The week between Christmas and New Year is always one for reflection. The excitement of looking forward to Christmas is over, but it’s not quite time to start you New Years resolutions yet, so we look back on the year just been. One of the things I wanted to do this year was get back into reading more and I set myself the challenge on Goodreads of reading 20 books. I managed 17, which I’m pleased about, it’s a lot closer than I had expected. Next year I will set 20 again and hopefully this time make it. I also started writing more reviews and even did a couple of posts for Bloggers Bookshelf, a site that I personally love.
So, in no particular order, here are my top 5 books that I read for the first time this year:
1. Paranormality: Why we see what isn’t there by Professor Richard Wiseman – This book is not condescending towards paranormal believers at all, instead Wiseman explores the even more unbelievable and miraculous world of the human mind and gives you a few tricks that you can play on it.
2. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood – The first instalment in the MaddAddam trilogy sees Atwood create a scientific utopia and all at once destroy it in this terrifying but by no means impossible vision of the future.
3. Where’d you go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple – Funny, bright, smart – this novel is a pure delight.
4. Girlvert: A Porno Memoir by Oriana Small A.K.A Ashley Blue – Blimey, this was an eye-opener! Oriana gives a brutally honest, sometimes surreal, account of working in the porn industry but one that required challenging and a lot of reading between the lines.
5. The Hundred Year-Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson – Part caper, part (entirely fictionalised) romp through 20th Century history, Allan Karlsson is certainly my most memorable protagonist of the year.
And my reading goals for 2014:
- Read 20 books (new to me, re-reads don’t count)
- Check out my local charity shops for book bargains once a month
- Read at least 5 of the unread books I have piled up at home
- Attend at least one author event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival – remember to get tickets quickly before they sell out this time!
Do you have any book-related resolutions for 2014?
Excellent list. Happy to see Jonas Jonasson made it at no. 5!
I loved the book, ridiculously long title and all!
I totally fell off the reading band wagon in 2013 and very much aim to return to being a book worm in 2014. Fall in love (and currently reading) Lauren Bacall’s By Myself biography is very much helping me refind my love for a good book!
It’s so easy to let reading slip in this online world nowadays. I don’t read many biographys but I think I will try this this year.
Love the book goal you set for yourself. I have a friend that sets on every year and ups it by 5 or 10 for the next year – yikes!
xGillian
Ooh that’s ambitious! I have a broader goal of reading 50 new books by the time I’m 30 (March 2017) which I’m 11 into, so may have to up it every year.
I really enjoyed “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”. Semple is a hilarious writer and the story just grabbed my attention.
I think if I had to choose my number one it’d be Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Must read her other book This One is Mine next.
I have her other book on my TBR list. It’s part of the 2014 reading plan!
Are you on goodreads.com? You can easily set reading goals there and keep track with what you want to read or read. I also read The Hundred Year-Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared and didn’t quite like the main character that much haha! I thought the characters were all kind of plain but the story was fun! :)
Yeah I love Goodreads. I like reading other user’s reviews after I’ve read a book to see if I agree. Aw well I guess I can see how Allan would be an acquired taste – he was frustratingly hapless at times!
This is a great goal – and I loved The Hundred Year-Old Man who Climbed out of the Window – the characters are a bit random, but the plot is just so funny.
It was just so absurd, totally loved the ride!
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