Finished 25: List, Stats & Award Type Things

I have read 25 new books this year, so am halfway through my goal and seriously considering increasing the amount I have to read for my challenge - except I think I'll wait until I've actually read 50 before doing that.  However, as I haven't posted anything for a while and haven't written a review since...checks...oh dear, Sisters Red in February, I should probably do something.

The List
01. Ash by Malinda Lo
02. The Waves by Virginia Woolf
03. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
04. Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce
05. Blood Fever by Charlie Higson
06. First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
07. The Haunting by Margaret Mahy
08. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
09. The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
10. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
11. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
12. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Player's Boy by Antonia Forest
15. The Players & the Rebels by Antonia Forest
16. The Elusive Grasshopper by Malcolm Saville
17. The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
18. Elizabeth & Mary by Jane Dunn
19. The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett
20. Heresy by S.J. Parris
21. The Marlows & the Traitor by Antonia Forest
22. The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart
23. The Boy Book by E. Lockhart
24. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
25. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

Stats
January - 2; February - 9; March - 10; April - 4

1sts Challenge - 6/20
2nds Challenge - 6/20
A to Z Title Challenge - 10 (I)
Victorian Challenge - 4
Project Fill in the Gaps - 8

'3 Book' Authors - Antonia Forest & E. Lockhart
'2 Book' Authors - Anne Bronte, Jasper Fforde & Melissa Marr

Longest Book - Elizabeth & Mary 592 pages
Shortest Book - The Haunting 144 pages

Fiction - 24; Nonfiction - 1*
Adult - 12; Young Adult - 10; Children's - 2

Award Type Things
Much in the spirit of when I finished 50 last year, these count for nothing at all except that they're fun to do in my head.  Just imagine Anne Hathaway has a different gorgeous dress for each announcement.

The Jane Austen: I have read all of this author's books and I hate that
Antonia Forest.  I finished The Marlows and the Traitor with a sense of great satisfaction - I'd read it, it was amazing, she's one of my favourite writers ever - then crashed headlong into the realisation that that was the last book of hers I had left to read.  There are no more new Antonia Forest books out there.  There never will be.  This sucks.  I am going to go curl up with The Cricket Term and lament this.

The J.K. Rowling: I need the next book in this series NOW
This is a serious clash between Melissa Marr and Dorothy Dunnett.  Until I finished Ink Exchange I would say that The Lymond Chronicles were winning - something made worse by the books only being available second hand, so I am going to have to search for them** - because omgLymondissoawesome but then I got to the end of Ink Exchange and I have so many questions and I want to know what happens and I ship Irial/Niall so hard it's a bit ridiculous.  So I think I'm going to call it a tie, because I also want to commend Dorothy Dunnett for an insanely complex plot.

Book With an Insanely Complex Plot

The Game of Kings.  This is not a bad thing, and it definitely shouldn't put anyone off reading her (good Lord, read some Dorothy Dunnett - I am going to have to write a more coherent review of this book soon) but it did mean that I was constantly surprised.  It wasn't even in a Harry-Potter-I'm-sorry-but-I-thought-he-was-the-bad-guy sense, just that people's motives and allegiances kept shifting and every time I thought I had a handle on what was going on it turned out that I was wrong.  Which was fantastic, because I never got bored and I always knew there was bound to be something else to change the perspective on everything, just as I knew Lymond was going to slither out of trouble yet again.

Book(s) That Made Me Glad Not to Be Fifteen Anymore
The Boyfriend List and The Boy Book.  Even more so than Into The Wild Nerd Yonder, these books grabbed hold of my remaining teenage angst and gave it a good shake.  It was painful at times, and occasionally touched my embarrassment squick a bit too much - but that's all part of being a teenager and what makes that books so good.  And with the hindsight of twelve years of mature reflection (ha!) I was able to treat all the teenage girl bitchery and teenage boy idiocy with yells of "oh, you bitch!" and "oh, you bastard!" and "they're so not worth it, Ruby!" that I felt was required.  These books are also serious contenders for The J.K. Rowling as I need the next book now because I need to know what happens (Noel Noel Noel, Noel Noel Noel - please?).

And I was going to do some quick final category things, but they're just going to be me rehashing a lot of what I've said above.  Of the 25 books I've read so far this year, my favourites are definitely anything by: Antonia Forest, E. Lockhart, Melissa Marr and Dorothy Dunnett, though I can recommend everything I've read.

* This sounds best read in the voice of the Saturday Football Results Man (that is his official title).
** I actually quite like looking for second hand books, there's a sense of purpose and achievement...right up to the point when it turns out that the last ones you need for your collection were only printed once and so each copy is worth hundreds of pounds.  Probably thousands now with inflation.