I read 50 books in 2014. That’s probably more than I’ve read any other year. And for that fact, I am super proud I did the challenge – both the #50BookPledge and Goodreads’ Reading Challenge – because I ingested so many words, and that is exciting to me.
But I don’t think I’ll do this challenge again, or at least in 2015.
Not because I didn’t have fun, because I did, but because I felt rushed and pressured to read at a faster pace than I’m used to, and to catch up when I was behind, I’d read a lot of shorter books or graphic novels. Still books, but I feel like I cheated a bit.
I read a lot of books by women, some entire catalogues from writers, more memoirs than I’m used to, books for whose movies/TV shows I actually like better, lots of personal diary-like books, was reacquainted with my love for YA, read books I really didn’t like through to the end, was inspired so often to write my own fiction, learned more about voices, and made new friends and connections through reading. An amazing year!
I have waaaaay too many unread books stacked on my bookshelves. Most of them are novels, and I really want to read them. I would’ve never read 50 normal length novels this year! So for 2015, I’m excited to indulge in those. I will still keep track of how many books I read, I like that, but I don’t think I need to set a goal for myself. I think doing the challenge is good to get you back to your love of reading and to attempt to tone down those piles (shhh I know that doesn’t work, when I finish one book, I buy another).
So here’s what I read this year, starting from January.
- The Hunger Games 1 by Suzanne Collins
- The Hunger Games 2 – Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
- The Hunger Games 3 – Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
- Quarter Life Crisis: Only the Good Die Yung by Evan Munday
- Someday, Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham
- Good Mail Day by Jennie Hinchcliff
- Capacity by Theo Ellsworth
- Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl by Emily Pohl-Weary
- Alone Forever by Liz Prince
- I Am My Own Stereotype by Delaine Derry Green
- Fear of Fighting by Stacey May Fowles
- Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
- War of Streets and Houses by Sophie Yanow
- Journal by Julie Delporte
- Love is Not Constantly Wondering if You’ve Made the Biggest Mistake of Your Life by Anonymous
- Will You Still Love Me if I Wet the Bed? by Liz Prince
- Cat Person by Seo Kim
- Delayed Replays by Liz Prince
- My Mad Fat Diary by Rae Earl
- Jane, the Fox, and Me by Fanny Britt
- The Fault in our Stars by John Green
- The Rise & Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman
- My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff
- Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
- Photobooth: A Biography by Meags Fitzgerald
- Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
- This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki
- Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
- OMGcow 1: A semi-daily comic diary by Sheika Lugtu
- Powdered Milk by Keiler Roberts
- All the Broken Things by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer
- Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley
- Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
- This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
- Sweet Affliction by Anna Leventhal
- Bombay Blues by Tanuja Desai Hidier
- Everywhere Antennas by Julie Delporte
- Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
- Yes Please by Amy Poehler
- An Age of License by Lucy Knisley
- The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Theriault
- Landline by Rainbow Rowell
- Tomboy by Liz Prince
- The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
- Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michaelangelo and Me by Ellen Forney
- Eat It: Sex, Food & Women’s Writing by Nicole Baute and Brianna Goldberg
- The Voyeurs by Gabrielle Bell
- Mermaid in Chelsea Creek by Michelle Tea
- Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
- Something Wiki by Suzanne Sutherland
My top 10 favourites of these 50:
- Fangirl
- The Silkworm
- Eleanor & Park
- Not That Kind of Girl
- Yes Please
- Sweet Affliction
- This One Summer
- Cat Person
- Landline
- An Age of License
Did you do the challenge? What do you think? Are you going to do it this year?