Jamie over at The Perpetual Page Turner has once again created her annual End of Year Book Survey and I thought I’d join in the fun!
2014 Reading Stats
Number Of Books You Read: 205
I know it says 206, but I noticed that one book was duplicated in the list. If you want to see all the books I read (bigger than tiny pictures) click on the picture and you’ll be brought to my Goodreads list!
In Goodreads, I generally round up if I have half stars. Still, as you can see, I generally liked most books that I read.
The books that aren’t rated are a mixture of books that I read for our homeschooling (I only rate those occasionally) and books that I’ve edited. (I don’t review books that I edit because it seems like a conflict of interest and I can’t really be unbiased.)
Because of the awesome Ultimate Book Blogger plugin, I was able to see how my ratings break down. I’ve been feeling lately that I’ve been a little too generous with my five star ratings, and this pretty much confirmed it for me. Here’s how my ratings break down:
| Rating | Amount |
|---|---|
| 5 Stars | 23 |
| 4.5 Stars | 25 |
| 4 Stars | 38 |
| 3.5 Stars | 2 |
| 3 Stars | 0 |
| 2.5 Stars | 0 |
| 2 Stars | 0 |
| 1.5 Stars | 0 |
| 1 Star | 0 |
| 0.5 Star | 0 |
| 0 Stars | 0 |
| Did Not Finish | 0 |
Number of Re-Reads: 1
I know, I know. I’m NOT a re-reader. In fact, the only reason I can say that I’ve re-read one book is because I read Heidi along with my daughter, and I read that when I was a little girl.
Genre You Read The Most From:
I decided to look at all the books I read this year to see how many I read in each genre. This was kind of tough because some books didn’t fit neatly into a single genre, but I did my best! As expected, I read mostly paranormal books (I counted both NA and YA here, though, and I split contemporary up so …)
Anyway, here’s what I ended up with:
Best in Books
1. Best Book You Read In 2014?
Oh, wow. This is a lot of pressure. Nope. Can’t do it. How about my top 10?
Ironically, Maybe Someday was only rated as 4.5 stars because of a small hang-up I had about the cheating aspect, and it didn’t even technically “win” my top spot for the month that I read it, but this book has stuck with me perhaps more than any other, and I swear, the more time that goes on, the more I love it. It’s even really tempted me to do a re-read (which I don’t ever do). So I’m going with my gut on this one and listing it as a favorite.
2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. After adoring Maybe Someday, I was SO excited about this book, but it ended up rubbing me the wrong way. I was incredibly disappointed!
3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read in 2014?
Grave Mercy because I didn’t really realize what it was all about before I read it and I wasn’t expecting to love it so much!
4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did) In 2014?
The only person that I really directly “push” to read books is my mom – and she’ll read anything that I tell her to! But I think the three books that I talked up the most on my blog and on others were these:
Sorry – I know this is getting repetitive, but of course I pushed people to read the books I loved!
5. Best series you started in 2014?
His Fair Assassin by Robin LaFevers
Best Sequel of 2014?
Best Series Ender of 2014?
I actually didn’t finish many series! (Uh oh!) There are several series that I should have finished, but I didn’t get to the last book!
6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2014?
Brandon Sanderson – I don’t know why I hadn’t read any of his books before!
7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
I used to read a LOT of epic fantasy, but I haven’t read much at all in recent years, so I’m glad I jumped back in!
8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
9. Book You Read In 2014 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
Well, if you look at my re-read number, you can pretty much figure out that the answer to that is none.
10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2014?
There were some very pretty covers this year, but I’m going to go with Unhinged by A.G. Howard.
11. Most memorable character of 2014?
Maybe Ridge from Maybe Someday?
12. Most beautifully written book read in 2014?
13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2014?
I’m going to go with The Sea of Tranquility, but there were lots of books that made me really think!
14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2014 to finally read?
There are a few of these. Cinder by Marissa Meyer and The Giver by Lois Lowry top the list!
15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2014?
I don’t usually make note of specific quotes, but I do occasionally mark one on Goodreads when I love one. I loved this quote from Landline because it reminded me so much of why I love my own husband (this is totally true love):
“She thought of … the way he never made made her feel crazy, even when she was acting crazy, and never made her feel like a failure, even when she was failing.”
16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2013?
Longest: Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (1,007 pages)
Shortest: Mine to Tarnish (128 pages) – Though I’m pretty sure there were a couple of novellas that were shorter.
17. Book That Shocked You The Most
Kiss of Deception totally surprised me with a major twist that blew me away and made a HUGE impression because of it! Rock Angel had some kind of shocking scenes that made me miserable, but I was so completely drawn in to the characters and the story – and I kind of loved having my emotions twisted into pretzels!
18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
I’m still stuck on Sydney and Adrian from the Bloodlines series by Richelle Mead – LOVE Adrian!!
19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year
Kaladin and his men in The Way of Kings.
20. Favorite Book You Read in 2014 From An Author You’ve Read Previously
21. Best Book You Read In 2014 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:
22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2014?
Ridge from Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover.
23. Best 2014 debut you read?
Yikes! I couldn’t find many 2014 debut authors on my read list (at least not that I knew were debuts). I guess I’ll go with Sway by Kat Spears and Jackaby by William Ritter (which I haven’t reviewed yet).
24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
This book was so much fun and totally reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Loved it!!
26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2014?
This book had me crying almost from the start!
27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?
28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2014?
WHY haven’t I read the last book in this series yet?!
