Why I read books.

Today is New Year's Eve and I've been reflecting on the last year and, in particular, all the books I've read. I thought it might be interesting to break down the books I've read into categories I've why I read them in the first place. There are SO MANY books out there, and sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all the books I won't read, which makes it hard to pick the ones I will read.

In 2011 I read 96 books (Gah! Only 4 short of my goal) and I've broken them up into eight categories. Some books belong in more than one, but I picked the one that most fit it. Take The Scorpio Races for example. I have read a book by this author before, but the reason I read it was all the hype about HOW AWESOME this book is. (And it's all true.) On the other hand, Divergent got all kinds of hype, but I only read it because it was strongly recommended to me. (And I loved it!)

Here's the breakdown:

Reasons

Author is a friend/someone I know online: 8

Recommendation: 19

Hype: 9

Already a fan of the author: 23

Liked the premise: 21

Felt like I should read it: 8

Re-read: 5

Other reasons: 3

The Felt Like I Should Read It category is filled with classics that I thought were important for me to read, such as, The Virgin Suicides and Ender's Game. The Other Reason category includes a book I read because I liked the cover, a book that was turned into a movie and I wanted to read the book first, and a book by an author I met who seemed cool.

I'm surprised to find that the biggest category is books by authors I'm already a fan of. But it is true. If I've read and loved a book by an author, I'll usually read follow-up books regardless of other factors. I'm very loyal like that.
It also seems that I don't easily buy into the hype which I think is mainly because I have a good idea of what books I'll like and which ones I won't. But I'm not always right. I really didn't think I'd enjoy Divergent, but then I loved it and there's a few books where I bought into the hype and then didn't enjoy AT ALL.

Out of interest, I also decided to work out how many of those 96 books I owned, borrowed, etc, so here's the breakdown for that:

Bought: 55

Borrowed from library: 31

Swapped: 3

ARC: 7 (I also bought 2 of these books once they came out, and plan to buy 3 more when they're released.)

This is proof that I buy WAAAY too many books! I also got another 21 books for Christmas. Oops!

And one final piece of bonus information: the author I read the most in 2011? It's a tie between E. Lockhart (I re-read The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and the first three books of the Ruby Oliver series) and Maureen Johnson (13 Little Blue Envelopes, The Bermudez Triangle, The Name of the Star, Let it Snow.)

I'm curious about what makes other people read the books they do. Is it through recommendations or hype? Already a fan of the author? Pretty covers? Blurbs from famous authors? Let me know what you think.

Have a Happy New Year and I'll catch you all in 2012!