Here is the breakdown on the 106 books I read in 2019

One of my goals for 2019 I set at the start of last year was to read 50 books. I was pessimistic about meeting this goal and figured only 40% chance of achieving it, based on the assumption that I would try to meet the goal using only print books and not using audiobooks.

Well, I am happy to report that I crushed this goal by a huge margin, exceeding it by a whopping 112%! What changed?

For one, I had more free time than I imagined. Work has slowed down in my job and I found myself with more free time available for reading, though admittedly not all devoted to reading or spent efficiently (darn those addictive games!).

Also, things changed about half way through the year, as I found the Overdrive app a good way to listen to many interesting audiobooks from my library for free during my commutes. Before, I had tried another audiobook app that was cumbersome to use. With the much more user-friendly app, I am routinely listening to audiobooks on my commutes which is about 2 hours each day.

Here is the list of all 106 books I read in 2019:

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Date read	Book Title	Author	Format	Type	Genre	Year	Pages	Stars
Total	106	106				2015	266	4.2
1/4/2019	Texas Holdem Made Easy	Hazelton, Walt	Print	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2015	226	5.0
1/4/2019	Millionism	Graham, KR	Ebook	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2015	51
1/4/2019	INVESTING: The Secret Guide To Making Money With Investments	Williams, Todd	Ebook	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2014	144	4.4
1/13/2019	All Your Worth	Warren, Elizabeth	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2006	304	4.8
1/21/2019	The 100 Best Stocks to Buy in 2019	Sanders, Peter	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2018	400	5
1/21/2019	A Short Guide to a Long Life	Agus, David	Print	Nonfiction	Health, Fitness & Dieting	2014	208	4.1
1/27/2019	Beat the Gym	Holland, Tom	Print	Nonfiction	Health, Fitness & Dieting	2011	320	4.5
1/31/2019	15-Minute Spanish: Learn in Just 12 Weeks	DK	Print	Nonfiction	Humanities	2018	160	3.9
2/15/2019	Seriously Curious	Standage, Tom	Print	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2018	272
2/17/2019	Some Useful Wild Plants	Jason, Dan	Print	Nonfiction	Science & Math	2017	195
2/24/2019	The Full Plate Diet	Seale, Stuart	Print	Nonfiction	Health, Fitness & Dieting	2010	160	4.4
3/3/2019	Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered	Gallea, Anthony	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2002	288	3.9
3/14/2019	Spanish in Your Face!	Nisset, Luc	Print	Nonfiction	Humanities	2007	160	3.9
3/15/2019	The Starfish and the Spider	Brafman, Ori	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2008	240	4.4
3/23/2019	Candide	Voltaire	Print	Fiction	French Literature	1759	122	4.6
4/6/2019	Medical Management of Chemical Casualties Handbook	USAMRICD	Print	Nonfiction	History	2015	193
4/10/2019	The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business	Duhigg, Charles	Print	Nonfiction	Health, Fitness & Dieting	2014	416	4.5
4/13/2019	Out of the Maze	Johnson, Spencer	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2018	96	4.6
5/1/2019	Easy Spanish Reader	Tardy, William	Print	Nonfiction	Humanities	2015	224	3.5
5/2/2019	Worth It... Not Worth It?	Otter, Jack	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2012	144	4.3
5/10/2019	Biking to work	McMullan, Rory	Print	Nonfiction	Sports and Outdoors	2008	96	2
5/18/2019	You Don't Have to Drive an Uber in Retirement	Lichtenfeld, Marc	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2018	208	3.9
5/26/2019	What your mother should've told you : and nobody else will	Reilly, Natalie	Print	Nonfiction	Etiquette	2012	144	2.7
6/2/2019	Stocks Under Rocks	Richiutti, Peter	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2013	161	4.2
6/9/2019	Millionaire by Thirty: The Quickest Path to Early Financial Independence	Andrew, Doug	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2008	256	3.1
6/14/2019	Get Rich with Dividends	Lichtenfeld, Marc	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2012	224	4.2
6/16/2019	Playing with FIRE	Rieckens, Scott	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2019	224	4.4
6/17/2019	How Finance Works	Desai, Mihir	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2019	288	4.1
6/21/2019	Caro's Book of Poker Tells	Caro, Mike	Print	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2011	320	3.8
6/21/2019	El Principe de la Niebla	Ruiz Zafron, Carlos	Print	Fiction	Literature & Fiction	1993	244	4.3
6/26/2019	The Wealthy Barber	Chilton, David	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	1997	224	4.4
6/30/2019	Short Stories in Spanish for Beginners	Richards, Olly	Print	Fiction	Literature & Fiction	2018	238	4.5
7/7/2019	Power Hold'em Strategy	Negreanu, Daniel	Print	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2012	504	4.4
7/10/2019	The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick	Stone, Gene	Print	Nonfiction	Health, Fitness & Dieting	2012	233	4.1
7/14/2019	Millionaire Teacher	Hallam, Andrew	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2016	233	4.7
7/14/2019	The Latte Factor: Why You Don't Have to Be Rich to Live Rich	Bach, David	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2019	161	4.8
7/14/2019	The Test Book	Krogerus, Mikael	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2015	208	3.6
7/20/2019	Meet the Frugalwoods	Thames, Elizabeth	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2018	261	3.9
7/26/2019	Misbehaving	Thaler, Richard	Print	Nonfiction	Science & Math	2015	434	4.5
7/27/2019	Financial Freedom: A Proven Path to All the Money You Will Ever Need	Sabatier, Grant	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2019	352	4.7
8/3/2019	The Intelligent Asset Allocator	Bernstein, William	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2000	224	4.1
8/4/2019	Fast Forward Investing	Markman, Jon	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2018	288	5
8/15/2019	The Outward Mindset	The Arbinger Institute	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2019	208	4.7
8/24/2019	Latin American Spanish in 40 Minutes	Collins	Audio	Nonfiction	Language Learning	2006	38
8/24/2019	The Index Revolution	Ellis, Charles	Ebook	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2016	240	4.2
8/24/2019	Learn in Your Car: Spanish, Level 1	Raymond, Henry	Audio	Nonfiction	Language Learning	2001	212	3.7
8/25/2019	Learn in Your Car: Spanish, Level 2	Raymond, Henry	Audio	Nonfiction	Language Learning	2001	245	3.6
8/26/2019	Learn in Your Car: Spanish, Level 3	Raymond, Henry	Audio	Nonfiction	Language Learning	2001	257
