2011: End of Year Book Survey

This survey is hosted/created by Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner.  I also completed it last year.  A full list of the books I read in 2011 is here.

1. Best Book You Read in 2011?

Posted my Top Ten here, but even that was tricky to choose/order once I'd gone past 1 and 2.  My best book of the year was The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, which I cannot recommend enough, even with the caveats that 1) it's out of print in Britain unless you get the US editions in Foyles or go second hand on amazon (both options are often expensive; 2) it's complex as hell; and 3) I'm still not sure I understand everything, but I like that in a book if it's because the writer is good rather than because it's a muddle.

2. Most Disappointing Book/Book You Wished You Loved More Than You Did?

There were a couple of these, usually a result of my own expectations:

The Body Finder by Kimberley Derting - I enjoyed it but didn't love it as much as I thought I would
The Marlows and the Traitor by Antonia Forest - I think because her later books are so damn good I was disappointed by this one; also, like End of Term, there are some really painful bits
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys - on paper, many things I love - Jane Eyre, feminism, reimagining of a text - but it left me feeling a little meh

3. Most Surprising (in a Good Way!) Book of 2011?

YA Paranormal - almost every one I read but especially the Wicked Lovely series, My Soul to Take and The Iron King.  I went in expecting certain things and then, oh, I was an idiot, because it turns out not everything is Twilight.

Percy Jackson - again, went in with expectations, this time that I would be Outraged; I'm a Classicist, dammit, I am not Going to Hold With Any of This Nonsense.  Loved the first two, have the remaining three lined up.  Though Hermes is a young guy in my head (and he and Apollo have drinking contests).

4. Book You Recommended Most to People in 2011?

Looking for Alaska by John Green.  I read it last year but this was when I got other people to read it, mostly by rabbiting on about it.  Now pushing Paper Towns on my flatmate.

5. Best Series You Discovered in 2011?

This was the year of awesome series, but the top five: the Lymond Chronicles, Ruby Oliver, Wicked Lovely, Georgia Nicholson and Percy Jackson.

6. Favourite New Author You Discovered in 2011?

Dorothy Dunnett, Rosemary Sutcliff, E Lockhart and Helen Grant.

7. Best Book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.  I've read dystopian and science fiction before, but never quite like this.  It is bleak and brilliant and the style might take a bit of getting used to but is so worth it.  Am going to need to reread this and read the remaining two in 2012.

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book of 2011?

Sheer sticky fingers, don't interrupt me readability - Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins.  I made my flatmate confiscate it when it arrived because I had my own writing to do, then got it back in the evening and didn't put it down.

Plotty, whoa where is this going? - The Crowfield Demon by Pat Walsh.  Angels, demons, fairies and a medieval monastery.  This was written with me in mind.  Ditto The Iron King and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

9. Book you most anticipated in 2011?

There were a few: Lola and the Boy Next Door, Bad Taste in Boys, Real Live Boyfriends and Beauty Queens are ones I bought and read.  There are others in my TBR pile mocking me.

10. Favourite Cover of a book you read in 2011?

11. Most memorable character in 2011?

Francis Crawford of Lymond.  Unknowable, infuriating and a walking quotations book, but he's fascinating.

12. Most beautifully written book in 2011?

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant and Before I Die by Jenny Downham.

13. Book that had the biggest impact on you in 2011?

Probably Before I Die.  Though the Ruby Oliver series also deserves a mention for how hideously accurately it portrays social breakdown when you're a teenager.

14. Book you can't believe you waited UNTIL 2011 to finally read?

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Tithe by Holly Black and Nation by Terry Pratchett.  All on my shelves for ages, all not read - in the case of Speak and Nation, because I thought they would be too painful.  I have to stop shying away from books I think will 'hurt'.

15. Favourite passage/quote from a book you read in 2011?

The Eagle of the Ninth - the chase across Scotland, so amazing.

Dancing in my Nuddy Pants - the ferry journey to France, driven by Captain Mad, makes me laugh every time.

This is tricky without books nearby to quote from, but vast chunks of Beauty Queens made me want to break my unwritten rule and write in a non-study book.

16. Book that you read in 2011 that would be most likely to reread in 2012?

Because I want to finish the series and need to reread the first book: The Knife of Never Letting Go and Uglies.

