2013 Rewind - The Bookish Side
WARNING: This'll be a REALLY long post as it is reflecting on this year so I'll put key points.
The Bookish Side of This Year
My previous post on The Blogging Side of this year, I'm pretty sure all bloggers can relate. Intro
Series that I started
Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
The Selection by Kiera Cass
Of Poseidon by Anna Banks
Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins (First Review Ever!)
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Obsidian by Jennifer L Armentrout
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Most Anticipated Books of the Year
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
House of Hades by Rick Riordan
The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore (I haven't actually read this yet!!!)
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Okay so you know those books where they have so much hype surrounding it and you join that hype and just get so excited for it's release. And then you start reading it...and you're like WTF is this sh!t. Well The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey had to be that for me!
So I'd have to say the most popular genre of this year would definitely have to be dystopia. Before blogging I would not have known what the hell it is. With the boosting of popularity of the Divergent series and The Hunger Games, dystopia just seemed like all the rage. I have to agree, I love dystopia but I have a feeling I'll eventually get sick and tired of it.
Contemporary also became really popular. The only book I read of this genre was The Fault in Our Stars and this was a touching and lovely book that almost made me cry. I think the hype sort of ruined it me but it didn't lose the meaning.
Popular Authors
Cassandra Clare is definitely one of the leading authors of this year. She is the mind behind the brilliant City of Bones series and the reason behind the massive outbreak of shdowhunter crazy fans. I have only read one of her books and I plan on reading all of them next year.
John Green is probably one of the most popular authors in the YA literature this year. like Cassandra Clare, I have only read one of his books. But there is a reason to this I promise! Every time I go to the library to borrow one of his books they're always gone!
I wouldn't say that David Levithan is the most popular author but I found he received a lot of attention this year.
Books I'm looking forward to next year
Sweet Reckoning by Wendy Higgins
Of Neptune by Anna Banks
The One by Kiera Cass
Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
These are only some of the books I'm really looking forward to. The other ones don't have covers yet.
Book Standoff
Stand-alones
I found that this year I really enjoyed stand-alones because it means I don't have to commit to a long series. A stand-alone means it concludes all in one book and I don't have to wait a year till the next one comes out. Sometimes it's a nice quick story but sometimes it means it ended to quickly or seemed unfinished. For example: ACID by Emma Pass.
If you've read the book you'll know that the ending was a little sketchy. I think Emma Pass did this so that if she wanted to continue, she can.
I actually quite like trilogies but they only work with the right series. Sometimes I think the authors or publishers (I don't know who to blame) spread out the story into three books just to make more money. Some books don't need to be that long and two of the books could have been one. For example: The Selection by Kiera Cass.
The Selection and The Elite could have been one book and I have no idea how Kiera Cass is going to finish this whole thing in one book. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not the author...
Series
I used to love series because that means once I loved a set of characters I wouldn't have to let go but now I think series just take up too much of my time. The only problem I have with series is if they're not already completed. Otherwise this means I have to wait every year for the next one to come out and as much as I love the anticipation, A YEAR IS JUST TOO DAMN LONG!
So in the end all of these formats have there flaws but I prefer stand-alones and trilogies (if they're reasonable). A series really has to grab my attention like the Hush Hush series that I'm reading at the moment.
Book Events
If you have read many of my discussion posts with Sunny, you'll know that we have been to two book events this year together. We went to Penguin Teen Live and the Allegiant Release Party. Sunny got to go to maybe two more because it was always hard for me to get there because it's in the city. One thing I definitely loved about this year was being able to see her which has probably broken our normal record because usually we only get to see each other once if we were lucky. But I have to say we're lucky because most bloggers don't get to see or meet each other at all.
New Year's Resolutions
For 2014 to be a good change I want to stick to these resolutions. It's always important to have a goal to keep your head inline and I don't want it to be another one of those years where I wish I did something better. So for next year my goal is to have some sort of blogoversary themed week, host at least one giveaway and to get as many books as I can off my TBR list. To do this I'm going to enter the 2014 TBR List Reading Challenge because the normal Goodreads one isn't motivational enough.
And as a last goal which I really want to achieve is to start vlogging, I already got permission from my parents and my mum already said she would help so expect a YouTube channel next year!
Conclusion
So this is the bookish side to this year. Obviously I couldn't cover the whole of this year but these are pretty much the basics. If you're a blogger I'm pretty sure you can relate to my last post about my blogging experience this year. I hope you guys have had a great year and I'd love to here your thoughts and what your year has been like for you. Maybe yours has been better than mine!
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1 comments
Yes a definite highlight has been breaking our record and I must say that the two events we went to, were so fun! So many amazing books came out last year, I just don't know how 2014 will bet it.
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