Top 10 Tuesdays: 10 Books We Meant to Read in 2017 but Didn’t

Toward the end of each year, when I start looking at the prompt lists for different reading challenges, I make myself a semi-tentative list of the books I want to use for each category. Part of the reason I plan in advance is to make sure I can fit in all the books I’m most excited for, and part of it is also the practicality of depending on the library. Although I’m generally pretty good at picking books that I’m excited for, it’s inevitable that there will be at least a few that I change my mind about. Often toward the end of the year, I end up switching things out when I know I don’t have enough time to enjoy the book properly, or when I’m just not excited at all for it anymore. I try to avoid switching too much because it sometimes feels like a bit of a cheat to me, even though I know it isn’t. Here are ten books that I planned to read this year, that I didn’t get to, for a variety of reasons.

Top 10 Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

1) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Let’s get the big one out of the way upfront. Every year, there is at least one book that I plan on reading that I just keep putting off and putting off until eventually I scrap it from the list. A couple of years ago, it was The Goldfinch, and last year it was One Hundred Years of Solitude. It chose it for a difficult prompt requiring a book  set in South or Central America, by a South or Central American author. To be fair, I wasn’t super excited to read this book in the first place, and as a result I kept procrastinating on it. It didn’t help that it was a lengthy book that I just didn’t think I would have time for as I got closer to the end of the year. It didn’t help that I saw very mixed reviews. I’ve learned in the past that if I go into a book expecting that I won’t like it much, it’s almost guaranteed that I won’t be into it. I consider this book more of a long-term goal.

2) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

I’ve been meaning to read more Jane Austen for a while, and I think I’ve had this book in mind every year so far that I’ve done a reading challenge. I kind of burnt myself out on classics over the past couple of years, so I ended up being pretty unmotivated. I love Pride and Prejudice, and I liked Northanger Abbey, and I would love to read the rest of her books at some point. I’ve decided to take a break from classics for this year, but this is one of the only exceptions I’m considering. The main reason I didn’t read this book last year was because I ran out of time and didn’t have the patience for the more old-fashioned language. I know Jane Austen is usually a little more accessible than other classics, so I would still like to give it a chance.

3) Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks

I think this was the first year in a long time that I didn’t read the new Nicholas Sparks book within a few months of it coming out. Nicholas Sparks used to be my favorite author, and although I still enjoy his books, most of them only reach the 4-star mark for me. I kept putting this one off because I wanted to buy my own copy, but the hardcover was so expensive! I ended up buying the paperback version, and continued putting it off because the book was close to 500 pages and the plot synopsis didn’t grab me that much. This book is a pretty big departure from Nicholas Sparks’ other work, focusing on the breakdown of a marriage and the husband’s bond with his young daughter instead of on a the romance. It ended up being the first book I read in 2018 because I didn’t want to put it off anymore, and as expected, it was 4 stars.

4) Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

This was another book that I really wanted to read, but I kept putting it off because of a combination of the nearly 500 page length, and because it was a book I owned and I was prioritizing my library books. By the time I got to it, I only had a few days left of the year and didn’t think I’d be able to finish in time, so I decided to switch it out for something shorter, and prioritize it this year instead. This ended up being the second book I read (although two 500 page contemporary books in a row might not be the wisest start). This book is about two best friends, Tully and Kate, over the decades of their friendship. This ended up being one of those frustrating books that was exactly between two star ratings, and Goodreads does not allow half-stars!

5) Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab

I think this is the one book that I am genuinely shocked that I did not get to. Immediately after reading This Savage Song, I just knew I had to go out and buy the duology. I bought them both not long after, but put off reading this one so I could work through my library books first. It was one of the books I was most excited for, and I just ran out of time. I originally planned to make this my first book of 2018, but I ended up picking the Nicholas Sparks book instead because I had a day off work and figured I would need to the time to devote to it. I am currently in the middle of this one, and looking forward to reading the rest of it! This Savage Song was easily one of my favourite books last year, and so far, this one is just as good!

6) The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

This was a book that I put off for strategic reasons. I had it in mind for a prompt last year requiring a book from the BBC’s Top 200. As my Goodreads group started voting for prompts for this year’s challenge, I was disappointed to find a prompt that required a book from Amazon’s Top 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime. Looking through the list, I realized that I’d already read all the books that interested me most, and the remaining books that were on my TBR tended to be lengthy classics or books that I just was not in the mood for. When I saw The Wind in the Willows on the list, I decided it was the best available option and since it was pretty easy to replace for the 2017 prompt, it seemed logical to switch. I know very little about this classic, although a version of it was performed at my elementary school. I can’t say I really remember enjoying it much, but I think it’s worth trying again.

7) Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life by Sandra Beasley

I’m generally not a fan of non-fiction, but this book sounded very interesting. I had a prompt for one of my reading challenges last year that required a book about food, and I had another book lined up for. I had to request the library to purchase that one and it seemed that it would not be available in time. When that book actually showed up, I decided to put this one off and use it toward a different prompt for 2018 instead. This book is about a woman who grew up with severe food allergies as well as other allergies to mold, dust, etc. I have a family member who has severe allergies, and I also work with participants in my day program who have a variety of allergies. It sounds like this book would give a very interesting look at the topic, and I’d love to give it a try.

8) This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee, and 9) Ticker by Lisa Mantchev

I had a lot of trouble finding options that interested me for my challenge prompt requiring a steampunk book. These two books appealed to me most, but they were both books that I had to ask the library to buy. They didn’t end up getting copies in the system until it was much too late in the year for me to get them in time, so I had to find something else. I’ve managed to work This Monstrous Thing into my plan for 2018, and I’m thinking of trying to squeeze Ticker in as well. They are both very interesting, although I wouldn’t really consider steampunk (or even sci-fi) a genre I really reach for.

10) The Princess Bride by William Goldman

I think I must be the only person in the world who has never seen this movie. I wanted to read the book for a tricky prompt requiring a story within a story, and I’d heard great things about how funny it was. Every time I went to release holds from the library, I found myself putting this one off in favour of other books that appealed to me more. As I got to November and December, I realized that I’d pretty much lost any interest in reading it and decided to switch it out for something else. I’m sure I would have been more driven to try it if I had seen and loved the movie like everyone else, and I would still like to give it a chance at some point, but as of right now, it doesn’t appeal to me much.

Reader Struggles: Meme Mini-Series (#7)

Of all the memes that are on the list, I think this one may be the biggest problem for me:

I am a fairly fast reader, especially when it is a book that really interests me. I can generally finish a book in 2-3 days, given that I can only read in the evenings after work. When I get really into a book, accidentally spoiling it for myself becomes a big problem. I’m so excited to find out what happens next that I can’t wait and, as much as I don’t want to skip ahead, I sometimes tend to glance at the next page. Most of the time, I stop myself right away and don’t see more than a couple of words, but sometimes the two or three words that I do see are very important.

When I’m really enjoying a book, I don’t want to rush through it too much, and I definitely don’t want to ruin it for myself. Spoilers are not always a big deal for me since I’m often more interested in seeing how the story develops, and not necessarily the end result. Although it is irritating to have someone spill how a book ends, I can be okay with it because I still want to know how the characters reached that point. In some ways, I find it a lot more frustrating when I spoil the book for myself. At least the very least, spoilers from other people are beyond your control, but theoretically, I should be able to prevent myself from glancing ahead to the next page. One of the most irritating parts of it is knowing that I shouldn’t look ahead, but doing it anyway, all while thinking “I shouldn’t skip ahead!”

Short of physically covering up the next page, I’m not even sure what to do to prevent this. Actually, as silly as it may sound, I sometimes have purposely covered a page to not ruin it for myself. I sometimes even find myself rushing through the page I’m currently on so I can get to the next part, in some bizarre attempt to avoid glancing ahead. I rush to get there “properly” so I get ahead of the temptation to glance, I guess. Either way, I have to remind myself to slow down a bit and really enjoy the book I’m reading.

Top 5 Wednesdays: 2018 Reading Resolutions

I am so excited for a new year of reading challenges! Looking back on my previous year, it was pretty easy to come  up with some goals for the new year. In general, my goal is usually to complete my reading challenges and to read all of the books that I’m most excited to read. This year, I decided to add some extra goals to make my reading/blogging life a little easier to manage. Hopefully these resolutions are easier to stick to than the usual New Years’ Resolutions!

Top 5 Wednesday is a meme created by Gingerreadslainey on Youtube, and is now hosted by Sam at ThoughtsOnTomes. The official GoodReads group with the weekly topics can be found here.

