My year in books 2019

Hello everyone, Happy New Year! Welcome back to Words Of Worlds, as I said in my last post, this time I will be discussing my year in books. So what do I mean by that? 2019 was the first year I kept track of all of the books that I read, not only that but the first year I set myself a reading challenge. For the benefit of those who haven’t read “my year in theatre” post, I’ll summarise the challenge. Basically I set myself the goal of reading 100 books in a year because someone told me that they thought I couldn’t read more than 25.Although I didn’t reach 100 I managed to reach 60, which I still think is pretty impressive.

You are probably wondering what counts towards the challenge? Any book, play-script (prime example being Shakespeare, even though I didn't read/re-read any of his plays this year) and graphic novel. Re-reads/ multiple reads of books also count. 

 So here comes the difficult part, how do I cram 60 books into a single post? With difficulty. I could try but let's face it, we would be here for hours. What is my solution to this problem? To do what many bloggers have done before me: list all of the books I have read, however I will be commenting on some of the books. Let me be perfectly blunt, I will only be commenting on books that were especially good or especially terrible. Pre-warning, I will be giving honest opinions. WARNING SPOILER ALERT! BAD LANGUAGE ALERT!!

Side note: you can find my reviews of some of the following books on Goodreads, look out for Bookish Hound

Another side note: Goodreads will tell you that I've only read 57 books. This isn't the case, I chose to remove 2 of the books from the list on the website (one of which I read twice) because of life stuff. If you are curious which books they were, compare the below list to the one on Goodreads, there will be 2 in the list below which aren't in the list on Goodreads. 

1. A Berlin Love Song by Sarah Matthias. What an awful way to start a year, this book was truly a waste of time. Don't get me wrong, the initial chapters are okay but I expected more. I kept going with it in the hopes that it would get better, it got so much worse! I really wouldn't recommend it. Put it this way, it was so bad I refused to write a review and just decided to leave it 2 stars. To be perfectly honest, 2 stars was pushing it. All of that being said, I sincerely hope that Sarah reflects upon this book, grows as a writer and writes something so much better because I have faith that she could write a truly captivating and masterful story.

2. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
3. Floored by Sarah Barnard, Holly Bourne, Tanya Byrne, Non Pratt, Melinda Salisbury, Lisa Williamson and Eleanor Wood
4. If I was your girl by Meredith Russo

5. 36 Questions that changed my mind about you by Vicki Grant. A seriously underrated book, it tells the story of volunteers, Hildy and Paul, in a love based science experiment. Not only does this book ask it's characters questions but it asks the reader questions, causing them to think about what their own answers to the questions would be. Sure the book can be very predictable at times, but the idea is seriously original. In fact I enjoyed the book because it was so predictable, sometimes it's really nice to curl up with a book that doesn't make you feel as if you are stuck in the Matrix. It didn't quite tug on my heartstrings though, so I can only give it 4 stars.

6. Geekerella by Ashley Poston
7. All about Mia by Lisa Williamson
8. Dork Diaries #1 by Rachel Renee Russell
9. Are we all lemmings and snowflakes? by Holly Bourne
10. I was here by Gayle Forman
11. The unpredictability of being human by Linni Ingemundsen
12 and 13. I am Juden: undercover in the SS by Stephen Uzzell (I read this book twice)
14. Spinning by Tillie Walden
15. Princess Princess ever after by Katie O'Neill
16. On the come up by Angie Thomas
17. What if it's us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera
18. Severed heads, broken hearts by Robyn Schneider
19. Moonstruck #2: Some enchanted evening by Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle and Kat Fajardo
20. Dracula by Bram Stoker
21. A darker shade of magic by V.E Schwab
22. Mary's monster by Lita Judge
23 and 24. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott. Fitzgerald (read twice)
25. Beautiful broken things by Sarah Barnard

26. Call me by your name by Andre Aicman. Brief review:  for once the film was better than the book

27. A girl in winter by Philip Larkin
28. The comedy about a bank robbery by Henry Lewis
29. The handmaid's tale by Margret Atwood
30. The Ballad of Liberty Siegler by Stephen Uzzell
31. Toffee by Sarah Crossan
32. The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society by Mary Ann Shaffer
33, Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary by Martha Brockenbrough 

34. Letters to the lost by Brigid Kemmerer. Truly beautiful and moving. Go and read it!!!

35. This one summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. For those of you who don't like manga, fear not, this is an American graphic novel.

36. The miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily C. Davenforth. Film did the book justice!!
37. Birthday by Meredith Russo

38. Clean by Juno Dawson. Seriously captivating but brutal book. Love the way that generally taboo subjects are brought into the light, enjoyed exploring a new subject matter/genre and would happily re-read this book any day!

39. Be more chill by Ned Vizzini

40. The night circus by Erin Morgenstern. Did an entire blog post about this book under the title of "Magic at midnight" so go and read that if you are interested in my opinion.

41. The poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

42. Meat Market by Juno Dawson. Saw a book talk about this story at Waterstones and was lucky enough to meet Juno as well as have 2 of my books signed by her. Really liked how down to earth she was. Juno if you are reading this, thank you!

43. DNA by Dennis Kelley
44. Faceless by Alyssa B.Sheinmel
45. People, places and things by Duncan Macmillan
46. Call it what you want by Brigid Kemmerer
47. All the things we never said by Yasmin Rahman
48. The places I've cried in public by Holly Bourne
49. Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu

50. Let it snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle. Did 2 blog posts about this book under the titles of "A Jubilee in a blizzard" and "Continuing through the blizzard", so go and read those if you are interested in my opinion.

51. The weight of a thousand feathers by Brian Conaghan
52. Lies we tell ourselves by Robin Talley

53. Words in deep blue by Cath Crowley. Is littered with eye-catching quotes and will absolutely make you cry. I can't express how magnificent this book is so you will need to read it to find out for yourself.

54. I hate fairyland #2 fluff my life by Skottie Young
55. If on a winter's night a traveller by Italo Calvino
56. I have lost my way by Gayle Forman
57. The tea dragon festival by Katie O'Neill
58. How hard can love be by Holly Bourne
59.  Dog poems by lots of people
60. Skylarks by Karen Gregory

Have I set a new challenge? Of course, I will be taking part in The Nerd Daily's 2020 reading challenge. As part of the challenge I will have to read 52 books, each from a different category, afterwards I plan to keep reading with a goal of reaching 70 or more books by the end of the year. If you would like to participate in The Nerd Daily's challenge, click on the link below.
https://www.thenerddaily.com/2020-reading-challenge/

How many books did you read in 2019? Which books would you recommend? Which books didn't you like? What's your 2020 reading goal? Are you participating in any challenges this year? Please feel free to leave a comment below, we can have fun geeking out about books and look forward to a new year of authors and books.

That's it for now, I feel incredibly lucky that I have enough readership to be able to continue this blog into 2020, the glorious new decade, so thank you all so much for reading or skimming! Stay tuned as our next discussion will be about "Noises off"...