Posted in Reviewing Habit

Reading and Reviewing in 2015

Reading Reviewing 2015

Well here we are nearly at the end of 2015 and as usual I will soon be posting my top 10 books published this year – but here is a chance for those books not published this year to have their moment in the spotlight as well as indulging me in my love of facts and figures.

So far I have read, and reviewed 143 books in 2015 which add up to a total of 44,774 pages which tells me 2015 has been spent reading far shorter books but slightly more of them!  Once again I have read some fantastic books, and some that were not quite so good!

What Remains

The Life Projectdreads tells me that the longest book I read was What Remains by Tim Weaver with 562 pages, whilst I am the only person to have read The Life Project by Helen Pearson which will be published next year – it may be non-fiction but this is fascinating stuff and would have easily been the winner of the non-fiction read of the year if it had been published in 2015

The Girl On The Train

725,499 other Goodreads readers also read The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins with me making it far an away the most popular book I read in 2015 and the fourth of the most popular review read by you guys!

Interestingly (for me anyway) the second most popular of my reviews was The Book of You  by Claire Kendal which I actually read in February 2014, a review that still gets a number of hits each week!
The Book of You

This House of GriefOnce again the split in my reading is crime heavy with 82 books equating to 57% falling squarely into the crime fiction or psychological thriller categories but of course they can crime also features in my historical fiction section as well as popping up in the non-fiction category too for example This House of Grief by Helen Garner which is one of the best books I’ve read this year.

 

Sadly despite my best intentions to cut down on the books I have for review and read more from my own (bulging) bookshelves, cupboards, tables…. I only read 34 of my own books in 2015 a mere 24% and not the 40% I was aiming for but I will do better in 2016! I read 10 of these (some belatedly) for Cathy’s 20 Books of Summer which provided some exceptional reading in the form of Dancing for the Hangman by Martin Edwards Dancing for the Hangmanand The Whicharts by Noel Streatfeild, the adult novel that later became the successful Ballet Shoes.  And 2015 was the year I finally got around to reading the epistolary wonder which is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Anne Barrows. Not only is this a great read but it accurately portrays the history of the occupation of the Channel Isles.The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel SocietyThe Whicharts

In 2015 I read 71 authors who were new to me, some of these were so good I read more than one book by the author in a year whereas others have simply added to the TBR mountain to be tackled in 2016 (and beyond) One of those authors I should have read way back as it probably is my top ten read of 2015 – The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley simply blew me away! The Go-Betweeen

So there’s a taste of what I’ve been reading and the reviews you’ve seemed to like the best – coming very soon are my chosen top ten reads published in 2015 – you can see all 143 books read and reviewed so far here or for a more compact view check out those books I chose for 2015 book bingo!

I’d like to thank all those authors and publishers who’ve given me a fantastic selection of books, the readers and commenters on this little blog and those who connect with my reviews via twitter, you have all made my world brighter in 2015.
Happy reading everyone and here’s to Happy a New Year full of new books!

Author:

A book lover who clearly has issues as obsessed with crime despite leading a respectable life

33 thoughts on “Reading and Reviewing in 2015

  1. Interesting comparison between which books were your personal favourites – and which reviews most of us readers of your blog seemed to enjoy the most. Not always a perfect overlap, by all means, right? Sounds like a very good year – 71 new writers, goodness!

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  2. Oh yes I too had that feeling this year I was neglecting g what I already own in favour of the new stuff. I ended up reading far more contemporary works than ever before. But on the good side think show many authors you have discovered for the first time and how you are helping sustain them.

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    1. Thank you – it would help the poor old TBR if I didn’t enjoy so many of them as there simply isn’t enough time to read everything I want to. I’m not going to give up on the new but I really do want to read some of my own treasures too.

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  3. I’m looking forward to reading more books from my own shelves in 2016 as well. Breaking away from the reviewing and reading what takes my fancy. You got through a fair few books Cleo, I look forward to following your reading into the next year.

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  4. I want to say how much I’ve enjoyed reading your reviews this last year! So nice to see what you’ve been reading, but it often makes me want to check out whether the book is available to me here. It’s usually not, at least for the new ones. In any case, I love your reviewing style and have had a good time following you around as you read this or that. My plan for 2016 is to do much more reading from my own shelves. I say that and hope to be able to actually do it. LOL

    Look forward to seeing your ‘top 10’ and here’s to some great reading in 2016!!

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    1. Thank you Kay that’s lovely and exactly why I started blogging. I love recommending books and even when I don’t particularly enjoy a book I know that other’s might well if the review is written in a balanced way… I must read more from my own shelves this year but I am a sucker for a brand new book!

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  5. You had a such a good year, Cleo! I’m impressed with the way you’ve kept track of your reading, too. And trust me, you’re by no means the only one who didn’t exactly reduce the TBR pile… I’ll be keen to find out which books you thought were the best.

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  6. I like how Goodreads brought us our Year in Books….my longest book was The Lake House, at 500+ pages, and my shortest was one of the prequels that I read.

    I am going to take another look at their analysis and do a post, too.

    I enjoyed The Book of You, The Girl on the Train, and now I want to look for The Go-Between. Thanks!

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    1. I liked that feature too and it made me chuckle that I had a book that only one other person had read! I was hoping to have started The Lake House but already but hopefully over the New Year – thanks for stopping by and I highly recommend The Go-Between.

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  7. I love reading this kind of wrap up posts 😀 I’ve done similar to you….I’ve read lots of shorter books to reach my reading challenge. Will try to change that next year 🙂

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  8. 71 newby-to-you authors, not to mention 143 books in total is most impressive Cleo. No wonder publishers and authors value bloggers! Look how our enthusiasms build the TBR, making the cash registers go kerching, kerching!

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  9. The thing I love about your roundups is that they make me feel good about my own addiction – you’re way worse than me for review copies and new-to-you authors!! 😉 So glad The Go-Between made your list – you’ve really tempted me to add it to the re-read list.

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  10. I’ve really enjoyed your reviews, Cleo, and they’ve definitely had me adding plenty of new titles to my shelves. Glad you enjoyed one of my favorites from the past few years, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society!
    Happy New Year and happy future reading, too!

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  11. Congratulations on these statistics! I think we all agree The Girl on the Train has been THE crime fiction book of 2015, at least in the UK. Here is to a 2016 full of books, reading, writing and blogging all together. Happy New Year, Cleo! xxxx

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  12. Hi Cleo,

    I already have a couple of your featured books on my ‘Want To Read’ list and I could quite easily have added all the rest. But I was good and only picked one which I just couldn’t resist ‘The Book Of You’. My current read ‘Flowers For The Dead’, is also about a psychologically disturbed stalker / murderer and it is so good that another similar storyline waiting in the wings would be good.

    Thanks for a great post, it sounds as though you had a brilliant reading year.

    Have a very Happy New Year 🙂

    Yvonne

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