’t as drastic a change as I had imagined, more like a gentle erosion. It’s certainly a trend I imagine will keep on going in the same direction as the likes of Fantasy and Science Fiction don’t hold the same lofty spot in my heart that they once did.
2019 – 61 Books Finished
Science Fiction and Fantasy dominating with over half of the total share. Historical Fiction did it’s best to eat into the pie, but it was only ever going to come third place.
2020 – 100 Books Finished
Science Fiction and Fantasy are, once again, over 50% combined, but they lost a good 9% or so. This left Thriller, Historical Fiction and Horror to have almost 50% between them.
2021 – 80 Books Finished
Fantasy and Science Fiction seem to have been incredibly offended by their slight loss of face in the previous year and jumped back up to the pie domination of 2019. This is the first year, however where Non-Fiction has emerged as a solid contender.
2022 (The year of the missing chart title) – 56 Books Finished
2022 marked the first year where Science Fiction and Fantasy accounted for less than half of my yearly reading. Non-Fiction and Horror are leaping up to fill the gap the two heavyweights are leaving. This is pretty much how I feel things going. Fantasy novels have to be outstanding for me to even get remotely interested at the moment, whereas I’ll devour most anything non-fiction (I just got through an audiobook on pathology for heaven’s sake haha).
TLDR:
The Swords may be less prevalent in my blog name … but at least the Spectres are still going strong 🙂
Swords & Spectres 
It’s always interesting to look at stats, I think. There’s definitely been a noticeable change in genre weight. Excellent post!
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I’m an absolute stat lover so I agree with you there. It’s weird to feel myself drifting away from fantasy, but it can’t be helped
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I don’t think of it as drifting away. I think of it as expanding your reading repertoire 😊
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That’s a good way of looking at it 🙂 Thank you
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I was never good with stats. But glad to see you get a kick out of it. Does thos mean less WH and more historical fiction?
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It’s certainly possible. Although, saying that, I already got through to Cain audio books this year. I’m not aiming for anything in particular, just picking up what takes my fancy. I have two WH40K books and 1 AoS book on Netgalley that need getting to
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I finally read Hamilcar… Ha! I do not know why i took me so long. now have to get through 20 more NG titles…
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What did you think? I loved the character, myself. One of the few AoS titles I really got into. I bet your list is incredibly long. Somehow I’m at around 90%
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Hamilcar was a 4 star for me. I was lucky that milou could get me an audible version of it and that in itself was also well done. Ill be trying to wrote a review on it before month end. Been a bit stuck for time as I recently bought Vermintide 2 on my Gaming Laptop🙈
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The PS5 has taken all my reading time recently. I’ve switched back to more reading than gaming for now, though. Hope it holds😂
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Guess whose on nearing the 50hour mark in Mass Effect🙈
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Good man!
I forgot how awesome Mass Effect 2 was. Bloody love the series
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Will be on that one soon.
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I’ve often wondered if it’s an age thing or a saturation thing for when people change genres however fast or slow it may be.
I used to think it was strictly an age/maturity thing but I’m really leaning towards the saturation idea now. You just get completely filled up n tired of ideas n since authors chase success n not good story telling the only option is to try new genres.
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I, too, think it’s saturation. Well maybe 70% saturation 30% age. As I got older (left school etc …) I took an interest in more subject and started looking into a wider array of topics).
However, being overly saturated with fantasy in my reading made my entire reading for pleasure mindset slam to a halt. It’s only just started to pick back up and that’s due to enjoying a wider array of tastes, I feel
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I “feel” like I’ve read all the fantasy tropes out there now. Sanderson changed the way authors wrote and wrote about magic and now everyone is either a derivative or directly opposed, so you know what you’re getting all the time. Despite all the massive tomes being written, fantasy has come to feel very stale for me.
As for SF, I am pretty much done with that except indies, because they still try to tell a good story and not turn it into a message novel 😦
So I’m just resigned to reading other genres. Probably good for me (and you!) though…
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I’ve been trying to read newer authors/new to me authors/indie authors to try to break away from the staleness
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You’ve changed, man.
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It’s a strange feeling as well
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I like looking at reading stats and such. You interest in nonfiction is growing. Based on the trend in the pie charts, I guess it’ll take a larger slice this year.
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I’ve just got the reading bug back and, so far I’m not reading to any noticeable pattern. I hope so, though 🙂
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