Going a bit overboard on the book data analysis

As an exercise in making charts in Excel, and to feed a data analysis compulsion, I've created these visual representation of my past nine years of reading. This is possibly the tip of the iceberg, so beware.

My reading tends slightly more towards male authors than female authors, which I thought would have been the other way around. In the above chart, individual authors are counted a maximum of once per year regardless of how many of their books I read (although I do try to limit myself to one book per author per year). In the case of books written by multiple authors, both authors are counted, except in one case of a compilation (Care to Make Love in That Gross Little Space Between Cars?: A Believer Book of Advice). 2015 is only so manly as it is because I read two books by two authors each (Good Omens and Welcome to Night Vale).

This chart clearly demonstrates a preference for fiction (everything before and including purple) over non-fiction (after purple). Included in my vague "General and Other Fiction" category are humorous fiction, mystery/thriller, short story collections, and young adult that doesn't fit into other genres (young adult fantasy is counted as part of fantasy, etc), as well as things that I can only think to describe as "plain old fiction." "Autobiographical" is a category that includes memoirs and collections of autobiographical essays (like David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell's books before she went full-on history), and I put Hyperbole and a Half in there too since that's where it fit best. Hiding in "Other Non-Fiction" are humor, geography, and self help.

Possibly more to come!