2018 Wrap-up aka lots of numbers and pictures!

The year is over and I can't believe it! It feels like just yesterday that I was sitting in my room typing out my 2017 wrap-up, scrolling through Goodreads and trying to work out the maths that I has no idea how to do.

This year I actually completely forgot that I would have to do a wrap-up post until the 28th so I decided to prioritise this post over my revision (because who needs A-levels anyway). Luckily, Goodreads has my back by collecting all my reading stats into one long list that I an put here.

Onto the stats!

Total Reading Stats

This year I aimed to read 52 books (one each week) and ended up reading 120 books

In total, I read 35,117 pages across these 120 books, with my longest book being 824 pages (Winter), and my shortest being 32 pages (The Penguin of Death).



Statistics

Number of books read: 120

Number of re-reads: 7 (!)

DNFs: 2

Genre you read the most from: Contemporary (which also includes adult romance novels)

Format you read from the most: Physical books I own

Considering I only read physical books at the moment I divided it up into books that I own and books that I got from elsewhere. I was surprised to discover that I'd borrowed 28 books from libraries this year, and I'm hoping to raise that number next year!

Best books of the year

• Under Rose-Tainted Skies: a sweet contemporary with good mental health rep where love doesn't save the main character. A better Everything, Everything.
• Since You've Been Gone: a fun summer read that has just the right amount of mystery threaded through it. Similar to Paper Towns, but with more lists and parties.
• The Long Forever: my most anticipated book for 2018, an action-packed sci-fi conclusion to the wonderful world created by Eugene Lambert. I'm just sad it's over!

Newly discovered authors

• Morgan Matson: I know I mentioned her above, but I read two of her books this year and loved both of them. I can't believe I put off reading her books for so long, but I'm going to try and read as many of her books as possible next year.
• Kasie West: another YA contemporary author who I had never even heard of before this year, but someone who I will be reading in 2019. Her books are the kind of thing you read when you need to feel good or get ready for the summer.
• Emily St John Mandel: I actually read her book, Station Eleven, for a university interview but ending up loving her writing style and wanting to read more from her. I got Last Night in Montreal for Christmas (link to my haul here) but I'm also planning on reading some of her other books in 2019.
• Neal Shusterman: I realised my list was very female heavy so I wanted to bring light to one of the male authors I discovered this year. Although I had owned his Unwind series for 4 years I didn't pick it up until November this year, but instantly fell in love with it and Shusterman's writing style.

Old authors I loved this year

(aka my most read authors)

• Ally Carter: I don't really know if she counts because I read an entire series by her this year, so I ended up reading 6 books by her.
• E. Lockhart: another author whose series I read this year, meaning I read 4 books by them.
• Lemony Snicket: I'm quite proud of this one because I re-read 4 books of his this year! Usually I don't have time to re-read because I am too focused on reading new books, but I was craving some unfortunate events.
• Jenny Colgan: I consider Jenny Colgan to be one of my favourite authors of all time, so I was delighted to discover that she was one of my most read authors this year, with 4 books of hers being on my list!

 

Other important bookish things

(There is a lot of fangirling coming up, so if you want to avoid that click off now!)

Only one exciting thing happened this year, but I was so overwhelmed by it that I feel like I have to share it with the world. 

So one of my favourite book series of all time, The Sign of One, had the last book released this year. Needless to say, I was very excited about it. But everywhere I looked I couldn't find it and I was beside myself with worry because the year before I had read and reviewed the book within two days of it being released. Which meant Eugene Lambert liked my review last year and I wanted it to happen again this year, but I had no way of getting the book.

Naturally, I posted all my struggles with getting this book onto Goodreads and who should respond by EUGENE FRICKIN' LAMBERT HIMSELF!

Which lead to a total meltdown and three very excited phone calls to my parents. And a lot of squealing.

And then I got the book (which was glorious by the way and you should totally go read this series). I bought it, read it and reviewed it within a day because of how excited I was by it. I was literally reading it under the desk in my classes because of how excited by it I was.

So once I'd reviewed it (which you read here) I was so happy when Eugene Lambert liked my review that I didn't even realise he had LEFT ANOTHER COMMENT ON MY REVIEW!!! HE HAD READ AND LIKED AND COMMENTED ON MY REVIEW!!!

I will admit I cried a little bit when I saw this because I was so happy and grateful that this author had chosen to look at what I had written about his book.

So yes. One exciting thing happened to me this year, but it was the most exciting thing that could possibly have happened to me so I am very very happy.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck around this long to read my crazy wrap-up. I hope you had a lovely 2018 and are looking forward to 2019. I'll see you all next year!