I’ve talked before about whether my taste follows the crowd and it’s something I often wonder about. Last month, when Goodreads celebrated YA, I noticed how closely my taste follows the crowd… well, for the most part.
Looking at 40 most popular recent Young Adult Novels and 100 most popular YA books of all time, I was surprised to find I’d read most of the books. Even more significant is how much I liked the books- my average ratings were 3.9 and 3.47 respectively. I gave 15% of books 5* in the recent YA books and 10% 5* in the most popular of all time. There were some outliers that I didn’t love (like Caraval and Lord of Shadows) or won’t read (Turtles All the Way Down), but for the most part I was at least satisfied with the vast majority of the books on the popular recent releases list. Clearly, I’m enjoying these a lot more- suggesting I’m on the right track to keep reading them. Turns out, I know my own taste! (go figure 😉)
To me, it makes sense that I’ve read so many of these as well, since these are the books with the most visibility and I’m not immune to marketing 😉 Plus, these are also books that are more readily available on a budget and if you use libraries a lot. So, in this case, I don’t feel all that bad about my taste following the crowd- especially given it’s leading to high levels of satisfaction! As much as I’d enjoy being a bookish hipster, I guess I’m quite mainstream when it comes to YA.
One thing I have to note from this experiment is that there were books on the most popular YA of all time that (at least to my mind) weren’t YA at all (Red Rising and Anne of Green Gables being the most obvious). But that’s a discussion to have (again) another day. I don’t think it massively skewed my results- though have to do my due diligence and mention it 😉
Alrighty then! Do you notice your taste follows the crowd in particular genres and categories? Are you bothered by it if your taste is quite mainstream like mine? Let me know in the comments!
the orang-utan librarian 
Oh, this is fun to look at, I might have to check out my own stats for it!
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I haven’t read YA in forever, in fact out of the 40-list I have only read 1, and from the 100 only 10 (and those 10 were read years ago, nothing recent :O) Is always so interesting to see if we follow the trends, obviously, I’m very behind on this YA wagon.
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I just looked at these list and I read less than half the books. I read mostly YA, but I think because I stick to contemporaries a majority of the time, I omit all those big SFF books.
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Yes, I would be very bothered if my tastes followed the herd. Or maybe my tastes do mirror the herd, just the herd of 20-30 years ago.
It’s tough to tell…
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This is so interesting to explore and check out! I loved the idea 😍✨👏🏻
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Hmmmm….yes and no. Sometimes I hate books I think I should like, and love books I didn’t think I would….so who knows!
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Interesting! I went through, and I’ve read 45/100, which is lower than I would have thought!
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I’m always so impressed by how you track your metrics and statistics-ify your reading! 🙂 It makes for such fascinating comparisons!
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Hahahaha what a fun post!
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This sounds like a lot of fun – I will have to try it out for my own books some time. I quickly checked the recent YA, but I have read maybe three of the titles. So apparently not really on the YA bandwagon at the moment.
And I agree Red Rising should not be on the YA list.
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I don’t have track or statistic figure but I enjoy popular books and it’s not limited to MG, YA or adult. I read all book, not all are 5 stars but most of them I find interesting. Great post!
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Anne… Anne of Green Gables is considered a YA book? Hahaha the things we learn on the Internet! And may I just say, there’s something so satisfying about stats even though sometimes my mind can’t immediately comprehend what is being displayed. I love how they’re able to help understand ourselves and as you’ve mentioned, your own reading tastes! Stats are cool
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Haha yeah that was a surprise/slightly bizarre- I don’t see how that got counted as ya! Haha I agree- I love stats! Same!!
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There’s a reason these books are so popular, after all. I think especially in the YA community bloggers are so important, those books rising to the top tend to have to be good to get everyone so excited about them. I mean, yeah, also marketing budgets but… I like to think bloggers have their impact too.
I think I do in the more weird literary/books for people in their twenties zone. Basically anything on the Belletrist book club I will undoubtedly fall in love with.
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Yes, my inner snob would like to have taste that’s very different from most people’s, but … I don’t. As you say, there’s a reason things are popular.
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haha! Yes same! But exactly!
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For a blogger who specialises in YA, I read very little mainstream books in the age range (but then again, my blog is called “Offbeat YA” for a reason 😉). I looked into your lists, and…I’ve read ZERO of them 😱 😂.
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We love all the pie charts in this household, but also loved reading this post!! It’s so interesting to read but also think about. I think I definitely follow the trend and read all the popular YA books haha, feel free to bash me
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This is so interesting! I have a spreadsheet to keep track of books, pages, genres, diversity etc but I never compared the books I’ve read and want to read to the most popular books in a specific genre or age range. I’m tempted to check it sometime. 🙂
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Yeah it was really interesting! (I also love spreadsheets to keep track of reading!)
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