2017 Year In Books + End of Year Survey Pt. 1

   

It's been a crazy year! Here's a brief look into this year's reading! The first half will feature my Goodreads year in books, followed by the first part of The Perpetual Page-Turner's End of Year survey.

My full Year in Books pages is here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2017/11188049?

For a second year in a row I have read more than I ever had before (well, since I started using Goodreads, anyway. I'm sure I read a lot when I was a kid!) I'm incredibly surprised by this number and I still have no idea how I managed to read that many, what with finishing up university, taking care of my mom during surgeries and chemo, and moving. I think it's just because books are what truly help me deal with everything going on around me, whether I want to have characters to relate to or a world to just completely disappear into. 

This is also the year that I became a Book Depository affiliate and an Amazon affiliate! Any purchases you make through my affiliate links (found in various links on posts and always through my banners on the right side of my page) provide me with a small commission that is so helpful in managing my everyday necessities and making this blog better--I plan to expand in 2018!

It's no surprise that Oathbringer took the cake for the longest book, and it was absolutely worth it because every page was amazing! The Sleeper and the Spindle is such a lovely little Sleeping Beauty re-imagined tale and I can't recommend it enough.

Cinder is definitely popular! I hope more people get around to reading Anne Bonnie sometimes also, it's just a fun little graphic novel, especially for younger readers who are looking for an awesome female protagonist who goes on adventures!

I'm pretty surprised by my average rating. I think I'm usually pretty good at picking books that I think I would like, but part of this is also because I read a lot of 3-3.5 star books and on Goodreads I round them up to four. 

And of course Oathbringer would have the highest rating so far (it's up to 4.71 now!), considering Words of Radiance has 4.77 rating with 118,000+ ratings!

I encourage you to fill out this survey, also! It can be found at The Perpetual Page-Turner's blog. I've decided to split this into two posts because of how extensive it is. The second part will be up on Friday!

 

Number Of Books You Read: 124

Number of Re-Reads: 0 – Yeah, I’m not big on re-reads. I do have a lot of books that I want to re-read, I just always get so distracted by books that I haven’t read…

Genre You Read The Most From: I haven't counted, but I can easily tell you that the answer is undoubtedly fantasy.  

 

1. Best Book You Read In 2017?(If you have to cheat — you can break it down by genre if you want or 2017 release vs. backlist)

I have to cheat, so I'm letting it be a four-way tie between:

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff (review)

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne (review)

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

This has to be a three-way tie between:

Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh

Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

The Once and Future King by T.H. White -- I was so sad at having to include this one, but I was so disappointed)

 3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?  

This is a tough one, but I’m going to with:

 The World of Tomorrow by Dave Matthews (review) - This was a pleasant surprise  mainly because I really didn't know what to expect at all and it ended up being fantastic!

 The Changeling by Victor Lavalle - I had vague notions of what this book would be about ("dark New York fairy tale"), all of which it lived up to, but.... it got a little crazy. And I'm not sure if it was a good or bad surprised, but the second of this book definitely surprised me. 

 4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

Well, I’m not really sure how many people actually picked up some books I highly recommended to them, but my mom did pick up (and love) the A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy this year after I raved about them so much and encouraged her to read them. I also got my boyfriend to start Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes (and the sequel!), which made my pretty happy. He even enjoyed them (he tends to read mainly nonfiction when he does read)!

 5. Best series you started in 2017? Best Sequel of 2017? Best Series Ender of 2017?

These are so hard!

Best series I started: Way too  many! The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark, A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne, Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones (reading Shadowsong right now!), The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, The Empire’s Ghost by Isabelle Steiger

Best sequel: Does Oathbringer count? Also, Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, and Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff

Best ender: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

 6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2017?

 Josh Malerman, Kevin Hearne, technically Robert Jordan. I hadn't read any of these authors before, so even though I knew of them before this I still hadn't read anything by them. 

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Emperor of All Maladies by Siddharthe Mukherjee – medical nonfiction

 Extreme Measures by Jessica Nutik Zender (review) --medical nonfiction

I read my fair share of nonfiction throughout the year, but it usually is not even close to medical related (not interested, usually), but these two were great!

 8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

 Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff

The Thickety: The Whispering Trees by J.A. White
Scourge by Gail Z. Martin (review)

 9. Book You Read In 2017 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

Honestly, too many to list! I would like to re-read a lot of what I read this year. In particular, I'd like to re-read a lot of the fantasy debuts I read this year, as well as many of the series I've already read.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2017?

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo (review)

Wolf in White Van by Josh Darnelle (review)

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Yvain: Knight of the Lion

Hiddensee by Gregory Maguire (review)

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff

11. Most memorable character of 2017?

A Court of Wings and Ruin- all of them? Amren, Mor, Cassian, Azriel, Feyre, Rhysand.... I just love this group.

 12. Most beautifully written book read in 2017?

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

13. Most Thought-Provoking Book of 2017?

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (review) - an incredibly important book about the black lives matter movement and racial issues that are still very present.

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed (review) - a fascinating look at gender roles, cult-like societies, and the power of the mind

Bird Box by Josh Malerman - this really just made me think about fears and what can escalate them. The necessary blindness in this book, along with the unknown element and the question of insanity and madness have provided for many thoughtful moments. 

 14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2017 to finally read? 

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde (review)

 15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2017?

