I knew when I saw the survey from Perpetual Page Turner that my post would be huge. I can’t seem to help listing multiple books for each question. So I apologize in advance for the massive post, but I promise this will be my only year end summary post. I may update it if I read something incredible this month.
Number of Books read in 2012: 149
I don’t include re-reads in my top books list for each year. Since this year I made re-reading a priority quite a few of my favorites would have been re-reads. I think it’s only fair that a single book isn’t my favorite 3 years in a row or something. Also, the books included in this post are all the books I read this year, so they are not limited to books published in 2012.
1. Best Book You Read In 2012?
Here’s my top ten (with links to my reviews), because really, who can pick only one?
2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2012?
4. Book you recommended to people most in 2012?
5. Best series you discovered in 2012?
The Underdog trilogy by Markus Zusak
6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2012?
7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?
The Master and the Margarita and Mindless Eating; the first is a crazy Russian classic and the second is a nonfiction book dealing with food. Neither is one that’s would normally appeal to me.
8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2012?
In the Woods and The Likeness
9. Book You Read In 2012 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year:
10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2012?
In the Woods, The Prisoner of Heaven and A.D.
11. Most memorable character in 2012?
Edmund Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo; the patience, the heartbreak, the sheer brilliance in planning, I won’t be forgetting him anytime soon.
12. Most beautifully written book read in 2012?
13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2012?
Cloud Atlas, because it was the first read-along I hosted and also because the book was so complex. It had a huge message, you really had to work for it, but it was very powerful. Also, having the movie come out in the same year gave me the chance to compare the two and think about the details of the book all over again. It’s a book that has stayed with me and my appreciation for it has grown deeper the more I mull it over. Here’s one bit that stuck with me…
“Belief is both a prize & battlefield, within the mind & in the mind’s mirror, the world. If we believe humanity is a ladder of tribes, a colosseum of confrontation, exploitation & bestiality, such a humanity is surely brought into being, & history’s Horroxes, Boerhaaves & Gooses shall prevail…. One fine day, a purely predatory world shall consume itself… In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul; for the human species, selfishness is extinction.”
14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2012 to finally read?
The Sign of Four and Hannah Coulter; the first is now my favorite Sherlock Holmes book. The second is by Wendell Berry and I can’t believe I’ve never read anything by him before now!
15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2012?
Just one, sorry I can’t pick just one!
“Reading, I had learned, was as creative a process as writing, sometimes more so." – Jasper Fforde
“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living.” – The Count of Monte Cristo
“When angry count four, when very angry swear.” – Mark Twain
"Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you." – The Fault in Our Stars
“Be generous in your dealings, but always have something saved for rainy weather.” – Life is So Good
16. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2012?
Lysistrata – 80 pages and The Count of Monte Cristo - 1,276 pages
17. Book That Had a Scene In It That Had You Reeling and Dying To Talk To Somebody About It?
Both the end of Gone Girl the end of The Count of Monte Cristo fall into this category.
18. Favorite Relationship from a Book You Read In 2012 (be it romantic, friendship, etc).
The friendship between FermÃn and Daniel in The Prisoner of Heaven; I loved getting to see those two grow as friends and learn the true history behind how they met. Also the relationship between Hazel and Augustus (sob*) in The Fault in Our Stars.
19. Favorite Book You Read in 2012 from an Author You Read Previously:
20. Best Book You Read That You Read Based SOLELY on a Recommendation from Somebody Else:
21. Biggest new book blogging thing you did this year.
I hosted my very first read-along (with Care’s Online Book Club) and it was really wonderful. Also, I joined the team of moderators at the Classics Club Blog and have really enjoyed working on that.
22. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year? Yes! I completed the following challenges …
Rereading Challenge – I gave this one to myself. I wanted to re-read at least 12 books this year. It was one of my favorite things I did and I think it really made me appreciation the joy of rereading.
“And there lay the essential differences between reading and rereading. The former had more velocity; the latter had more depth. The former shut out the world in order to focus on the story; the latter dragged in the world in order to assess the story. The former was more fun; the latter was more cynical. But what was remarkable about the latter was that it contained the former.” – Anne Fadiman
23. Best bookish thing you did or event you attended.
The Vivian S. Delbrook Visiting Writers Series at Butler University, talks by both Margaret Atwood and Jhumpa Lahiri. Also, visiting Sinclair Lewis’ boyhood home in Minnesota and Fitzgerald’s birthplace in St. Paul during a road trip with the Huz!
How was your 2012 reading guys?
