2017 – A Year Of Reading

2017 was my best year of reading to date. It was the most books i’ve ever read in a year and the most books that i’ve connected with and enjoyed. I learnt to be a little more picky with what i read and tried to broaden my reading horizons all at the same time.

I didn’t go in to the year with any kind of specific plan for reading, i just knew i wanted to try and achieve 52 books. I had no other goals. First of all, i achieve my goal (just about) of 52 books, and that alone i’m pretty pleased with. As a slow, dyslexic reader, i think that amount of books in a very busy year for me was quite an achievement. So i’m going to pat myself on the back and set my goal for the exact same in 2018 because i don’t trust myself to read any more.

2017 was also the year i managed to get a lot more ARCs read. I got a little more involved with bloggers events etc last year, which meant that i managed to obtain more ARCs than i ever have. It’s been really lovely being able to review books that you guys might be interested in before they are released. It gives you a heads up to what i think will be great and you will like. I ended up enjoying every ARC that i read and i’m excited to see what i can review i 2018.

That being said, i also fell in love with a lot of books last year. I found one book that left me thinking ‘where have you been all my life?’ and a lot more that i adored and still think about now. Some surprised me with how much i actually ended up adoring them. Surprisingly my mass-panic YALC reading of this year led me to some new authors that i’ll be watching closely and anticipating their new releases.

I also had some of my biggest disappointments of the year. My most anticipated book turned out to be the one that i disliked the most from the year and some books that i gave 2 or less stars to really shocked me. Two books in particular that i’d been waiting for for a long time, i was so very disappointed with. It makes me want to re-read them to make sure i didn’t like them, to make sure i picked up on everything i should have done. But ultimately the books i loved the most were the ones i was originally not overly interested in.

In 2017 i discovered my love for middle grade. I might be speaking a little too soon with this, but i read more middle grade than i ever have and i have fallen in love with the easy writing and the humor of them. I have a few stand-out middle grade novels that i adored, and are now some of my favourite stories. They’re so fast to get through, but you also feel like you’re reading a full book, it’s a win-win.

I managed to get through a few graphic novels last year, and i really did enjoy the ones that i read. However in 2018 i would very much like to get a little more invested in reading graphic novels. I feel like i dip in and out of them quite quickly and use them as fillers when i need something fast to read, however i actually enjoy the reading experience a lot. Definitely something to work on, but at least i ticked a few off that have been sat on my shelf for a while!

Overall i had a very positive reading year and i’m happy that i didn’t waste too much time on books that i very much didn’t like. I didn’t necessarily read as many 5 star books as i’d hoped, but maybe next year i’ll have to be even more picky with what i read and trust my instinct on what i think i’ll enjoy.