This year hasn’t been the best one for reading. I didn’t set a goal for 2016, thinking it would be hard to top last year’s 70 books. And I was right – at the moment I’ve only managed to finish 44 books this year, which is pretty poor for me.
Looking back through the list of books read I’m not surprised it’s been an uninspiring year. I’m a bit ashamed of my unimaginative choices to be honest (although I’m not slating everything I’ve read, just the list as a whole). There aren’t many books on the list that jump out at me: not many that I loved or would want to recommend, not even many new releases.
The high point of my reading year was immersing myself in the world of Harry Potter.
Next year I really need to reconsider the types of book I’m reading if I’m going to get out of this slump. I’m keen to read more literary books, with meaningful, powerful stories, not bland tales that have me going through the motions, choosing to watch TV rather than read.
You can find all the books I’ve read this year listed in my books of the year posts, I won’t share them again here.
But here are a few highlights from another year’s reading.
Books I’d recommend
- A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness
- The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling (if there’s anyone left, apart from me, who hasn’t read it)
- Reasons to Stay Alive, by Matt Haig
- The Rivers of London series, by Ben Aaronovitch
Books I didn’t finish
- Voyager, by Diana Gabaldon
- Black Water Rising, by Attica Locke
- The Summer That Melted Everything, by Tiffany McDaniel
- New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer
- Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Books I re-read
- Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith
- Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
Classics
None…
Translated books
- Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami (from Japanese)
- The Lost Boy, by Camilla Lackberg (from Swedish)
- The Undesired, by Yrsa Sigurdardottir (from Icelandic)
What were the bookish highlights of your year?