NetGalley Buddy Readers discussion

Thoughts for end of year discussion -

How did you do with your NetGalley reading this year? Did you fall behind? Finally catch up? Or maybe you just joined?

How many NetGalley books did you read this year? Were any of them audios? Do you have any NetGalley goals or changes planned for next year?

Feel free to add any thoughts or questions you'd like to discuss about your NetGalley wrap-up or new year.

I've read 38 NetGalley books this year. Seventeen of those were audios.

I currently have 12 on my shelf with 3 pending and a feedback ratio of 95%.

One of my goals for next year is to read the two books that I have that are way past their pub dates so I can finally get them off my shelf. I also want to keep up with my current pub dates, so that means being pickier about accepting widgets and less impulsive with that request button. I really want to focus on the want-to-read more each month instead of the have-to-read.

I like that ... want to read vs have to read.

My goal was 100 NG and I reached it at 103 for 2021 (no audios). I'm going to lower that goal to 75 for 2022 because of that 'want vs need' thing. I kept up with my NG needs but my overall TBR list grew, lol.

I currently have 27 books on my NG shelf spreading over 2022 and I just started reading February pub dates, so I'm not behind that way.

I am going to be waayy more selective (picky) about genres this year and stay in my wheelhouse - Historical Fiction - then I can focus more over my current TBR which has more genres to choose from. Hopefully that works for me and I won't get bored.

Way to go, Karen! I didn't even make 100 for the year, never mind just for NetGalley. That's excellent.

My goal for the year was 24. I'm not a very fast reader, so two NGs a month seemed like a good number for me. I think the audios really helped me to get more reads in. I think I'm going to stick with 24 as a goal though.

Hopefully adding in other reads from your TBR will help you to not get bored, Karen, but if you do you can always change it up during the year.

you do you can always change it up during the year.

YEP, EXACTLY!!

How did you do with your NetGalley reading this year? Did you fall behind? Finally catch up? Or maybe you just joined?
Oh I'm still wicked far behind. lol

As of 1/1/21:
Feedback Ratio: 21%
853 Approved | 181 Feedback Sent

As of 12/31/21:
Feedback Ratio: 26%
1089 Approved | 287 Feedback Sent

So I got approved for 236 books and read/reviewed 106 books.

How many NetGalley books did you read this year? Were any of them audios? Do you have any NetGalley goals or changes planned for next year?
I read 100! (I read/reviewed a couple of baby books that I did not count on Goodreads hence why the number above is different) My goal was 50! 39 were audiobooks and that helped immensely. One thing I will do for 2022 is make sure I don't request audiobooks that don't have narrators. I cannot suffer through anymore synthetic voices, ugh. So painful.

I read 18 NG books, two of which were audiobooks. I try and keep the number of NG books to a manageable number because there are so many non-NG books I want to read, but it sure is tempting to request interesting NG books! I have three pending on my list with publish dates further out so I’m in good shape. My feedback ratio is 95%. I haven’t set a reading goal for NG - I keep things pretty open and read/request books that sound interesting. Let’s see what 2022 (not 2023!😭) brings. Happy New Year everyone!

Elyse, do you have 800 books on your shelf to read?! You have your work cut out for you. lol I was very fortunate not to get any synthetic narrators. I don't think I'd enjoy that very much.

Lilisa, my goal is very flexible as well. It's more like a guideline where I try not to request more than two books publishing each month unless they are something I can read quickly or have time to read early. I just don't want to get stuck with more than two books publishing in my current month and feel pressured to finish them all on time. So, I guess it's not really even a goal per se.

Happy New Year!

Kristie wrote: "Elyse, do you have 800 books on your shelf to read?! You have your work cut out for you. lol I was very fortunate not to get any synthetic narrators. I don't think I'd enjoy that very much.

Lilis..."

I know what you mean, Kristie - otherwise we’ll never get around to reading books on our TBR list! (and lol, saw when you responded that I had keyed 2023 not 2022 - fixed! See you around next year!)

lol, Lilisa! I would have let that typo slide. I'm sure plenty of people would love to jump ahead a bit in time right now, but I'm hoping 2022 is great. Glad to see you aren't hoping to skip it too. haha

Kristie wrote: "lol, Lilisa! I would have let that typo slide. I'm sure plenty of people would love to jump ahead a bit in time right now, but I'm hoping 2022 is great. Glad to see you aren't hoping to skip it too..."

Haha, my edit fingers wouldn’t let that typo slide! 2022 here we come, ready or not!

Oh I'm ready...lol. ;) Keeping fingers crossed it's a good one.

I read 17 NG books this year, didn't realize I read so many.

I have 3 books that published in 2021 (one I'm not even sure I will ever read) still unread. I have 1 so far that I need to read this month, pub date Jan 25, all the rest are after Jan at the moment.

