Personal stats and figures
I LOVE ANALYTICS. A few stats around reading and listening in July.
Hi friends —
Happy Tuesday.
I will spare you a word about the year going really fast because we all know that. I will say, though, that I am excited for the new month. We are getting closer to my birthday, and we have had somewhat cool weather down here on the East Coast, which is both calming and confusing.
July was a good month for me. During the month, I began using StoryGraph to track my reading in addition to Goodreads.
Morally, I have been wanting to use Storygraph for a while. It's black-owned and taps into one of my favorite things: gamification. If you don't know, I work in social media/employee advocacy, so gamification, like Too Short, is one of my favorite words (I do realize that was corny, but whatever). With gamification, you use tactics like leaderboards or stats to get people to act, and for me, that's what Storygraph does.
Truthfully: GIVE ME ALL THE STATS
Seeing the stats for my reading makes me want to read more.
My friend Allison uses Storygraph and her stats to ensure she is reading diverse authors, which is a great way to use it. I used it to track my reading for July, but also to prove a point to people that I am dipping my toes back into the world of fiction books. And while I still think Storygraph's interface can use some work in terms of making it engaging or cute to come to, it also helps you to be more thoughtful with your reviews by asking you guiding questions, e.g., How was the pace of the book? Is the book mainly plot or character-driven? Are the characters lovable?
Looking at the stats on my reading also made me curious about my music consumption for the month, so I used Stats for Spotify to track my music activity for July. Although it could be skewed, I am still in Libra land using both Apple and Spotify.
Here's where I ended up in July:
In July, I read four books:
“Deep Cuts” by Holly Brickley
”Becoming Baba: Fatherhood, Faith & Finding Meaning in America” by Aymann Ismail
”Love You to Death” by Christina Dotson
”A Beginner's Guide to Dying” by Simon Boas
Two were Non-Fiction and two were Fiction.
What about your friends?
From what I read, two were five-star reads for me: “Deep Cuts” and “Love You to Death”. I have written about Deep Cuts and will be writing about Love You to Death soon, but I tried to think of a central theme in both of those books, and one thing I came up with is friendship. In “Deep Cuts”, we see a friendship that straddles the line of romance, and in “Love You to Death”, the book leans into toxic friendship and asks the question: how well do you know your friends?
I enjoyed reading about the friendships in both books because they are essentially the guiding light in both stories. In "Deep Cuts," Percy is in love with her friend Joe, a songwriter who needs her help to improve his music. As he rises to fame, his light eventually fades. In "Love You to Death," we explore Kayla’s journey alongside her best friend Zurie, who both pissed me off and humoured me. Zurie’s carefree attitude contrasts with Kayla’s more cautious nature. Similarly, Joe is carefree due to his traumatic past, while Percy remains risk-averse.
On another friendship tip, I talk a lot at times, and have made friends with the women at my local Barnes & Noble. "Deep Cuts" was a suggestion of two of those women who said, based on our conversations about music and me being from the Bay Area, they knew I'd love it--and they were right.
Format for Reading
While this doesn't matter, for both of my five-star books, I read both in print and listened to the Audiobooks. I enjoyed “Love You to Death's” audio because some of the scenes were so chaotic that you need to hear it. “Deep Cuts”, the audiobook, was a nice accessory, but I preferred reading in print more than listening to the audiobook.
Music things
One last note that I thought was interesting in both books was how music played a part. This is also a random anecdote, but music was the through line of Deep Cuts. The book is getting adapted into a movie, so I'm curious what that will look like. In Love You to Death, music was nonexistent for the most part, which I think added to the story. I guess when you think of road trips that you take with your friend, music is a big part of the trip. This was nonexistent in this book, which made the story and events that occur more sense to me.
Get “Deep Cuts” by Holly Brickley
Get ”Becoming Baba: Fatherhood, Faith & Finding Meaning in America” by Aymann Ismail
Get ”Love You to Death” by Christina Dotson
Get ”A Beginner's Guide to Dying” by Simon Boas
Let me know, what did you read in July that you loved and/or hated.
July listening report:
As mentioned, I used Stats for Spotify to identify the top music I listened to in July. For that, they share the top artists, genres, and 50 songs you listened to heavily throughout the month.
Some of my stats were:
I listened to 37 different artists, including Giveon, Clipse, Maggie Rogers, Sasha Keable, and Kokoroko.
Of the 50 songs that I listened to the most:
8 songs were by Giveon from BELOVED (4%)
3 songs were by Clipse from Let Got Sort Em Out (2%)
5 songs were by Kokoroko from Tuff Times Never Last (3%)
3 songs were by Sasha Keable (scattered EPs) (2%)
4 songs were Amy Winehouse (scattered albums) (2%)
3 songs were Maggie Rogers from Heard It in a Past Life (2%)
6 songs were Big K.R.I.T (scattered albums) (3%)
My top five songs were:
“Avalanche” by Giveon
”M.T.B.T.T.F” by Clipse
”Mud” by Giveon
”I Can Tell” by Giveon
”My Sub Pt. 3 (Big Bang)” by Big K.R.I.T
That exercise showed me a few things: that I love the new Giveon album, and that I am far overdue for a Big K.R.I.T. album and concert.
On my radar for August.
Things I want to read:
“Lonely Crowds” by Stephanie Wambugu
”Full Bloom” by Francesca Serritella - OUT TODAY
”The Wilderness” by Angela FlournoyI would also like to start reading my first S.A. Cosby book.
Things I can't wait to listen to:
Sasha Keable’s new EP act right - OUT FRIDAY
JID - God Does Like Ugly - OUT FRIDAY
DJ Premier & Roc Marciano - The Coldest Profession - OUT FRIDAY
The Black Keys - No Rain, No Flowers - OUT FRIDAY
Maroon 5 - Love is Like
Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele 2 (25 years after the first one. Curious how this will be)
Colbie Caillat - This Time Around
Sabrina Carpenter - Man's Best Friend
Well that was all for this week. I’ll be back next week with my normal programming!
TTFN :)
Loveeeee every single bit of this. 🤎