A Year of Reading 2013

 

It’s the 4th annual End of Year Book Survey! hosted by Perpetual Page Turner.  I’ve never done this before but it looked like a lot of fun!  I also have my reading stats at the bottom that I do every year and a final report on all my reading challenges.

1. Best Book You Read In 2013? 

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor.  It was beautiful, tragic, with a great fantasy setting and it was right up my ally.  The writing was spot on and I was completely glued to the pages.  Really.  If you like fantasy, this is a must-read.

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.  Everyone seems to rave about it and I loved the Shiver series by the same author, but man it was just boring.  I didn’t think the conflict was developed enough or interesting enought to carry a whole book let alone a whole series.  I really wished I had liked this one but I didn’t.

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2013?

Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger. LINKDFJKDLSJ I was expecting a paranormal romance where the girl is supernatural and she saves a regular guy.  But it turned into much more than that! I loved the voice of the characters.  It’s one of the few novels told from two points of view that does an excellent job of making each voice distinct.  This one was so much fun to read.

4. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.  I don’t usually read adult fiction (especially contemporary ones), but I really enjoyed this one.  I learned a lot and I felt like it helped me grow as a person, too.  Whenever a book helps me see the world from someone else’s perspective, I feel like I become a little less self-centered and a little more empathetic and understanding.

5. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2013?

Sky on Fire by Emmy Laybourne. It felt like I was really living through the end of the world because of the little practical details like how they could eat with gas masks on, how they would deal with the chemicals in the air etc. And as I’m living this experience with the characters, I’m crossing my fingers that the worst won’t happen. But of course it does like something from your nightmares.  I couldn’t put it down until I knew what happened at the end. It’s one of those rare books that I read in one day.

6. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2013?

Asunder by Jodi Meadows.  Honestly, this was not my favorite book but man is the cover pretty and colorful.

7. Most beautifully written book read in 2013?

This was the hardest to choose because I read so many wonderfully written books, but I think the winner has to be The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

8. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2013?

East of Eden by John Steinbeck.  I couldn’t get this story and it’s message out of my head.  I had never thought about how I deal with rejection, what role rejection plays in the evils of the world, and how much unnecessary rejection I deal out to others.

9. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2013 to finally read?

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.  This is my number one favorite Disney movie so I really have no excuse for waiting so long to read the novel it was based on.  And I loved it!

 

 

10. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2013?

“It is a condition of monsters that they do not perceive themselves as such. The dragon, you know, hunkered in the village devouring maidens, heard the townsfolk cry ‘Monster!’ and looked behind him.”

― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

I just love the beautiful imagery in that quote and the empathy it portrays for things we see as “monsters.”

11.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2013?

Shortest: Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, 176 pgs

Longest: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, 1168 pgs

12. Genre You Read The Most From in 2013?

Science-Fiction and Fantasy

13. Best 2013 debut you read?

Transparent by Natalie Whipple.  I loved the characters, the romance and the twists in this story.  I just loved all of it.  I don’t know if this is based on The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells, but I had fun picking out the similarities and differences between them.

14. Most vivid world/imagery in a book you read in 2013?

Hands down no contest, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  I could literally see myself walking around the circus and the tents were so magical and unique and creative.  I’ve never read anything like it.

15. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2013?

The Recaptains.  This is a genius idea for a blog and I don’t know why it hasn’t been done until now.  They recap previous books in on-going series so you can quickly catch up and refresh your memory without re-reading the previous books.  They do an excellent job of being detailed and going over the important characters.  Also, that is the best blog name ever.

16. Favorite review that you wrote in 2013?

East of Eden by John Steinbeck.  It’s not necessarily my favorite but I definitely put the most work into and it took the longest to write out of any of my reviews ever.  I think it took me about a week to write it whereas most of my reviews only take me one or two days at the most to write.  I’m very proud of that review.

17. Best discussion you had on your blog?

How to Break Up with a Book.  I had a lot of fun writing that one because I really suck at breaking up with books :)

18. Most thought-provoking review or discussion you read on somebody else’s blog?

Blogging: An Endangered Species? by Jenni Elyse.

19. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?

I only went to two or three book signings but Elizabeth Smart’s book signing is the one that really stands out to me.  She is a kidnapping survivor and her story changed the way we deal with kidnappings today.  She is such a strong and amazing person and I really look up to her.  I’m very inspired by her strength and I still can’t believe I got to meet her.  If you haven’t heard her story, check out my book signing recap because I did a brief overview of what happened to her.  You should definitely read it.

20. Best moment of book blogging/your book life in 2013?

Starting up my own meme and people actually joined! Reading Queue has been a lot of fun for me to co-host with Book Tasty and I look forward to hosting it next year as well.  I’ve always planned out my reading for the month but I’m so glad I made it into a meme so I could connect with other bloggers.  It’s been a blast!

21. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

Most page-views: The Great Gatsby book review.  I think it came up a lot on google because people were wondering when the movie came out if The Great Gatsby was a true story….I’m sorry if my review wasn’t what you were looking for but man that was a lot of page views :)

Most comments (for a non-meme post): My Teenage Crush on Mark Hamill and Other Reasons I Love Star Wars.  Apparently I awakened all of your teenage crushing and fangirling. :) And there was more than one incredulous comment that I didn’t have a crush on Han Solo…..what can I say, the whiney farm boy just did something for me :)

22. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

My Google Diary for A Thousand Splendid Suns.  I was seriously blown away by the amount of history I learned from that book and if you have read that book or even just want to learn a little more about Afganistan, then you can totally check out that post :)

2013 Reading Stats

Books read: 50 (-3 from 2012)

Pages read: 18,290 (+1738 from 2012)

Average pages per book: 365 (+52 from 2012)

Books Re-Read in 2013: 2

(Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Ender’s Game) *Note: I didn’t include these books in my books read or pages read for the year.

Reviews written: 52

Books read written by women: 35

Books read written by men: 15

 

Reading Challenges

I did really well on all my challenges.  I finished all of them except the YA and MG Fantasy challenge but that’s only because I was only counting MG books for that one.  If I had counted YA I would have blown it out of the water :)  I also finished my Goodreads Challenge of 50 books this year. Yay!