artsy musings of a bibliophile

2012 End of Year Book Survey

by

A survey by Jamie from The Perpetual Page-Turner.

BEST IN BOOKS 2012


BEST BOOK YOU READ IN 2012?
As a reader it’s always hard to choose just one and as a human being it’s impossible. So here how I cheated on the question based on the genres I read most this year.
BOOK YOU WERE EXCITED ABOUT AND THOUGHT YOU’D LOVE BUT DIDN’T?
Silver by Talia Vance, I really wanted to like this book but I just couldn’t connect to the characters or feel for them in any way unfortunately.

MOST SURPRISING (IN A GOOD WAY) BOOK OF 2012?
Through to You by Emily Hainsworths. I really thought this would be an okay read but the writing as well as the simplistic story took me by surprise and I fell in love with it.

BOOK YOU RECOMMENDED TO PEOPLE MOST IN 2012?

Take Me There by Carolee Dean because it is my favorite book. I just love Dylan Dawson and his story just breaks my heart and puts it together every time I read the book. I also recommended Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry a lot because you just can’t live without ever knowing the Noah Hutchkins and her siren, Echo Emerson.

BEST SERIES YOU DISCOVERED IN 2012?

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Duh.

FAVORITE NEW AUTHOR YOU DISCOVERED IN 2012?

Katie McGarry is definitely a favorite of mine even though I have to read more than a book to decide that. I also completely love Suzanne Collins and John Green is a pretty good author as well. Ada Adams is super talented and awesome, I adore her and her books. Heather Ostler and Jessica Therrien are both awesome authors who write kickass books.

BEST BOOK THAT WAS OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE OR A NEW GENRE FOR YOU?

This year I didn’t pick up much of those because I never felt like it but out of the ones I did, I guess it’d have to be Tundra 37 by Aubrie Dionne because I hardly ever read any sci-fi romance and the book really pulled me in.

MOST THRILLING, UNPUTDOWNABLE BOOK IN 2012?

ExtraNormal by Suze Reese because it had an alien among humans and I just wanted to know so bad what happens and how it will happen. Everything was live with an undercurrent of mystery and apprehensiveness and there were a lot of risks involved when it came to Mira’s job.

BOOK YOU READ IN 2012 THAT YOU ARE MOST LIKELY TO RE-READ NEXT YEAR.

A lot of them actually. I’ll definitely be reading The Hunger Games trilogy, The Fault in Our Stars, Pushing the Limits, From What I Remember…, Matched series and Angel Creek series.


FAVORITE COVER OF A BOOK YOU READ IN 2012?

MOST MEMORABLE CHARACTER IN 2012? 
Definitely Katniss Everdeen and Cinna from The Hunger Games trilogy, Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars, Noah Hutchkins and Echo Emerson from Pushing the Limits, Will Bixby from From What I Remember… and Anya Balanchine from All These Things I’ve Done. Freaking awesome characters.

MOST BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN BOOK READ IN 2012?

The bittersweet and dark prose of Pretty In Black by Rae Hachton was very engaging and a girl who hangs out in the cemetery? You just know it will be written beautifully and will be too good to ignore.


BOOK THAT HAD THE GREATEST IMPACT ON YOU IN 2012?

Even though I only read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green like two days ago, I know this book is going to stay with me for a long time.

All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin also had a great impact on me because of the living conditions of Anya and what she goes through. It’s mind boggling-ly good.

BOOK YOU CAN’T BELIEVE YOU WAITED UNTIL 2012 TO FINALLY READ?

Definitely The Hunger Games trilogy even though I totally had to wait till 2012 because I wanted to read it in print and I couldn’t find it anywhere and when I did find it, I was so busy due to school and all. Sigh.

FAVORITE QUOTE FROM A BOOK YOU READ IN 2012?

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (twatlantis)


SHORTEST AND LONGEST BOOK YOU READ IN 2012?

Longest book I read was From What I Remember… by Stacy Kramer and Valerie Thomas with 480 pages. It’s surprising because I had so much fun reading it.
Shortest book I read was The Forever Contract by Avery Sawyer. Even though it is only 46 pages long, it managed to leave an impact on me. I wish it was longer though.

BOOK THAT HAD A SCENE IN IT THAT HAD YOU REELING AND DYING TO TALK TO SOMEBODY ABOUT IT?

The ending of Catching Fire totally caught me by surprise. For a minute there, my mouth was literally hanging open.

FAVORITE RELATIONSHIP FROM A BOOK YOU READ IN 2012.

I loved the relationship between Katniss Everdeen and Gale Hawthorne in The Hunger Games trilogy, they are just inexplainably just so good together, they got each others’ backs and have a sense of each other’s needs better than their own. I also loved the relationship of Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars, they’re like the best couple ever. I want that for myself sigh.

FAVORITE BOOK YOU READ IN 2012 FROM AN AUTHOR YOU READ PREVIOUSLY.

I read a lot of books by debut and indie authors this year so I didn’t read much of book two and such. However, I loved Crossed by Ally Condie. I wasn’t blown away by Matched but Crossed made me feel all sorts of emotions and it had everything I love in a book. All the time I was hoping and praying that Cassia meets Ky but I wasn’t sure what will happen if they do and how it will all play out. 

