My daily profession is as an analyst, so I’m really into numbers. This is going to be a very number-heavy post. First, I should mention that without my reading log it would take me forever to put this post together. The reading log helps in a lot of ways. It helps me understand what kind of books I’m reading and why. If I am diverse in my reading or not. Links to my reading list are on the left side of the site. I’ve had a reading log since 2015. Let’s dig in.
Something that may not be that important to everyone, but is important to me is how much I spent on the books that I read this year. This isn’t how much I spent on books this year, but how much I spent on the books read this year, an important distinction. The total costs of the books I read in 2017 are $486.36. This is how much it would cost (MSRP) to grab the same book in the same format from Amazon. However, I spent $0 on my 2017 books read. I get a lot of my books from the library, which is a big way that I keep the costs of books down. 43% of the books I read in 2017 came from the library, the single largest source of the books I read. Library savings alone was $295.50.
![2017 Books Source](https://i0.wp.com/jasonreads.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Source-1024x707.jpg?resize=660%2C456&ssl=1)
Another very important but small number is the total number of books that I read this year. That number is much smaller than I wanted it to be this year, only 37. Other numbers that I would consider a miss was on the diversity side of things. Only 24% of the books I read were written by female authors.
![Author Gender](https://i0.wp.com/jasonreads.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Author-Gender-1024x715.jpg?resize=660%2C461&ssl=1)
I most frequently read on my kindle. This is how many of my friends gift me books. 46% of my reading was done on a kindle.
![Binding](https://i0.wp.com/jasonreads.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Binding-1024x705.jpg?resize=660%2C454&ssl=1)
Audiobooks were close behind. I listened to 5,313 minutes of audiobooks or 89 hours, or 3.7 days. I count pages on kindle as actual pages to make these next numbers easier. I read 7,018 pages in 2017. The average book length was 242 pages. The shortest book I read was 36 pages, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. The longest was When Paris Went Dark at 480 pages.
![5 Stars](https://i0.wp.com/jasonreads.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/5-Stars.png?resize=300%2C259&ssl=1)
And now the part you have all been waiting for. Here is the full list of all the books I thought worthy of a 5-star rating. Out of 37 books only 11, 30% reached this coveted placement. I’m linking to the review for each of the books below so you can learn all about them before diving in.
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin [Buy]
- Super You by Andy Walker [Buy]
- Wine Folly by Madeline Puckette [Buy]
- The Grownup by Gillian Flynn [Buy]
- Alight by Scott Sigler [Buy]
- Supergirl by Michael Green [Buy]
- The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel [Buy]
- The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde [Buy]
- Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck [Buy]
- Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs [Buy]
- Eating Animals by Jonathan Sarfran Foer [Buy]