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Since I comfortably read 50 odd books last year, this year I decided to top it. When the year began, I set myself a target of 60 books and within the first four months of the year, I was already half-way through it. I was pretty happy with my success at reading and kept going book after book. By August I had finished reading around 40 books and I was looking to surpass my challenge easily. Then, September happened.
If you have been following my Action Replay posts, you will know how busy work kept me since September. Along with everything else, reading took a big hit. I was barely finding time to sit down for a cup of tea and breathe free, let alone get some time to read. Since I already was ahead in the challenge, it got nullified month after month. As of today, I have finished reading 59 out of 60 books. I started reading the last one for the year a month ago, but I haven't been able to get back to it thanks to work. I'll try to pick up another book and complete it over the weekend to successfully complete the challenge. I can always go back and reduce the count in the challenge, but I'm not the one to do that. Or the one to leave it unfinished.
Fifty nine books is a huge count for me and I read various genres this year. A friend sent a whole bunch of classic e-books and they kept me very occupied during breaks at work. I started the year with 'Madame Bovary' and went on to read almost all of Jane Austen's classics. I barely liked them, that's a different story. But yeah, I did survive them. I read a lot of new authors and highly emotional books. While a huge pile still remains unread on my shelf, I'll try to summarize my reading for the year here. Since I have bare minimum time to even compose this post, I'll take it monthly.
So, the best books that I read per month are:
January
1. Wonder - R.J Palacio
2. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
3. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
February
1. The Complete Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
2. A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
3. The Wife Between Us - Greer Hendricks
March
1. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
2. Carthick's Unfairy Tales - T. F Carthick
April
1. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
3. The Award - Danielle Steel
May
1. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
2. Forrest Gump - Winston Groom
June
1. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
2. Macbeth - William Shakespeare
July
1. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
2. Watchmen - Alan Moore
3. The Forty Rules of Love - Elif Shafak
4. Othello - William Shakespeare
August
1. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
September
1. Salt To The Sea - Ruta Sepetys
2. Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows - Balli Kaur Jaiswal
3. Sea Prayer - Khaled Hosseini
4. Milk And Honey - Rupi Kaur
October
This is when I took a complete break from reading for a month, so none.
November
1. The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick
2. Rafa: My Story - Rafael Nadal
December
1. The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
2. Twenty Love Poems And A Song of Despair - Pablo Neruda
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Best Books I read in 2018
~ Wonder - R.J Palacio
~ A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
~ Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
~ The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick
~ The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
~ The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
~ The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Books that left me disappointed in 2018
~ The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty
~ Pride And Prejudice - Jane Austen
~ Truly Madly Guilty - Liane Moriarty
~ Pyjamas Are Forgiving - Twinkle Khanna
~ The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Mark Manson
Books that surprised me with the ending
~ Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
~ Salt To The Sea - Ruta Sepetys
A book that I'm embarrassed to have read in 2018
~ The Perils Of Being Moderately Famous - Soha Ali Khan
A book on my shelf that I wish I had read in 2018
~ All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
An unexpected good book that I read in 2018
~ Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows - Balli Kaur Jaiswal
~ Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Special Mention for the year 2018
~ My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du'Maurier
This was a summary of my reading in 2018. To know the entire journey, follow me on Goodreads here.
For 2019, I have planned to read series of books. Starting with the 'Lord Of The Rings', followed by 'A Song Of Ice And Fire', I'll try to cover most of the famous series. I will also read standalone books, but I'll be setting a much lesser and realistic target this time. For someone like me who takes challenges seriously and frets over not completing it, it would do me good to set an achievable goal. If you have any must read series in mind, please do let me know.
How did reading fare for you in 2018?
50!! woww. What an excellent list Soumya. I am going to refer to your list while building my reading list for the next year. I could do only 30 and that itself was a challenge. I wonder why you were disappointed by Pride and Prejudice.
ReplyDelete60 actually :D
DeleteThank you, Raj! I did not like Pride and Prejudice at all, it was so superficial and the women just annoyed me in the book.
I love the way you did your recap. I'm going to pick some from your list which I haven't yet read. I wish you an ever better year in terms of reading and of course everything else in 2019! I managed to read 47 books this year having planned for 35. I was hoping I would be able to surpass 50 but the last two months of this year was to taxing emotionally. But still 47 isn't bad, I guess :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, dear Naba!
Delete47 is excellent :)
Ah, my target was 52 and I read only 40. But I am glad I read some really good books. Your reading list was amazing, I should say. Cheers to 2019 and happy reading! :)
ReplyDeleteP.S: I am planning for the GoT re-read in 2019 too :)
40 is still good :)
DeleteRe-read? You are done with them once already? :O
Wow!! You read 59 books- I am so impressed. I had set a target of 50 and am at 41 at the end of it. Hoping to finish the current one before the year ends!!
ReplyDeleteI am signing up for the book challenges as I am being tempted by Shalini and Sanch via their posts on the same!
Apart from the Goodreads one, I never knew about these incredible book challenges - what yummy books everywhere! But I will need to beg borrow steal books in 2019 as I am not going to buy a single book - I have tooo toooo toooooo many unread ones and thats such a shame!!
I hope you are able to read this last book and ace the 60 mark! XOXO!!
I'm just signing up for the Goodreads one with a realistic target, no other one for me :)
DeleteI did reach 60 thankfully, a day ahead :P
Love you!
59 books is an amazing achievement Soumya! I did enjoy some of the ones you have mentioned as well. The Husband's Secret was my first Liane Moriarty and I actually quite liked that...it prompted me to get her other books. I will admit nothing lives up to Big Little Lies. I'm hoping to read A Man called Ove in 2019...it's on my shelf. Oh and I think you will enjoy All the light we cannot see
ReplyDeleteDo read A Man Called Ove, it is something that should be read.
DeleteI'm looking forward to read 'All the light we cannot see', I saved it for an entire year looks like.
Wow, 59 is impressive, Soumya! And still there always will be more and more left to read. 😀I loved the way you did your reading recap. In 2018 I read 25 books, where in fact, my goal was 1 book per month. This year also my goal is to read 12 books in total and if I happen to read more, that’s a plus.
ReplyDeleteThank you! 25 books is so good considering the busy life you lead. May you read more this year.
DeleteWow, you managed to read a lot, despite your schedule. And such a wide variety of genres too!
ReplyDeleteI have taken notes from this list, and added a few books from your favorites to my TBR. I really have to get to the Eli Shafak book, and Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows. Keep hearing so many great things about these two books!
Wishing you an amazing 2019, filled with lots of good food, fun travel, and happy memories! Oh and lots and lots of great books too!
Thank you, Shantala! Oh please read these two books, they are amazing!
DeleteWishing you an amazing 2019 too <3