2016 is almost over and lots of us our reflecting on the past year, taking a look at our goals and accomplishments. I thought it might be fun to look back at some of my old Top Ten Tuesday posts to see how I did with reading the books I said I was anticipating in 2015 & 2016.
(Hint: It’s not pretty.)
Top Ten Books I Meant to Read in 2014:
This was one of my first TTT posts in 2015. These were all books that I somehow missed in 2014, but I totally meant to get to them in 2015. Surely, I should have read them all by now, right? Let’s take a look:
- Hmmm…. Out of these, I’ve only read Isla and the Happily Ever After, Since You’ve Been Gone, and UnDivided (links go to my reviews). Not off to a great start. (Though I did enjoy all three of these, so at least I chose good books to feel like I’d missed.)
- I actually own and still definitely plan to read Alienated, Silver Shadows, The Treatment and The Winner’s Curse. (Links go to Goodreads.)
- I don’t own Take Me On or The Forever Song, but those are still on my list of definitely want to read.
- The only one of these I’ve pretty much completely forgotten about is We Were Liars. Should I forget it completely? What do you think?
Top Ten Most Anticipated Releases of the Rest of 2015:
I wrote this post in June of 2015. I was REALLY anticipating these, so I’ve read them all, right? We shall see …
- Ooh! I did much better on these!! Out of these, I’ve read Their Fractured Light, The Heart of Betrayal, Soundless, The White Rose, A Whole New World and Illuminae. My anticipation was completely warranted for most of these, but Soundless was a little bit of a disappointment and A Whole New World was even more of one.
- I know, I know. I NEED to read Winter.
- I also definitely still plan to read The Boy Most Likely To, Insidious and The Iron Warrior. So none of these have completely faded from my radar.
Top Ten Hyped Books I’ve Never Read – YOU Get to Choose Which One I WILL Read!
Okay, I’m especially ashamed of this one because way back in I TOLD you guys that you would choose which book I would read and then I would read it that month (this was back in July). Ummmm ….. hehehe …. It didn’t happen.
- I have now read one book off this list, but it’s not the one you voted for. (It’s Written in Red, which was fabulous, by the way.)
- I don’t know what possessed me to say that I would read the winner in July. I didn’t even own Throne of Glass yet, and by the time I got it, there were lots of things going on and … Oh, I have no excuse. This is going to happen. In January. I swear. (Probably.)
Top Four Fairytale Retellings I Want to Read:
This was actually a Top Ten post, but of retellings I’ve read or want to read, but six were ones I’d already read, so I’m not mentioning those. Here are the four I wanted to read:
- I’ve read half of these! I wasn’t as enthralled with The Wrath & the Dawn as everyone else seemed to be, but I liked it (I liked the sequel better) and Mechanica was a little bit of a disappointment.
- I still definitely plan to read Scarlet and A Court of Thorns and Roses!
Top Fifteen Books on My Fall TBR:
I couldn’t whittle it down to ten in this post, but that’s okay.
- Well, at least I read all of THESE. They were review books, after all!
- I didn’t have the same consistency with the non-review books. Lots of these, I’ve already mentioned, but the only two I haven’t (Queen and November 9), I still haven’t read. Sigh.
Top Twelve Bookish Movies I Still Need to See:
Ooh, ooh! Bookish movies! I really wanted to see them! Surely I’ve watched them ALLLLLLLLL!!! The original post has pretty pictures, but they’re not easily transferred here, so you’ll have to make do with a list:
- Still haven’t seen: The Book Thief, Paper Towns, City of Bones, The DUFF, The Scorch Trials, Allegiant, Mockingjay Part II, OR Through the Looking Glass.
- Unwind and Beauty and the Beast haven’t come out yet, so I have excuses for those.
- The only movie I HAVE seen from my list was The Fifth Wave. It wasn’t very good.
Hmmm … looks like a movie marathon is in order.
Top Ten Books I Wouldn’t Mind Santa Leaving Under My Tree:
I was hoping Santa would leave me these books last year, so I’ve probably read them all by now, right? (I know, you’re onto me by this point. The answer is no.)
- Let’s see, out of these, I actually DO own Walk on Earth a Stranger, Throne of Glass, Six of Crows, Made You Up and UnBound (and I happen to know that Santa’s bringing me Fool’s Quest). But I have read … none of them. Santa must be pretty sick of fulfilling my requests just to see me ignore the books he’s bestowed.
Top Ten Most Anticipated Books of the Rest of 2016:
Wow, I’ve actually read almost ALL of the books on this list! Of course, these were almost all books I got from BEA, so they were review books, and I’m pretty good at reading those.
- The only books I haven’t read off this list are Replica, Witch’s Pyre and Frost Like Night (which I just got last week at the 5th Annual Novel Cuisine Luncheon). I just finished Beauty of Darkness the other day, so I get to count that one as read. Yay for actually reading the books I was anticipating!!
Okay, I’m going to stop there because this post could go on and on. There was also my Top Ten Books I’d Buy if Someone Handed Me a Loaded Gift Card (I’ve bought and read one of them and won two others but haven’t read them yet). And then there were the books I listed in my 2015 End of Year Book Survey: the two books I own and listed as my TOP priorities for 2016 … I haven’t read. (Six of Crows and Carry On.) BUT I did read all of the other books I said I was anticipating in 2016 (except for Glass Sword, which I’m currently listening to on audiobook.) Then, of course, there are my (you can see my latest update in my November Wrap-Up), many of which I’m failing. Sigh.
So, what has this all taught me?
Basically, that I’m not very good at reading the books I say I really want to get to. And that if I REALLY want to read a book, I need to have it for review, because those are the books that end up taking priority (understandably).
