Hosted by Jamie @ Perpetual Page Turner, I like how this survey delves into the specifics of books read and gives me a chance to review all I read and wrote this year. I removed some of the questions I didn’t have an answer for, so be sure to visit the original post if you’d like to complete the survey. Links to reviews where applicable; otherwise, links to Goodreads. My annual overview will go live on January 2nd as I want to wait until the Cybils shortlist is announced.
2018 Reading Stats
- Number of books read – 97. When I set my goal for 2018, I considered that I would have six months of grad school, so I set it at 75. I didn’t consider that I would have three courses on children’s literature, which gave me a good boost 😛
- Number of re-reads – 6 (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Uprooted, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, White is for Witching)
- Genre you read the most from – I didn’t maintain a spreadsheet year this year (I think that was a one-off thing :P), but I know I read 26 middle grade speculative fiction novels so that would be the most!
Best in Books
- Best book read in 2018 – In no particular order:
- Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh (middle grade ghost story)
- The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz (middle grade historical/fantasy)
- Front Desk by Kelly Yang (middle grade historical fiction)
- A Festival of Ghosts by William Alexander (middle grade ghost story)
- Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (adult fantasy)
- In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire (adult speculative fiction)
- Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (adult fiction)
- Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t – The Owl Service by Alan Garner. Completely different than whatever I was expecting. I didn’t connect with it at all.
- Most surprising (good or bad) book read – Front Desk by Kelly Yang. A strong middle grade fiction debut that deals with serious and heavy topics without being too bleak.
- Book you ‘pushed’ the most people to read – The ABC’s of LGBT+ by Ash Hardell (published under Ashley Mardell)
- Best series started/ended/continued – A Festival of Ghosts by William Alexander (A Properly Unhaunted Place #2) and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (spiritual successor to Uprooted)
- Favourite new author discovered – Sayaka Murata (I hope we get more of her novels translated!), Tara Dairman, Ellen Oh, William Alexander and Kelly Yang
- Best book from a genre you don’t typically read – Monsters (The Reckoner #2) by David A. Robertson (young adult speculative fiction). Just finished this a couple days ago!
- Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book – I didn’t know which book to pick for this so I was musing out loud, “What was the most action-packed book I read this year?”. My dad answered “Ready Player One” – good answer! 😛 Lots of action in there.
- Most likely to reread next year – Nothing stands out to me this year as needing an early reread…maybe Beneath the Sugar Sky because it’s short and sweet and I love that series.
- Favourite cover – This is always a tough one! I had 12 off the top of my head but I’ve managed to narrow it down to 7:
- Most memorable character – Keiko from Convenience Store Woman
- Most beautifully written – The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore (which I have just realized I didn’t review here even though I wrote a full review for a uni course – will schedule it for next year, I guess :P)
- Most thought-provoking/life changing book – The ABCs of LGBT+ by Ash Hardell
- Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2018 to finally read – The Children of Green Knowe by L.M. Boston
- Shortest book – Tolkien & The Silmarillion by Clyde S. Kilby (89 pages)
- Longest book – The LotR aside, The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (552 pages)
- Most shocking book – The Island of Monsters by Ellen Oh. Pretty gory for middle grade!
- OTP of the year (you will go down with this ship!) – No one really stands out but maybe Micah and Drystan from the Micah Grey trilogy?
- Favourite non-romantic relationship – Tom and Hatty in Tom’s Midnight Garden by Phillippa A. Pearce
- Favourite book read by an author you read previously – Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
- Favourite book read solely based on a recommendation – All Four Stars by Tara Dairman come to mind as one I read based on a couple recommendations from a few years back… ^^;
- Best 2018 debut – Front Desk by Kelly Yang
- Best world-building – Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
- Most fun to read – Inkling by Kenneth Oppel
- Made you cry – Nothing made me cry this year!
- Hidden gem – Monsters by David A. Robertson. This second book in a trilogy called The Reckoner only came out a few months ago, but it definitely deserves more attention!
- Crushed your soul – Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese is a pretty crushing read….
- Most unique – The Children’s Home by Charles Lambert
- Book that made you the most mad – Between this question and the one about crying, I’m realizing I didn’t read any book that got me seriously worked up this year, lol.
Your Bookish Life
- New favourite book blog discovered – One that comes to mind as having ‘discovered’ this year is Milliebot Reads.
- Favourite review – I reviewed Convenience Store Woman in a different way and I was pretty happy with the result!
- Favourite non-review post – I started a new feature called “I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read That Yet”. The first installment received a lot of comments and I’ve been having fun with the feature ever since.
- Favourite bookish photo – I don’t take many bookish photos, but scrolling through my Twitter photos showed me this one:
- Best moment of bookish/blogging life – Being approved for ARCs of In an Absent Dream and Gingerbread. I am a small blogger and I am so grateful for being approved for my two most anticipated reads of 2019!
- Most challenging thing about blogging/reading life – Failing to write posts when I’m in a funk, even though I have lots of ideas.
- Most popular post – By views, “Reading a Book in its Entirety for the First Time (Or, I Finally Read The Silmarillion In Its Entirety)[Discussion]” was most popular. This pleases me 🙂
- Post you wished got a little more love – “Review + Discussion Questions for Laura Lam’s Pantomime“
- Best bookish discovery – That I can call a local bookstore in Vancouver (Pulp Fiction) and order new books for 30% off, haha.
- Completion of challenges/goals – To be discussed in my “wrapping up, looking forward post” on January 2 (I’ve done very well this year!).
Looking Ahead
- Most anticipated debut – Just plucking one from my TBR: The Bone Garden by Heather Kassner
- Most anticipated sequel – I have been lucky enough to have already read In an Absent Dream (Wayward Children #4). I don’t have any other sequels on my TBR.
- Most anticipated non-debut – Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
- One book you didn’t get to in 2018 but will make a priority in 2019 – HAH! I finally read Tolkien on Fairy Stories! So my pick for 2019 is (unsurprisinglY) a different Tolkien book: I’m going to start in on The History of Middle-Earth with The Return of the Shadow, the first volume on The Lord of the Rings.
- One goal for your reading/blogging life – Drafting reviews within a week of finishing a book…..everyone’s dream, haha.
- 2019 release you’ve read and recommend to everyone – In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire
And that’s a wrap on 2018! Let me know if you completed this survey. Happy New Year’s Eve! See you on the other side 🙂
I loved Every Heart a Doorway – I need to continue that series soon!
Check out my End of Year Survey
Yes, I highly recommend it – the other books are just as good 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
I loved Spinning Silk and Convience Store Woman. I so agree with you. Can’t wait for either author’s next story. You have had a great year Jenna! You accomplished so much! Happy New Year! 🥳
Thank-you so much, Dani! 💜 I hope we read many more great books in 2019.
I got Spinning Silver for Christmas — can’t wait to read it!! I loved Uprooted. Also, I have Convenience Store Woman out from the library, guess I should give it a shot!
Excellent! Those are both great reads 🙂 Totally different, but awesome in their own ways.
Wow, your post is so detailed. I need to step my game up. Lol. I haven’t read any of the Wayward Children series. Maybe I should start.
This post did take me a lot longer to write than I expected 😛 But I like thinking about all the books I read in a year. I highly recommend Wayward Children – those books are some of my favourites!