This has been a very off reading year for me. I’ve read fewer books this year than any other year since I began blogging, and I barely remember half of what I read, including books I loved while reading. Back in 2017, I talked about what a great year it had been in books and how I worried that 2018 would be a lull year. Only a half-dozen books were being released that I was anticipating, and only two of those were guaranteed reads. I’d hoped to find new good stuff to read, and I did, but I admit that the year wasn’t stellar. Reading just wasn’t my top priority, and even the books I’d highly anticipated fell somewhat flat. Oh well. Hopefully 2019 will be loads better, yeah?

I’m going to start off this post with a few stats from the year before moving on to the End of Year Books Survey from The Perpetual Page Turner.

Total Books: 49
Rereads: 5
Abandoned after the 50% line: 6
Wish I’d abandoned: 9 (sheesh!)

Book Type: 44 fiction – 5 nonfiction
Fiction Type: 21 speculative – 23 realistic
Media: 23 text – 22 audio – 4 visual
Audience: 34 adult – 15 YA
Authors: 38 women – 11 men

New to me authors: 24
Most read authors: None stood out as “most” this year. Highest number was four but included two rereads, otherwise a few authors hit three books but that’s all.

Fun facts from the year: I read multiple books about historical figures or characters reimagined as women. This is also the first year in ages that I read more realistic than speculative fiction.

Best bookish experience: Meeting Robert Jordan Bennett at Pop-Con in February!

Best book-related discovery: The Great Courses lectures! I’ve listened to a few from Audible and have a ton more on my list to eventually get to. Lots of variety in subject matter and interests.

1. Best book you read in 2018?
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Usually I have a couple of favorites from a full year of reading, but this one stands above the rest by far.

2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn’t?
City of Brass

3. Most surprising (in a good or bad way) book you read?
Elantris. This is a reread, but the last time I read it, I felt like it was slow to begin, and this time, I was surprised by how it began with a bang and just kept running. It was a totally different experience the second time around.

5. Best series you started in 2018? Best sequel? Best series ender?
Started: Strange Practice
Sequel: The Hollow of Fear
Ender: Wires and Nerve: Gone Rogue

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2017?
Probably Vivian Shaw, though it’s hard to tell since I’ve only read one series from her

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
The Kiss Quotient (romance)

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
Do Not Become Alarmed; Skyward

9. Book you read in 2018 that you are most likely to reread next year?
Excluding books I’ll probably reread to catch up before reading their sequels: The Muse of Nightmares

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2018?

11. Most memorable character of 2018?
Clef, the sentient key in Foundryside; Eleanor Oliphant; and many of the characters from Skyward (M-Bot, Doomslug, Quirk…)

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2018?
I’ll Be Your Blue Sky

13. Most thought-provoking/life-changing book of 2018?
Not technically a book, but I listened to a Great Courses series of lectures by Robert Sapolsky called Stress and Your Body, which was incredibly thought-provoking and helped me to understand a lot about anxiety, depression, and the biological underpinnings of sociological and individual problems in general.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited until 2018 to finally read?
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – I had no interest in this book when everyone was raving about it, and I was totally wrong to dismiss it!

15. Favorite passage/quote from a book you read in 2018? 

“Do not dash if you only have the strength to walk, and do not waste your time pushing on the walls that will not give. More importantly, don’t shove where a pat would be sufficient.” — Elantris

16. Shortest & longest books you read in 2018?
Shortest book: White Sand Vol 2 (160 pgs)
Longest book: The Poppy War (527 pgs)
Shortest audio: Night of Cake and Puppets (2:46)
Longest audio: Oathbringer (55:02)

19. Favorite non-romantic relationship of the year?
Stephen Greaves and Samrina Khan from The Boy on the Bridge (non-family mother-son relationship); Eleanor Oliphant and Raymond Gibbons (coworkers)

20. Favorite book you read in 2018 from an author you’ve read previously?
The Death of Mrs. Westaway, which is awesome since I didn’t like the first book I read by this author

23. Best 2018 debut you read?
Best debut read in 2018: Strange Practice
Best debut read and published in 2018: Children of Blood and Bone

24. Best world-building/most vivid setting you read this year?
Children of Blood and Bone; Skyward

25. Book that put a smile on your face/was the most FUN to read?
The Prince and the Dressmaker, The Kiss Quotient

27. Hidden gem of the year?
Consider the Fork

29. Most unique book you read in 2018?
Foundryside

So that was my year in books – how was yours?