Wednesday 3 January 2018

A Year in Books 2017

It's time to look back at another year in books. Happily I did a bit better with my reading in 2017 than I did in 2016.

In 2017 I read 17, 894 pages in 100 books. Not a bad effort. Up from the 11, 075 in 2016, but not at the dizzying heights of 2015 (20,061).

That 100 books in 2017 is no small coincidence. I had set my Goodreads target to 100 for the year, and for most of the year I was keeping up and on track but things unwound a little in the last few months of the year, and I had to make a concerted effort in late December to get to that magical 100. I did it with 50 minutes to spare! A close call indeed.

I wasn't particularly great at rating or reviewing books in 2017. Some of these I did give 5 stars at the time, some have just really stuck with me.

Scrappy Little Nobody. Anna Kendrick. Audio.




Florette. Anna Walker




The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen. Deborah Abela. Audio




Maggot Moon. Sally Gardner. Audio. My Book of the Year. 




Don't Call Me Bear. Aaron Blabey




The Weight of a Human Heart. Ryan O'Neill




The Hidden Life of Trees. Peter Wohlleben. Audio




Tuck Everlasting. Natalie Babbitt




The Hate U Give. Angie Thomas




Burial Rites. Hannah Kent. Audio




Moonrise. Sarah Crossan



Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls. Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo



12 of my 100 reads were 5 stars.

5 Aussie books. 

4 Adult reads.

2 Picture Books. 

1 Verse Novel.

5 Audio Books. 

3 Nonfiction/memoir.

10 Female Authors.

3 Male Authors

9 New to Me Authors!

The Weight of a Human Heart had a big impact on my reading aspirations being the first short story collection that I've read in many a year. I have now amassed quite a number of short story collections (quite a number), I hope that more will be appearing in the best reads of 2018. 

Also interesting that 5 of my top 12 were audio books. I really have taken to them with gusto. I really loved all of those audio books. Maggot Moon was particularly stupendous of course, but the others are all fabulous. Burial Rites was magnificent and beautifully read, and it was wonderful to hear the Icelandic names and places pronounced rather than stumbling over them every time whilst reading. Noone could be more surprised than I was to actually listen to a celebrity memoir (it's not my thing) and then enjoying it so much. And The Hidden Life of Trees really changed how I view and think about trees. Did I even think about trees before? Not nearly as much. 

Rather incredibly I appear to have not read any Jackie French in 2017 so she can't make an appearance in this list. This is the first time that this has happened since lists began to be compiled. I shall have to rectify this terrible omission in 2018. 

2 comments:

Sue Bursztynski said...

You really must read Jackie French’s Goodbye, Mr Hitler. It’s the third in the trilogy that began with Hitler’s Daughter and tied up all the loose ends, including for the adult characters. Interestingly, Jackie French’s historical fiction seems almost the only fiction of its kind that our kids at Sunshine College have been reading, apart from the wonderful Morris Gleitzman Once series. Those are more popular than hers, but still, she is read. Goodbye, Mr Hitler has only just come out, I think, as she has been tweeting about it recently, so no reason to feel bad if you haven’t read it yet.

NancyElin said...

Great summation of 2017 reads, Louise!
I agree...audio books are definitely worth the time. Any suggestions for good audio books I'd like to hear from you via twitter!
I've noted your suggestion 'The Life of Trees' and will start it today during my train ride.
I enjoyed the audio books: Ghettoside and Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life