2016 Reading Wrap Up

2016 Reading Wrap Up!

How many books did you read and did you meet or beat your own personal goal?  Or did you get caught up in reading and forget to keep?    

2016 turned out to be a stressful year for a variety of reasons which means my goals went out the window and I escaped into comfort reads, sticking with favorite authors.    So I ended up rereading quite a few and didn't keep track of how many.  However  after perusing my shelves, both physical and virtual, recreated my reading year and discovered I have read 101 books.  What fun! What memories!    I discovered a few books lost in the shelves to read for next year.  They keep having babies.  Derailed by rabbit trails!  Back to the subject at hand.

Statistics wise:

101 Books
49 authors
11 are new to me
34 female
36 whole series or part of series
49 paranormal and urban fantasy with a couple dystopian thrown in for good measure. The remainder are a mixture of mystery and suspense, psychological thrillers or mild horror, contemporary romance and historical.
43 print books
58 e-books
17 Chunky
6 nonfiction


What were your most favorite stories?   Any stories that stayed with you a long time,  left you wanting more or needed to digest for a while before starting another?  Did you read any books that touched you and made you laugh, cry, sing or dance. 

I fell in like with Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series this year and devoured all eight chunky books as well as binge watched the first two seasons of the TV series on Starz.  Once I finished the series, it took me a while to move on as my head was full of Claire, Jamie and company.  It made me laugh, sigh, yell in frustration at stupid choices, cringe during fight scenes and  saddened when a favored character died.

Robert McCammon's dystopian Swan Song captured my attention and left me wanting to know what happened to the characters after the end of the story.

T.M. Causey's Saints of the Lost and Found enthralled with the character who could read any person she came in contact with and know what they had lost - whether physically or emotionally or spiritually.   As soon as I finished it, I turned right around and read it again.

What is the one book or the one author you thought you'd never read and found yourself pleasantly surprised that you liked it?  Any that made you want to toss it across the room in disgust?

Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy both surprised and disgusted me.  It was a fascinating adventure into  India in the 1960's. A blend of culture and politics and how it plays a role in the life of both family and friends. Seth has a way of weaving a story and enmeshing the reader into the characters lives. So when the character didn't make what I considered the right choice, I wanted to throw the book across the room in disgust.  

What countries and time periods did you visit?  

I went from the bottom of the sea up to outer space.  Spent quite a bit of time visiting various countries in Europe including England, Scotland, France and Greece.  Traveled through the Middle East and settled down in India for a bit. Visited the past as well as the future and explored alternative worlds.  I traveled the Appalachian trail  with Bill Bryson and experienced the 60's through Joan Didion's eyes.


Plans for next year?  Attempt to stay on track and have fun with birthstone bookology. Read from my own stacks until... well, just until I give in and buy that next new book in the series I've been waiting for.   😎


Happy to say this year is ending on a very thrilling note as we just closed on a new business property. Let's just say after 6 months of hoops, I'm an expert hoop jumper now. A story for another day.   You might say the planning and renovating a new building, while sorting, throwing away and packing a business that's been in the same spot for 28 years will be equally stressful.  But in this case, the good kind, so onward and upward.

~cheers~