End of Year Review

Hello! Happy almost 2017!

I am sorry that I've neglected this blog for the past two months. It has been hectic with the holidays and my new job, but things are winding down now. I only finished one other book this year since my last review and that was The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. I was not a fan but did not have the heart or energy to write about why. I am currently reading Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis by Anne Rice, but like all Anne Rice books I am taking my time and savoring slowly. That will probably be my first review of 2017.

I thought it would be fun to do a Top 10 list to end the year. I did not start this blog until March so some books on the list did not get a review, but I will link to the reviews for the books that got one! These are in no particular order, but here goes.

Heidi in Bookland's Top 10 of 2016
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds (Also Redemption Ark from the same series)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The View From the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (There are reviews for books 3-7, just search the Harry Potter tag!)
The Dharma of Star Wars by Matthew Bortolin
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Honorable Mention: I Hate Fairyland by Skottie Young

A few of the books on my list were books that I reread this year. I debated on whether or not to include them and decided that because they were so enjoyable it was alright to include them here. Harry Potter was by far the most fun I had reading this year. If you followed my journey you know that this was the first time I read the entire series from beginning to end and I loved it. I will remember these books most when I reflect on my reading life this year.

My Goodreads goal was to read 52 books. According to the site I read 45, but according to my own list where I write a book once I have finished it, I read 48. Either way I did not reach my goal but I did come close! I am lowering my goal for 2017 to 48 books in the hopes to at least maintain that level of reading or maybe even surpass it.

I did not finish the Reading Challenge that my husband and I were doing. I believe it contained 40 categories and I did not fulfill 11 of them. Close again, but not close enough. (Although I do believe I beat my husband in the challenge!) We have decided not to do the challenge next year, fun as it is. There are a lot of books we end up setting aside that we want to read so that we can read books for the challenge and neither of us was happy about that this year. So next year will just be a "follow your heart" kind of reading year and I am so much looking forward to that.

I wish you all a wonderful new year and I hope 2017 is filled with many wonderful books!


"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

 

I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.

And it's this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever."

 

- Neil Gaiman