📚 2018 Reading Year in Review
Welcome to the first post of my year-end wrap-ups! Each year, I review my reading life, personal life, and blog life at the end of the year. I love looking back on these from year to year and really enjoy the reflecting process of it all.
Today I’ll be discussing my reading life in 2018. Enjoy, and please share about YOUR reading life in the comments! Did you have a favorite read of the year? How many books did you read? Do tell!
📊 Statistics & Thoughts
Total Books Read: 25
Genres Read:
Nonfiction: 8
Fiction: 17
Breakdown by Genre:
- 📘 Young Adult: 8
- 💗 Women’s Fiction / Chick Lit / Romance: 4
- 🧠 True Crime: 3
- 👶 Parenting / Motherhood: 3
- 🔍 Mystery / Suspense / Thriller: 2
- 📖 Contemporary Fiction: 2
- 💰 Finance: 1
- 👻 Horror: 1
- 📝 Memoir: 1
Formats Read:
📚 Library Books (physical copies): 12
📦 Owned Books (physical copies): 4
📱 eBooks (Netgalley + Kindle): 9
💭 Reflections
- I read a lot of YA this year because I launched a Forever YA book club at work! I love YA but hadn’t been reading much of it in recent years, so I’m glad to have picked it back up in 2018.
- I combined women’s fiction with romance and chick lit. Though I do believe these are all separate genres, some of the books I read in those categories fell into multiple ones (ie some books were chick lit AND romance), so I combined them this year.
- Though fiction still wins out, I read a fair amount of nonfiction which I’m happy about. I enjoy educational books as well as memoirs and true stories (especially true crime, as you can see).
- I read mostly library books this year as usual, and only a few physical books that I owned… and all four of those were actually review copies that I received in the mail this year. I need to be better about reading older books off of my bookshelves.
- I did quite a lot of Netgalley reading this year on my new Kindle Fire! I still prefer traditional books, but reading on my Kindle has helped me get through more books this year. I generally read my Netgalley / Kindle books on my lunch break, and sometimes at bedtime if Jerry’s already asleep and I don’t want a light on to disturb him.
- My goal for the year was 50 books and I only got to 25. However, I found out I was pregnant in early January and spent the remainder of the year pregnant, then with a newborn. I will forgive myself for the lack of reading as it’s been an exhausting year!
🌟 Favorite Reads of the Year
This year was not one of my best reading years, in terms of quantity OR of favorites. I didn’t have a ton of memorable reads this year, and only gave 4 stars and 5 stars to a handful of books. Regardless, here are the books that I enjoyed the most this year, in order of when I read them. I’d definitely recommend any of the six books below!
- The Girl in Times Square by Paullina Simons (fiction): Simons writes really long, complex novels, but they’re so engaging and puzzling. This one’s about a missing girl and her former roommate/best friend. It’s a dark and twisty story but it completely captivated me. Another of Simons’ books appeared on my favorites list from last year, too!
- The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande (memoir): I read this memoir in preparation for seeing the author speak at my library. I loved it way more than I expected and was honored to meet her! Grande’s story of a childhood in Mexico is heartbreaking, beautiful, and left quite an impact on me.
- Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage (thriller): this book is downright creepy which is — quite frankly — right up my alley! The story of a mute little girl who wants to kill her mom is twisted and crazy and I couldn’t put it down.
- The Trigger by Daniel Patinkin (nonfiction): a really gripping collection containing the personal stories of six different people who have all shot someone for varied reasons. Such an eye-opening, detailed, and fascinating narrative!
- The Real Deal by Lauren Blakely (chick lit, romance): a sweet and steamy romantic comedy that I really enjoyed! Cute and fun with realistic chemistry, I loved reading about April and her boyfriend-for-hire.
- Creature by Hunter Shea (horror): intense and slow building horror that genuinely creeped me out! I was racing through the pages to find out who and what the creature in the woods was. Fun fact: this was the book I was in the middle of reading when I had Holden… I even read it while in the hospital!
📌 Progress on 2018 Goals
- ❌ Read 50 books: FAIL! Big fat fail!
- ✔️ Read an even split of owned vs. library: counting this as done because about half of my books were library books. I’m kind of cheating because many of my “own” books this year were Netgalley books, but still!
- ✔️ Read five nonfiction: crushed this goal with eight!
- ❌ Five women’s fiction or chick lit: only four. Close!
- ❌ Five mysteries or thrillers: only two.
- ✔️ One true crime: nailed it with three!
- ❌ Two horror books: only one! Fall is my big horror reading time and I had a newborn baby this fall so that was a (happy) fail!
- ✔️ Two YA books: killed it with eight, thanks to my Forever YA book club!
- ✔️ Two romances: check!
- ❌ Four Christmas books: only one this year. So sad. Again, I’ve got to “blame” the baby for this one. 🙂
- ✔️ One first-in-series: yes… at least three that I know of. Other books I read may be turning into series, but three that are confirmed series.
- ❌ Continue a series: nope. I’m good about STARTING series, but I’m not always great about finishing them.
- ❌ Re-read Harry Potter: fail, again.
Total: 6/13 goals completed. Not ideal, but… I had a baby. Priorities!
🎯 2019 Reading Goals
- 📚 Read 50 books total: I set this goal every year, but it’s been a few years since I’ve completed it! Let 2019 be my year!
- 📖 Read 22 book club books (Forever YA + personal club): I have my Forever YA book club at work, and then a personal book club. If I were to read every single book for both clubs, that would be 24. I’m giving myself 22 so I can have two passes in case something comes up for a month or two and I can’t get a book done.
- 📦 Read five physical books I already own (older ones!): physical books that I own that are coming from my shelves… being more specific this year! Yes, physical review copies count as books that I own, but they’re not old books from my shelves. This year, I must read five older ones!
- 🏛 Read 15 library books: I tend to read a lot of library books and want to continue that trend!
- 📱 Read 15 Netgalley books: I need to catch up on my Netgalley books and reviews!
- 🧠 Read five nonfiction titles: I love my nonfiction!
- 👧 Read 15 YA books: 12 for my Forever YA book club, and then a couple others for my other book club, or whatever other YA I feel like reading.
- 👻 Read two horror books: my favorite way to spend the fall!
- 🎄 Read four Christmas books: I need to make up for this year’s totally lame Christmas reading!
- 💵 Read one finance book: I need to get back into finances and debt repayment. These books always motivate me and teach me.
- 🔍 Read five mystery/thriller/suspense books: often, these tend to be my favorites, but I only read TWO this year!
- 💘 Read three chick lit or romance books: love my fluffy reads.
- ⚡ Re-read Harry Potter (still trying!): this has been on my goals list for many years. I’m going to keep adding it until I do the damn thing! If anyone wants to do a read along with me to give me that push, please let me know! One a month, maybe?
… and that about wraps up my reading life for 2018! Here’s to a better reading year in 2019 — and to picking up more books than my phone. Cheers to all the stories ahead!
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