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 have completed this survey every year since I started book blogging full time (2014). I removed some questions for which I didn’t have an answer. So, be sure to visit the original post if you’d like to complete the survey. Links to reviews where applicable. My annual overview (in which I recap my goals progress and set new ones) will go live on January 3rd.

2022 Reading Stats

• Number of books read – 85. Back on track after 2021!
• Number of re-reads – 1 (The Hobbit). I did also reread about half of The Silmarillion.
• Genre you read the most from – I don’t track genres but it’s pretty much always going to be speculative fiction. Especially this year, as I read +40 books specifically for the middle grade speculative fiction Cybils category!

Best in Books

• Best book read in 2022 – Jordan Ifueko’s Raybearer is the first to come to mind. I think it will be the read of 2022 that stands out in years to come.
• Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t – Ravenfall by Kalynn Joseph. This sounded like just my sort of middle grade, but turned out far different from my expectations.
• Book you ‘pushed’ the most people to read – Let the Monster Out by Chad Lucas
• Best series started/ended/continued – Cece Rios, which I started in January and continued in December! RTC, I swear 😅
• Favourite new author discovered –  Juliana Brandt (Monsters in the Mist) or Lin Thompson (The Best Liars in Riverview)
• Favourite cover – Everyone knows you can’t pick just one! Here are The Green Children of Woolpit, Whispering Pines, Eden’s Everdark, and The Cat Who Saved Books

• Most beautifully written – Siren Queen. No surprise this goes to Nghi Vo for the second year in a row!
• Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2022 to finally read – Ophie’s Ghosts, which I added to my TBR in Nov 2018 and came out in May 2021.
• Shortest book – Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente (103 pages)
• Longest book – Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire (496 pages)
• Favourite non-romantic relationship – Bones and Kyle in Let The Monster Out
• Favourite book read solely based on a recommendation – Raybearer was already on my TBR, but Dianthaa @ Dianthaa Dabbles and Arwen @ The Tech Chef motivated me to read it this year by choosing it for my 12 Books Challenge and inviting me to buddy read, respectively.
• Best 2022 debut – Children of the Quicksands by Efua Traoré (RTC)
• Best world-building – Could say Raybearer again, but I’ll switch it up with The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton
• Most fun to read – Fenris & Mott by Greg Van Eekhout
• Hidden gem – Meranda and the Legend of the Lake by Meagan Mahoney (63 ratings on Goodreads)
• Most unique – Moonflower by Kacen Callender

Your Bookish Life

• New favourite book blog discovered – Here are some blogs I added to Feedly this year:
  • Henry @ Unsolicited Feedback (non-fiction)
  • Maryam @ The Curious SFF Reader (scifi/fantasy)
  • Rosie @ Little Bird Book Blog (speculative fiction)
  • Bianca @ Your Words My Ink (young adult scifi/fantasy)
• Favourite review  – Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire or The Undercover Booklist by Colleen Nelson
• Favourite non-review post – 11 Books about the Social Internet
• Favourite bookish photo – This photo of my new bookcases!

• Best moment of bookish/blogging life – The response to my post What If I Don’t Read Any New Releases This Year? was lovely 🙂
• Most challenging thing about blogging/reading life – The everlasting search for balance between reading books and reviewing them… I reviewed 21 of the 85 books I read this year (granted, about half of those books were read in an Oct-Dec flurry for Cybils).
• Post you wished got a little more love – I guess if pressed I would say my review of Pepper’s Rules for Secret Sleuthing (if you like middle grade contemporary, check it out!)
• Completion of challenges/goals – To be discussed in my “wrapping up, looking forward post” on January 3rd.

Looking Ahead

• Most anticipated debut – Jude Saves the World by Ronnie Riley (middle grade contemporary)
• Most anticipated sequel – Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #4) by Jessica Townsend (this was also my answer for the 2021 End of Year survey – it got pushed back to 2023 ;-;)
• Most anticipated non-debut – Hamra and the Jungle of Memories by Hanna Alkaf (middle grade speculative fiction)
• One book you didn’t get to in 2022 but will make a priority in 2023 – Empire of Ice and Stone by Buddy Levy. This one only came out in December and I’m still waiting for my copy to get in, but I am very excited to check out this book!
• One goal for your reading/blogging life – Review (at least) half of the books I read in 2023

Reviewing every book I read, even if it’s just a few sentences… and/or writing reviews within two weeks of finishing a book 😆 #BookBlogger https://t.co/cTyvcCKDid

— Jenna (@fallingletters) December 28, 2022

And that’s a wrap on 2022! Let me know if you completed this survey.
Happy New Year! 🎉 See you on the other side 😄