I set a reading goal of 100 books. I am happy to report that I did indeed reach, and exceed my goal. As of December 18, I have finished 113 books! Yay me. Of course there were winners and losers:

My Best Books of the Year (in no particular order)- These are the books that are going to stay with me.

  • The Push by Ashley Audrain
  • Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour
  • The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
  • The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
  • Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
  • The Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
  • Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
  • The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

My Worst Books of the Year (in no particular order)- These are the books I’m going to tell you to avoid like the plague- no pun intended

  • Palms and Pomegranates by L.S. Csida
  • The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
  • How the One Armed Sister Sweeps her House by Cherie Jones
  • It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
  • Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

I did my own experiment this past year: I marked down how I heard about a book. While some books that I’ve read I truly didn’t remember how I heard about them, I had an origin story for the vast majority.

Most of the books I read were from Goodreads Newsletter, but to mixed results- they were neither all winners nor all losers. My favorite books of the year were also a mix of book clubs such as Jenna and GMA, magazines like Real Simple and Good Housekeeping. There was no clear winner as to where I got recommendations from.

As to the worst books- many of the books that fell to the bottom of my pile were books recommended to me by people in my book clubs. People I personally know were by far the worst recommenders of books.

Why? My guess is that when I pick a book from a source, there is clearly something that interests me enough to read the book. Many book club choices are books I would never read on my own. Reading blindly is both good and bad.

As to my Goodreads stats:

37,554 pages read

Shortest book: Simple Organizing 128 pages

Longest Book: Cloud Cuckoo Land 626 pages

Average Book Length- 332 pages

Most Popular: Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Least Popular: Palms and Pomegranites

My average rating: 3.6

Highest Rated on Goodreads: The Man Who Died Twice

My goal for next year….

drum roll please…

85 Books…

And…for all those wondering…I got my TBR down to a manageable 72 books!!

55 thoughts on “My Year in Books”

  1. I find that people I know personally are not great at recommending books. It’s sort of a “I like this thing, so surely everyone I know will like this thing, too” idea, and it doesn’t really work because reading tastes are so varied. If I’m recommending a book to someone specific, I want to know all sorts of things about their reading history and what they’re interested in, otherwise it’s a good bet that I’ll make a bad recommendation.

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    1. Yes!! That’s exactly it! They may be your best friend, but if they like different things than you do, the recommendations are probably going to be off. Unless I find someone who loved the exact same books as me, it’s not going to work. Books are more intimate than tv or movies, so there is no universal like

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  2. Congrats on 113 books and Yay, on making your TBR list more manageable. One less thing to stress you out. I am eager to keep track this year and I will make note of your favorite books and check them out. They may not be what I would be interested in, but you never know, they may.

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  4. I was given a wonderful gift certificate to Barnes and Noble by my stepdaughter. The problem I am discovering is that I prefer my kindle books and authors who self publish on Amazon. However a few have peen picked up by Barnes and Noble.

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  7. I’ve only read one of those books – the low-brow Richard Osman mystery. I like him, but I didn’t care for his book, I’m afraid. Just goes to show how we are all different. I’ve almost stopped reading but, inspired by you, I am going to set myself a reading target – might go for fifty books as a start.

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  10. Wow. That’ impressive. Seriously! I will definitely take your recommendations. Isn’t reading great?!? Question; do you read only 1 book at a time, or a couple? I tend to start a couple at a time, but it’s out of misplacing the other book/s.

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  16. You read so much! Congrats on 113 books. That’s amazing! I enjoy reading all sorts of things – including blogs obviously but I’d never get through anything like that number of books in a year. I have to read bits of books for work and study but whole books cover to cover I probably only read about 5 in a year – I’m guessing – I’ve never actually kept track. Maybe I’ll set myself a goal for next year? It will have to be more modest than yours though – say 10 books? 😆

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  19. 113??!! That’s amazing! I’m halfway through book number 77 for the year. My goal was 60. Loved House on The Cerulean Sea, as well as The Lincoln Highway, and found Thursday Murder Club charming and entertaining but also the tiniest bit sad. I tend to get recommendations from blogs, bookstagram and book podcasts. What Should I Read Next/Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club are my go-to’s. Happy Reading in 2022!

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      1. It’s really good. One guest each week – they give three books they love, one book that wasn’t for them, what they’re reading now and what they want from their reading life. The host then suggests three books they might read next. There’s also a summer reading guide episode late Spring. Made my TBR shelf turn into a TBR cart! Hahaha

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    1. It’s funny…I had book club today. The book was something I read before and hated…the person who picked it liked it and couldn’t understand what I didn’t like, and I think you know me well enough to know that I had examples to back up my opinion. That’s part of the problem…people don’t often understand how someone can not like something that they like…

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  23. This was fun to read! I’ve been trying to get to Anxious People – I even had it checked out at the library, but didn’t get to it in time and had to return it. Seeing it on your best list makes me want to get to it soon. And of course, I will definitely read The Lincoln Highway – it’s a long one! I thought it was interesting that the recommendations from your friends and book clubs fell short. Also – the one-armed sister book, ack – the title alone is not appealing to me. Happy reading in 2022 – I’ll look forward to seeing what you pick up!

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