The 2013 recap : the best of the best!
In the previous years, when January showed up in all its cold glory, I got all excited about my favorite blogging task of the year : putting together a list of “bests of” books is always a great time, both for the pleasure of talking about great reading and the satisfaction I feel by categorizing them.
Yet this year, this didn’t happen. I started working on the list in late December, more than a month ago, but I couldn’t make sense of what I really felt about the books I had read in the past twelve months. Five-stars novels had been forgotten, barely good ones had left lasting impressions, very few of the 128 books I had read stood out in the lot. I guess it’s not that surprising though; 2013 was a weird reading year.
I was greatly motivated for most of it and then, somewhere in the fall, reading became more like a burden. It wasn’t just a regular reading slump, and I am not completely out of it, yet. I get into books with great enthusiasm but get bored very quickly, and I am feeling so, so, so critical. It takes the joy out of it. So I have been doing other things : lots of knitting, writing, and work when I wasn’t feeling too sick (my health hasn’t been the best since October, which I guess doesn’t help the whole thing, but it’s getting by on track now, so there’s that!)
And I didn’t want to start this list with all these negative thoughts and reflections, but in fact, I don’t feel too bad about it anymore. I don’t know how much reading I’ll achieve in 2014, but I definitely want to enjoy it. I’m leaving boring books aside, reading as slow or as fast as I want, and I have decided not to accept any review requests that makes me feel too pressured. So far, so good!
I am confidant 2014 might be a much better year than 2013!
So after much chit chat, here’s the list! Links to reviews, or to Goodreads when procrastination got the better of me (I swear, I’ll review them some day!)
Best of 2013 :
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Best Speculative Fiction :
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
Under the Dome by Stephen King (It could have been up with the best if not for the terrible, terrible conclusion)
Best Children Fantasy :
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
Best Speculative YA :
Mercy by Rebecca Lim (I loved the different pace and writing for this one)
Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard (On a typical year I would read a lot of similar books, but not in 2013; yet I still greatly enjoyed this one, and I am looking forward to reading its sequel)
In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters (My favorite of these three; I also liked that I didn’t exactly feel like a YA novel, but more of a supernatural historical fiction)
Best Audiobook
The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber
Best Non-Fiction
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh (honestly, this should be at the top with the best of 2013, if I’d been a little less distracted, and if I wasn’t too lazy to change it now. But I absolutely love this book!)
Most Inspiring :
An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
Cutest Awards :
Dogs don’t Do Ballet by Anna Kemp (I have a special fondness for this book since I read it on a bench of Shakespeare & Company in Paris; but the book has its own merits and deserves all the love!)
Vader’s Little Princess by Jeffrey Brown (I technically bought this for the Man; he gets more jokes than I do, but I still adored it!)
Best YA Contemporary Fiction :
If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
Dead to You by Lisa McMann
Special Mention : Gorgeous Prose
Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield (While the book was just okay for me, the writing absolutely blew me away.)
* * *
Reading Goals for 2014 :
Read 100 books : This is my goal every year, but I am not too worried about this. I’ll make it or I won’t, as long as I have fun reading!
Read deliberately : As mentioned at the top : having fun, reading at my own pace, putting aside unpleasant books and reading what I really want. I want to be amused, amazed, moved, angered, broken, surprised, stimulated, but certainly not bored.
Get that TBR pile smaller : Hahaha! Every year! Though I have gotten a lot less books in 2013, and plan on keeping my book budget very small in 2014; so this might be achievable after all!
More reviews : I love writing a review right after reading the book, when the memories and feelings are still fresh, yet I often find myself procrastinating to do it. I’d like to change that, at least a little!
What were some of your favorite books in 2013? Do you have any reading goals for 2014?
Awesome list.
I want to listen to Good Nurse but I’m afraid it will make me paranoid.
SO need to get Let’s Pretend.
I’ll admit the Good Nurse did make me a bit paranoid! I found it more terrifying than most horror novels, but also completely fascinating.
My reading year was weird, too, in 2013. I totally get it! Good stuff on there. I think you are one of few people to put Bellman & Black on any sort of ‘best of’ list. It seemed to bomb and I keep putting off reading it as a result! Hopefully her next book will work better. It is hard to write a book after your debut goes so well.
I’ll admit I have read many books I enjoyed more than Bellman & Black this past year, but she does have an amazing way with words. I do hope the next one will be better though.
Warbreaker has the BEST cover!! 2013 was a weird year for all of us. I hope 2014 is much better for you and your health stays good. I’m currently reading An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth and you’re so right, it’s such an inspiring read. I’ve marked so many passages.
I absolutely love Warbreaker’s cover; it’s one of my favorites for sure.
I have marked a lot of passages in the Astronaut’s Guide, too. It was a very energizing and motivating read for me. I’m glad to hear you are having a great time with it!
Honestly, 2013 was a terrible year for me in books. I read plenty I liked, even a few I loved…but none stuck. At the end of the year, I could barely tell you what I’d read, and all my best books didn’t even compare to some of the others I’ve read in the few years before that. :/
I am so sorry to hear your 2013 wasn’t better than mine when it comes to reading. The way you put it is exactly how I felt : plenty I liked, even a few I loved…but none stuck. I struggled picking “bests of” and I am not sure that, years from now, looking back on what I read this year, I will feel the same way about these books. We’ll see!