Paying homage to books via coloured charts is now one of my favourite things to do at the end of each blogging year and as I have finished the last book I am going to finish for the year here they are in all their chartish goodness.

I have only been keeping a close record of the books I’ve been reading for four years but even in that short time it’s becoming clear that I am reading more than I used to.

However my print reading has probably evened out over the past couple of years. Although I have finished 35 more books in 2010 than last year, only a handful of the extras have been in some version of print (physical + eBook). The rest of the increase is attributable to audio books (thank you audible).

I read a total of 35,890 pages this year but it doesn’t look very interesting on a chart. My total hours listened however does show one thing: I was pretty lazy in all months except January, April and December. I mainly listen to audio books while walking for exercise so you can see that I have more downs than ups when it comes to motivation.

This year I read roughly the same number of male and female authors, which is much more even than last year’s reading. I didn’t make a conscious effort to do this but it’s probably got something to do with the fact I read less cosy mysteries this year (which tend to be written by women*) and even selected some noir (which tend to be written by men*). The ‘other’ column is not (as far as I know) populated by trans gendered individuals but includes books by multiple authors and those written by authors in disguise

Countries visited virtually in 2010

Thanks in no small part to the Global Reading Challenge I visited 37 countries via my reading (up from 28 last year). Frankly with all the security theatre, snow delays and volcanic ash bringing the airline industry to a standstill I think my version of travel is a heck of a lot easier than the real thing (Australia is a wonderful place to live but it is a long way from just about everywhere and when you’re nearly 6ft tall spending 20 hours in a plane is not a bundle of laughs). I’m aiming to complete lots of location-based challenges in 2011 so I hope to be able to continue my virtual travel. Amy’s Eastern European challenge looks like it will provide the most…er…challenging spots to visit.

This final chart simply tells you that I buy a lot of books, mostly new. Which means bad things for my bank account but at least I am supporting my favourite art in some small way.

I will be posting my list of favourite books for the year tomorrow with another couple of charts included because once you start charting you can’t stop

*yes, I know this is a generalisation