2019 reading in review

I set myself some reading targets for 2019. I checked my progress at the end of August. And here's how I did overall:

1. Read great books
41% of the books I read this year I rated 85/100 or higher (up from 38% in my August review). My ratings are unscientific - mostly just a way to help me choose my top ten - and I didn't say what percentage would justify a pass... but I reckon it's:
TARGET ACHIEVED

2. Read at least 52 books
Actual: 61 (16 physical; 45 audiobooks)
TARGET ACHIEVED

3. Read at least 10 poetry collections
Actual: 6
FAIL
The remainder of the 61 were made up of 26 novels, 6 story collections, 1 graphic novel & 22 non-fiction books.

4. Read more than 40% female authors
Actual: 48%
TARGET ACHIEVED

5. Read at least a third non-white authors
Actual: 25%
FAIL
This was interesting, as I read 27% non-white authors in 2018 without a target, but I only hit at 6% the year before that, so hovering around a quarter isn't that bad, though it's not that great, either.

6. Read less than 40% US authors
Actual: 31%
TARGET ACHIEVED

7. Read from at least 10 different countries
Actual: 14
TARGET ACHIEVED

8. Read at least 5 works in translation
Actual:7
TARGET ACHIEVED

9. Target median age of books read: 2009
Actual: 2018
FAIL
By decade:
2010s: 55 (25 just from 2019)2000s: 31970s: 11960s: 2The allure of the new and shiny is hard to resist, eh?

OVERALL
6 of 9 targets met. I think the first two are the big ones: quantity and quality. The rest were prompts for me to read diversely. And while I read a number of highly enjoyable books this year, something about these targets made reading feel a bit like box ticking. I'm interested to see how I go without explicit targets or mid-point reviews. So I only have one target for this year:
2020 target: read 70 books
But I will look at how I went against these other metrics at the very end of the year and do some trend analysis over the last 5 or so years.
Up next, my top 11 reads of the year...