Welcome to 2022, and what a year 2021 was! So many ups and downs (I’ll get to that later), and I managed to read 111 books, that’s 28,874 Pages – far more than expected!
Goal -V- Reality
I set my reading target at just 60 books this year, and for a good reason. I began the year very unwell, and whilst that meant I had a lot of reading time on my hands, I was also unable to stay awake for a whole day. A few months later, I lost the majority of my vision, which meant I really struggled to read for over six months. Nevertheless, reading a whopping 111 books is a massive achievement for me.
As you can see, I read a lot of mystery and thriller books (43), which is my favourite genre, followed by nonfiction (18). This surprised me as I didn’t think I had read that many nonfictions. Next up was romance, which isn’t surprising, followed by a mixture of Contemporary, Humour, Fantasy, Literary and Historical books. A couple of self-help books and some children’s books along the way (all Advanced Reading Copies (ARCS) which were with some friends children in mind or reading with them).
I gave a lot of five and four-star reviews. I read some incredible books, but I think I may have been a little too generous in some of my ratings, and we will be looking at that this year. Trying to hone down a top ten of those five-star books was challenging but not as complicated as I expected as some really stood out. I think I would have given them 6 stars if I could!
Most books read were ARCs, which was part of my goal for 2021. I was gifted four books as well, which I am very grateful for, and I also obtained many books via book swaps that are new to me, but I haven’t read any of these yet. The rest I purchased myself, sometimes through sales, sometimes via charity shops though mainly on the kindle where I do most of my reading these days.
Most Disappointing Books of the Year
The most disappointing book of the year for me was The Derelict Life of Evangeline Dawson by J.E. Rowney for fiction and Inside Broadmoor by Jonathan Levi and Emma French for Non-fiction. I didn’t enjoy either of these and gave them low ratings.
Shortest Book
Millie The Monster by Una O’Sullivan with 24 pages.
Longest Book
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak with 560 Pages.
Most Popular Book
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak with a massive 3,976,082 reviews on GoodReads.
Least Popular Book
Berkeley Mill: The Untold Story of Fred West by A. Williams with only 4 reviews on GoodReads.
Best Book Discoveries
By far, my best book discoveries this year have been local book swaps. Often these are in bus shelters or old telephone boxes, and they are very popular with sometimes hundreds of books in them. You just take along a book you no longer want and swap it for another that you do want. The range of books has been impressive, and I am looking forward to using this more in the future.
I have also enjoyed discovering Bookstagram and Booktok this year. I have been aware of Bookstagram previously but never actually looked, and what a fantastic community it is! I am very new, so if you would like to follow me on there, please do at Instagram/thesleepyreadr. I don’t share anything on Booktok at the moment, but I have found some great recommendations through it so far.
My Top Ten Favourite Books of 2021 will be coming shortly.
Personal Journey
Personally, I have had a pretty mixed year. I have had various health issues, including the dreaded Covid back in July, multiple operations, injections and more tests than you can imagine!
Returning to work has been a great highlight of my year, as well as getting a new puppy! He’s called Gussy and is almost 12 weeks old. He’s a long-haired dachshund and fitted in immediately with our other pets (2 dogs and a cat) and has bought us all so much joy already!
Being able to read again properly after being so severely visually impaired has been amazing and made me appreciate books even more. Getting back to my blog has also brought me great joy, and also being able to share more reviews on Amazon UK and GoodReads again.
My biggest highlights have been speaking directly to some authors, especially Jane Renshaw, upon the release of her new book, The Stepson. I was also particularly proud of reading 15 books per month in both November and December, something I have never managed previously.
I can’t wait to start 2022 properly and see what my reading and blogging journey will bring!
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and bookish year ahead!