I really had no intention of doing this, but I just have so much reading everyone else's lists that I couldn't stop myself. It was really hard to keep it down to ten, but I managed with a little bit of cheating. :P (One thing that helped was not allowing myself to count rereads, of which I had quite a few this year...only makes sense not to count them as it's unlikely I would have been rereading them if I didn't already know I at least liked them a lot.)
In no particular order, my top ten reads of 2013:
*The 10pm Question by Kate De Goldi. Damn, but this book just holds a very special place in my heart. Always will.
*the Tomorrow series by John Marsden. Yeah, here's the cheating. It's seven books, but I honestly don't know how to separate them from one another, as it was the experience as a whole. They were exciting and heartbreaking and pull-you-in-and-not-let-you-goable. And there was the added bonus that I read them with Maxidoodle.
*Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. One of those, I-wish-there-was-a-way-to-make-everyone-read-this-book books.
*The Night Watch by Sarah Waters. This book has stayed strongly with me despite it being one of the first books I read this year. I loved it wholeheartedly. Even more than Fingersmith, I think, though it also made my list.
*Castle Waiting II by Linda Medley. If rereads counted the first one would be here too. I just can't put into words how much these books charm and delight me!
*Shine by Lauren Myracle. Oh my god, how this one got to me. Shattered my heart.
*Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. *hugs book*
*The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. I've had a hard time explaining even to myself what it is about this book that captivated me so, but it is, without question, a treasure.
*Hero by Perry Moore. This is probably my surprise of the year. It's not that I didn't expect to like it; in fact, I was rather certain I would. But I did *not* expect to fall so head-over-heals completely in love with it. A definitely one for the huggable book category!
*Under the Dome by Stephen King. Despite it's massive size, I never wanted to put this book down. It was engrossing in the most horrifying way. And horrifying not because of the speculative aspects, but for the all-too-human ones!
And a few honorable mentions: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor, The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years by Sonia Shah, Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life by Stephanie Staal, Joyland by Stephen King, More Than This by Patrick Ness, and Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang.
I read a total of 105 books this year (if I don't finish any more this year, and I likely won't). That's a lot for me--I'm pretty sure I haven't finished that many books in a year since before Annie was born, maybe not since I was a kid myself. February, aka Graphic Novels Month, definitely helped bring that number up this year. And I'm very happy to say that Chris is up for doing another Graphic Novels Month with me again this February! :D
Here's to oodles and oodles of awesome reads in 2014!!!
