It’s that time of year again… It’s the End of Year Book Survey!

Introduced by Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner way back in 2010, it’s a great way to round off your reading and blogging year. Even though I’m not blogging as often as I’d like due to work and other commitments, I just want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who read my blog, comment on my posts, and visit me here in my cosy corner of the Internet! I hope you had a great 2017, and I wish you all health, happiness, and love in the coming year!

Check out my previous Surveys from 2014 | 2015 | 2016.

2017 Reading Stats

Number Of Books Read: 

Every year I set my Goodreads Challenge to 52 books. In 2014 and 2015, I was able to exceed this goal. 2016 was the first time I didn’t hit it since I started blogging, and 2017 followed that trend. I ended up reading 43 books, which isn’t great, but I’ll suck it up considering my workload this year.

Number of Re-Reads:

I always want to make time for rereads, but I rarely manage it. This year, I reread Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (thanks to the illustrated edition), and The Bar Code Tattoo.

Genre You Read The Most From:

YA and Adult fiction were almost equal this year, with contemporary (in all of its forms!) still being my most-read genre. Surprisingly all of the non-fiction I read this year were autobiographical or biographical.

Best in Books

1. Best Book You Read In 2017?

2. Book You Were Excited About, Thought You Were Going To Love But Didn’t?

3. Most Surprising (in a good way) Book You Read?  

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (and they did)?

5. Best Series Started, Best Sequel, and Best Series Ender of  2017?

6. Favourite New Author You Discovered in 2017?

Has to be Stella Newman and Denise Deegan, for two very different reasons. Stella’s book, Seven Steps to Happiness is a stand-out read for me this year – the new Bridget Jones, it was fresh, funny, and relevant. Denise’s historical fiction novel, Through the Barricades was poignant, distinctive, and well researched.

7. Best Book From a Genre You Don’t Typically Read?

8. Most Action-Packed/Thrilling/Unputdownable Book of the Year?

9. Book You Read In 2017 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

10. Favourite Cover of a Book You Read in 2017?

11. Most Memorable Character of 2017?

Starr and Co from The Hate U Give, and Melanie from The Girl With All The Gifts.

12. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2017?

13. OTP of the Year (you will go down with this ship!)?

ALWAYS Rhysand and Feyre from A Court of Wings and Ruin, and no spoilers, but there’s a new couple (or two) in Tower of Dawn that I’m living for right now. Maas writes good ships.

14. Best 2017 Debut?

15. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

16. Book That Made You Cry (or nearly cry) in 2017?

Your Bookish/Blogging Life

1. Favourite Review You Wrote in 2017?

I loved my review for Carrie Hope Fletcher’s All That She Can See, because it includes a photo of me meeting her at a signing. Even though the book didn’t live up to my expectations, I enjoyed writing my review of How To Be Single and I put a lot of thought into my 5* reviews of Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things and Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give.

2. Best Discussion/Non-Review Post?

• If I Could Build My Dream Book Nook featured a 3D visual by my super talented sister.
• Book Bloggers You Should Be Following featured a TON of my favourites.
• 13 Problems With 13 Reasons Why was an important post for me, and one I put a lot of care into writing.
• 8 Reasons Reading is a Superpower was fun to write, and justified my addiction hobby.
• Crowdfunding for Books was a new discovery for me, and I’ve supported two books already.

3. Best Moment of Bookish/Blogging Life in 2017?

Other than meeting the fabulous Carrie Hope Fletcher (and seeing her perform in The Addams Family!), I’d have to say making it to the Finals of the Blog Ireland Awards this year was pretty sweet!

4. Most Challenging Thing About Blogging or Your Reading Life This Year?

1. Making time for reading in a hectic schedule. Work, freelancing, and studying made it tricky.
2. Making time to write reviews for the books I managed to read. See above.
3. Making time to blog about other topics and staying involved in the community.

None of these challenges are likely to go away any time soon, so I’m working with them as best I can, because they are all also very positive reasons that I’m unable to blog as much as I could when I was a recent graduate, and at the end of the day, those challenges above are what pay the bills and earn the promotions. Adulting = priorities.

5. Most Popular Post This Year

• What is the Point of Pre-Ordering? Seems I’m not the only one with pre-order woes…
• eBooks v Paper Books – The Facts. My evil plans to destroy eBooks and turn everyone to paperbacks is working nicely!
• Review: All The Light We Cannot See. Interestingly, one of my most negative reviews on this blog is also the highest viewed…

I haven’t included the Looking Ahead section this year, which talks about 2018 releases, because let’s be real I barely managed to read 2017 books in the past 12 months!

Have you done an End of Year Round-Up or Survey? Leave me a link below so I can check it out! Happy reading, Book Geeks!