Thursday 2 January 2014

End of year review 2013

Another reading year completed, and 2013 will probably go down as the readingest (totally a word - I should know, I'm an English teacher). I once again took part in the Cannonball Read - came second to 52 (curse you, Jen K!), first to 104, which I managed to complete by the end of July. My main competitor, Travis was the first to 156, making me the third person ever in the history of Cannonball Read to manage to read and review 156 books in a year. I doubt that feat will be repeated any time soon, that's for sure. There's a new website, registrations are still open for anyone who's interested. I'm hoping to be the first to 52 this year, hoping that Travis and Jen are too worn out to compete much (not likely).

I've already posted the wrap-up posts for my various reading challenges, and will shortly be putting up my various sign-up posts for the many I'm planning to participate in over the course of 2014. Turns out competitive reading makes blogging more motivating. In addition, I completed the three different peril levels of the R.I.P VIII reading challenge, running in September and October, and took part in two Read-a-thons.

Having read quite such a terrifying amount of books, there was no way I was going to be able to limit myself to only a top ten this year (and frankly just twenty was difficult too). Still, in the order I read them, not preference (because I don't think I could even do that), here are my favourite books from 2013:

Almost made the list:
The award for absolutely worst book I read this year, a book so bad I stopped after less than two chapters, is Come a Little Bit Closer by Bella Andre. I would recommend anyone reading this to seriously reconsider if you're ever tempted to try one of her books. Just trust me, don't. Of books I actually completed, and read to the end, I have a list of books that were either bad, or that I had to force myself to finish, but that others might enjoy, because I realise I may be the one in the wrong here. These books are as follows:
The number part of my end of year:

Total pages read: 61617 (new high score!)
Re-reads: 25
Comic book collections: 14
Novellas: 9
New (i.e. never read before) books: 138
Total: 164

July was the month when I read the most, a staggering 40 books (11119 pages). Consequently, August was the month when I read the least, 8 books (2675 pages).

Genre breakdown:
Romance: 29.8%
Urban/paranormal fantasy: 20.5%
Young adult: 17.8%
Fantasy: 9.8%
Comics: 7.6%
Contemporary/historical fiction: 6.9%
Science fiction. 4.4%
Non fiction:1.7%
Mystery: 1%

I still read mostly romance, but it's not as dominating a genre as it has been in previous years. 

Books acquired in 2013: 144 - where 30 were gifts, one was a prize and 5 were audio books. 
E-books: 75.7%
Dead tree: 20.7%
Audio books: 3.5%

I now seem to get dead tree books only as gifts from others, or consider buying them for myself if they're particularly pretty and seem worth having. I don't really have the numbers for dead tree books I've culled from my personal libary and donated to the school library or charity shops. Should try to keep track of that too in 2014, just to see. 
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