1) Finish all of my reading challenges by the deadlines I set

My interest in reading challenges and compulsion to check things off lists got away from me a little, and I ended up with 5 separate category-based challenges that I was very interested in doing, for a total of 180 books. Clearly that is not reasonable to expect of myself within one year, although to be fair, I’ve picked quite a few graphic novels and shorter books. To complete everything in one year would require 15 items per month. This year, to reach a goal of 158 books, I needed to read 13 per month, and barely managed to keep up with that even though that pace is not unreasonable. It would be great if I can finish all the books I want within the year, but to take the pressure off, I decided to split it up. Here are my challenges for the year, with the deadlines I set:

• Goodreads Around the Year (52 books plus 1 extra wild card, and 2 additional books for a prompt that I split into three) – by December 31
• PopSugar (50 books plus 2 additional books for a prompt split into three) – by December 31
• BookRiot Read Harder 2018 (24 books) – most likely by December 31, but I’m prepared to be flexible with this one
• Modern Mrs. Darcy 2017 (24 books) – The 2018 list didn’t interest me at all, but I decided I really liked last year’s challenge. I’m giving myself until March 31. 2019 to finish this one
• ATY Top Picks (25 books) – This is a challenge I created for myself using the Around the Year prompts that I voted for that didn’t make the final list, eliminating any that were repetitive or already on a challenge list. I’m giving myself until March 31, 2019 to finish this one too.

Assuming the 15 month deadline to complete everything, a total of 180 books, that would be 12 books per month or about 3 per week. For the sake of comparison, to finish everything within 12 months, I would need to read 15 books per month. It’s theoretically possible, but I’m not going to stress myself about it.

2) Balance my reading better

One of the tricks I’ve always used to complete my reading challenges is trying to balance out the books that I’m reading across the year, and across each month. I’ve found that it really helps to vary the books I pick in terms of length, genre, etc. so I don’t feel stuck reading too many doorstops in a row, or too many books that have a similar storyline. I also strategically plan some of my longer or more difficult books for times of year where I know I’ll have more time to read. I generally like to alternate between longer/more dense books, and shorter/easier books.

Every year, there are also inevitably a few books that I’m not so interested in reading, usually because it’s a prompt that just doesn’t interest me much. One strategy I’ve found that helps is to knock out a few of the least interesting prompts/books upfront so I don’t put them off all year, and get stuck reading all the boring books in December. Last year, I didn’t do the best job of balancing things out, which led to a pretty underwhelming first couple of months, and a pretty mediocre December. This year, I want to balance things out a bit better to make sure there are at least a few books I’m really excited for each month. It’s so tempting to read all of the most exciting books right away, but I think balancing them out will give me a better year overall!

3) Learn to use Instagram to document my reading

Up until now, I’ve used a mix of Goodreads and Facebook to track my challenge progress. I will still definitely be using Goodreads, but for some reason, I found it nearly impossible to keep up with posting on Facebook. I have no idea why. In previous years, I remembered to post about each book as I started it (or occasionally just as I finished). Last year, I have no idea why but I just couldn’t keep up. It wasn’t just that I read so many books. It just didn’t cross my mind to post them, and when it did, it felt like a chore to come up with something to say with each post. I don’t want to completely abandon the practice, since I’ve found people on my friends list are interested in what I’m reading and like to see how much I’ve read. I recently upgraded my phone and discovered that Instagram was already installed (my previous phone had no room for it). I’ve decided to try and use Instagram instead to post pictures of the books I’m reading, with a shorter caption, instead of making a Facebook post each time. Ideally, I’m hoping those posts will show up on Facebook as well, once I figure out how to set that up.

4) Find a better system for tracking my thoughts about each book

Another thing that became a huge chore this year was tracking what I thought about each book. In the past, I was always very excited to jump straight onto Goodreads and post about the books I read in the discussion boards threads, and I also wrote short paragraphs in a Word document with a mini-review of the book. I would note down why I chose it, a basic plot outline, and my opinions. As those of you who have followed my blog for a while have probably noticed, I don’t really write reviews. It’s funny because I used to love writing reviews of CDs for Amazon, but when it comes to books, I have such a hard time getting the ideas down without being repetitive and I’m always worried about giving too many spoilers.

My intent was never to write reviews, but I like to keep track of what I think because it’s hard to remember every book in detail by the end of the year. The first year I did a reading challenge, I posted my comments on each book in a note on Facebook for anyone who was interested, but that was a year when I read 52 books. I now read well over 100 every year, and the Word document I have for last year’s challenges is a massive 70+ pages. I know that no one will want to read all that! I still want to keep track of what I read each month, and I still want to track my thoughts. I’ve decided to try a point-form note system instead of full paragraphs, which will hopefully be quicker and feel like less of a chore.

