2012: My Reading Year in Review

Overall Reading:

Total Books = 166 (Totally surpassed my goal of reading 125 books!)
Total Pages = 44,817

Total Audio Hours = 346
Avg Days Per Book = 2.20
Avg Books Per Day = 0.45
Avg Pages Per Day = 97

Longest Book = Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells (672 pgs)
Shortest Book/Novella = Elemental by Bridget Kemmerer (50 pgs)

My best reading month was July with 23 books read this was almost my best reading month last year as well. Though October wasn't far behind with 22 books read! I also read over 7000 pages in October....this just blows my mind a little. Its my highest monthly page count of the year as well. My worst was June where I only read 5 books though I can't be too sad about that since I read so many in July. Still not sure how that happened. The breakdown for books/pages read by month for the year looks like this:

Month...Books...Pages
JAN...... 10........ 2063
FEB.......16.........3680
MAR..... 14.........3369
APR.......12.........3108
MAY......13.........3710
JUN.......05......... 1555
JUL........23..........6402
AUG......13..........2818
SEP........17..........5387
OCT.......22..........7216
NOV.......10........ 3014
DEC........11........ 2423

AVG......13.8..... 3735

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This year was also a good one for audio as I listened to at least one book every month with the exception of June. Not sure what I was doing in June but it certainly wasn't reading. My best listening month was January where I spent 66 hours listening to audio. In total I listened to 33 audiobooks and I hope to beat that in 2013. 

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In terms of book ratings roughly 55% of the books read had a rating of 4 stars or above. Which is a pretty good reading year if you ask me. Although 32% of my reads were just 3 stars. With the rest 2 stars or less. I even had 5 DNFs. And here are my rating from 2012 done visually because graphs are fun! And if you are a long time reader of my blog then you do know how much I love my end of year graphs!

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In order to determine the best book of the year I again maintained a Top 12 list in which each month I chose the best book that I read during that month.  Those books were:

JAN - Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey
FEB - Timepiece by Myra McEntire
MAR - Dark Road to Darjeeling by Deanna Raybourn
APR - Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
MAY - I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga
JUN - Song of the Red Cloak by Chantel Acevedo
JUL - Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchetta
AUG - Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry
SEP - Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta
OCT - The Opposite of Hallelujah by Anna Jarzab
NOV - Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
DEC - Third Grave Beneath My Feet by Darynda Jones

I read a lot of great books this year and as with every year previous I find it difficult to choose that one book that is the best of the best. Narrowing it down to 12 books makes it easier in some ways but also more difficult...because look at that list...there are some really amazing reads on it! Seriously, if you haven't read any of these books yet then you need to get on it because you don't know what you are missing. 

Looking at that list, the books that stayed with me the longest after I finished reading them were I Hunt Killers, Pushing the Limits, Froi of the Exiles, and Days of Blood and Starlight. These were the books that I hated to end and may have even killed a part of my soul as a result. I would give my left kidney (figuratively, not literally) to have the sequel for any of these books with the exception of Pushing the Limits since it doesn't have a sequel. The more I stare and read over my reviews the more able I am to weed those four books down to two: Froi of the Exiles and Days of Blood and Starlight. Both of which are almost impossible to choose from. 

So my Top Book for 2012 is Froi of the Exiles AND Days of Blood and Starlight. In my first ever tie for a Top Book of the year. 

In 2012, I took part in several challenges and the breakdown can be found on my 2012 Challenge Post. I think I did pretty well with my challenges this year and only failed 2 of them - the Back to the Classics Challenge (4/9) and my personal challenge of reading an author from every letter of the alphabet (22/26). In truth, I never "win" my alphabet challege and that is mainly because I am never really very proactive with it. I read 166 books I totally could have won this one...but I do like to see where my reading natually falls so it is what it is. For the curious among you, the letters I missed were I, U, V, and X. Which are all pretty tough to fill. The most common last name of all all the books I read started with M (22) with G (18) not far behind. The letters F, O, Q, and Z all tie for just 1 book each.

For 2012, I participated in 9 challenges...and I use the word participate loosely as I never seem to remember to head over to the hosts site and log in my entries after the initial signing up. Oops. 

As with previous years I've kept track of the genres that I read. I've used my gut reaction to chose one genre for each book. Although I am aware that sometimes it is possible for a book to be classified in more than one. There is a little overlap as I don't really consider YA or Middle Grade to be genres but I do like to see how those books trend from year to year. Based on what I read the genres fall out like this:

Chick Lit = 0
Classic = 4
Contemporary = 30
Dual-Time/Time Slip = 1

Dystopian = 16
Fantasy = 30
Graphic Novel = 1
Historical = 11
Mystery = 15

Non-Fiction = 0

Paranormal = 25
Poetry = 0

Romance = 42 (in the graph I broke this out further into Contemporary Romance and Historical Romance. I might further refine these in 2013 or I might just combine them all into one again. Not sure which.)

Satire = 0
Sci-Fi = 6
Utopian = 0

How does this compare to previous years? Well I am glad you wondered that because I have a graph for that. I know...this shocks you tremendously!

