2014 Book Report

So after the last post, I had some intentions of reviving this blog because I realized that I missed book blogging, somewhat. But of course, intentions are just that, until they are acted upon. Which I wished I did, but of course, as we all know, life happens, and we forget our intentions because life.

I’m actually kind of tired of using that excuse, and I’m sure you are tired of hearing that, too, if you’re still one of the people who read this blog. So I’m sorry, and let me try to make it up to you with this early year-end bookish recap! Yay.

Overall, 2014 was a pretty good reading year because even if I stopped blogging halfway through the year, I still read a lot. I don’t go out without books – Hannah the Kindle is still my best friend – and I still go and buy books every now and then. So I won’t say that 2014 is bad books-wise, just different in a lot of levels.

I’m going to do this the way we do it at work, because it’s easier to do that.

Image from We heart it

Highlights:

• I met my reading goal of 52 books way earlier than expected, because I had some spurts of fast reading sometime when I wasn’t really busy. This is where Hannah the Kindle comes in – I just read faster when I have it, compared to having a book. Perhaps it’s because I carry it everywhere, and it’s even more used than Astrid the Kindle. As of this writing, I have finished 66 books. That’s as many as 2009. :)
• I read a lot of Filipino authors this year. You know what, next year, I won’t put that in my goals anymore, because now reading local authors is almost like an instinct. I see someone release a new book, I buy it, I read it. I think it also helped that I am also an author now, so buying and reading other people’s works is like giving support for myself, too. :)
• And I suppose that this is also a highlight, even if this isn’t a really about reading but it IS about books: I finally released my first contemporary romance novella. :D (And it’s free on Smashwords until December 28, use NT22P on checkout :D)
• We had our first joint book discussion with another big book club in the Philippines, Flips Flipping Pages. We’ve wanted to do this in ages, but it only happened this year, so yay. I hope we have more in the next year? :)

Lowlights:

• I hardly blogged. In fact, I only had 27 posts this year, and this is my 28th. I was busy, but to be totally honest, I also got tired of it. I do miss writing thoughts on books, and going back to these thoughts whenever someone asks about them…but then it was also quite fun just reading and not thinking of what to write about them. I don’t know if I still want to review, or maybe I just need to find a balance later on. (But I’m not shutting this blog down, because this is what, five years worth of book reviews? That’s so much content.
• I missed a lot of book club discussions this year, because of some personal circumstances, and work. It was…well, hard, especially since I’ve always been present in the first two years of us doing the discussions. In turn, I also missed out on a lot of fun, and missed out on reading some really good books that they discussed, too.
• I stopped doing Required Reading because work got in the way, and because it wasn’t really helping me anymore in getting through my TBR. As a highlight, though, not setting a required reading goal for the month allowed me to read whatever I want, and it was liberating.

Stats!

Total books read: 66
Total pages read: 16,254
Total print books: 31
Total ebooks: 35
Total audiobooks: 0
Total rereads: 2

Written by male authors: 16
Written by female authors: 50

Ratings:
5 stars – 10
4 stars – 32
3 stars – 22
2 stars – 3
1 star – 0
Did not Finish – 0*
I didn’t DNF any, but I have several books that I put back on my TBR because they didn’t just captivate me as I expected.

Best Books:

• Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
• Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer
• All I Ever Wanted by Kristan Higgins
• The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jesse Rothenberg
• Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
• The Light of Faith by Pope Francis
• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
• The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
• Letters to a Young Poet by Rainier Maria Rlike
• The Mythology Class by Arnold Arre
• Trese 6: High Tide at Midnight by Budjette Tan and KaJo Baldisimo
• Darkness In the World by A.S. Santos

And that’s my 2014 reading year. I have two more books in my currently reading shelf, but I don’t think I’ll finish them before 2014 ends (not in a hurry, anyway). Here’s hoping for more good books in 2015, and hopefully, get back to book blogging. I’m not making any promises, but I will try. ;)

From we heart it, again :)

See you in 2015, lovely book people! :)