Before I get into the 2020 reading survey results, my apologies for the lengthy time between posts! We spent last weekend in Louisville on our first vacation away from Connor. So, you can imagine that took quite a lot of planning and preparing. Although it felt weird to not bring my laptop, I’ll admit it was wonderful taking a bit of a break from all the work that goes into blogging!

Ok, now without further unrelated thoughts, let’s dig into the 2020 reading survey results!

Thanks to all of you who took the time to complete my 2020 Reading Habits Survey! I love getting to know my fellow readers a bit better. It’s always a blast sorting through the results to see what habits we share and where we differ.

In total, I received 123 responses to the survey. The majority of you are right around my age, in our 30’s. However, every age group I listed had at least 1 response!

Within this group, our reading numbers vary widely. You can see the chart below shows the responses are fairly even. I usually hover around 100 books a year, so I’m super impressed that ¼ of you read more than 100!

 

If you need tips to increase your reading, one of my favorite blog posts shares how I find time to read more books each year.

 

Wrapping up 2019

I included a few open ended questions in this section, so there are a LOT of different responses for the 2020 reading survey results.

Some of your favorite books from last year include:

• The Silent Patient (4 responses)
• Daisy Jones and the Six (3 responses)
• The Simple Wild (3 responses)
• Red, White, and Royal Blue (2 responses)
• Ask Again, Yes (2 responses)
• The Grace Year (2 responses)

I’m thrilled to see the most popular books run the gamut of genres! Since I read pretty much every genre, it’s exciting to see that you all do too.

 

There was also quite a lot of variety in the authors you all read most this year. Only a select few authors were named more than once.  JK Rowling, Stephen King, and Louise Penny each had 2 responses.

The same story holds true for new authors you discovered this year too. Ruth Reichl, Madeline Miller, and Abby Jimenez are the only ones with more than one response.

 

When asked to select the genres you read most, the responses were all over the board! General Fiction usually performs well, but I was interested to see Mystery/Thriller as a close second. That’s actually the one type of book I rarely read, so maybe I’ll have to branch out?

This is where it helps me to see the 2020 reading survey results, so I know what types of books you want recommended!

 

 

Reading Preferences

This section is always my favorite part of the 2020 reading survey results. Each year I switch it up a bit to find out more about how you like to read. I started off with a question asking which format is preferred. The vast majority of us read actual books (paperback or hardback) more than any other format. With 25% of responses, next in line was the response that All 3 Are Great! I fall firmly in that category 🙂

I was surprised to see only a single person selected audiobooks as the preferred format. With all of the subscription services popping up and audiobooks available through the library, I would have thought a few more prefer that over any other type. We’ll see if it changes in a few years.

 

My next question tackled when you read. Does it occur more on weekdays or weekends. I realize this is a tough question since even I had to think about it for a while. Ultimately, I probably get more done during the week since I read every day at lunch and usually before bed. As you can see below, it was a fairly close race!

 

 

As for where you all read (and you were able to pick more than one response), the majority selected a comfy chair or couch. Following closely in second place was reading in bed. Listening to audiobooks in the car came in third but only made up 9% of responses.

The question with the best responses was certainly your favorite reading accessories! I included the top 3 responses as well as my personal favorites below:

Top 3 Reading Accessories

• Blanket
• Hot Coffee or Tea
• Bookmark / Book Darts

My Favorite Answers

• A Glass of Wine
• Chocolate
• Stroller (This is one of mine too! Great for audiobooks)
• Quiet children (Amen to that)
• My Wife (My husband’s response. Awwwwww)

 

The Book Community

A brand new section for this year’s survey! Since I’ve become more active in the online bookish community, I was curious about everyone else. A few of you also have blogs or bookstagrams. Surprisingly though, 42% of us are not in any book clubs! I’m not either, so it was nice to have company there.

Your top sources for book recommendations are:

1. Blogs / Online Articles (Hooray!!!)
2. Bookstagram
3. Family / Friends

I received a ton of responses for the question about your favorite book stores! It’s awesome to see so many of you still like shopping in store. I’m planning a bucket list of bookstores post at some point in the future, so I’ll have more to come on that subject this year!

There were some great suggestions for other blog topics too. It’s always helpful to hear what you’re interested in, since I’m writing this blog for you all. Keep an eye out for posts covering topics like debut authors, “if you like this show/movie – read these books”, nonfiction, YA fantasy, and backlist books!

 

That wraps up the 2020 reading survey results!! Thank you again for sharing your thoughts and talking books with me!!