As of my last count, I’ve read 85 books this year! That seems impressive until I admit that half or more of that is graphic novels and manga. Recently though, that doesn’t seem so fair to me, because graphic novels and manga can be pretty heavy and take a little time to process! So your mileage may vary.

I further broke down my reading into the following categories: fiction, non-fiction, trade paperbacks, graphic novels, manga/manwha/webtoons/etc, and danmei. Fiction is probably too broad a category, but most fiction I read tends to be in the more specific category of fantasy. The difference between trade paperbacks and graphic novels is that trade paperbacks are collections of comic book series and graphic novels were written to be a full length story on their own. Similarly my distinction between trade paperback and manga/etc is that trades are more western comics and the others are more eastern in origin. With all that said, here’s my stats:

Fiction: 15

This number would have been higher if I hadn’t seperated out danmei books into their own group. There’s a further explanation of danmei and why I seperated it out into its own category below. Most prose fiction I read falls generally under fantasy. I started this year with Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow and Heavenly Tyrant (two seperate books) that combine Chinese history with a fantasy mecha setting that also features leftist politics. I also “discovered” John Wiswell who wrote the cozy horror romance Someone You Can Build a Nest In and the greek mythology adaptation Wearing the Lion which became an instant favorite for me. I love his version of Heracles.

Non-fiction: 4

Oh boy. I thought I read more nonfiction this year than these. I must be thinking of what nonfiction books I read last year, or more likely the nonfiction books sitting around the house waiting to be read. Oops. The most intriguing nonfiction book I read was Y’all Means All:the Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia which was largely about being queer in the Appalachia region of the United States and has easily led to me adding around six more books to my wishlist.

Manga/manwha/webtoon/etc: 33

For many years manga has been the bulk of my reading. It’s also more expansive than my prose reading, with the main genre being romance or action, and I will more willingly dip my toes into darker stories, some light horror, mysteries and more. This category also gets a small boost from the fact that translated volumes of various webtoons have begun to be more and more available in the States. I have been delighted this year to read print volumes of one of my favorite webtoons, Perfect Buddy (or XXX Buddy) plus I got drawn into Apothecary Diaries hard, which lead to checking out the anime with my wife, and now we’re both fans.

Trade paperback: 15

More than I thought! I felt like I’ve fallen behind on my comics reading but it looks like I made more progress than I thought. I feel the need to also point out that one of the trades I read was the omnibus collection of the Wicked + the Divine which is massive and probably should count for 5 or more on its own.

Graphic Novel: 4

It’s gonna be weird to make this statement with only four entries but I’m happy to see more graphic novels being published. I obviously love a serialized story with all the comics, webtoons, and danmei that I read but I also appreciate shorter tales. I will recommend Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguyen, which is a cute high school romance story that features community theatre and a bear mascot.

Danmei: 14

For anyone unfamiliar, danmei is a genre of fiction in China that usually features men in relationships with each other and some kind of historical fantasy setting. There are some that take place in a more modern non-fantasy setting. There’s also been a least one baihe published this year, which is the lady version, I think. I haven’t checked it out, my to read pile is currently a nightmare for me. I’m both surprised and not surprised that these are half of my prose fiction reading. I’m looking forward to the last volume of Husky and His White Cat Shizun, and then finally finishing my re-read/read of Heaven Official’s Blessing. I have so many other books I want to read but I also want to keep up with these as they come out so I don’t run into the manga problem of if I wait too long they go out of print. My favorite of the ones I read this year though is Peerless which features competing investigation department heads who spend all five volumes of the story trying to eff each other over. I found it very entertaining and I’m sure I’ll carve out time in the future to reread the whole run in one go.