How did you do on reading the books you were anticipating in the past year or two? Better than me, I hope? I want to know!
Oh how I feel you! I try not to mention too many books that I want to read on the blog because inevitably I don’t get to many of them!
Glad to hear I’m not the only one!
I am not good at reading the books I say I really want to get to either. Because there are always more tempting and attractive books falling onto my pile…I keep thinking I can get to them someday, but I don’t. It was fun to look through your posts anyway — I don’t usually do that kind, probably because I know I will be an epic fail at following through on them.
I don’t usually bother to look back, but I thought it might be interesting. Hmmmm … maybe I should have let it be. 🙂
I love that you went back and looked at your TTT to see if you actually read them because I just did the same thing last month! I went back and linked our Reviews to those TTT posts and was shocked on some of the books I hadn’t read yet. 🙂
Personally I wasn’t a fan of We Were Liars. I read it with 3 other friends and we were split 50/50 for loving or not loving the book. The writing is very unique though, and I enjoyed that aspect.
And YES to reading The Forever Song, I love Julie Kagawa and her peril! And I’m planning on reading The Iron Warrior next year too. Fingers crossed we both love!
It’s ridiculous that I haven’t read The Forever Song yet because I loved the first two books. I have it as part of my 2017 Series Enders Challenge – I hope that will give me sufficient motivation!
I think you’re going to do great on your Series Enders Challenge and that you’ll finish The Forever Song. I can’t wait to see your thoughts about that ending *smiles hugely but then covers face* lol. 🙂
Now you have me curious—good job! 🙂
Haha! 😉
🙂
(Okay, confession—I know that this little laugh doesn’t really warrant another response, but I just started using the Comments Not Yet Replied To plugin and though I love it, I wish there was a way to mark a comment as “Doesn’t need a reply” or something. If I didn’t reply to this, it would show up in my list of Unresponded comments FOREVER. So, you get a smiley reply to your laugh. LOL!)
This happens to me so much! I think the best I can say I’ve done on any of my lists so far is 4/10 – and those were books that I really should have read before this year! As for whether or not to read We Were Liars, I’d recommend it. I know some people were underwhelmed, but it really blew me away. I think the best way to go into that book is mostly blind, so in a way, it’s good that you’ve mostly forgotten about it!
Yeah, it kind of fell off my radar, but I think I’ll probably still read it at some point.
Review books do get priority for me too, which is why I HOPE to read more of my own books next year. I did read the Lunar Chronicles this past year (except for Winter, but I own it) and The Raven Boys (except for The Raven King…but again own, it!). I recommend reading The Book Thief. It’s a favorite of mine. I haven’t seen the movie though, so I can’t really say anything about that one. I also read and loved the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, so I recommend those! Other movie – Paper Towns was good, I thought. I liked the book though, and I think the friends really make it! It’s a fun road trip movie if nothing else.
-lauren
This year was hard with so many BEA books, but I think I’ll read more random books next year. I know I definitely need to read The Book Thief—I own it, which is a step in the right direction.
Nice reflection post! (:
Also, don’t worry because I’m pretty bad at keeping up my reading promises as well. You are not alone 😉
I still haven’t read (and need to read): Throne of Glass, Six of Crows, Silver Shadows, A Court of Thorns and Roses, Scythe and so on and so on…
I wish you a great bookish year in 2017!
May you read amazing books, smile a lot, laugh some more and basically be happy (:
P.S: I highly recommend you *not* to watch City of Bones the movie.
I still have nightmares.
They completely ruined it.
*shudders*
Ha! Good to know that I should avoid that movie. I’ll keep that in mind!
I am the worst in reading books I say I will or want to. I agree that review books always go first. I would love to do better next year!!
I always make review books a priority and then I don’t have much time for other things. Next year should be better because I’m not planning to go to BEA.
I’m afraid to look back at posts about books I wanted to read. I bet I’ve probably read 0 of them. I say I’m going to read something, and then I get completely distracted by a different book.
I think you should forget We Were Liars. I didn’t like it very much, but I’m in the minority with that opinion. You do have to read The Book Thief, though. I wrote my thesis on that book, and it’s one of my favorite YA novels ever.
I definitely plan to read The Book Thief. It’s one of those books that I KNOW I’ll love but I keep putting it off for some reason.
I thought We Were Liars was brilliant. I thought the twist was great, and E Lockhart’s writing is beautiful
I think I probably will still read it at some point, but it had pretty much fallen off my radar since I don’t own it (like I do many of the other books on these lists).
SO MANY BOOKS! I definitely do a similar thing with the whole “I will read this book!” and then . . . not . . . reading it haha. It’s so hard to remember to read older books when there’s amazing sounding new books always being published!
Loved how thorough this post is! I still need to write a post on how my reading went this year!
Ashtyn @ Wonderland’s Reader!
Yes, there are ALWAYS so many new books coming and I tend to book myself with review books and not get to others.
I love this TTT wrap up post! It is fun to look back at things you thought you needed/were going to read and then see that you did and didn’t. Your honesty is appreciated. I am sure I didn’t do as good as your did with my goals. I always over estimate myself. Fun post!
I don’t usually see my TTT posts as promises or anything (except for the one, which was exactly that—too bad I failed!), but it’s fun to see what books I was super excited about but let fade into the background and which ones I picked up as soon as I could!
I am also bad at predicting which books I’m TOTALLY GOING TO READ unless it’s in an established series that I’m addicted to. 🙂
I wasn’t expecting it to be much better than this, but I thought it would be fun to look back anyway. My results pretty much met my expectations. 🙂
Six of Crows was a great book, I hope you enjoy it 🙂 Good luck with your reading pile!
I definitely plan to read it soon. There are SO many books to read—even in a year where I read over 200, I missed so many I’d like to get to.