30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
.
This book really bugged me because the people were so focused on having sex in a zombie apocalypse. Really?
My Blogging/Bookish Life
1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2014?
Oh, there are so many, but I’m not sure which ones I just discovered this year!! Here are a couple that I know I found in 2014:
2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2014?
The MOST FUN I’ve ever had writing a review was my April Fools’ review of the dictionary!! I loved my Rock Angel review because I was so full of feels that all I could do was spew unintelligible emotion!
3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?
My favorite was I’m a Disorganized Blogger! But the most popular (most views) was Authors that Complain.
4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?
Definitely BEA! But I also loved the Maybe Someday signing and concert.
5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2014?
I think that would have to be attending BEA. SO AMAZING!
7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?
Since I moved to WordPress in September, I only have real stats for the posts since then (I wasn’t using Google Analytics on the old site and the Blogger stats are WAY inflated). But the most popular post of the last few months is:
2015 Book Blog Discussion Challenge Sign-Up (which makes me really happy because I love discussions, and I want lots of people to sign up!!)
8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?
Hmmm … I couldn’t think of a specific one that I wished had gotten more attention.
9. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?
NaNoWriMo! I think I might have heard of it last year, but I didn’t pay much attention. But this year I participated!
10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?
I think I met them all, but I was horrible about keeping them updated. I’m going to write a post about my challenges, so I won’t go into detail here.
Looking Ahead
1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2014 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2015?
There are a million of these, but I’m going with Split Second by Kasie West because I got it from the library, so I need to read it soon!
2. Books You Are Most Anticipating For 2015 (non-debut)?
3. 2015 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?
4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2015?
5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2015?
I wrote a list! See it HERE.
6. A 2015 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone:
LOVED this book!
Whew! So that’s it! Now I need to go read everyone else’s 2014 recaps! Let me know in the comments one bookish stat from your blog in 2014.
I actually don’t know any of my book stats (shame on me) so I’m going to do this survey on my blog as well and see what I come up with. LOL
I didn’t really know any of these stats either – it was fun to discover them while I was doing this!
Great stats! I had to go and check mine out because I wasn’t sure how many I had rated 5 stars either.
I agree, Unhinged has a fabulous cover, they all do in the trilogy really and I can’t wait to read Ensnared!
Congrats on all of your books read.
I’m tempted to go and change some of my five stars after some time has passed, but I don’t know – or adding a 5+ stars. I’m going to have to write a discussion post about that!
Oh gosh, there are so many series that I need to read. I JUST finished Cinder, so don’t feel bad. haha
-Lauren
I know – there are so many awesome books out there and I want to read them all!!
Wow, you read a lot in 2014! I see you really liked some books that I’ve been meaning to read. Especially Maybe someday and the Bloodlines series I can’t wait to start!
Have you set yourself a goal on goodreads for the amount of books you want to read this year?
I’m sticking with a goal of 200 for next year, though it might not be as realistic since I’m going to be doing more editing (and hopefully writing). We shall see!
That in an impressive goal! Hopefully you’ll find the time to read. Succes with your writing!
I’ve been wanting to start the Bloodlines series for a while. Hopefully this year! Great answers. This was a doozy to complete!
I actually haven’t read Silver Shadows yet – I’m waiting for the last book to come out first. But I love the series!
So many great books listed here! I loved looking through this.
Excited to see SYDRIAN mentioned, of course. <3 Love them to pieces. This Shattered World, The Sea of Tranquility, Finnikin, Cinder, and Grave Mercy are favorites of mine as well.
So glad to hear that you loved Things We Know By Heart – I can't wait to pick that one up!
I was one of those people who loved Adrian more than Dimitri in the original series, so I was SO glad he got his own.
I love so many books in your top 10, especially Maybe Someday, Grave Mercy and The Sea of Tranquility. Looks like you had a great year reading! And I’m nervous about Things We Know, I loved Golden so I have high hopes about this this book. But when I read the synopsis, it just doesn’t appeal to me. I’m glad to hear that you loved it so much and it gives me hope that maybe I will too.
Hopefully you’ll love it. It is pretty much just what it says in the synopsis, but I adored it. Now I want to go back and read everything else that Kirby has written!
Ah, I am very excited that I can read Things We Know by Heart! It sounds really good, and right up my alley! Definitely read Undivided when you can, because well, Neal Shusterman is a genius! And now I NEED to read Kiss of Deception! I love twisty books, yes, I need to be purchasing it ASAP!
4 Stars was my most rated too- and it seems like quite a few people’s! Guess we are all partial to 4 stars 😉 Also, I had NO idea that you’d done an April Fool’s review, I am off to check that out, because that is kind of hilarious and perfect!
Great post. Man I read Sea of Tranquility last year and I am so in love with it!!
Wow! Congrats on over 200 books! Yeah I round up for Goodreads too. Most of my ratings were four too. I actually didn’t have as many 5s as I expected. I love your pie chart! I know how that goes, sometimes I remember books more fondly than I rated them. Several of your top reads are on my to read this year list! My mom doesn’t like the same books I do so I settle for trying to get my sister to read them. I HAVE to read Sanderson already! I love epic fantasy! I just read Cinder this year too, and it’s so good!
I just bought Pivot Point so I’m glad to see the sequel on your wishlist. Court of Thorns looks so great as does Red Queen!
[…] there, that this is the type of book that sticks with you. I mentioned this books as one of my top ten reads of 2014 and it still deserves that […]