5) Finish the series I have in progress!

One of my top priorities for the year is to finish off many of the series that I have in progress! I started so many great series over the past year or two, and I’ve taken away my self-imposed rule to limit books by the same author. At first, I was hesitant to include all the books I wanted from series because I thought it would eat up too much of the challenges and leave me little room for anything else, but once I made my lists, I saw that there was plenty of room for both. Here are the series I’m hoping to finish:

• Red Queen (3 books remaining)
• Delirium (1 book remaining)
• The Selection (2 books remaining to finish the original trilogy, Books 4 and 5 are not a priority for this year)
• Shatter Me (2 books remaining)
• A Court of Thorns and Roses (2 books remaining, at least as of right now)
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone (2 books remaining)
• The Raven Cycle (3 books remaining)
• Matched series (2 books remaining)
• Illuminae (2 books remaining)
• The Monsters of Verity duology (1 book remaining)
• The Chronicles of Narnia (5 books remaining)
• With the Light manga series (6 books remaining)

That’s about 30 or so books from series, which leaves me plenty of space to read a wide variety of other books. I do have a couple of series in progress that I haven’t prioritized (Beautiful Creatures and The Program, for example) but I think any more than I currently have in mind would be too much to manage. It’s also been a full year since I read anything from those two series so it might be hard to pick them up again. The series I chose to focus on are the ones I’ve been enjoying most, or the ones that I’ve been meaning to finish for the longest. I hope to be able to finish them all by the end of the year!

Top 10 Tuesdays: Top 10 New-To-Me Authors that I Read in 2017

Part of the fun of reading challenges for me is to discover new authors, and finally get to try books by authors that I’ve been meaning to read for a long time. I usually add a self-imposed rule to my challenges to try to avoid reading multiple books by the same author to try to encourage myself to read more variety. That went out the window a little this year when I decided I just had to finish The Lunar Chronicles, and it is definitely not a rule for 2018 where I am prioritizing series I have in-progress. I’ve found in the past that without reading challenges, I tend to stick to the same few authors who I know I’m going to like and I don’t branch out past that very much. After three years of participating in challenges, I’ve definitely learned to experiment a bit more and I’ve discovered so many great new authors.

Top 10 Tuesdays is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

1) Celeste Ng

I feel like I really overlooked Celeste Ng in my recent End of Year survey, considering her book was one of my favourites. I read Everything I Never Told You in mid-February after hearing so many rave reviews about it over the past couple of years, and I connected immediately with her writing style. This book was about a Chinese American family living in Ohio in the 1970s, whose teenager daughter is found dead. The book gives such a great look into the lives of the family members and their relationships, and especially their experiences with racism and sexism. I was very interested by how Celeste Ng showed the long-lasting impact of societal attitudes that the parents experienced on their children. It was a beautifully written book, and I’m looking forward to reading her next one.

2) Yaa Gyasi

I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of literary fiction, and I was especially worried about reading Homegoing because I had it linked in my mind with The Underground Railroad, which I didn’t like. I went into this book expecting that I would find it pretty boring, and was surprised to find that it quickly became one of my favourites of the year. This book follows two branches of an African family over multiple generations. One side of the family remains in Africa, and the other moves to America. The story is told in a series of chapters that each focus on one family member and their experiences before moving on to the next person. It takes a lot of talent to be able to create so many distinctive characters who each have their own unique voice. The style took a bit of getting used to, since I sometimes did not want to leave that character’s story, but it was a very powerful book.

3) Victoria Aveyard

It still completely baffles me how much hatred the Red Queen series has amassed online. I was both looking forward to reading it because I saw so many blogs and vlogs discussing it, and nervous to try it because of all the negativity surrounding it. I do see where the book is similar to other dystopian series, although I would also argue that the tropes it uses that people complain are too common are exactly what make it fit into the genre. In any case, I absolutely loved this book and I was drawn into the story right from the start. The plot might not be the most original, but it was very well-executed and I thought the characters were very well-written. I never knew who to trust, and I did not see the ending coming at all. I am very interested in finding out what happens next.

