I love a good reading meme

[alexiscartwheel]

I keep meaning to do a real life update, but that will have to come at a later date, because I saw this end of the year reading meme on isiscaughey's journal and decided I needed to do it instead.

1. What's the best book you read this year?
Oh, I am never good at superlatives. I'm going to cheat a little bit and say Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis, which is essentially one novel in two volumes. I've really enjoyed some of her other novels, but this one really sucked me in. Time travel and the London Blitz? I'm so there. I was really immersed in these for a few days.

2. Any other reading highlights?
Bossypants by Tina Fey: Because it's really, really funny.
The False Princess: Because I'm a sucker for fairy-tale-esque stories, and this one went beyond the norm with some actually unexpected twists.
All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen: Because it's got some Shakespeare, some Wilde, and lots of kickass characters. If more steampunk were like this, I would be way more enthusiastic about steampunk.
Divergent by Veronica Roth: Because who doesn't enjoy YA dystopia. (Probably plenty of folks, actually.) I described this to a friend as "The Giver for people who liked The Hunger Games. In Chicago."

3. What's the most challenging book you read this year?
There are multiple ways I could interpret challenging, but I'm going with Letters Home which is an edited collection of Sylvia Plath's letters to her mother from her enrollment at Smith to her death. I started the book in January and finished yesterday. It was challenging for me both because of form (letters don't have much of a narrative thread) and subject matter (Sylvia almost always presented her life as if everything was perfect, up to the last letter she sent).

4. What's the worst book you read this year?
This is a tough one. As some of you may recall, bookwench31 gave me some awesomely bad ARCS that I reviewed on this very journal. However, I think the honor of worst book of the year goes to Death's Daughter by Amber Benson. This was the book that finally convinced me that I had way too little time to read to justify spending on reading awful books just for the hell of it (peer pressure be damned!).

5. Which authors featured most prominently for you in 2011?
That would be Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant (she's the same person, yo). If you haven't read any of her books, DO IT. She's an incredibly productive writer, which is great for me. This year I read the two latest in the Toby Daye series (my favorite urban fantasy series), Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea, and the first two in the Newsflesh series (my favorite zombie apocalypse series?), Feed and Deadline, plus the prequel novella Countdown.

6. Were you part of a reading challenge? Did you meet it?
Not anything formal, but I challenged myself to finish at least one book a week (that would be 52 total) for 2011. I'm currently at 55 with a few days left, so go me!

7. Are you signed up for any in 2012?
I'll probably try to top this year in 2012. Which should hopefully be easier now that I've finished watching Buffy and SGA.

8. What books are you hoping to get for Christmas (or buy next, if you don’t do the holiday gifting season thing)?
Not a specific book, but my mom and brother gave me a Kindle for Christmas! Right now I've got a few books from the public library and another from Project Gutenberg, because even with my new fancy toy in hand I am super cheap.

9. Which books are you most looking forward to reading in 2012?
I'm sure there are others but off the top of my head: Deadline by Mira Grant (OMG why is it not out yet?!), Discount Armageddon and Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire (hey, are we noticing a theme yet?), and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

10. Any final book thoughts?
I've said this to Patty before, but I really miss working in a public library and getting to see all the new books as they come across the counter. I feel like I have to work much harder now to keep up and to find stuff that really grabs me.

Comments

[mysticalchild_isis]

It sounds like I should add Divergent to the to-read list.

I also saw Little Brother & My Most Excellent Year on your favorites page- awesome!

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

Divergent was enjoyable overall, but things got especially intense toward the end, which is what makes me eager to get ahold of the next book.

Oh, that reminds me of one I forgot for 2012! Cory Doctorow is publishing a sequel to Little Brother, which I'm pretty sure is supposed to come out next year sometime.

[kit-the-brave.livejournal.com]

Aren't Blackout and All Clear wonderful? I was just thinking about them today - mainly about how much time the characters spent trying to track each other down and how worried they were when someone wasn't at an assigned meeting place, because of course, no one had cell phones. It's weird that that's the setting detail that sticks with me, but that just shows how great Connie Willis is at getting into the world of WWII London.

Plus, I just love Mr. Dunworthy.

And I just checked out All Men of Genius yesterday! I'm glad to know it's good!

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

I read some reviews of both books, but Blackout especially, in which people complained that the characters spent too much time worrying about where the others were and what was going to happen to them and not enough time acting... and I just disagreed with that completely! It felt totally authentic that they'd spend all that time worrying about arranged meetings not working out! They're stranded in the middle of the Blitz!

So, so good.

[carrotgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm totally short of the 52 book goal this year. I blame all the distractions of movies and TV shows. Want to read the Toby Daye series.

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

52 was definitely a challenge. There were definitely times that I kept reading a book that I didn't like that much just because I was already halfway done and wanted to finish something that week... which in retrospect was silly, cause I'd rather read things I enjoy.

I hope you like the Toby Daye books! Apparently I'm just going to force everyone I know to read Seanan McGuire's books. :)

[carrotgirl.livejournal.com]

Looks like you read some great stuff this year though. I do the same thing - at least the challenge puts the pressure on.

I will let you know what I think. I'm sure I'll like them!

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to decide on a new goal for this year. Since I managed to slightly surpass 52 this year, I think I should challenge myself to go a bit higher, but not to unattainable. (A few years ago I almost made 100, but that was when I was only working part time, not in school, and didn't have cable or Netflix, so I had tons of time!)

[carrotgirl.livejournal.com]

I remember that year.

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Books! I thought Divergent was awesome(!) -- even though I actually have a pretty low tolerance for dystopia, and had sworn off it after Mockingjay -- maybe because it wasn't really all that dystopic? I mean, it was, but it takes the reader a long time to figure that out. At first, it's just different and thought-provoking, not wrong. I am already on the library waiting list for the sequel. I hope it does not ruin it.