My goal is to stay more on top of getting these read prior to pub date. I generally do pretty well with that but I don't want to get behind at all. I also want to get my ratio back up to at least 80%, it fell this past month, but I'd prefer to be at 85%. I don't know though if that even really effects our chance of getting approved...Elyse is so low and has tons of approvals! LOL

Kristie wrote: "Elyse, do you have 800 books on your shelf to read?! You have your work cut out for you. lol I was very fortunate not to get any synthetic narrators. I don't think I'd enjoy that very much..."

I have 752 unread NG books since 2013. I recently went through them and put "I will not be giving feedback on this title" for a bunch that I no longer had access to because I forgot to download or they were only the protected PDFs and those expire after 54 days.

Gotcha. Sounds like you're getting all organized and reading a bunch!

It must feel good to get some of those off the list and to be getting more organized. Love that feeling!

It's that time again! How did you do with your NetGalleys this year?

I read 32 books with a goal of 24. I still have one that I finished but need to review. I'm usually good about reviewing as soon as I finish reading, but this holiday season has been particularly busy.

I currently have 17 on my shelf, including the one I already read, and a feedback ratio of 94%. A few additional books and a slightly lower ratio than last year, but seems pretty stable. :)

I currently have no requests pending and I only had 3 declines this year! I've gotten much better about my requests. Funnily enough, I will still read all three books that I was declined for. (This always seems to be the way. lol) One, I received the audio through NG, another I received a physical copy through Bookish, and the third I put in a request for my library to purchase, which they fulfilled.

Overall, a very good year for me!

Just looking at my stats in a little more detail and I found that I read 32 individual books, but some of those I had both the kindle and audio, so it affected my NG stats a little differently than my GR stats. Also, I added 9 books just this month! I've only read one of those so far.

I'm still hoping to get a few more reads in but, even though I took a year long reading break and didn't come back until April, I read just as many Netgalley this year as my highest year - just one more to pass it! I'm going to wait to post stats until I'm done because I'm hoping to raise my % one more point!! EEE! Fingers crossed!

You can do it, Trisha!

I just reviewed my last book, so my stats went up by one, but my percentage stayed the same. lol

One more stat, lol -

I ended last year with 12 on my shelf, 3 pending, and a feedback ratio of 95%.

This year I'm ending with 16 on my shelf, 0 pending, and a feedback ratio of 94%. I have a total of 274 reviews on NG. It'll be interesting to have this here for comparison next year. :)

Well My stats are Read 158 NetGalley Books for the Year
I have 3 from 2019 and 3 from 2020 that I am still behind.
I read all of my 2022 books on shelf
I have 30 books for 2023 that need to be read

So total books that need to be read and reviewed is 36
My Feedback Ratio is 82%

I think I had a great Year Overall I reduced my older books from previous so only have 6 to read to finally catch up. My Goal is to catch up and read all books that I get for 2023 on time.

Wow, that's great, Thereadingbell! You did really well catching up. I have a few I'm behind now that I need to get to. My goal is to have no books on my shelf that are past their pub date when I end next year.

And I'm done for 2022~ YAY!

I read a total of : 228 Netgalley books this year
When I started reading again in April, my feedback ration was 68%

I focused and brought it back up to 77% (almost 78!)
and finally got my shelf to under 200 (was 218 I think) - I'm currently at 191

This year I also earned my over 500 reviews completed badge! I was very excited to get it!

So I made a lot of progress this year but I'm really excited to finally catch back up this next year and get my % above 80!

Coming into this year my feedback % had been around 85% and I seemed to be hanging with about 45 book under my Give Feedback tab. I read or listened to roughly 180+ NG books this year and I've gotten my feedback % to 97%. Now I have just 18 books under my Give Feedback tab.

I have no books pending approval. A lot of my reviewed books this year are audiobooks. I love that NG has audiobooks now.

I earned my 500 reviews badge this year.

I do have two really old NG books that I need to read, one from Dec 2017 and the other from Oct 2019. I do plan to read those but was focusing on current books and those keep falling farther back on my to do list.

These numbers and stats are so impressive! I had a relatively quiet NG year: I read 26 NG books and 2 NG audios. My % is at 87%.

I have 7 books on my to-read shelf at NG and 3 books pending.

Some of you are great book marathoners!

Congrats on the 500 review badge, Marilyn!

In 2022, I read 30 NG books and listened to 1 audiobook. I have 13 NG books and 1 audiobook on my Give Feedback list. My ratio is 87%.

I agree! Way to go! Congrats on your 500 badges Trisha & Marilyn!

Yes congrats Trisha and Marilyn for 500 badges

I am going to see if I can get mine this year we will see lol

My goal was 50 but I read 95 so I'm very pleased with that. How many I got approved for but didn't get the chance to read? Well, I didn't calculate that because I'm afraid of the number. lol

lol! Well done, Elyse!

Great job everyone!

I had a really good reading year as well.
For 2022 I read 32 NG books.
I have 12 books on my shelf right now with a 92% feedback ratio.
I have 3 books pending and was declined 18 times.

