2021 End of the Year Book Survey

Thursday, December 30, 2021

Number of Books You Read: 162
Number of Rereads: 19
Fiction: 125
Nonfiction: 37

1. Best Books You Read In 2021
Classics — Passing, Address Unknown, and Anna Karenina (reread)
Historical Fiction — Code Name 
Hélène
Mystery — Double Indemnity, Rock Paper Scissors, and Eight Perfect Murders
Literary Fiction — The Madness of Crowds, Beartown
Nonfiction — The Anthropocene Reviewed, Taste, The Lazy Genius Way, Much Ado, These Precious Days
Fantasy — The Stormlight Archive
Play — The Book of Will, I Love to Eat, Outside Mullingar
Science Fiction 
 Before the Coffee Gets Cold
YA — Instructions for Dancing 
Children’s — The 13 Clocks and The Magician's Nephew (reread), Look Up!

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
Early Morning Riser, I just kept expecting the characters to do something to change their circumstances, but they never did. 

3. Most surprising (in a good way) book you read?
The American Royals series, just fun and with a bit more politics than just fluff, which I liked!

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

5. Best series you started in 2021?
The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2021?
Emily Henry is just delightful! I read two of her books, Beach Read and People You Meet on Vacation. 

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
French Kids Eat Everything, such helpful tips in teaching your children to eat slowly and diversely. 

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
Annapurna: A Woman's Place

9. Book You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
The Anthropocene Reviewed 

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2021?
Good Company and Elevation

11. Most memorable character of 2021?
The cast of the Stormlight Archives, especially Kaladin and Shallan

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2021? 
The Snow Child 

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2021? 
Everybody Fights by Kim and Penn Holderness, great tips for the inevitable fights that happen in marriage. I also liked Our Souls at Night, a quiet, short book that made me think about how we live with our past mistakes and how family or societal expectations can often dictate our choices. 

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2021 to finally read?
Parable of the Sower, it felt like it was written for what we're going through right now! 

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2021?

“In my old age, I see that life itself is often more fantastic and terrible than the stories we believed as children, and that perhaps there is no harm in finding magic among the trees.” - The Snow Child

“Being a parent makes you feel like a blanket that’s always too small. No matter how hard you try to cover everyone, there’s always someone who’s freezing.” - Beartown

“The posture most natural to him is not a pointed finger but open arms.” - Gentle and Lowly

"There’s something about the absence of light mixed with near exhaustion that loosens tongues and strengthens relationships." - Amelia Unabridged

"Mine is a level of fury that requires two coats of lipstick and a fully loaded revolver." Code Name Hélène

“Too much self-sufficiency was sort of mean to the people who loved you,” Kit thought. “You robbed them of how good it feels to give, of their sense of value.” - Malibu Rising

“Jasnah had once defined a fool as a person who ignored the information because it 
disagreed with desired results.” - Words of Radiance

“Food is one of the best things about being alive. Not just food. Good food. There is a chasm between sustenance and satisfaction, and while she spent the better part of three hundred years eating to stay off the pains of hunger, she has spent the last fifty delighting in the discovery of flavor. So much of life becomes routine, but food is like music, art, replete with the promise of something new.” - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2021?
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - 32 pages
The Stormlight Archive - 4,574 pages 

17. Book That Shocked You The Most?
Passing by Nella Larsen and the true events in Across that Bridge by John Lewis 

18. Favorite Couple?
Vivian and Malcolm in Royal Holiday and X's grandparents in Instructions for Dancing

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship of The Year?
Evelyn Couch and Ruth in The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop and Shallan and her two other personalities, Radiant and Veil, in the Stormlight Archives

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2021 From an Author You’ve Read Previously?
The Survivors by Jane Harper and Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith (Rowling)

21. Best Book You Read In 2021 That You Read Based SOLELY On A
Recommendation From Somebody Else?
 The Murderbot Diaries, so entertaining! 

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2021?
The husband from The Code Name Hélène

23. Best 2021 debut you read?
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
Definitely the Stormlight Archives

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal, I've never felt so connected to a community of readers! 

26. Book That Made You Cry in 2021?
Beartown

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?
Amelia Unabridged and Much Ado (a behind the scenes look at my favorite theatre)

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
 The Snow Child, it just broke my heart! 

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2021?
Before the Coffee Gets Cold, between the time travel and the translation from Japanese, it's such a unique book. 

30. Book That Made You the Maddest?
Beartown and In Defense of Food (It's insane that our food industry has gotten to the point where we are undernourished and overfed.)

31. Best Audiobook?
Taste read by the author Stanley Tucci, what a delight! 

32. Best Book to Film Adaptation?
In the Heights, technically the book is about the making of the musical, but I loved seeing it become a film this year! 

Thanks to Perpetual Page Turner for originating this survey! It’s always so much fun to look at everything I read throughout the year and think about what I loved/hated. 


Photo by me.

6 comments:

Bookertalk said...

160 books in one year is phenomenal. How on Earth do you remember them? I struggle even with the 65 I’ve read.

Amanda said...

This one cracks me up. "Stormlight Archive - 4574 pages" ...so far :D I think one year I answered the "best relationship" question with Shallan and Pattern, and last year, Navani and Raboniel. The relationships all throughout those books are fascinating!

I also think the Murderbot books were the funnest reads of the year!

Care said...

LOVE THIS! I'm thinking of getting out of an uncomfortable (too many people, too many I don't know and some I know who aren't vaxxed!) gathering today and I think I valid excuse is to stay home and BLOG. LOL THANKS for reading-along with me in 2021 AND our ALMOST CONNECTION in person! WOW - just knowing "we almost..." actually makes me weirdly happy. That's weird, right!? #eyerollemoji

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Bookertalk - I have a weirdly excellent memory. No idea why! My best friend always asks me if she's read certain books because she knows I'll remember. Plus I track my reading in LibraryThing, so that helps too!

Amanda - There are so many excellent relationships in the series! I love that very few of them are black and white. They are much more realistic. I'm so grateful you encouraged me to dive into the series!

Care - It makes me happy too! I feel like we will definitely meet in person one day. We've been connected for so many years! The readalong was fun! I just adore that book. And yes, staying home is the right choice! Pick up a book instead.

Bybee said...

I love all the questions you ask yourself!

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Bybee - I got all the questions from Perpetual Page Turner. Such a great survey! I"ve been doing it for so many years now that I sometimes think about the questions throughout the year.