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2019 Reading Stats

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“Aragorn sped up on the hill.”

First line in The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

Hi, guys. Today I want to share some numbers with you all. All related to books of course so don’t worry, I’m not asking you to do any math. Without further introduction, let’s get into it.

In 2019 I read a total of 63 books and those contained 28,756 pages. This is slightly fewer books and pages than what I managed in 2018 (65 books and 30,181 pages). It’s close enough though, and those 65 books are still a record of mine. I don’t expect to beat it in 2020 as I plan to read some very big books.

My average rating was 3.6 out of 5 stars. See below how many books got 5 stars.

  • 5 stars: 13 books
  • 4 stars: 22 books
  • 3 stars: 16 books
  • 2 stars: 8 books
  • 1 star: 2 books
  • No rating: 2 books

Three of the 5-star books were rereads as were one of the 4-star books. That means that I only read 10 new 5-star books. That’s not a lot. I had a drought in 5 stars which lasted a couple of months over the Summer so I knew the number wouldn’t be very high. That is really something I want to rectify in 2020. However, I still choose to see it as positive thing that my most popular rating was 4 stars. Those are still good books.

I have been very good at reading a mix of YA and adult as you can see below. It’s almost 50/50.

A little disclaimer: I read 1 new adult book and 1 middle grade. It didn’t make sense making different categories for those so the new adult book is counted as adult and the middle grade is counted as YA. I’m expecting these numbers to change very little in 2020 but adult might end up leading slightly.

Then we have genres…

You think my favorite genre is fantasy? Don’t know what gave you that idea (lol). I could pretend that this diagram would look different next year but it’s not. I do read within a wide variety of fantasy sub-genres though.

Lastly, we have some funny and quick stats:

  • The highest rated book on Goodreads I read in 2019 was The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson – 4.65 stars.
  • The book most people also read was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – 4,454,728 readers.
  • The book fewest people read was Catching Stars by Cayla Keenan – 1,201 readers.
  • The shortest book I read Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner – 207 pages.
  • The longest book was A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin – 1,016 pages.

That was it for 2019. Do you know any stats like these for yourself? Tell me about some surprising ones in the comments.

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WWW Wednesday – October 16th

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“The town was in flames.”

First line in Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

Hi, fellow readers. This is my first ever post for WWW Wednesday, which I see so many other bloggers do every week. I’m hoping to do one each week as well but we’ll see if life will work with me on that. WWW Wednesday is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and all you have to do is answer 3 questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Fairly easy, so let’s get onto it.

What are you currently reading?

A lot. Well, for me 3 books at once is maybe just one too many. Firstly, I’m still reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I had to return it to the library but I’ve got it again so now I can continue. I have about 250 pages left of the 1001 (so close). I love it dearly so I actually don’t want to finish it too quickly.

Secondly, I’m reading Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski (Book 3 in The Witcher). I’m on page 184 out of the 315 but it’s not going well. I’m actually considering DNF’ing it, and I don’t DNF books so that’s kind of a big deal. It has been my commute-book and I’ve decided to just take a break from it and then hopefully manage to finish it before I have to return it.

The last book I’m reading is then my current commute-book and that is The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill. I really want to love this, but we’re not off to the best start. There’s something about the writing style that doesn’t really mesh with me although I can’t put my finger on what it is yet. I don’t hate the book but I’m just not loving it either.

What did you recently finish?

The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan (Book 2 in The Wheel of Time). Two down, 12 to go. I gave this one 4 stars.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Good question. There might be a possibility of me getting my hands on Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell this weekend. Not completely certain yet so I’m not getting my hopes up. If it happens though, I’m dropping everything else until I’ve finished that one lol. If it doesn’t happen, I think I’ll be reading The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden next but I have to finish something first.

How is your reading going? Let me know what you’re reading right now.

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TBR – Sequel September

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“In a town house at a fashionable address on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, every lamp blazes.”

First line in The Diviners by Libba Bray

Welcome to my first (and possibly only) ever TBR-post and that because I’m participating in the reading challenge Sequel September next month. Kathy from Books and Munches is the creator of the wonderfully convenient challenge for those of us who just can’t finish a series when we’ve started it. If you also find this idea brilliant and want to participate, go check out her blog.

Rules

◊ Post a blog post / comment / Tweet / whatever saying you’ll be joining me in my battle against the TBR-sequels and pingback to this year’s post.

