My Bookish Year 2016

I’m a little late on this post but its finally time to share with you my year in books, my top ten books of the year and just my bookish year in general.

To start with here’s what Goodreads has to say about my year:

I set my reading goal really low this year. I knew it wasn’t actually a challenge but over the last couple of years I’d been feeling the pressure to meet a challenge rather than reading to enjoy and it had caused major reading slumps so I set it really low (for me) on purpose. I reached it, obviously. And I’m pretty happy with 46 books. This doesn’t include any DNFs of which I think there were six although I don’t keep track of them so I’m not certain. It also doesn’t include any books I’ve reread, there wasn’t many of those this year as I just had too many awesome new books to read.

46 books is, I’m pretty sure, the best I’ve ever achieved, and I have no idea how anyone manages to read hundreds in a year! I’m setting my Goodreads goal for 2017 at 40 books. If we’re looking at the last four years I’ve beaten it twice and not beaten in rwice but honestly with how things are right now I think I’ll be majorly disappointed if I don’t read that many books this year (I already have 200+ on my Goodreads TBR and at least 60 that I REALLY want to read like now!)

As for my rating this is how it breaks down:

5* =4
4* =18
3* =18
2* =6

I’m not even bothering to put 1* because I never rate a book one star. If it’s that bad then I don’t finish it and I don’t currently rate/review books that I don’t finish. Although I’m starting to wonder whether this is the right thing to do. Where do you stand on rating DNF’s? It skews the ratings if no one rates DNFs, so maybe I should but I don’t always DNF because it’s bad per say….

I also remain extremely stingy when it comes to 5*. A lot of those fours could easily have been fives. I seem to always be able to find SOMETHING wrong or that a book is missing SOMETHING. And I always feel a bit guilty when I read great books but….. Not quite haha. But then looking back a few of those threes could easily have been twos so I guess it evens out.

In no particular order, my 10 Favourite Books of 2016*:

* meaning books I’ve read this year not books that are published this year

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

So I’m in love with the whole gang and I’m gearing up to read book two very soon (and maybe the rest of the series too)

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

I don’t really think I need to say anything about this book because it seems to be everywhere. I absolutely loved the characters and heist books are my absolute faves. I’ve just read the sequel and I’m so sad that is only a duology.

Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet

Greek gods, magic, dragons and witty sarcastic comments galore. I loved it. Shame about the romance.

Steal the Sky and Break the Chains by Megan O’Keefe

Okay so I know this is technically two books but they’re the same series, I read both of them this year and they were both freaking amazing and both deserve a place on this list. I mentioned I love heist books right? Well, Detan is on my list of favourite thieves too.

Malice by John Gywnne

This was the longest book I read this year. In the vein of game of thrones and you really shouldn’t get attached to any of the characters. I’m just warning you.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

This is the only Sci fi book in my top ten, I really didn’t read many of them this year and that definitely needs to change. If anyone wants to recommend scifi books that aren’t too heavy I’m all ears. There doesn’t seem to be as many light Sci fi books as there are easy read fantasy books.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

This was me branching out of my genre a little reading a historical fiction book (I do it every now and then). It was so beautifully written and kept me interested the whole time.

The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did, it’s quite an old book and I got it on a kindle deal but it was brilliant. Sword and sorcery but with really good characters.

The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R Carey

Again another book outside my comfort zone. I don’t read horror or zombie books but I really enjoyed this one.

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine

A book about books. The Great library of Alexandria is all powerful and very controlling. It was really good and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel soon

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So that’s my year in books. Are any of these your favourite books of the year? Are you planning on reading them? (you should) and where do you stand on rating/reviewing DNFs?

 

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