My 2017 Reading Year

If you are wondering why you should join Good Reads, the Reading Challenge and Reading Year wrap up is a really good reason.  They provide some interesting statistics about the books you have read and seeing all the covers together is really beautiful.  

I set my 2017 goal at 50 (same as 2016 which I exceeded by 7) but ended up lowering to 45.  Instagram is entirely to blame for the reduction in reading time.  

I listened to both the shortest and the longest books on audio CD

I enjoyed Winter which was the conclusion to the Lunar Chronicles Series.

I did not enjoy Let It Snow which was too similar to Dashing Through the Snow by the same author which I had listened to earlier in the month. 

Most and least popular refers to how many people have read those books not necessarily how well they enjoyed them.  Trampling in the Land of Woe has an average 4.5 Star rating.

My average rating should actually be lower.  The Good Reads rating system defines 1 Star as "I did not like it", 2 Star as "It was ok", 3 Star as "I liked it", 4 Star as "I really really liked it" and 5 star as "It was amazing".  I tend to overrate books because at my work 1 Star and 2 Stars are considered negative on reviews.  A lot of books I rated 3 should really have been 2.  In the later half of the year, I made an effort to think of it in terms of how much I enjoyed the book regardless of how well it is written (or not).

Happy to say both of these are accurate ratings!

Highlights:  

Finished 3 series (Lunar Chronicles, Raven Cycle, Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, Six of Crows duology)

Read 3 Graphic Novels (Wires and Nerve, Through the Woods, Anya's Ghost)

Favorite books of the year:  All 3 graphic novels,  The Girl Who Played With Fire, Crooked Kingdom, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Ender's Game

Least favorite books of the year:  The Perfect Poison, A Natural History of Dragons, Let it Snow, The Longest Ride

Update - I just realized I did't add The Martian to my Read shelf on GoodReads.  I listened to the audio CD in the summer.  The narrator was superb; he had just the right tone and inflection.  I almost quit listening 3/4 of the way through because there were so many heart stopping events that I couldn't take any more!   Adding this book did not change any major stats other than page count.