Hello, 2018. How's it going?
I've been writing and focusing a lot on this new year looming ahead of us. Our feet are planted on the road that this new calendar will wind through the next year. We are pointed toward everything this year will bring us, but we have no idea what all that might be yet.
Whether you view that "not knowing" with hope or horror, I thought I would spend some time in the next little bit reviewing the year to which we just waved goodbye.
Today I'm looking at my favourite reads of 2017.
In 2017, I read a total of 50 books. I loved some, liked most.
The first book I read
I always give a little thought to the first book I read each year. My first book of 2016 was actually a series: The William Shakespeare's Star Wars series. Awesome.
In 2017, I started the year with A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron.
This was a fairly strong start to the year. It was the perfect book to read snuggled up on my couch under a pile of blankets with my two dogs snuggling me on a winter day. Was it a life-changing book? No, probably not. But I still loved it, and any excuse to gush about my dogs is, in my world, a win.
The genres
I tried to read a bit more variety this past year. To this end, I visited a couple books of poetry: Black Butterfly and Mouthful of Forevers. (See my review of the latter here.)
I also read some more nonfiction than usual. In 2016 I think I only read one piece of nonfiction for fun. In 2017, I read six. See my review for Into Thin Air here, Stephen King's On Writing here, Juliet's Answer here, The Princess Diarist here. I did not do full reviews for Jim Henson: The Works, or Fashion Victims: Pleasures and Perils of Dress in the 19th Century.
My favourite nonfiction was definitely either Juliet's Answer or On Writing. (I'm allowing myself two favourites since they are different types!) I loved The Princess Diarist as well, though I'm aware that my love of Carrie Fisher greatly influenced my love of it.
In addition to these genres, I read a lot of fiction, my personal favourite. I read historical fiction, romance, realistic fiction, science fiction, horror, magical realism, YA fiction... Well, you get the idea.
The collections - The Dark Tower
After the year started, I added two mini reading challenges to my year.
With the Dark Tower movie coming out in 2017, I joined the "Dark Tower Readalong" challenge on Litsy.
(Side note: Are you on Litsy? It's instagram for books! I love it and you should totally be on it!)
I'd been introduced to Stephen King before (Nightmares and Dreamscapes first, then The Stand, which I finally finished this year, and for which you can read my review here.)
But this was my first tiptoe into King's scarier stuff. (I know it isn't that scary. Like I said, tiptoe.)
Later on I embraced the horror and delved into It, which I will be finishing early this year hopefully.
Not typically drawn to series, I really enjoyed The Dark Tower books (so far!). I didn't finish the series yet; after I heard disappointing reviews of the movie I kind of lost steam. But again, that will be something I probably tackle early this year. When I do finish the series, I will review the whole thing, but I did post a review for the first book, The Gunslinger, which you can read here.
The collections - Jane Austen
Last spring I was fortunate enough to get to attend a Jane Austen ball in a nearby city.
You can read all about it, here. This was one of my most popular posts of 2017, so if you missed it, you might want to check it out anyway.
Leading up to this incredible experience (still one of my favourite things ever), I read (or reread) all of Jane Austen's novels. I didn't quite finish Mansfield Park until immediately after the ball, but I also snuck in one of her novellas for good measure.
Check out my in-depth reviews of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. After completing all of the readings, I reviewed and ranked (in a totally biased, non-scientific way) all of the Austen novels. You can read that here.
The final rundown of favourites
I've given some thought to this. Probably more than I should, with a stack of marking still staring at my accusingly.
I don't know if I can rank all the books I read this year, but I'm going to try. Here are a few favourites:
Favourite Reread: Pride and Prejudice. (Easy!)
Favourite Surprise Read: The Night Circus. (Shocked how much I loved this. Read my review here.)
Favourite "Wow" Read: A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Just wow. Read my review here.)
Favourite "How've I Never Read This Before?": Persuasion.
Favourite Author Read: Jane Austen is too easy and obvious to pick here. I'm going with Stephen King, since I read so much of his stuff this past year.
Most Disappointing Reads: It can't all be amazing. I was rather disappointed in both The Fault in Our Stars, and In a Dark, Dark Wood.
What were some of your reading highlights of 2017? What do you think of my list?
Comment below!
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