Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016: A Year in Surveys

Happy New Year book lovers! It's always an exciting time, the last day of the year, where I decide if I can read one more book before midnight and to determine how many books I read this year. There were some amazing ones, some from my favourite authors and many new authors I've added to my must buy list. There are some great surveys going around this time of year, so I thought I'd answer some questions as well! This is a bit of a mix from Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner‘s End of the Year Survey ;  Andi @ Andi’s ABCs & Brittany @ The Book Addict’s Guide’s Statistics Survey, and Erica & Christy @ Novel Reads’ Countdown Survey. Here goes!

2015 Reading Stats

 

Number of Books You Read: 138
Number of Re-Reads:
Genre You Read the Most From: YA Contemporary

Best in Books

 

Best book you read in 2015: Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
Book you were excited about and thought you'd love more but didn't: We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
Best series you started in 2015: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Best sequel of 2015: Every Word by Ellie Marney
Best series ender of 2015: Winter by Marissa Meyer
Best book from a genre you don't typically read/out of your comfort zone: The Martian by Andy Weir

Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year: Liars Inc. by Paula Stokes
Favourite cover of a book you read in 2015: I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios
Most beautifully written book read in 2015: The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler

Most thought-provoking/life-changing book of 2015: All the Rage by Courtney Summers
Book you can't believe you waited until 2015 to read: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
OTP of the year: Cress and Thorne (Winter by Marissa Meyer)

Book that put a smile on your face/was the most fun to read: Dumplin' by Julie Murphy
Book that made you cry in 2015: Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
Hidden gem of the year: First & Then by Emma Mills

Book that crushed your soul: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Read on a recommendation: Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
Book that became an instant go-to recommendation: The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

Book you wanted to hug after finishing: Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
Book you wanted to throw across the room: Towering by Alex Flinn

Shortest and longest book read: Shortest: Happy Again by Jennifer E. Smith (84 pages) Longest: Winter by Marissa Meyer (824 pages)
One book you didn't get to in 2015 but will be your number one priority in 2016: This Shattered World by Meagan Spooner/Amie Kaufman

 All in all, this was a great year of books for me. I read a lot of NA as well, but that alone could take up an entire survey so I'll leave that for another time. Here's hoping 2016 is even better, and let's see if I can beat my record! Happy New Year guys, and happy reading!

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by The Broke and the Bookish with a new topic every week. This week's topic is:

Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2015

There is only one day left in 2014 so now comes the time to make some resolutions for the year to come. Bookish goals are my favourite because I tend to actually accomplish more of them. So here are my resolutions:

1. Read 125 books. This year I read 133, so it this is certainly achievable.

2. Read more classic. This has been an ongoing goal for me and I've been able to keep up. It may seem small, but I'm so drawn to YA and easy reads that classics tend to be a mission for me. 

3. Finish series that I've started. I've had Champion on my shelf for so long and it's not the only one from a series that's been sitting unread, so here's to completing those!

4. Read the books on my To-Read shelf first. I really want to read books from my shelf instead of picking ones that aren't on it to read. 

5. Borrow more books from work. I work at a bookstore, which means I can read books for free instead of spending my hard earned money on them. Yes, there are many books I must have on my shelf, but there are some that I just want to read and give back, so I really need to stop buying all of them.

6. Review every book I read. I fell behind this year, but I was doing pretty well for most of it. It's a great tool to keep my writing fresh and my blog filled.

7. Reread at least one book this year. It's nice to take the time out of the new stuff and re-visit an old favourite. I'll have to do this at least once this year.

8. Read more adult fiction. As much as I love my YA, it is nice to go out the norm and into other genres sometimes. 

9. Join some book challenges. Because they are always fun and out of the box!

10. Become more involved in the blogging community. This blog is still so small and not very popular. Ir I put myself out there more, maybe it can become something more. 

What are your goals for the new year? Happy New Year all!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year followers! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and got a lot of reading done. I'm happy to say I completed my reading goal of 65 books and I hope you were all successful as well. Looking back over the year, I read some really great books and discovered some new fantastic authors. Here's some highlights from 2013:

Top 5 books I read:

1. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
2. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
3. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
4. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
5. With All My Soul by Rachel Vincent

And some not so favourites:

1. Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire
2. The Program by Suzanne Young
3. Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay
4. Truly, Madly, Deeply by Hannah Jayne
5. The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle

At the beginning of last year, I made some reading goals. I'm happy to say I accomplished a lot of them and I'm very proud of myself!

1. I didn't read 75 books, though I did read 65
2. I don't think I ended up reading any series I hadn't finished. I've decided that if I started a series over a year ago and all the books are out but I haven't made the effort to read them, then I'm obviously not going to. They have been removed from my To-Read list.
3. I read a lot of books that were sitting on my shelf, not all of them, but I'm getting there.
4. I read one classic novel: The Great Gatsby. So that one's good!
5. I've been really good with my reviews. I told myself to review every book I read last year. I'm not caught up, but I'm close.
6. I've definitely been good with reading books off my To-Read list before buying others. This is going to be another goal of mine this year, I want to get that list down!
7. I did not read the Shifters series yet. I haven't even started it. It's on my shelf waiting for me. Hopefully I'll get to it this year.
8. I finally re-read a series. I read The Hunger Games again for pure enjoyment. I included it in my goal, but I loved reading something I already know I'll enjoy. I loved it even more the second time around.
9. I did not read a book longer than 500 pages. Maybe this year.
10. I read a few books I wouldn't normally have picked up. Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore and Dark Places were both out of my genre. I loved Mr. Penumbra's, it was clever and charming, but Dark Places took me a long time to read and it just left me disturbed. At least I tried!

I'll be making new goals this year and hopefully will be able to accomplish the ones I couldn't last year. How did you guys do with your reading goals? Anything special you want to accomplish this year?

Brand New Year!

Happy New Year fellow book lovers!

I'm excited to be starting a new year, getting to start over and leave any bad tidings back in 2012. I don't have too many of those though, as 2012 was a pretty good year. I'm most happy about the amount of books I read. I finished at 73 and my goal was 50. This was the first year that I made the 50 mark and I'm so proud of myself for reading so much (not that it's hard) so this year I've challenged myself even further to make my goal 75. I have no doubt that I'll be able to do it, but it is still a little daunting. But challenges are part of life and this is the sort of resolution I can get behind!


In other news, I'm excited to announce that I'm part of the Fallen World Street Team, hosted by the lovely Megan Crewe, author of The Way We Fall, which came out last year, and the upcoming, The Lives We Lost, due out in February this year. I've posted about her books before, with a review and a contest entry. Now the fun has begun! So if you see me posting my little butt off about this series, it's because A) I love it and it deserves to be read! and B) I get points in the street team for spreading the word. So, as my first order of business, I hereby recommend you look up how awesome this book is and get on reading it! And you love it as much as I do, there's still time to join the street team and have the chance to win some awesome prizes! (If you do decide to join, let me know please!)


Details about the street team are here on Megan's website (check out her other books while you're there)

Seriously, what are you waiting for?

I can't wait to infect my city with the awesomeness that is this book. I'm excited to spread the virus around my town and get everyone involved. This should be tons of fun and a great way to start 2013! 

Happy reading everyone!