Long time readers will notice that there is no mention of middle grade or YA in the graph this year. In previous years, I included middle grade and YA in with my genres but this year I decided to break them out and track them separately as an "age" limit isn't really a genre. I read a lot more books targeted to adults this year and hope to keep that up next year. I also hope to read more middle grade as there are so many great books there that I hate to miss out on. I really wish I had more time to read ALL THE BOOKS!

I may go through my lists and tag some books as New Adult as that is an emerging classification (though there is much drama centered around it). But until I do, if I do, all those books that would fit into a New Adult class are lumped in with my Young Adult titles. But if you are curious about them I do have my reviews tagged with New Adult and you can click here to see them.

Last year I also started to actively track the gender of the author I was reading. My plan for 2012 was to read more books by male authors. But looking at my graph its as if I didn't even try at all. Perhaps I should add reading more male authors as a personal challenge for 2013.

Last year I also started to track how I acquired the books that I read during a calendar year. This data just encompasses the books that I read over the course of the year and doesn't include all the books that I have obtained. I did pretty well with reading my own books this year (52 books) and in getting back to the library (23 books). 

This year I also decided to track the format that I used to experience a book. And then because I'm a nerd I went back and reformatted my Excel sheet to include data back to 2008. To see how my reading has trended over the lifetime of my blog. (Well, no including that 1/2 year of 2007 but then that data isn't in any of my graphs so not worth mentioning really.)

Normally this is where I would end my year in review post but not too long ago I saw this little survey thing posted on Trish Doller's Tumblr last year and I thought that I would continue with it this year.

Best Book of 2012 - Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta and Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor in my first ever tie for best book.

Worst Book of 2012 - This one is always hard as I hate to point out one book as the worst. Though there was only one book to get a 1 star rating from me and that was Switched by Amanda Hocking. 

I also listed 5 books a DNF the timing just wasn't right for the most part and I may go back one day and try them again. The books I listed as DNF were:

• The Iron Wyrm Affair by Lilith Saintcrow
• Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
• Looking For Alaska by John Green
• Cinder by Melissa Mayer
• Winter Journey by Diane Armstrong

Most Disappointing Book of 2012 - The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I've always heard such amazing things about John Green so I gave him a try this year and was just majorly disappointed. This was my first John Green book and will most likely be my last as well.

Most Surprising Book of 2012 - Hands down this one goes to Mothership by Martin Leicht and Ilsa Neal. I had no expectations going into this book and was amazed by how much I loved it. This one was almost my Top 12 pick for November and I really can't wait to see what happens next in this series. 

Best Series Discovered in 2012 - Melina Marchetta's Lumatere Chronicles. I fell in love with the audio of Finnikin of the Rock and was really sad when there was no US audio for Froi of the Exiles. So many feels in this series and I can not wait for the final book in the series. Though I dread it too as I don't want to leave this world!

Series That Went Off the Rails For You in 2012 - There were a couple of series that I started in 2012 that didn't connect with me so I don't think I'll be continuing with them. But as for ones that wen't off the rails I really can't call any that really fell off its tracks this year.

Favorite New Author You Discovered in 2012 - Oooh this one is hard since I read so many debut books and then discovered some authors that have been around for a bit but that I haven't read yet. For this one though I will go with Cinda William Chima whose series, the Seven Realms, I started to read this year and I have totally fallen in love them. 

Most Hilarious Read of 2012 - Mothership by Martin Leicht and Ilsa Neal though the Chalie Davidson books by Darynda Jones were also quite humorous.

Book That Made You Cry the Hardest in 2012 - I don't remember crying with any book that I read this past year (this includes John Green's The Fault in Our Stars). Doesn't mean I didn't cry while reading a book but nothing really stands out. 

Most Thrilling, Unputdownable Book in 2012 - I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga. I listened to this one on audio and I was coming up with excuses to stay in my car to listen to it. This one gave me chills!

Book You Most Anticipated in 2012 - Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor and it totally lived up to my expectations too.

Favorite Cover of a Book You Read in 2012 - Too hard to narrow down. There were just so many pretty covers in 2012! To see them all check out my challenge page on GoodReads here.

Most Memorable Character in 2012 - Karou and Akiva from Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor. See all my other favorite characters from 2012 here.

Most Beautifully Written Book in 2012 - There were so many books that fit this and its  hard to choose just one. Though I did love the writing in Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor and I also liked the writing of If I Lie by Corrine Jackson even if I didn't like the overall story very much. And I also loved Trish Doller's Something Like Normal. 

Book That Had the Greatest Impact on You in 2012 - I think that every book I read has an impact on me. Every book leaves some sort of mark even if its a book that I don't end up liking very much.

Book You Can’t Believe You Waited until 2012 to Read - Diana Peterfreunds's Secret Society Girl series! This series was just so amazingly good. I loved all the intrigue and the romance was spot on and realistic. 

Book of 2012 You Wish You Had Written - I’m not a writer so there wasn't a book that I read that I wish I had written. I am just so very grateful to those who do write for putting out so many great stories for me to read. And thankful to the agents and publishers who gave them a chance.


Related Posts:
Year End Summary for 2008
Year End Summary for 2009
Year End Summary for 2010
Year End Summary for 2011