2016 - A Year of Books in Review

Was 2016 crazy, or what? Like most of you, I'm ready to move onward and upward, but before I do that, I wanted to take a look back at the books that filled this crazy year and gave me a safe place to escape for awhile. 

I set my Goodreads challenge at 200 books. The past three years or so, I've read somewhere around 220 or so, so admittedly, a goal of 200 wasn't really a stretch. And, I think I reached that goal sometime in October. I'm amazed that this year I read 250 books, which is more than I've ever read in a year before. 

THE BOOKS

I'm pretty proud that my average rating for 2016 is a 4.3. It means that I've finally gotten to a place where I know my likes and dislikes pretty well and am better able to choose books that I know I will love. I only DNFd two books this year, which is really good for me. 

You can see above that I definitely read some mainstream books (The Winner's Trilogy was AH-MAZING), but I also read some off the beaten path. To that end, why haven't more of you read MORE by Sierra Kincade?! Make that a New Year's Goal, because it too was incredible. 

Here's a snapshot of all 250 books I read in 2016...

THE AUTHORS

While I may have honed the type of books I like (contemporary romance - the hotter the better and YA fantasy), I was definitely not averse to trying out new authors. I discovered several new-to-me authors in 2016 that I will definitely been one-clicking in 2017. Authors like Santino Hassell, Marie Rutkoski and Kasie West became instant favorites. But, there was one author I discovered in 2016, and I read more books by her than any other author - new or old. Carrie Ann Ryan's Montgomery Ink series, Redwood Pack series and Talon Pack series populated my Audible library this year. I hadn't read anything by her before this year, and I now have SEVENTEEN of her books under my belt. And counting...

My top 20 most read authors of all time now looks like this, according to Goodreads (The Jennifer L. Armentrout total is a bit misleading, because in spot 22 is J. Lynn, her new adult author pen name, with 11 books. If you add those 11 books to her number, that gives her the number one spot at 36 books.):

THE EVENTS

Sadly, 2016 didn't hold nearly as many events as usual, due to BEA being held in Chicago. I really only attended one event - the ALA Midwinter Conference in Boston in January (has it been a year already?!). I attended with one of my dearest friends, Val from Stuck in Books. I didn't get to meet a lot of authors, but I did meet Jeff Kinney and had the opportunity to have him personalize a copy of the 10th Diary of a Wimpy Kid book for my 10-year-old daughter, which was really exciting for both she and I. Val and I had a fantastic time and came home with tons of books.

I was able to meet a few more authors during the year as they came to local bookstores and libraries for signings. Two of my favorites were Megan Erickson and Victoria Scott.

I plan to rectify the lack of events in 2017. I already know of three that I'm attending for sure - Apollycon in March, The Lucky Sevens Weekend Affair in July, and the Big Apple Author Event in October. I'm hoping and praying with everything in me that I will also get to BEA in late May/early June. We'll see how things go. 

So there you have it! 365 days... 250 books... Time Well Spent! Happy New Year everyone!