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

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• 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:

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• 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!

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• 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

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• 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 🙂