The questions for this survey came from The Perpetual Page Turner’s blog.
I love doing end of year recaps. I did this same survey for the first time last year. I also did a post of the best books I read in 2014 and the best books I read in 2013. You can also check out my recap posts for 2012 and 2011 too. :)
Reading Stats
Books read: 50 (same from 2013)
Pages read: 15242 (-2952 from 2013)
Average pages per book: 305 (-50 from 2013)
Books Re-Read in 2014: None! This might be the first year that I didn’t reread any books.
DNF Books for 2014: 4 (This is also the first year that I decided to quit a book if I wasn’t liking it)
Reviews written: 47
Books read written by women: 34
Books read written by men: 16
Most Read Genre: Besides Young Adult, it was fantasy according to this lovely chart :)
Total Money Spent on Books: $165.79
Shortest Book Read: The Too-Clever Fox by Leigh Bardugo (32 pages)
Longest Book Read: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1276 pages)
Book Awards
It was hard to pick, but as I went over all the books that I gave 5 stars this year, A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is the one that was the most unique, the one that I still think about, and the one that moved me the most.
Favorite Quotes
“Parents of young children are always acting. You act excited to read a story for the five-hundredth time. You act impressed someone went to the bathroom on the toilet. The excitement I show to some of the children’s scribbles should get me a Golden Globe nomination.”
Book Blogging
1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2014?
My friend Karena joined the blogosphere mostly because I designed her blog for her ;) She has more of a writer blog than book blog but she does talk about books so you should go check out her blog, Discovery Writer.
I also love Apocalypse Booked who loves science fiction, especially Star Wars, like I do. I love her reading lists. What a cool idea!
I’m always excited to find other Utah bloggers and I was lucky to find Bookmark Dragon this year!
2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2014?
Let’s be honest. Hate reviews are SO much fun to write. They are even more fun to write about classics and my review for Journey to the Center of the Earth was the most fun I had writing a review in a long time :) It was quite cathartic to get all those annoyances off my chest.
” Journey to the Center of the Earth was incredibly slow. It took 100 pages for them to get to the volcano, walk around, and run out of water.” – See the rest of my review here.
3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?
I loved hearing people’s thoughts on how they deal with racism in classic novels.
4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?
The best even I went to this year was by far the Laini Taylor book signing! Her speech was so inspiring and she was delightful to meet.
5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2014?
Trying NaNoWriMo was the best! Maybe I failed, but I was still proud of what I learned about myself and that I gave writing a shot. I think writing doesn’t work in my life right now, but I’m going to try it again in a few years.
7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?
If I’m going by by page views my most popular post was The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells. It got a top ten google ranking for some reason and it got twice the hits that even my home page did.
8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?
I learned so much about Vikings from the book Divide and Conquer and it was a blast to write the Google Diary post for it but it didn’t get any comments. It’s awesome! Really! Go look! :)
9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?
Audiobooks! I had never listened to audiobooks before and I honestly didn’t think I would like them. I set a challenge to listen to at least 2 in a year to try them out and I ended up listening to 11 of them. They are the best thing to listen to while doing other things I hate like cleaning my house or exercising.
Reading Challenges
A lot of these challenges are a fail but part of that is because I’m 7 reviews behind. Oh well. I’m still very proud of finishing the audiobook challenge and how close I got on a lot of the other challenges. I think I won’t sign up for so many this year :) The Classics Club is an ongoing challenge and I’m glad to say I read 5 books towards that challenge this year.
Series Challenge 2014
Host: Read Sleep Repeat
My Summary Post
Progress: 5/5 (100%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Completed!
TBR Pile 2014
Host: Bookish Lifestyle
My Summary Post
Progress: 8/10 (80%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Failed
eBook Challenge 2014
Host: Workaday Reads
My Summary Post
Progress: 24/25 (96%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Failed
Book to Movie Challenge 2014
Host: Doing Dewey
My Summary Post
Progress: 4/3 (133%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Completed!
Dystopia Challenge 2014
Host: Blog of Erised
My Summary Post
Progress: 4/5 (80%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Failed
Witches and Witchcraft Challenge 2014
Host: Melissas Eclectic Bookshelf
My Summary Post
Progress: 1/3 (33%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Failed
Chunkster Challenge 2014
Host: Vasilly
My Summary Post
Progress: 4/5 (80%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Failed
Audiobook Challenge 2014
Host: Hot Listens
My Summary Post
Progress: 11/10 (110%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Completed!
Fairy Tales Retold Challenge 2014
Host: Debz Bookshelf
My Summary Post
Progress: 3/3 (100%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Completed!
Diversity on the Shelf 2014
Host: My Little Pocket Books
My Summary Post
Progress: 0/3 (0%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Failed
Standalone Challenge 2014
Host: Iceybooks
My Summary Post
Progress: 6/15 (40%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Failed
Classic Double Challenge 2014
Host: One Librarian's Book Reviews
My Summary Post
Progress: 2/2 (100%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2014
Completed!
Classics Club
Host: The Classics Club
My Summary Post
Progress: 7/50 (14%)
1 January, 2014 — 31 December, 2019
Failed
Jenny says
Fun stats! I’m impressed with your accomplishments on your challenges. I don’t think you failed. I don’t do challenges because I will fail! Like seriously. 0% fail.
Suey says
Awesome reading year! I do hope you come back to writing when it feels more compatible! :)
Jenni Elyse says
Wow! You had an awesome year! I love the stats you chose to share and I love how you answered the questions for the survey. :)
C.J. @ ebookclassics says
It looks like you had a great year of reading! Some of the books you read are on by TBR. I don’t know if you’re aware, but I’m taking over the Book 2 Movie challenge. It was kind of at the last minute!
Angie @Angela's Anxious Life says
Yeesh… looking through the challenges you did makes me cringe. I don’t know if I will complete the challenges I join this year. I need to go through and pick them out. I plan on doing that tomorrow. Scary!
End of Year Survey