Because I really enjoyed them: Ironside, Lola and The Iron King.

17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To Somebody About It? (a WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc. etc.) Be careful of spoilers!

The Game of Kings (Lymond taking Will upstairs in the inn); A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma's dream about Kartik); The Knife of Never Letting Go (THE END, holy hell); and Hex Hall (towards the end).

Looking Ahead...

1. One Book You Didn't Get To In 2011 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2012?

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating in 2012?

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins.

3. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging In 2012?

Reading - read more slowly.  I read more this year than ever before and, while I enjoyed that, I didn't really savor the books as I usually do.  Am also planning to reread more in 2012 than I did in 2011.

Blogging - blog more.  I am really bad.  I need to schedule things and stick to them.  More reviews, of new and old reads, and try to connect more with other bloggers.  Need to get over my shyness of doing that.

All in all, 2011 has been great for reading.  I've discovered a load of fantastic new authors and books, and I've finally started using libraries to keep my book costs down.  I hope 2012 is as good.



2010: End of Year Survey

Yanked from The Perpetual Page Turner, a reading survey for 2010 (because the title for this post is so vague).

1. Best Book of 2010?
Young adult - Paper Towns by John Green.  I read all of his books in a burst this year, but Paper Towns was my favourite.  The ending left me with a weird feeling of sadness because it was so damn perfect.
Adult lit - Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut.  Read for Banned Books Week and, seriously, why had I never read this before?  Why?

2. Worst Book of 2010?
Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie.  Sadly, one of her later books which made it painfully slow reading, not to mention all the times when plot elements got skated over or forgotten.  Didn't help that I read it after watching Mark Gatiss's phenomenal ITV adaptation, which fixed every problem the book had.

3. Most Disappointing Book of 2010?
Ack, um...feel like a traitor but...Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett.  Just because, as much as I liked it, it wasn't one of his best.  Possibly couldn't live up to my expectations, which were high, especially as the cover pretty much sets it up as "the wizards play football - the WIZARDS play FOOTBALL".

4. Most Surprising (in a good way!) Book of 2010?
The first four Vampire Diaries books.  I tried reading them when I was a teenager and remember not being impressed, but I found them cheap and bought them on a whim.  Ripped through them over the course of a couple of days.  Surprisingly fun (and Damon!  Oh dear, one of my few Bad Boy literary crushes).

5. Book You Recommended to People Most in 2010?
Looking for Alaska by John Green and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - albeit the latter had a caveat of You Are Not Prepared.

6. Best Series You Discovered in 2010?
The Hunger Games trilogy - have only read the first one, and am viewing the last two with some trepidation because they are definitely not going to be happy clappy cheerful books I can lose myself in for fun and frolics.

7. Favourite New Authors You Discovered in 2010?
John Green, Julie Halpern and Kurt Vonnegut.

8. Most Hilarious Read of 2010?
Movies in Fifteen Minutes by Cleolinda Jones, and anything by Lucy Mangan or Charlie Brooker.  I likes the rants.  Also may have laughed a little too hard at some of the things Caravaggio was getting up to in Rome.

9. Most Thrilling, Unputdownable Book in 2010?
The Hunger Games and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, both of which had me sitting up late into the night and wandering the house like the book was permanently attached to my hand.

10. Book You Most Anticipated in 2010?
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins - I had it on pre-order forever, and then the snow delayed the actual delivery (thanks, nature).

11. Favourite Cover of a Book You Read in 2010?
Either Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane because it features one of his self-portraits and he's my favourite artist; the British Hunger Games because of the origami effect; or Wake by Lisa McMann, because it is a collage of awesome.

12. Most Memorable Character in 2010?
Katniss Everdeen because she is a badass, and Damon Salvatore because he cracks me up.

13. Most Beautifully Written Book in 2010?
Paper Towns, and Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

14. Book That Had the Greatest Impact on You in 2010?
Slaughterhouse-5 and Mother Night, both by Kurt Vonnegut and both ridiculously amazing.

15. Book You Can't Believe You Waited Until 2010 to Read?
Slaughterhouse-5.  In terms of a book I've owned for ages and finally got round to reading: A Passage to India.