BEST BOOK YOU READ THAT YOU READ BASED SOLELY ON A RECOMMENDATION FROM SOMEBODY ELSE:

Inbetween by Tara Fuller because of all the buzz on Twitter about bloggers loving it and I decided to check it out. It’s an amazing read and Finn is pretty swoon-worthy. 

BOOK BLOGGING/READING LIFE IN 2012

NEW FAVORITE BOOK BLOG YOU DISCOVERED IN 2012? 

I started last year in November so I discovered literally a couple hundreds book blogs and out of those I really love Ron’s Stories of my Life, Mandee’s Vegan YA Nerds, Elena’s Novel Sounds, Sam’s Realm of Fiction and Amelia’s The Authoress.

FAVORITE REVIEW THAT YOU WROTE IN 2012? 

I really loved my review of Greta and the Goblin King by Chloe Jacobs because it just flowed out of my mind and onto the page.


BEST DISCUSSION YOU HAD ON YOUR BLOG?
Sadly, I haven’t had any. I suck.

MOST THOUGHT-PROVOKING REVIEW OR DISCUSSION YOU READ ON SOMEBODY ELSE’S BLOG?

A lot! From the top of my head: Amy reviewed Flawed by Kate Avelynn on her blog and I just loved that review so much! Also Vicky’s review of In the Woods by Tana French was totally awesome, I loved her choice of words.

I read several on Anna’s blog Literary Exploration and I loved the one titled ARCs – What they are, how to get them, and what to do with them, it helped me a lot as a newbie blogger. Vicky also posts great discussions and I really liked her post titled Is Blogging Becoming a Popularity Contest?


BEST EVENT THAT YOU PARTICIPATED IN?
I participated in Armchair BEA and Bout of Books 5.0 this year. They were both pretty awesome events and I got to discover a lot of great bloggers.

BEST MOMENT OF BOOK BLOGGING IN 2012?
All the Twitter chats for Bout of Books 5.0 were awesome, I had a lot of fun tweeting about the books I was reading, having bookish discussions and getting to know other Book Bouters.

MOST POPULAR POST THIS YEAR ON YOUR BLOG?
My blogoversary post which got 1200+ views.

POST YOU WISHED GOT A LITTLE MORE LOVE?

All of them! Ha ha no, I just wish more people read my review of Take Me There by Carolee Dean and discover what an awesome book it is!


BEST BOOKISH DISCOVERY?

I discovered the third floor of a bookstore I had been visiting for years and it had YA books! I was shocked because there are never any YA books in my country except for the extremely popular ones like Twilight or Fallen series. I am so glad that now I can read more print books. I don’t mind eBooks but still yay!


DID YOU COMPLETE ANY READING CHALLENGES OR GOALS THAT YOU HAD SET FOR YOURSELF AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS YEAR?

I wanted to read 100 books but I got to read 87 so had to reduce my challenge to 85 ha ha. Other than that I finished the YA contemporary as well as the Stand Alone reading challenges.

LOOKING AHEAD…


BOOK YOU DIDN’T GET TO IN 2013 BUT WILL BE YOUR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY IN 2014?

Get this: Before book blogging there were about a hundred books in my to-read shelf and today there are 500+. But from the top of my head I really want to read Delirium and Divergent series. I need moar dystopia nom nom nom.


BOOK YOU ARE MOST ANTICIPATING FOR 2013?

A lot. I’ll list a few of them here:


ONE THING YOU HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH OR DO IN YOUR READING/BLOGGING IN 2013.

Cross the one hundred books read mark and bring out more of me in my book blog with spontaneous posts and discussions. Hopefully.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. AWW thanks for the mention. Flawed was a tough review to write. I loved reading this post. So many great books and bloggers mentioned.

  3. A lot of the books you mentioned I either have on my shelf to read or I need to get my hands on. So glad you found the YA section of your bookstore!!
    xoxo Doodle 🙂

  4. I haven't read a lot of the books you mentioned! A bunch of them are on my TBR list though.. so I should really get to them next year 🙂 Anyway, awesome survey and I totally agree about The Fault In Our Stars. I read that in the beginning of 2012 and I still remember how it made me felt.

  5. Oh yes you need to read Divergent series and you've read a wonderful selection of books. I cannot wait to read Pushing the Limit and Awakening is on my wishlist as well.

  6. Great list. I love how it's set out too =)
    Some books I hope to read in 2013 in this list =)

  7. I am so excited that you recommend Take Me There by Carolee Dean. I think it's absolutely underrated. Not enough people know it and it's such an incredible book. Great and very thorough survey, haha!!

  8. I really enjoyed reading this post and learning more about your reading habits and your blog. I was curious since I stumbled upon your blog for Top Ten Tuesday.

    I of course then had to read your review of Take Me There, sure enough your review got my attention. I will have to check this book out!

    I can't believe you don't have that much access to young adult books. That would drive me crazy.

    I am now a New Follower,
    Kay @ It's a Book Life
    http://itisabooklife.blogspot.com/

  9. Cruised through this and was happy to see books I haven't seen mentioned a lot. Also? Katniss/Gale fans are SO rare. I…I think one day I'm going to vlog about why I love them so much, if I can ever find the words. So *hug*. Thanks for visiting my blog!