a tome with the halibuts

Couple of footnotes to yesterday's yearly blogging round-up: despite the book count being the equal-second-lowest on record at 19, closer analysis reveals that the total page count was quite high, higher in fact than any year since the annus mirabilis of 2011 when I managed to get through 33 books, helped by, among other things, a lengthy honeymoon and no kids. 2015's page count totalled 6330 pages, a considerable improvement over last year's 4988.

You'll be ahead of me here and already observing that a high page count combined with a lowish book count must mean the average book length was quite high, and sure enough 2015's average book length of 333.16 is the highest on record, comfortably exceeding 2011's 321.12. While 2011's selections included a 924-page book (Until I Find You) and a 746-page book (The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest), 2015's selections included nothing longer than The Redeemer at 562 pages. On the other hand 2015 included only two books of under 200 pages, whereas 2011 included eight, and even 2014's paltry 16 books included five. So it's all about the consistency.