2008 ROUNDUP

I know I've been promising Top 10 lists but it's not going to happen. I gave them some thought and have made out some lists in my notebook but I realized it's silly for me to do it. Why just have another post full of lists? And yes, I realize the irony of saying that in a post that's going to be a list/stats. I just need to make sure that I post actual content next year, actual thoughts about what I'm listening to and reading and so forth. Maybe that will make my lists seemed earned next year. Or not.

Anyway, I'm going to rundown my year in pop culture consumption now...

I read 48 books in 2008, meeting the goal I set at the beginning of the year. I also abandoned 7 books this year, reading of 500 pages of those books combined. It was a restless year in a lot of ways, I guess. Last year I read 44 books, so I managed to increase my total again (not so sure that will happen in 2009). I read 26 books in the first half of the year and 22 in the second. I read 10 books by Kage Baker, 3 that George R.R. Martin wrote or at least had a hand in, and 2 each by Michael Chabon, Gregory Frost, and Jeffrey Ford. There were quite a few story collections and a fair amount of non-fiction for me. I average 4 books read each month and it was a good year of reading.

I read 264 short stories in 2008. I'm sure I abandoned some stories this year but I didn't keep track of that stat this year. My high was 50 stories read in November and my low was July, when I didn't read any stories. I read 144 stories in the first half of the year and 120 in the second half. The stories came from 9 issues of Asimov's, 10 issues of F&SF, and 11 story collections. My average stories read per month was 22. Last year I read 216 stories and averaged 18 a month.

I read 83 comics in 2008, 35 of which were trades (and 10 of those were rereads). I read 62 of those in the first half of the year (24 trades) and only 21 in the second half (11 trades). It was a year when I read the entirety of Y: The Last Man and Zot! (well, close to it). I read 14 comics twice - in February and again in June (but in June it was all trades as opposed to only 1 trade and 13 singles in Feb.). I read 2 comics each in September, November, and December (and in each case, it was 2 trades). My average comics read per month was 6.92 (2.92 for trades). Last year I read 119 comics (27 trades) and average 9.92 per month (2.25 for trades).

I'd like to pause and just note the downward trend in all of my reading in the second half of the year. Not a surprise when you consider I was working 2 jobs and taking 6 credit hours from the end of August on.

I bought, downloaded, or received 89 CDs in 2008. 68 of those were downloaded and 4 of the grand total were EPs; I also downloaded 13 songs. March was the biggest month with 10 new CDs and September was the smallest with only 4 new CDs (though one was a double disc set). I got 50 CDs in the first half of the year and only 39 in the second half. My average CDs per month was 7.42. Last year I got 110 CDs and my average was 9.17.

I saw 9 movies in the theater in 2008. June was the biggest month with 3 and May was the second with 2; the rest of the time I either saw 1 or none. My average movies seen was .75. Last year I saw 14 movies in the theater and had an average of 1.17.

I guess my overall trend for 2008 was one of decreased pop culture consumption. I only increased 2 of my 5 categories over last year (books and short stories) and even those tailed off in the second half of the year. Again, it's not a surprise. I don't go into 2009 expecting things to change and I don't really have any goals for my consumption other than to enjoy what I do consume and to write about it with some depth.

Happy New Year!

2007 ROUNDUP

Here it is, the roundup you've been waiting for! You're getting all the numbers for my pop culture consumption in 2007. It's a stat geek's dream! Enough hype, let's get to the data...

I read 44 books in 2007, which was 4 more than the goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year (and 6 more than last year). The biggest month was October, when I read 6 books. The smallest month was February, when I read 1 book plus a portion of another. I read 19 books in the first half of the year and 25 in the second half. Even more interesting is that I read 20 books from Aug. 27 to Dec. 23 (a span of 4 months), which means I've averaged 5 books a month over that time period. That goes a long way in showing that my reading levels have been as much about what I could afford as anything over the last 6 years, since once I started getting books from the library I've increased my output tremendously. It will be interesting to see how that carries over to next year. Oh, I also abandoned 2 books during the year. My average books read per month for 2007 was 3.67.

I read 216 short stories in 2007. I didn't have any goals, nor did I keep track of those stats for the whole year in 2006. The biggest month was November, when I read 30 stories. The smallest month was May, when I read 7 stories. I read 89 stories in the first half of the year and 127 in the second half, which means that I was also increasing my story output along with my books output (though there were a number of stories read that were also in books I read). The stories came from 11 issues of Asimov's, 12 issues of F&SF, and 4 books. I also abandoned 4 stories during the year. My average stories read per month for 2007 was 18.

I read 119 comics in 2007, of which 27 were trades or OGNs. Again, I didn't have any goals and didn't keep any stats for comics in 2006. The biggest month was March, when I read 24 comics (4 trades or OGNs). The smallest month was October, when I didn't read any comics. I read 4 trades or OGNs four separate times (March, May, June, and July). I read 85 comics (19 trades or OGNs) in the first half of the year and 34 comics (8 trades or OGNs) in the second half, which means I really tailed off in my comics reading. That's a direct result of the new budget we instituted in August. My average comics read per month for 2007 was 9.92 (7.67 for single issues and 2.25 for trades and OGNs).

I bought, downloaded, or received 110 CDs in 2007, which is 3 more than in 2006. I didn't have any goals, other than to hear as much music as possible. 74 of those CDs were downloaded and 14 of the grand total were EPs; I also downloaded 14 songs, either singles or songs from singles or other EPs. The biggest months were May and June, when I got 13 CDs in each month. The smallest months were February, July, and August, when I got 6 CDs in each month. The download high was 10 in September; the download low was 2 in March. I got 60s CDs in the first half of the year (35 downloaded, which is 58.3%) and 50 CDs (39 downloaded, which is 78%) in the second half, a trend that can also be linked to the new budget. My average CDs bought, downloaded, or received per month is 2007 was 9.17 (3 physical CDs and 6.17 downloads).

I saw 14 movies in the theater in 2007. That is more than I've seen a year in a long time, though I don't have any actual data on that. I didn't keep track of my monthly totals until July, in which I saw 3 movies. That means I saw 11 movies in the first half of the year and only 3 in the second half. Budget, anyone? My average movies seen in the theater per month in 2007 was 1.17.

That's everything I kept track of this year. I plan on keeping track of all this information in 2008 as well and I may add more categories. I know it's a lot of numbers and fairly anal retentive but I like doing it.

Happy New Year, everyone!