8/27/2019	Thinking, Fast and Slow	Kahneman, Daniel	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2013	499	4.5
9/4/2019	The 3 Simple Rules of Investing	Edesess, Michael	Ebook	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2014	265	4.3
9/4/2019	ImmersionPlus: Spanish	Penton Overseas Inc	Audio	Nonfiction	Language Learning	2005	170	3.5
9/5/2019	Psychology of the stock market	Selden,George	Ebook	Nonfiction	Business & Money	1912	77	3.8
9/7/2019	A Man for All Markets	Thorp, Ed	Audio	Nonfiction	Science & Math	2017	416	4.4
9/7/2019	The Capitalist Code	Stein, Ben	Ebook	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2017	208	3.9
9/9/2019	This is the Year I Put My Financial Life in Order	Schwartz, John	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2018	320	4.5
9/10/2019	Retire on Less Than You Think	Brock, Fred	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2003	240	3.4
9/11/2019	Leadership: Everything You Need to Know to Become a Great Leader	Swanson, Florence	Ebook	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2019	104	4.5
9/12/2019	Learn Pro Blackjack: How to Play, Master Basic Strategy, and Maximize Your Odds at Blackjack	Captivate Labs	Ebook	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2017	69	3.7
9/13/2019	The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google	Galloway, Scott	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2017	318	4.3
9/18/2019	How Luck Happens	Kaplan, Janice	Audio	Nonfiction	Science & Math	2018	351	3.9
9/19/2019	America through the spectacles of an Oriental diplomat	Wu, Tingfang	Ebook	Nonfiction	History	2007	160	5
9/21/2019	When You Are Engulfed in Flames	Sedaris, David	Audio	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2008	337	4.3
9/21/2019	The Great Gatsby	Fizgerald, F Scott	Audio	Fiction	American Literature	1925	180	4.3
9/28/2019	Business Adventures	Brooks, John	Audio	Nonfiction	History	1969	464	4
9/28/2019	Mansfield Park	Austen, Jane	Audio	Fiction	American Literature	1816	544	3.7
9/29/2019	Poker Nation	Bellin, Andy	Audio	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2003	288	4.3
9/30/2019	The Economists' Diet	Payne, Christopher	Audio	Nonfiction	Health, Fitness & Dieting	2018	321	4.4
9/30/2019	Stay the Course	Bogle, John	Ebook	Nonfiction	Biographies & Memoirs	2018	320	4.3
10/3/2019	Move Fast and Break Things	Taplin, Jonathan	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2017	320	3.8
10/5/2019	Retirement Reinvention: Make Your Next Act Your Best Act	Ryan, Robin	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2018	304	4.8
10/8/2019	The Asshole Survival Guide	Sutton, Robert	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2017	24	4.3
10/9/2019	Poker Wisdom of a Champion	Brunson, Doyle	Print	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2003	192	4.2
10/11/2019	The Wisdom of Finance: Discovering Humanity in the World of Risk and Return	Desai, Mihir	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2017	240	4.4
10/13/2019	Treasure Island	Stevenson, Robert	Audio	Fiction	Literature & Fiction	1883	240	4.4
10/15/2019	Stick with It: A Scientifically Proven Process for Changing Your Life-for Good	Young, Sean	Audio	Nonfiction	Health, Fitness & Dieting	2017	304	4.2
10/16/2019	The basics of winning blackjack	Allen, J Edward	Print	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2013	64	5
10/19/2019	Rescue Your Money	Edelman, Ric	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2016	208	4
10/22/2019	You Only Live Once	Vitug, Jason	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2016	192	4.9
10/27/2019	Wealth Secrets of the One Percent	Wilkin, Sam	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2015	413	3.9
10/31/2019	Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy	Gawdat, Mo	Audio	Nonfiction	Science & Math	2017	368	4.4
11/3/2019	Everything I Know About Business I Learned From Monopoly	Axelrod, Alan	Print	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2004	206	2.9
11/3/2019	Effective Communication Skills	Kehoe, Dalton	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2011	358	3.2
11/5/2019	The Motivation Myth	Haden, Jeff	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2018	286	4.5
11/8/2019	The Achievement Habit	Roth, Bernard	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2015	293	4.2
11/11/2019	F You Very Much	Wallace, Danny	Audio	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2018	320	3.3
11/12/2019	How Not to Get Shot	Hughley, DH	Audio	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2018	272	4.6
11/15/2019	The Truth About Your Future	Edelman, Ric	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2017	400	4.5
11/15/2019	Easy Spanish Stories For Beginners	Storyling	Ebook	Fiction	Language Learning	2019	57	4.8
11/19/2019	Bad Blood	Carreyrou, John	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2018	320	4.8
11/26/2019	Steve Jobs	Isaacson, Walter	Audio	Nonfiction	Biographies & Memoirs	2011	656	4.6
11/27/2019	Life 3.0	Tegmark, Max	Audio	Nonfiction	Computers and Technology	2017	382	4.3
11/28/2019	Money Management Skills	Finke, Michael	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2014	369	3.8
11/28/2019	2BR02B	Vonnegut, Kurt	Audio	Fiction	Science Fiction	1962	26	4.3
11/30/2019	Killing Sacred Cows	Palmer, Stephen	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2008	320	4.2
12/1/2019	The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age	Wallach, Janet	Audio	Nonfiction	Biographies & Memoirs	2012	386	4
12/3/2019	When the Wolves Bite	Wapner, Scott	Audio	Nonfiction	Biographies & Memoirs	2018	232	4.5
12/5/2019	It's All Relative	Jacobs, AJ	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2017	353	4.2
12/8/2019	For the Love of Money: A Memoir	Polk, Sam	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2016	289	4.1
12/12/2019	The Big Book of Poker	De Toffili, Dario	Print	Nonfiction	Humor & Entertainment	2018	288	4.6
12/15/2019	The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs	Ellis, Charles	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2009	768	4
12/16/2019	Up, Down, or Sideways	Sanborn, Mark	Audio	Nonfiction	Religion & Spirituality	2011	192	4.1
12/18/2019	Clark Howard's Living Large in Lean Times	Howard, Clark	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2011	272	4.5
12/24/2019	House of Cards	Cohan, William	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2009	482	3.8
12/26/2019	Benjamin Franklin: An American Life	Isaacson, Walter	Audio	Nonfiction	Biographies & Memoirs	2003	608	4.6
12/28/2019	Brokenomics: 50 Ways to Live the Dream on a Dime	Gachman, Dina	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2015	264	3.8
12/29/2019	Tao of Charlie Munger	Clark, David	Audio	Nonfiction	Business & Money	2017	257	4.1

