With March having come and gone, it means that we’re now through the first quarter of 2026! As you all know, I love stats, so that means it’s time to share my stats for January, February and March!
The first quarter of the year has definitely had its ups and downs. As always, let’s get started with some general stats.
In the first quarter I read 27 books, which breaks down to 13 books in January, 7 books in February and 8 books in March. I think that January started off really strong, as I typically do, but as the months got busier, my reading slowed down. So far, I’ve only had 1 reread this year, and that was my reread of People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry that I did before watching the film. I love rereading, but I have noticed that my rereading numbers have gone down the last few years, there’s just too many new books! I typically do a reread of Julius Caesar on The Ides of March, but I was too busy to do so this year which actually really bummed me out.
In January I read 2,940 pages and listened to 14.7 hours of audiobooks, February was 1,664 pages and 3.46 hours of audiobooks, and March was 1,040 pages and 21.89 hours of audiobooks. All I can say is, thank god for audiobooks because otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten to read much of anything in most of February, but especially in March!
As for format, as usual most of my reads were novels with 88.9% (4), 7.4% were graphic novels (2), and 3.7% were short stories (1). It’s not uncommon for most of my reads to be novels, but I did start the Lore Olympus graphic novels and I enjoyed it, so I’ll be continuing with that series and I would like to read more graphic novels and short stories this year!
I had a few different ways of acquiring my books during this first quarter. The majority of my reads, with 37.0% were books I got from the library (10), 33.3% were books I already owned (9), 14.8% were ARCs (4), then coming in at 3.7% (1) were from Audible, Book of the Month, Kindle Unlimited and borrowed. I like seeing library and owned books be the majority of my reads, especially since I’m trying to make a dent in my owned tbr this year.
When it comes to reading method, 37% were physical (10), 29.6% were audiobooks (8), 18.5% were ebooks (5), and 14.8% were multiple formats (4). Last year I really started reading either physically or with my ebook and listening to the audiobook at the same time and I’ve been loving it, so I definitely want to continue to do so this year. It’s such a great way to really get lost in the story and fully focus on what I’m reading.
The first quarter of the year had a fairly wide range of genres, which I always like seeing! Across the first 3 months of the year I read 8 different genres. 29.6% were mysteries (8), coming in at 14.8% were thriller, horror, and fantasy (4), 11.1% were romance (3), 7.4% were mythology (2), and 3.7% were literary fiction and sci-fi (1).
As for star ratings…this first quarter was the quarter of the 3.5 star read. I’m not really mad about a 3.5 star rating, that’s a good rating! But it’s almost a little annoying to have so many of them because it’s like those books were so close to being really great for me and they just fell a little flat. As for the star rating breakdown, the first quarter shook out like this: 3.7% were 2 stars (1), 7.4% were 2.5 stars and 3 stars (2), 48.1% were 3.5 stars (13), 14.8% were 4 stars and 4.5 stars (4), 3.7% were 5 stars (1, which was a reread).
There were some aspects of the first quarter of the year that felt a little bit like a dud, but knocking books off of my 26 in 2026 was not one of them! I ended up reading 6 of the books on my 26 in 2026, which I think is great for the first 3 months of the year! I read
- The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark (4.5 stars)
- I’ll Be Waiting by Kelley Armstrong (2 stars)
- Masters of Death by Olivie Blake (3.5 stars)
- The Love of My Afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood (3.5 stars)
- A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang (3.5 stars)
- When The Burned the Butterfly by Wen-ye Li (3.5 stars)
My favorite of the 6 was definitely The Ghostwriter, while I thought that Masters of Death, The Love of My Afterlife, A Song to Drown Rivers and When They Burned the Butterfly were all really good, and I wasn’t a huge fan of I’ll Be Waiting.
If I keep up this pace then I am on track to finish all 26 books on the list, and I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to.
In case you missed them, here you can find all of my posts from January, February, and March.
I still can’t believe we’re through the first quarter of 2026 — it really did fly by! It was incredibly busy, but really great for the most part! I’d love to hear about how the first 3 months of 2026 were for you. What did you do? What did you read? What were your favorite moments? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time 💜
Leave a Reply