Writers' Chasm

Each year I keep a list of the books I buy or check out of the library and in August I post a list of the books organized into why I picked them up. Past tallies can be found here going back to 2010.  My book buying has taken a hit over the past year. I've been so busy with class that I don't have much time to go to the library and, without a car, I have no way of getting the nearest bookstore when I'm on campus. Let's start with some percentages. Last year's stats are in brackets for comparison. Book in series: 37.5% [29%] Author: 25% [29%] Concept: 25% [N/A] Word of mouth: 12.5% [18%] I'm not surprised that book in series and author are so high. When I'm at school, I order books from B&N and it's a lot harder to say no when I'm already looking forward to a book and I know it's going to be good. I am surprised that concept is a category this year when it wasn't last year, but I shouldn't be because I spent so much time in...

A few years ago, I decided to keep a tally of all the books I bought or checked out of the library to see what the trends were. Ever since then I've kept a list of books and my reasons for picking them up and posted the results each August. 2010 results 2011 results and analysis 2012 results August has come around once again so it's time for the annual tally. My list has taken a hit now that I'm at university and don't go to the library as much as I used to. The only books that count for the list are ones that I've bought to read for pleasure. I have a whole set of novels that I will read for pleasure but bought for class (it's on Tolkien). I'll summarize the results to begin and then break them down. In brackets are last year's percentages for comparison. Book in series: 29% -- [30%] Author: 29% -- [20%] Word of mouth: 18% -- [17%] Add to collection: 12%  Genre research: 6% Classic: 6% -- [3%] Looks like my habits are staying relativ...

Two years ago, I kept a list of all the books I bought and what about them initially caught my attention. Then I analyzed my list to see what were the biggest factors in my buying decisions. I think it'll be fun to make this an annual thing so that I can see how things change over the years (or how they stay the same). 2010 results 2011 results First a summary of my results and then I'll get into how it all broke down. In parentheses are last year's results for comparison. Book in a series: 30% (35%) Classic: 3% Premise: 23% (5%) Author: 20% (20%) Unusual story: 3% Word of mouth: 17% (20%) Being made into movie: 3% (5%) Cover: 7% I was kind of surprised by just how much premise went up this year. Last year I put a lot of stock in other factors so that really shows how I'm going back to whether or not a story's idea catches my attention. Another thing that surprised me was just how large a portion of the books I bought were the next installment in a s...

Yesterday I posted a list of the books I've bought or borrowed from the library recently and why I picked those books. Today I wanted to talk about the results. I also wanted to compare this year's results from last year's. 2010 tally results My results from August 2, 2010: 23% Word of mouth 15% Liked author 15% Book in a series 15% Cover/book trailer 8% Similar to another author 8% Referenced elsewhere 8% Similar to a WiP 8% Back summary only My results from this year: 35% Book in a series 20% Liked author (10% read author before, 5% heard good things about author, 5% author's internet presence) 20% Word of mouth 10% Already read and wanted to own 5% Being made into movie 5% Summary I'm not surprised that my purchase of books in a series went up 20%. A lot of the books from series I'm reading came out in the last couple months. There are also more series on the market and more that I'm reading. Liking the author and word of mouth bo...

About a year ago, I decided to do a little experiment to see why I buy the books that I do. Over the course of a few trips to the bookstore, I came home and wrote down the reasons why I bought those particular books over all the others. I thought it would be fun to do this again, to see if my habits have changed. 2010 tally results Note: This also includes books I checked out of the library. Already Read, Wanted to Own Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Bought because it was the only book in the series that I still didn't own. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak -- I actually read this some time ago, but I bought it recently because I loved it so much. Book in Series Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares. Bought because it's the last book in the series and I have to know how everything ends now. Demon's Covenant by Sarah Rees Brennan. Bought because it's the second book in the series and the first one was amazing. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray. From librar...

Lookin' at Lucky walked all over the Haskell field yesterday. Mwhahahaha. No one can say that Preakness victory was a fluke now. Anyway... I thought it would be fun for me to visit the reasons why I bought the books I did the last few trips the bookstore. Why these books over the others on the shelves? Word of Mouth Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta -- I've heard so many great things about this novel and I'm on quite a bit of a literary kick so I decided to pick this one up. Paper Towns by John Green -- This one basically has the same story as Jellicoe Road. I heard a lot of awesome things about it and it's author, I'm on a literary kick, it was a paperback. I had no reasons not to bring it home. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan -- This was another novel that I picked up mostly because of word of mouth. Also because I want to read the Dead Tossed Waves. Author The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan -- I love Riordan and that's pret...