I categorized the books by format, i.e. print, ebook, or audio:

Audiobooks accounted for the biggest portion of the pie at 45.3%, followed by print at 44.3%, and lastly ebooks at 10.4%. The proportion of audio will likely increase in 2020 and beyond.

Ebooks are infrequent because I generally prefer audio followed by print format when available. Audiobooks are much faster to "read", and print is easier for the eye.

I also categorized by type: fiction versus nonfiction:

As you can see, the vast majority of books I read were nonfiction. While fiction tends to be more interesting and probably better for improving language skills, I prefer nonfiction because it tends to be more practical in the real world, more immediately applicable, and easier to read especially as audiobooks on the go when I also have to pay attention to the road.

And here is the breakdown by genre, as categorized by Amazon:

Most of the books I read are in the genre of business & money. That is my main interest. I am beginning to appreciate more humor and biographies.

In the table above, "star" refer to # stars given to the book on Amazon by the time I finished the book. 

I picked these books to read generally because I found them intriguing and read generally positive reviews. Most turned out to be ok or good, some even great, and a few disappointing rubbish over-hyped by effective marketing. 

And the Winner Is...

The books I found wanting are better left unnamed. Instead, I nominate my most favorite book I read in 2019:

Mr. Desai really hit the nail on the head in this book. All the key topics in finance were treated in depth, including financial analysis, valuation, players, value creation, and capital allocation in a delightful, engaging manner. 

What I will read in 2020...

I don't know yet. 

What I plan to read are more fiction to balance out the nonfiction, and more audiobooks (easier, and I like easy, so long as it is also effective).