Saturday, January 02, 2016

2015 - a year in books


At this point of the year (or the blog) I do feel like I'm talking to myself, but oh well, for the two of you still reading and for my own sanity, here's my year in books.

I've been furiously reading reading reading this month and that is entirely my own fault.

You see, I had a reading goal of 70 and by the end of November, I'd finished... wait for this... only 60!

So I've barely been doing anything but reading.

Now I'm not complaining about that at all, but that does mean up to 31 December, I've neglected my year in review stuff.

I reached my goal, by the way. D said, "did you ever doubt it?" and I said, "well, it was touch and go there for awhile".

I like to give it my very best effort. If I still don't reach the goal, then I know it's not for a lack of trying.

Actually that's one of my secrets of adulthood.


Best book of Dec - Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

I freaking LOVED this book and gave it 5 stars. Read my full review on Goodreads but suffice to say I don't think people who had so much to say actually read the book.

Most informative book - Your 6-year-old - loving and defiant. 

Um, yes. I say this every year when I read the new book but do yourself a favour - you will love these.

Other worthy mentions

Always, Joanna Trollope. And my first Maeve Binchy (her last before she died) which I really enjoyed.

This Emily Giffin was probably my worst one. A solid book but I'm not a fan of teenagers as main characters.



Now...some stats on the 2015 books:
  • Total books read - 70
  • Non-fiction - 20
  • Fiction -  50
  • Audible books - 13 (BEST DECISION EVER) - all non-fiction. I can't listen to fiction. I tried, I bought a book by an author I love just to see, couldn't get into it. The beauty of Audible is you can return it!
  • I read two 5* books - Battle Hymn and Overwhelmed (both non-fiction). I said of Overwhelmed - this is the time management book I wish I'd written :)
  • I read 4 2* books - one of which is The Royal We, one of the most disappointing books ever.
  • Longest book - The Woman Who Stole My Life (Marian Keyes) :)\


The two five star books above were the best books and then others that I enjoyed reading were, of course, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Better than Before (I love this book and if you get it and listen to the podcast too, it just increases your reading enjoyment 100-fold), Predictably Irrational and Big Magic.

On the fiction side, I loved The Husband's Secret, Tangled Lives, Three Wishes. One author I will definitely never read again (I said this of Danielle Steel a few years ago) is Nicholas Sparks. 

Now, this year... I was thinking of dropping my reading goal so I can take off the pressure in December but then I saw I dropped my goal already for this year! So let's keep it at 70. Since I've closed the business and am not on social media as much, I can do it, right?

By the way, I should write a post on the other blog but a woman did all her scrapbooks from 2004 (11 years) in the time she used to waste on social media. I am SO impressed and inspired.

So, tell me, how was your year in books? Did you reach your reading goal?
What were your favourite non-fiction and fiction books?

15 comments:

  1. Yay you for hitting your goal!

    I'm pretty sure that I hit 70 reads for 2015, but I haven't tracked it well. I have a good old paper and pen method for tracking this year. My aim as always is a 100...an I do spend a lot of time on twitter. It makes me happy, and I use it to spread happy so it works for me :)

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    1. I used to keep a notebook for years til the heavens opened up and I discovered Goodreads :) I actually paid my virtual assistant good money to log all those old books into Goodreads!

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  2. I first heard of goodreads on your blog and joined in Jan last year. My goal was 50 books and I ended up reading 52. My best 2 books were Summer Sisters ( I saw that you also gave it 5* when you read it) and A thousand splendid suns. I still want to read the life changing magic of tidying up and Overwhelmed

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    1. This makes me SOOO happy! YAY for you! PS get the audible versions of those two books :)

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  3. That is a lot of books to get through. If I drove to work I would get audio books but my drive is too short I would be frustrated. I was on a roll in the first half of the year but life happened and reading was the last thing on my mind. The only memorable book I recall reading was little earthquakes

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    1. Ps: I'm reading your posts but only doing batch commenting. For some unknown reason my new phone requires me to sign in every single time I need to make a comment every single time ... quite frustrating so now I only comment using the old phone every few days

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  4. I am totally impressed by your reading. It has been my worst reading year in years and years - but it was a tough year. My most favorite book for 2015 was "A man called Ove" - absolutely brilliant

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    1. thanks! Well, it was a good reading year and a bad blogging year (worst since the year of the babies :))

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  5. I have not fully tracked everything I have read, so I do not know. I know I have read a lot more since December 2014, as the new phone is fully geared for reading. Love it!
    The worst one for me was "Eat, Pray, Love"

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    1. Really? I loved Eat Pray Love - the writing was so beautiful to me and I didn't have the same issues with it (navel gazing - I am all for some intentional navel gazing ;))

      I wonder what you'd think of her new one, Big Magic, especially since you're a creative!

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  6. Now that this year I am actively focussing on my reading I am signing up for Goodreads so I can track my reading properly.

    xxx

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  7. PS - If I started a book in December but completed it in January does it count as a this year or last year book?

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    1. It records it as a 2016 book. It depends when you finish it.

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  8. Oh I am catching up on all your posts having been off line for a couple of weeks... lovely lovely lovely... I read tons of books this past year, tons. I have a heap of new favorite reads, boys I actually would read again and very rarely do I re-read. I should blog them, should... I might even!!! I cannot believe you have never read Maeve Binchy before - lovely escape every time.

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    1. I have never re-read a book. Except for boundaries which I listened to the second time so does that count? I do want to re-listen to some books this year.

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