4) Sharon Guskin

The only thing I knew about The Forgetting Time before I picked it up is that I had seen the cover on Goodreads, and the artwork alone was enough to interest me. The main reason I decided to pick it up this year was because I discovered it was recommended by Jodi Picoult, my favourite author, which fulfilled a particularly tricky prompt for one of my reading challenges. As soon as I started reading this, I could see why she recommended it. This book reminded me so strongly of Jodi Picoult’s work, both in terms of the writing style and the subject matter. The book focuses on children who claim to remember past lives, which is a very interesting topic that I had never read about before. I could not put this book down!

5) Diane Chamberlain

Technically, I should have discovered this author two years ago. I had one of her books requested from the library for my first ever reading challenge, but they never had it. After over a year of waiting, they finally told me they couldn’t get it because it was out of print! I have no idea why it took them that long to figure it out. I chose another one of her books this year (one that I had personally seen on the library shelves, so I knew they had it!), and I really enjoyed it. The book I picked, Pretending to Dance, is about a woman who wants to adopt a baby with her husband, but they worry that her past will interfere with the adoption process. The book alternates between her present-day life, and her life as a teenager in 1990, living with a father who has MS. I thought the past storyline was very strong, but the modern-day sections were not as compelling. Even with that said, I really enjoyed the book because of the well-developed characters, and I look forward to reading more of her books.

6) Adam Silvera

This is another author that I’d been hearing a lot about, but kept putting off trying for no real reason. I finally decided to give one of his books a chance when I started planning my list for 2017, and History is All You Left Me kept jumping out at me every time I looked through my TBR list. The book is about a teenage boy named Griffin who is grieving the loss of his ex-boyfriend, Theo, and the only person who seems to understand how he feels is Theo’s current boyfriend, Jackson. This book was such a powerful portrayal of grief and guilt, and the characters really leapt off the page. The story alternates between the history of their relationship and the present, where Griffin is left to cope with the loss as well as his feelings for Theo. It was a very emotional story, and had a lot more impact than I expected.

7) Laini Taylor

As I mentioned in my End of Year Survey post the other day, I feel like I haven’t given anywhere near enough attention to Daughter of Smoke and Bone. For whatever reason, it always seems to get overlooked in favour of the other series I started this year, even though I enjoyed it just as much. This book is so beautifully written and descriptive, and I loved the world that was built. I loved how Laini Taylor took common tropes and presented them in a way that was very fresh. Karou is a fascinating main character, and I loved how we got some of Akiva’s backstory that helped show how the characters connected. I also loved the amazing cast of side characters! I’m definitely looking forward to finding out what happens next, and since I don’t say it nearly enough, I would highly recommend this book!

8) Dawn Kurtagich

I feel like I have to include Dawn Kurtagich because she made me enjoy a book in a genre that is completely outside of my comfort zone. I read And the Trees Crept In, which is a very creepy YA horror story about two sisters who are living in their aunt’s house which seems to be haunted. I’m a huge coward when it comes to horror stories of any kind, and this one really creeped me out but also kept me reading! I devoured the whole thing in just two days, and the only time I could put it down was to purposely give myself time to get it off my mind before bed. I know it may seem silly to find a book aimed toward teenagers so scary, but it was so well-written. Dawn Kurtagich created such an unnerving atmosphere, and even though the ending was a little weird, I thought it worked well.

9) Maggie Stiefvater

To be honest, I think I stereotyped Maggie Stiefvater’s books before I ever gave them a fair chance. I knew of her from the Shiver series, which I had never read but lumped in with Twilight and other similar paranormal romances because it dealt with werewolves. After hearing non-stop rave reviews for The Raven Boys for over a year, I finally broke down and decided to give it a fair chance…and I’m so glad that I did! This book hooked me from the first page, and quickly became one of my favourites of the year. I absolutely adored the characters in this book, and I loved the writing style even though I found the plot a little confusing at times. The style actually reminded me a bit of Harry Potter although the story is very different, and I am very interested in reading the rest of the books in 2018!

10) Victoria Schwab

This was another author that I’d been hearing a lot about but never really cared to try. Eventually, I decided that This Savage Song was a book I just had to read this year, and it ended up being another of my favourites. I thought her characters were very unique and compelling, and I loved the interactions between them. I especially appreciate how Victoria Schwab did not go the typical YA fantasy route and have the two main characters automatically fall in love by the end of the first book. I haven’t read the second one yet, so I don’t know if that changes (no spoilers, please!). I loved the world-building, especially toward the middle of the book where we got a more detailed description of how the monsters came to be. It was a little confusing at first to be thrown in to the world with no backstory, but once it was all explained, it was amazing! The sequel is definitely going to be among the first books I read this year!