Happy New Year! (Almost.) For the past few years I've been doing the End of the Year Book Survey from Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner. I've always enjoyed the questions and felt that it is a real reflection on my reading for the past year.
This year, I'm going to try not to repeat myself too much. So, no matter how much I loved The Raven Cycle and Alias Grace, I will try not to only answer the questions with those books.
Here we go!
Number Of Books You Read: 53
Number of Re-Reads: 1 (I don't re-read a lot.)
Genre You Read The Most From: Fantasy (of various forms)
1. Best Book You Read In 2014?
Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood
2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
It's a tie between Binu and the Great Wall, by Su Tong and The Killing Joke, by Alan Moore.
3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read in 2014?
The Fall (The Strain #2), by Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan - The ending was just.... whoa.
4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did) In 2014?
I don't know if anyone actually read these books, but it's a toss-up between Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Cycle books and Atwood's Alias Grace.
5. Best series you started in 2014? Best Sequel of 2014? Best Series Ender of 2014?
a) Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld
b) Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater.
c) Champion, by Marie Lu
6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2014?
7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
The Look of Love, by Bella Andre - A Romance novel. I don't typically read romance novels, but this one was just so sweet and well written. I might read more by Andre in the future.
8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
Lock In, by John Scalzi
9. Book You Read In 2014 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
I don't tend to re-read books I read just the year before, but if I were to pick one it would be, The Raven Cycle books.
10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2014?
Hollow City, by Ransom Riggs
11. Most memorable character of 2014?
12. Most beautifully written book read in 2014?
Friend of My Youth, by Alice Munro
13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2014?
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. I don't know if it changed my life, but it was definitely thought provoking.
14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2014 to finally read?
It's a tie between Friend of My Youth, by Alice Munro and Animal Farm, by George Orwell
15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2014?
I don't typically record quotes/passages from books. I get too lost in the story. I did manage to write down the most famous quote from Animal Farm though: "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others."
16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2013?
Shortest: UR, by Stephen King (61pgs)
Longest: City of Heavenly Fire, by Cassandra Clare (725pgs)
17. Book That Shocked You The Most
Requiem, by Lauren Oliver - The ending was just.... Bam! Then it was over.
18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
(OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)
I'm so old... I had to look this one up. - Can I use my answer to #19? In general, though, I'm pretty happy with the pairings the authors created in the books I read this year... Though a couple of them cheated, in my opinion, using death instead of having the main character make a choice.
19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year
20. Favorite Book You Read in 2014 From An Author You’ve Read Previously
Alias Grace (and Lock In.)
21. Best Book You Read In 2014 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:
The Thousand Orcs, by R.A. Salvatore (My Hubby wants me to catch up to him with his favourite series. I'm only about halfway there though.)
22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2014?
The Raven Boys, all of them. They are so too young for me, but I just adore them.
23. Best 2014 debut you read?
I don't think I read any 2014 debuts. They were either previously published authors or the book was published in 2013 and I just waited a long time before reading it.
24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs
25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
Underwater Love (Fred the Mermaid 1-3), by MaryJanice Davidson
28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
I don't know if any books actually crushed my soul, but Champion, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and Requiem all came close.
29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2014?
A tie between Animal Farm, by George Orwell and Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
The Lone Drow, by R.A. Salvatore - Drizzt just refused to go the Mithral Hall. If he did that he would have saved himself a lot of brooding and heartache.
1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2014?
2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2014?
I don't know.... randomly: Fool, by Christopher Moore
3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?
4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?
5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2014?
Realizing the status of the diversity in my reading.
7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?
The Last Policeman, by Ben H. Winters had by far the most views.
Animal Farm had the most comments.
8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?
There are two: A Look At Diversity and An eBook Conundrum.
9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?
Umm... that being unemployed means more reading time?
10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?
I set a modest Goodreads goal this year, which I surpassed, by a lot. See previous question for why
1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2014 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2015?
The Diviners, by Libba Bray
2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2015 (non-debut)?
The Raven Cycle #4, by Maggie Stiefvater
3. 2015 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?
Umm.... none?
4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2015?
The Raven Cycle #4, by Maggie Stiefvater
5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2015?
Read more classics.
6. A 2015 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone:
None. I wish I had something, but nope.
Thanks for stopping by my year in review! It's been a great year in reading for me. I can't wait to see what wonderful books 2015 brings!
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I feel the same way about The Raven Boys...love them all, but too young for me. It's an amazing series...keep pushing it, Loni !
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited for the fourth book! I feel like it'll involve a lot of yelling while reading.
DeleteI just bought Alias Grace, and now I'm really excited to read it!
ReplyDeleteIt's so amazing. Grace is such a complex, mysterious character. I hope you enjoy it.
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