I have a lot, but I’m narrowing it down to… less than a lot, but still more than only a few. I’m sorry. Books are beautiful.

From Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff

“The heavens grant us only one life, but through books, we live a thousand."

“Conquer your fear, and you can conquer the world.” – This one has helped me endlessly this year. I have repeated this phrase in my head so many times this year, it’s actually crazy. Thank, Mr. Kristoff.

From A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

“Arneisians had a dozen ways to say hello, but not word for good-bye.

When it came to parting ways, they sometimes said vas ir, which meant in peace, but more often tey chose to say anoshe--until another day.

Anoshe was a word for strangers in the street, and lovers between meetings, for parents and children, friends and family. It softened the blow of leaving. Eased the strain of parting. A careful nod to the certainty of today, the mystery of tomorrow. When a friend left, with little chance of seeing home, they said anoshe. When a loved one was dying, they said anoshe. When corpses were burned, bodies given back to the earth and souls to the stream, those left grieving said anoshe.

Anoshe brought solace. And hope. And the strength to let go.” – I am indeed considering an Anoshe tattoo one of these days. I’ve dealt with a lot of loss in my life and I think that this is just such a beautiful word and idea, it really resonates with me.  

“Love and loss,” he said, “are like a ship and the sea. They rise together. The more we love, the more we have to lose. But the only way to avoid loss it to avoid love. And what a sad world that would be”

From Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray:

“Depressive,” Evie said, testing the word on her tongue. “I didn’t know there was a name for that feeling. Like there’s a rain cloud in your soul.” She knew that feeling well. Sometimes she was the life of the party. But other times she was lonely, bleak, and sick with disgust at herself, and certain that the people who said they loved her were only pretending. She called these times the “too muches”: too much feeling, like opening a door and seeing, really seeing, into some deep, existential loneliness underlying everything. When the “too muches” arrived, Evie feared that whatever hope lived inside her would drown from the storm of her own aching sadness.”

From Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson:

“I love tradition… I’ve fought for tradition I Make my men follow the codes. I uphold Vorin virtues. But merely being tradition does not make something worthy, Kdash. We can’t just assume that because something is old it is right.”

"‘Have you ever considered, bridgeman,  that bad art does more for the world than good art?Artists spend more of their lives making bad practice pieces than they do masterworks, particularly at the start. And even when an artist becomes a master, some pieces don’t work out. Still others are somehow just wrong until the last stroke.

‘You can learn more from bad art than you do from good art, as your mistakes are more important than your successes. Plus, good art usually evokes the same emotions in people--most good art is the same kind of good. But bad pieces can each be bad in their own unique way. So I’m glad we have bad art, and I’m sure the Almighty agree.’"

“‘Sometimes, a hypocrite is nothing more than a man who is in the process of changing.’”

“Art is about emotion, examination, and going places people have never gone before to discover and investigate new things. The only way to create something that nobody hates is to ensure that it can’t be loved either. Remove enough spice from soup, and you’ll just end up with water."

From The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo:

“You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled - not with all the good food or sunshine in the world. That emptiness cannot be banished, and so some days we wake with the feeling of the wind blowing through, and we must simply endure it as the boy did.”

“Bad fates do not always follow those who deserve them.”

From A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge:

“In many respects, poor Neverfell’s overactive mind had coped with her lonely and cloistered life in the only way it could. It had gone a little mad to avoid going wholly mad. To break up the dreary repetition of the day it had learned to skip unpredictably, to invent and half-believe, to shuffle thoughts until they were surprising and unrecognizable.”

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2017?

Shortest- Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman

Longest – Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

 17. Book That Shocked You The Most (Because of a plot twist, character death, left you hanging with your mouth wide open, etc.)

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff -- I don't have any idea who else could possibly win this award other than Mr. Kristoff himself. 

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!) (OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)

The only that comes to mind at this moment would be Feyre and her partner (I realized saying who it is could be a spoiler? But those who have the book will know!) I'm also quite a fan of Rhys and Alucard from the Shades of Magic series. 

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

This is a difficult one. There are a lot of friend/etc. relationships that I loved in a lot of books I read this year, but I think the friendship between Adelaide, Eleanor, and Beatrice in The Witches of New York by Ami McKay (review) was truly quite lovely. I love strong female friendships.

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2017 From An Author You’ve Read Previously
This was surprisingly more difficult than I expected. I would say A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor was also a pleasant addition to Taylor's other work. 

21. Best Book You Read In 2017 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:

Cinder by Marissa Meyer! I never planned to read this series because cyborgs just didn’t sound interesting to me, but wow was I wrong and everyone else was right!

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2017?

This is hard! I'm not actually sure if I have any *new* ones...

23. Best 2017 debut you read?

Now this is just cruel because there were somany. Can I just make a brief list of some of the best ones?

Godblind by Anna Stephens
The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark (review)
Soul of the World by David Mealing (review)

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
Oathbringer, hands down, because Sanderson is the king. 

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge (review)

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2017?

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
Lost Boy by Christina Henry (review)
A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

A Path Begins (The Thickety) by J.A. White
Miranda and Caliban by Jacquline Carey
A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne (review)

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2017?

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde 
The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami
S. by J.J. Abrams an Doug Dorst (review)
Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

House of Names by Colm Toibin (review)
White Lotus by Libbie Hawker

Well that's all for this post! Feel free to head over to The Perpetual Page-Turner and fill out this survey yourself, and let me know your thoughts!

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