◊ Share your list of all the TBR-sequels that you own and then decide which ones to give priority to.
[Can’t decide which ones to read first? Maybe you can create a poll and let others help you decide!]

◊ If you’re sharing your updates on social media, use #SequelSeptember so we can follow up on each other!

A couple of months ago I posted a list of the series I need to finish. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that I haven’t finished a single one of them yet. My TBR for September will therefore feature books from almost all of those series. I’ve picked 3 books that I’ll for sure be reading (unless the library decides to hate me):

  • Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson – Book 2 in Mistborn: The Alloy Era (alternatively, book 5 in Mistborn)
  • The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden – Book 2 in Winternight Trilogy
  • Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner – Book 5 in The Queen’s Thief

If I have more time to read after those, I have 3 other books to choose from.

  • The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson – Book 3 in Mistborn: The Alloy Era (alternatively, Book 6 in Mistborn)
  • The House of Hades by Rick Riordan – Book 4 in The Heroes of Olympus
  • The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin – Book 3 in The Broken Earth

I’m very dependent upon the mercy of my library but at the moment, all 6 books are available so I’m hoping to be able to stick to this TBR. Let me know if you’re also participating in this reading challenge and what you think of my TBR.

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Fantasy Series I Need to Finish

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It was late winter in norterhn Rus’, the air sullen with wet that was neither rain nor snow.

First line in The Bear and the Nightingale by Kathering Arden

Hi fellow readers. A couple of weeks ago I did a post about the fantasy series that I would really like to read. You can find that here. Today, I wanted to talk about the series that I’ve already started but for some unknown reason haven’t been able to finish. I’m the kind of reader who loves starting a new series. I love learning about the world, the characters, the magic. This is typically the kind of information you get in a series’ first book. That means that I often pick up a new series instead of continuing on with one I’ve already started. Please tell me I’m not the only one who does that.

I’m very aware of my problem and really try to finish series but I still have 7 fantasy series I want to talk about here. It includes series that aren’t finished but I haven’t caught up with them either. To indicate to you how I’m going to prioritize reading the books, I’m going to give them a rating between 1 and 5. 5 being the series I want to read the most. 

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

I read the first 3 books last year but then never picked up The Alloy Era. I really enjoyed the series and absolutely agree on all the hype surrounding Sanderson. I just think I needed a bit of a break and wanted to try out some other adult fantasy as that was very new to me (and still is). However, Sanderson seems to publish books left and right and it’s impossible for me to keep up anyway. Calm down, man.

Priority rating: 5

The Queen’s Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

I’ve read 3 out the 6 books in this series and I love it so much. I find it so unique for its genre as it almost reads like classic fantasy. The writing is very beautiful but not the easiest to read which is one of the reasons why it’s taking me so long to read them. I need to read something lighter in between. Another reason is that I don’t want to this series to end. I’m savoring them and trying to make them last as long as possible.

Priority rating: 4

The Broken Earth by N. K. Jemisin

I belong to the minority of people who is not head-over-heels in love with these books. I’ve read 2 out of 3 so I should really just suck it up and get to it. The writing is just really difficult for me to get into. My mind wanders when I read it and I end up being very confused. I like the concept of the story though and kind of want to see how it ends and how it all fit together.

Priority rating: 3

The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski

Yeah, I’ve only read the first out of 7 (I think) but I really want to have read them before the TV show starts. I think it’s coming by the end of the year or beginning of 2020. I wasn’t super excited about the first one so that’s probably not going to happen. I didn’t really care about any of the characters and really disliked the main one, Geralt. Hopefully, the series will catch my interest some more when I get through all the short stories. I’m definitely going to push through.

Priority rating: 5

The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss

I need to read The Wise Man’s Fear. No rush of course because the third book is never coming, right. I liked The Name of the Wind because the writing is just the style that I like to read. Kvothe: annoying as heck, but I’ll endure it for the writing. Maybe also for the plot if that ever comes into existence.

Priority rating: 2

The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan

I’ve read 3 out of 5, but I don’t particularly enjoy them too much. I just need to know what happens to Percy because I loved his series when I was younger. I know there are easier ways to figure that out (summaries) but I’m doing this! I also heard a lot of good things about the follow-up series about Magnus Chase so I kind of want to get to that.

