2022 End of the Year Book Survey

This year was interesting because we spent a lot of it doing major house projects, house hunting, and then moving! After 13 years in our house, it felt like a big undertaking. I found myself drawn to rereading some of my favorites in the midst of the chaos.

Number of Books You Read: 148

Number of Rereads:  LOTS! I reread almost all of Neil Gaiman's books before seeing him speak in May. I also reread a few of my favorites like Lord of the Rings and The Count of Monte Cristo.  

1. Best Books You Read In 2022

Classics — The Count of Monte Cristo (reread)
Historical Fiction — The Rose Code, Lessons in Chemistry, and Love & Saffron

Mystery — The Maid, The Club, The Murder of Mr. Wickham

Literary Fiction — The Shell Seekers and Oh William!

Nonfiction — Essentialism, These Precious Days, The Johnstown Flood, The Good Nurse

Fantasy — Lord of the Rings (reread)

Play — I and You, Poor Clare
Detective Story — The Maisie Dobbs series, Ink Black Heart and A World of Curiosities

Science Fiction — Sea of Tranquility, Annihilation

YA — A Place to Hang the Moon

Romance — Book Lovers

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Upgrade, I loved his previous two books, but this one was just meh. 

3. Most surprising (in a good way) book you read?

A Christmas ornament of my fav 2022 books from my bestie.

Remarkably Bright Creatures, one of the main POV characters is an octopus, and it was wonderful. 

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

The Snow Child (one of my favorites last year)

5. Best series you started in 2022?

The Maisie Dobbs series, I read the first seven books this year and they are excellent! 

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2022?
Rosamund Pilcher, I read both The Shell Seekers and Coming Home and loved them both.

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Laundry Love, it's literally about doing your laundry, and I enjoyed every second of it! 

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

A World of Curiosities, it had me on the edge of my seat. 

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

Essentialism, so many great tips for prioritizing and learning how to say no. 

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2022?

The Cartographers and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow 

11. Most memorable character of 2022?

Maisie Dobbs, Six Thirty the dog from Lessons in Chemistry, and Lucy from Oh William! and Lucy by the Sea

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2022? 
The Sea of Tranquility, I loved it so much I read it twice. 

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2022? 
24/6 made me infinitely more aware of our dependence on being available at any moment and our obsession with our phones.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2022 to finally read?

The Shell Seekers 

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2022?

“I believe that calling myself a Christian means living up to Christ’s example of brave, sometimes shocking love.” - Shauna Niequist

“This had often broken my heart, to realize that you never know the last time you pick up a child.” - Lucy by the Sea

"One must always have adventure in life, or the promise of it, at least." - Last Christmas in Paris

“The work is the pleasure but then always the judgment that can strip the pleasure like turpentine.” - Madly, Deeply

"This is a strange lesson of living in a pandemic: life can be tranquil in the face of death." - Sea of Tranquility 

“It’s really something to return home after a month away. It would seem that the world should have changed in someway, as it to say, out of courtesy, we understand your journey was illuminating insignificant, and because it affected you so, the universe, two, is making a slight but noticeable shift.” - Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life

16. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2022?

A Short Guide to a Happy Life - 64 pages

The Count of Monte Cristo - 1,276 pages 

17. Book That Shocked You The Most?
A World of Curiosities and Sea of Tranquility 

18. Favorite Couple?

Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache and Fern and "Wally" from The Good Sister

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship of The Year?

Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott (do they count as romantic or non-romantic?) and Alice and her father from This Time Tomorrow

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2022 From an Author You’ve Read Previously?

Troy by Stephen Fry and These Precious Days by Ann Patchett

21. Best Book You Read In 2022 That You Read Based SOLELY On A

Recommendation From Somebody Else?

The Swimmers, it was lovely. Fair Play was packed with tips for balancing the workload in a marriage. 

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2022?

Charlie from Book Lovers

23. Best debut you read?

Becoming Duchess Goldblatt, was just lovely and Lessons in Chemistry was excellent. 

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

Annihilation

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

Shit, Actually (pardon the title), this was a hilarious review of classic movies. 

26. Book That Made You Cry in 2022?

Joan and Imogen's friendship in Love and Saffron 

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Dear Fahrenheit 451, a librarian wrote letters to her favorite and least favorite books and the result was too funny. 

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

The Rose Code

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2022?

Comfort Me with Apples, this story is inspired by a well-known story, but you don't know that until the end. It was so strange, but I'm still thinking about it. 

30. Book That Made You the Maddest?

99 Days, every character made such stupid selfish choices. Ugh. 

31. Best Audiobook?
Happy-Go-Lucky, no one can make me laugh out loud like Sedaris reading his own work. 

32. Best Book to Film Adaptation?

Where the Crawdads Sing, the set of that film was just incredible!

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.

2021 End of the Year Book Survey

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.

My 20th Dewey 24-Hour Readathon!

********  UPDATED HOUR 13********

I can't believe this my 20th readathon (see links below). My 20th!!! I'm doing things differently this year. I'll be at a lake house all weekend and I'm tackling some cleaning projects and chasing kids, so in the true spirit of the readathon I'll be attempting to fit in lots of reading, but I'll be spreading it out over 48 hours instead of 24. 

Here's a link for more info about the Dewey Readathon. Today you can find me posting on Litsy and Instagram as @avidreader25 as well as here. I love being able to participate, even in an unconventional way. 

Reading Stats

Pages Read: 367
Currently Reading: Address Unknown 
Books Finished: 3, Elevation, The Book of Will, Nathan

Introduction Quiz:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? A lake house in Southern Indiana

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? Address Unknown 

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Coconut cashews

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! We just got back from a trip to Texas. We've had a fun week enjoying fall break with lots of reading, a zoo trip, and building forts. 

5) If you participated in the last readathon, what’s one thing you’ll
do differently today? I'm spreading my reading out over the weekend since much of the day on Saturday I will be cleaning and spending time with family. 

PAST READATHON POSTS:

April and October 2011 / April and October 2012 / April and October 2013 / April 2014 / April and October 2015 /April and October 2016  /  April and October 2017 / April and October 2018. April and October 2019. April and October 2020. April 2021.