Vicki, we both ended having read 32 with 12 books on our shelves and 3 pending. That's such a funny coincidence.

That is really funny!

Haha! Kristie - sometimes I think we are leading parallel book lives!
And honestly (without sounding creepy) I think we will meet one day!

haha Not creepy at all! I'd love that. :)

Oh, I didn't do my stats this year. The best I can come up with is:

Last year, I started the year with 17 on my shelf, including one that I had already read but not reviewed, and a feedback ratio of 94%.

This year, I started the year with 14 on my shelf, including one that I had already read but not reviewed again. However, I had a Kindle and audio of that book. My feedback ratio was 96%. :)

I reviewed 36 books, though 7 of those were ebook/audio duplicates. So, I end up with 29 individual reviews, which is one shy of my goal of 30.

I'm not sure why I set my goal at 30. I try to limit myself to 2 per month so I don't start to feel overwhelmed, so I really should set my goal to 24. I think this group has me overestimating my abilities. 😉

My stats for the year :)

I read 32 NG books this year. Of those 18 were audios and 14 were ebooks. I think 10 of those were books that I had the audio and ebook of, but I'd have to check to be sure of that. I added 28 books to my shelf.

I started the year with 14 books on my shelf and a feedback ratio of 96% and ended the year with 10 books on my shelf and a feedback ratio of 97%.

I currently have 10 books on my shelf, 7 ebooks and 3 audios.

I mean technically I made progress as my ratio went up by 1%.

Jan 1 2024: 91 books 81%
Dec 31 2024: 91 books 82%

I submitted reviews for 30 books which is a lot less ARCs than I usually read in a year.

I have 14 more that I've read that I need to write reviews for which I'll get to in early January so at least I'll jump start 2025 with some progress.

I read and reviewed 60 books this year.

I have 13 books on my shelf and my feedback ratio is 90%

I don’t know what my beginning of the year stats were but I am definitely more organized now. I’m current on all my reviews and keep a calendar so I know how many reviews I need to read each month ( it stops me from over requesting.) I try to read at least a month ahead so January books are already completed and I’ll read February in January.

Marnie wrote: "I read and reviewed 60 books this year. ..."

I love how organized you are, Marnie! I hope, next year, to be so far caught up that I'm reading January in December! That's my goal!

Congrats on all your progress!

Melanie wrote: "I mean technically I made progress as my ratio went up by 1%."

Progress is progress!! Congrats on your increase!! That's awesome!

So I spent most of the year only reading kids books, and didn't find NetGalley till the end of November. Since I got on there though I think I've done decently well.

14 books read and reviewed
6 of them children's books
5 of them NetGalley books
Current % is 93%
5 books waiting for approval
1 book unread on my shelf
Earned 2 badges (though one is automatic)

I will most likely have more of my reviews be kids books as they are what I'm more easily able to read. Grown up books are audio on my commute and take a long time to get through.

I read and reviewed 32 Netgalley books in 2024.

Beginning of Year
Books on Shelf: 13
Feedback Ratio: 94%

End of Year
Books on Shelf: 12
Feedback Ratio: 94%

I am caught up on publishing dates.

I am pretty selective now about what I request, because I want to have time to read other things on my TBR.
I only request authors I know or books recommendations from friends here that have similar tastes.

Last year I read 100 books. The 32 Netgalley. 19 from the Goodreads Choice Awards. 34 from my TBR that have been there at least one year. And the rest random things that I added to my TBR during the year.

What was your fave book of the year Vicki? if you had to pick just one?

I didn't look at my other books at all, Vicki. That would be interesting to track. I think the majority of my books are for challenges or book clubs. As usual, we are pretty similar though. I read 96 books and 32 were NG.

Kevin wrote: "What was your fave book of the year Vicki? if you had to pick just one?"

That is so hard to pick. Apparently I love almost every book. I rated 44 of my reads as 5 stars!
I would pick this one, just because it isn't a blockbuster author who is always in the awards or super well known (I don't think).
It was dark, it was tense. And!! I won it in a giveaway a few years ago and never read it til this year.

Into the Darkness Sibel Hodge
but
I also really loved
The Paris Widow Kimberly Belle

What about everyone else? What was your favorite read of the year?

I actually went down 1% lol. But I read and reviewed 48 NetGalley books, out of a total 246 books read in 2024.

It's hard to narrow it down to just one so for me, I would go for The Favourites by Layne Fargo, The Death of Us by Abigail Dean, and this was the year which I finally got around to reading The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini which I can't stop thinking about

I hadn't hear of either of those books, but I just added both to my TBR.
The Death of Us is a read now so I got it right away.
I put in a request for The Favorites
(so much for keeping it in check)

Ah yes, The Kite Runner haunts the heart for sure.

The Death of Us is pretty brutal to be honest, really stark, so hope that's okay for you. The Favourites is really good too, hope you enjoy both