Priority rating: 1

Winternight Trilogy by Kathrine Arden

I’ve only read the first one. It was the kind of book that grew on me the further along I got. I got used to the writing style and just enjoyed how Arden managed to create such an atmospheric story. You can literally feel the cold while reading and it’s amazing.

Priority rating: 3

Those were all the series I’m currently reading. I’ll try to make the rule for myself that I can’t start another until I’ve finished one. We’ll see how that goes. Let me know if you’ve actually finished any of these so you can tell me if I have something to look forward to.

Happy reading and have a great summer.

Line

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Fantasy Series I Want to Read

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“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

First line in The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien

Welcome, readers, to another post in which I’ll list the fantasy series currently on my TBR. These are all the series I haven’t started yet but mean to at some undisclosed date in the future. I’ve excluded series that are continuations of other series I’ve read such as Mistborn: The Alloy Era. Those count as series I haven’t finished, which I’ll probably make separate post about.

I’ll give each series a rating between 1 and 5 to indicate how I intend to prioritize this TBR. The key-word here is “intend”. Here we go!

The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

Does anyone hate this series? I haven’t come across anyone who doesn’t have this on their list of favorites so I’m sure I’ll love it. I’ve read Mistborn Era 1 by Sanderson and really enjoyed his writing style. It’s easy to understand and engaging at the same time. According to what I’ve been told, Stormlight is even better than Mistborn so I just need to find the time to read this.

Priority-rating: 3

Seven Realms by Cinda Williams Chima

Now this is mainly on my TBR because the booktuber, PeruseProject, can’t stop talking about it. I don’t know that much about what the series is actually about, but I’ve heard that it has some cool characters and some magic. That’s really all I need.

Priority-rating: 2

Farseer by Robin Hobb

I just really want to read some Robin Hobb. I’ve heard some mixed things especially about the writing style which I’m guessing isn’t for everyone. I want to give it try though so that I can see for myself what all the fuss is about.

Priority-rating: 3

The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

I’m genuinely terrified of this. It’s such a beloved series by fantasy readers that I don’t know what I’ll do if I hate it. My previous experiences with classic fantasy haven’t been great so I’d actually decided that I didn’t want to read Wheel of Time. But then I heard so much good about it so here we are. It’s such a long series though…

Priority-rating: 5

The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson

This is a series in which the premise intrigues me so much that no matter how many negative reviews I see, I still want to read it. From what I’ve heard, the romance should be really interesting, so I just really want to know what it’s about. It’s YA and that means that I am prepared for the possibility that I’m not going to like it too much. It still deserves an attempt in my opinion.

Priority-rating: 4

The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell

I want to read some more historical fantasy, and this one sounds pretty cool. Magic and time travel to early 20th-century New York. I’m here for that. Other than that, I don’t know too much about it so I’m excited to see how it turns out.

Priority-rating: 1

So that means that the next series I’ll be starting is The Wheel of Time which I’m very much looking forward to. I really want to know if you have read any of these and what you thought about them. Maybe you can convince me to prioritize differently.

Look forward to posts similar to this one where I’ll talk about some more series. Until then, happy reading.

Line

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25 Bookish Facts About Me

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I wanted to do a post which could explain a little about who I am since this blog is still very new. I remember seeing a lot of booktubers do these bookish facts videos some months back and I figured it was a good fit for what I needed. So, I’ve come up with 25 bookish facts about myself and my reading habits. It’s very random but I hope you enjoy.

#1: I get most of my reading done on my commute to work. I’m on the bus for an hour and a half every day.

#2: I don’t listen to audiobooks. It’s too difficult for me to stay focused so I only do it when my library doesn’t have any other options.  

#3: As a kid, I refused to read anything that wasn’t fantasy although my teachers really wanted me to.

#4: I have a weakness for pretty books. I see them, I buy them.

#5: Most of the books I read, I borrow from the library.

#6: I don’t see myself ever reading a thriller or mystery. They often seem so predictable to me.

#7: I never read in my bed and usually don’t read before I sleep either.

#8: I can’t listen to music while reading. Sometimes, I’m able to have a football game going on the TV at the same time but not music.

#9: I don’t DNF books. I need to be able to “tick” the book off in my head no matter how bad it is. It will be my commute book because then my choices become: read the bad book or look out the window.

#10: I’m often reading two books at once. One for my commute and one at home. In my experience, it helps me read the books faster.

#11: I don’t have a preference when it comes to paperbacks vs. hardbacks. I love them both. Even Mass Market paperback. They are perfect to read on the bus.

