Yearly Review

This year was BIG for me, to say the least! I did many things in my personal life, but that's not why you’re here. You’re here to read about my book and music year in review! Lucky for you, those are two things I could (clearly) talk about forever. 

Books

This year, I set a goal for myself to read 50 books, and I did not reach this goal, but I did get super close! I read 41 books this year, starting with Daisy Jones and the Six (by Taylor Jenkins Reid) and finishing up with The Girls (by Emma Cline). By those two, you could assume I prefer reading fictional books based on real events; the former based on Fleetwood Mac, and the latter based on the Charles Manson cult and murders. So let’s take a look at my stats! 

I read 41 books this year, barely missing my goal of 50! I read 17,294 pages in less than 365 days. If you do the math, that’s about 47 pages a day. There were many days and weeks where I didn’t pick up a book, either! 

My shortest book read was a guide to Mercury in Retrograde at 150 pages, and my longest was Kingdom of Ash, the last book in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Mass, at 980 pages. My average book length this year was 421 pages, and my average book rating was 3.7/5. My first book I reviewed this year was A Court Of Thorns and Roses. My first (new age) fantasy read; how nostalgic! 

If I had to guess, I’d assume my main genre was romance, with a bit of fantasy sprinkled in. But, who’s to say! I’ll do the numbers on that (for fun) later. 

All in all, I exceeded my own expectations for reading this year. I had barely gotten back into reading and set a really high goal for myself, and almost smashed it! I think with my next year, since I’ll have so much change (including moving a few times and having to get a big-girl job), I am going to set a lower bar for myself. However, I’m proud of almost accomplishing this goal, regardless!

Music

Let’s take a looksie through my spotify wrapped to discuss my music this year. I listened to 91 genres,with rock coming out as my most played genre. After that, my most listened to genres were indie pop, indie folk, pop, and soul. Which, if you listen to my personal playlists on my personal Spotify instead of this blog Spotify… those make immediate sense. 

I played almost 6000 different songs this year; fine if you must know the exact number… 5,952. I listened to Regret Me by Daisy Jones and the Six 200 times this year. That’s 600 minutes… that's 10 hours. OF JUST REGRET ME! But I stand by it, I still listen to it on repeat. For me, it resembles the same emotion of Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac. 

My top five songs were Regret Me (Daisy Jones and The Six); Cherry Wine - Live (Hozier); Simulation Swarm (Big Thief); Graceland Too (Phoebe Bridgers); and I’m In Love With You (The 1975). 

I listened to 206,643 minutes, and I stopped listening at night halfway through the year. I did the math, and if I get 8 hours of sleep a night, there’s 16 hours in a waking day. That’s 960 minutes a day, which is 350,400 waking minutes a year. I listened to music for 59% of my waking moments… That’s a lot. That’s 143 days nonstop. I was in the top .10% of listeners on Spotify… WORLDWIDE! I’m not kidding when I say I love music. 

I listened to 1,888 different musical artists this year, and guess the top artist… yup, The 1975. I’m thinking my top artist, The 1975, contributed the most to my “pop”genres. I’m in the top .005% of The 1975 listeners because I listened to them for 23,012 minutes. 

My top artists this year were The 1975, Big Thief, Phoebe Bridgers, Hozier, and Florence + The Machine. Shocker! 

Overall

With all that being said, I’m proud of myself for setting goals and accomplishing them, or learning from my mistakes/challenges! (That’s the certified health coach in me…) This year was big, I became certified in Health Coaching and Personal training, started a new job, made new friends, moved into a new place, and am starting a new chapter through moving to England in the new year. My wheels of wellness have been all over the place, but overall, this has been a great year for me! I look forward to what 2024 will bring, and can’t wait to continue reading and writing!