2016 Wrap-Up (the year that started out gloriously before deteriorating)

The time has arrived yet again for a yearly wrap-up!  2016 certainly flew by and while I wasn’t so successful with everything I wanted to do, I’m feeling good about going into 2017 with better goals and such.  I’ll be posting my 2017 resolutions in the next few weeks but for now, let’s reflect on 2016 (AKA the year that began wonderfully and ended disastrously).
This year, I employed the use of a spreadsheet to keep track of the books I read and things about them so I can actually have some stats this year!  I’ve made some infographics and charts and things so enjoy!

My average rating for 2016 was 4.11 stars.  That just seems really high to me.  Maybe I just read really good books in 2016 or I’m getting really generous with the stars.  Either way, I’m going to try and make my star ratings a little more varied for 2017.

Some Reflections:
So clearly, I read a LOT of fantasy this year.  Fantasy is my favorite genre so that doesn’t really surprise me.  I think I did an okay job diversifying though in terms of genres although I could use a bit more horror and historical fiction.  In terms of actual diversity, I need to work on that as well.  I’m not really actively seeking out diverse books right now which I think I need to start doing in 2017.
I also didn’t read that many crazy long books this year either.  I read a lot in the 150-500 page range and I really want to expand the borders of that more.
No surprise, most of the books I read were in ebook format.  I started college this year and my university has a 5 story library with a crazy hybrid Dewey decimal system that I still have to figure out so finding hard copies of books is a nightmare.  It’s just easier to read ebooks.
I did start plenty of series’ this year but I also had quite a few standalones.  For 2017, I really want to finish up all these series’ that I started.  There are plenty that I just haven’t read the last one or two books and it’s driving me crazy.  It’s one of those things though where I don’t want the series to end so I just don’t read the last book.  Like the Blood of Olympus series or the Peculiar Children series.
I’m proud of myself that I read from so many different authors though (although that did contribute to all the series’ being started).  71 is a good number!

The Books
I’m going to list all of the books I read this year by rating, starting with the 5 stars.  I’m not going to deal with the half stars at this point because some of the books I haven’t gotten around to fully reviewing and that’s when I decide half stars.  So without further ado, here are the books!
5 stars
The Great Hunt (#2) by Robert Jordan

Letter From a Desperate Father by Maron Anrow
Until Then by Krista Noorman (#2)
Galthain’s Bones by Krystine Kercher (#1)
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan (#1)
Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran by Laura Secor

Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn
The Vagabond Vicar by Charlotte Brentwood
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

Escape from Witchwood Hollow by Jordan Elizabeth Mierek
The Siren by Kiera Cass
Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Meritropolis (#1) by Joel Ohman
Guantanamo Diary by Mohamendou Ould Slahi

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Kill Devil Hills (#1) by Sarah Darlington
The Winner’s Kiss (#3) by Marie Rutoski
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A Court of Mist and Fury (#2) by Sarah J. Maas

Winter (#4) by Marissa Meyer
Ice Like Fire (#2) by Sara Raasch
Kitty Hawk and the Curse of the Yukon Gold (#1) by Iain Reading

4 stars

What’s Left of Me (#2) by Kat Zhang
Fabricating Jada by Vanessa Marie
The False Titanbringer by Riley Westbrook
Envious Obsession (#2) by Katie Keller-Nieman

A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller
The Martian (#1) by Andy Weir
The Mist by Stephen King
This Is What Happy Looks Like (#1) by Jennifer E. Smith
Falls the Shadow (#1) Stefanie Gaither

Jesse’s Girl (Hundred Oaks) by Miranda Kenneally
It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
Queen of Shadows (#4) by Sarah J. Maas
The Iron Warrior (#3) by Julie Kagawa
Sweet Light (#1) by Alexia Halliwell

I Was Here by Gayle Forman
That One Moment (#2) by Amy Daws
The Masterpiecers (#1) by Olivia Wildenstein
The Girl At Midnight (#1) by Melissa Grey
Me Before You (#1) by Jojo Moyes

Time Shifters by Shanna Lauffey
Pivot Point (#1) by Kasie West
Hope With Stickers (#2) by M.L. Crum
Cascade (#2) by Lisa Tawn Bergren
Counteract (#1) by Tracey Lawson

Meritorium (#2) by Joel Ohman
Sweet Temptation (#4) by Wendy Higgins
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Everyone Dies At The End by Riley Westbrook
Where She Went (#2) by Gayle Forman

Lucky by Alice Sebold
The Union (#1) by T.H. Hernandez
The Midnight Star (#3) by Marie Lu
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Color Purple by Alice Walker

3 stars

The Summer I Turned Pretty (#1) by Jenny Han
Romance is for Other People by Lee Wolf
Alicia Bewitched (#3) by Nick Iuppa and John P. Mendoza
Dark Fae by Lillian Cartier

Dangerous Games (#31) by Margaret MacMillan
Through the Riptide (#2) by Bert Murray
The Book of Prophecy by Steven J. Guscott
The Body Electric by Beth Revis
Kragan by Dennis K. Hausker

Soulless (#1) by Sarah J. Pepper
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Rooms by Lauren Oliver
Geek Girl (#1) by Holly Smale
Soldier (#3) by Julie Kagawa

Rogue (#2) by Julie Kagawa
Unwind (#1) by Neil Shusterman
Split Second (#2) by Kasie West
A Fractured Light (#2) by Jocelyn Davies
The Diary of V. Frankenstein by Steven J. Guscott

2 stars

Me & Earl & The Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

There you have it!  Quite a few books!  I’ll be doing a post with my thoughts on some of the stand out books in a couple days.  I’ll also be doing a 2017 goals/resolutions post soon!

0 thoughts on “2016 Wrap-Up (the year that started out gloriously before deteriorating)”

  1. It looks like you had a great year! 🙂 I'm glad you got as many books read as you did. My year was kind of bad one because I had a slump of epic proportions. But, I'm feeling a lot better this year, so that's a plus!

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  2. Yep! While I'm disappointed I didn't meet my GR goal of 100 books, I think I still did pretty well taking into account everything that has been going on this year. I'm glad you're getting back into reading! Towards the end of last year, I had a large slump as well and I only wanted to read my favorite books and I didn't feel any desire to read new books. I'm starting to shake it off though!

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  3. I love that you call 2016 the year that started great and ended in disaster. Yep! That about sums it up. Winter was the longest book I read this year too! And I don't think there's anything wrong with reading mostly 4 star books. That's awesome! And not a single one star? Good for you! It sounds like you know what you like.

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  4. Haha well it's true! In every part of the year.Cool! Winter was such a good book although I was sad to see the series come to an end.Haha yep! Normally, I only rate books one star if I DNF them which I very rarely do.

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  5. Thanks! I can't really take credit for it; one of the bloggers I follow put together this whole template and gave it away to people (for the life of me I can't remember who it was which is so so terrible of me) so I'm actually very organized for a change. You're right, it does make it so much more satisfying to look back on the year. 🙂

    Like

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