#12: I’m from Denmark but I never read books in Danish. It’s an awkward language, guys.

#13: I prefer books with male main characters although I can’t say why.

#14: I love sad books that can make me cry. Books need to make me feel something and sadness is just a strong emotion.

#15: However much I love reading, I can’t read for hours without a break. I approximately read for about 30-45 minutes and then I need to do something else. It really doesn’t matter how good the book is. I need a break.

#16: I hate talking about books with people who don’t read. Specifically, people who ask about the kinds of books I read without really caring. Then I find myself trying a explain a complex fantasy world and plot in the fastest way possible to get the conservation to end and it’s just not fun.

#17: My least favorite trope is the “physically strong female” trope. That thing when a book has a “strong” female character and it actually just means that she can kill people. To me, it just implies that you can only be strong if you behave as masculine as possible and don’t show any feminine traits. There are so many other ways to show strength.

#18: My favorite thing to see in books is strong friendships. Throw in a lot of sarcastic comments and I’m in love.

#19: The first book I ever owned was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone (Danish version).

#20: I read classics, but I don’t love them. Yeah, I mainly read classics because of the peer pressure. I should probably stop that.

#21: As a child, I was obsessed with the series called Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda and reread it several times.

#22: I very rarely read poetry collections, graphic novels and short story collections.

#23: The book with the lowest average rating on Goodreads I’ve read is The Magicians by Lev Grossman (3.5 stars). My rating was 3 stars. It surprised me because this means Twilight has a higher rating.

#24: The book with the highest average rating on Goodreads I’ve read is The King’s Men by Nora Sakavic (4.64 stars). My rating was 5 stars.

#25: I don’t do physical damage to my books. That includes dog earing and writing in my books. I don’t mind other people doing it in their own books. I just like that my own are clean.

Too much information about me but I hope that maybe you could identify with some of the points. Let me know which ones.

Have a happy day of reading,

Line

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The Beginning of My Reading Life

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“Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive.”

First line in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

You would think that someone who has considered themselves an avid book reader since childhood would remember the first book they ever read. Apparently, love of reading does not equal an exact recollection of your life at the age of 8.

I remember reading with my grandmother. My grandparents had a box of fairytale books including classics such as Cinderella and The Beauty and the Beast, and my grandmother would read them to my brother and I to get us to sleep. I think the box contained about 6 of these short books, so as you can imagine, we heard these same stories quite a lot.

As the oldest of my brother and I, I, of course, learned how to read first. It meant that I would sometimes insist on doing the reading instead of my grandmother. You know how children like to proudly brag when they’ve finally learned something. That was me. Yes, I was the annoying child.  

So, the first book I ever read (outside of school, that is) must have been one these fairytales. I don’t have the faintest idea which one, but the point is that it was a fairytale. Talk about a textbook example of how to make a child a reader.

Before I could even read, I had gotten books for two Christmases in a row. The first two books in the Harry Potter series gifted to me by mom. Was I thrilled, jumping-up-and-down-ecstatic, over-the-moon-with-joy about getting these books? No. I put them away and went to play with my new and far more exciting toys.

Jumping forward a couple of years to when I was about 9 or 10, I had learned to read. The Philosopher’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets still sat on my shelf as the sole two books I owned. Unread. A day of utter boredom was then all it took for me to fall down the reading hole, never to climb back up. I grabbed The Chamber of Secrets and started reading. And yes, you read correctly. I started with the second book, and that because I had already seen the first movie. In my mind that equaled having read the book so I didn’t need to do that (I know better now, don’t worry).

After that, I couldn’t read the rest of the books in the series fast enough. I caught up on them just after the fifth book was published and then the greatest test of my patience began. However, the reward for that patience were memories I’ll always cherish. Going to the bookstore to get the newest book when it was released at midnight along with other fans who were just as eager and excited as I was. Then coming home and reading throughout the night, cursing my body for needing something as trivial as sleep when Harry needed to escape Voldemort or faced the greatest challenge of all: surviving Potions class.

My hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

As to so many other people, the Harry Potter series has meant the world to me. I even have a cliché story about how I met my best friend through a Harry Potter-related site. I still reread them from time to time and enjoy them just as much if not more. They help me if I’m feeling down. They make me feel safe and understood, and I will be forever grateful to my mom for introducing them to me and getting me to read.