

I read The Hunger Games series, all three books before seeing the film. I absolutely loved them, and this led to me reading more YA books that weren’t quite so good…
But I also discovered some new favourite series – the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett, the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness. I discovered some really enjoyable, underrated books such as The Silver Linings Playbook (which I’m sure is now more popular due to the film). I re-read some older favourites – Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses trilogy, The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, some Bill Bryson.
I finally got round to reading (and really enjoying!) some of the more popular books that I’d been meaning to read – The Passage by Justin Cronin, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.
But I also read a couple of books that I really didn’t enjoy. Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Admitting to not enjoying either of those almost makes me feel blasphemous… but I just didn’t get along with them at all. I think The Scarlet Letter is the only book I’ve ever wanted to throw across the room. I really looked forward to reading Let The Right One In but spent the majority of it feeling rather queasy… I also read the infamously Goodreads-wide hated Save the Pearls: Revealing Eden, which made me feel rather sick for a completely different reason.
I founded this blog at the end of August, which is when I started reading ebooks – I’m still not sure what I think of them. I can see their uses, definitely, but I much, much prefer the feel of a real book in my hands. Since I started this blog, I have made 95 posts (not including this one), 29 of which are book reviews. I’ve gained 220 followers on Google Friend Connect, and over 500 on Twitter, as well as discovered some fantastic fellow book bloggers!
I’m actually finding it really hard to write this post, because there are so many books and aspects of blogging that I want to write about, but I don’t want to turn this into an essay, and it would also take forever! Overall, I would say that I think it’s been a great year, reading wise. I read a wide range of genres, found some amazing new books/series/authors, and also found ones I know to steer clear of.
I think I’ll also just take the time to send a small shout out to some of my favourite book bloggers – Kelly, Kat, Ara, Aloi and Deneé – I visit your blogs regularly, and try to comment frequently. But there are so many others I love to visit, I would list my whole blogroll on here if I could…
You read some great books this year. I love the George R.R. Martin books (it’s one of my favourite series), as well as the Hunger Games trilogy. One of these days I’ll read the Stieg Larsson books. All the best to you in 2013.
Thanks! The first two books are definitely worth the read, I just couldn’t get into the last one, sadly =(
All those books look so pretty O_0You’ve done a lot this year and read a lot. I love looking back this time of the year. I actually did enjoy (astonishingly) The Scarlet Letter. I think The Song of Achilles is the book I’m thinking of but I am supremely jealous of you reading it. It looks so good!Hopefully you have an even better reading and blogging year in 2013 😀
I just found that Hawthorne took forever to explain things, describe objects etc, and I just couldn’t get along with his style of writing at all.The Song of Achilles is a beautiful book. Definitely read it if you can! =)Thanks for commenting.
Wow, did we read/discover a lot of the same books this year! As I’ve mentioned, this is also the year I really got into A Song of Ice and Fire. I also read and loved The Song of Achilles (so sad, but so amazing), read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and watched Blade Runner for the first time ( I liked the book better, too). Definitely going to be a stalker and check out your Goodreads stats– I hope we both discover even more fantastic books and series in 2013. 🙂
Haha that’s weird, especially with Blade Runner!I really thought I was already following or friends with you on GR, since I follow all the bloggers I follow through GFC! =o
I really liked the Millennium series- though you do have to push through to get to the ending – I loved how things were resolved. 🙂 I thought I would start the Game of Thrones books this week, but got too busy – I will save it for next year! Great book round-up! I look forward to reading your blog in the new year!
I’m sure I’ll get round to it at some point, since I hate leaving series unfinished, particularly if they’re only trilogies.I hope you enjoy A Game of Thrones =)Thanks for commenting, Charlene!