It’s time once again for one my favorite annual post – my yearly books and reading recap. This is the post where I tally up all sorts of nerdy reading stats, discover how diverse my reading selections were, and attempt to decide what books were my favorite this year.
My previous Books and Reading recaps: 2013 2012 2010 2009 2008 2007
I managed to read 62 books in 2014, despite traveling over 8 months of the year. I tend to not read a lot when I travel. I sleep well on planes, enjoy staring out of train windows, and am usually way too tired at the end of each sightseeing day to read much before bed. So it was fairly miraculous that I was able to read this many books this year. As you’ll see below, my best reading months were at the beginning and end of the year, when I was not traveling. I posted as many travelogues and photos of my travels as I could, although I’m still catching up. But I did not post many book reviews at all. I’m hoping to get back into more regular book reviewing in 2015.
In fact, I reviewed so few books in 2014 that I may as well give you a list and links to all of them:
- Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
- China Dolls by Lisa See
- Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
- Blue Horses by Mary Oliver
- Lost in Translation by Ella Frances Sanders
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
- The Journey Home by Edward Abbey
- The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Rosie Project and The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simison
- Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
I did log every book read, with a star rating, in GoodReads. Here’s a link to all the books I read in 2014.
Without further delay, here is my 2014 books and reading recap.
Thank you so much for being part of 2014 with me here on Books, the Universe and Everything! What are your favorite books that you read this year? Please share in the comments, or post a link to your year end recap!
See you in 2015!
From my point of view I am never wrong, of course. “Fountain Overflows” has two sequels, published posthumously, but haven’t read them yet–don’t want to rush the date at which they will no longer be still ahead of me, if you know what I mean.
I’ve heard the two sequels are not as good though. :( I’ll still give them a shot though, someday.
Sadly, sequels so often aren’t. Maybe partly because characters who were fascinating as children so often seem to fade when the author tries to grow them up. I wish Louise Fitzhugh had lived to give us a 60 year old Harriet the Spy–bet she’d still be vivid.
All that traveling and you still read quite a lot of good books too! A very good year! Happy New Year!
Thank you – happy new year back at you! Quite happy I was able to read so much, thank goodness for the few months of relaxation at the end of the year!
Oooh, I just love all of your nerdy stats! I don’t have the first clue how to keep track of such things but I sure enjoyed looking at yours :D
Hyperbole and a half made my list of favorites as well, such a great book. I agree that everyone in the world should read Tiny Beautiful Things. I gave a copy to my oldest daughter for Christmas and I’m hoping that she loves it half as much as I did.
Have a great 2015!
I usually tally all the stats up at the end of the year which takes FOREVER. This year I kept an epic Google sheet so I could log stuff as I went – much easier for me to manage!
Tiny Beautiful Things is such a great gift, I’m sure your daughter will love it too! I don’t know anyone who didn’t.
I don’t usually like fonts with frilly bits at the end of the letters, but the font you used for the bold text is quite nice. I also like your charts and graphs. This is just a sharp-looking post all around. Well done.
I guess I’ll go back now and actually read the thing.
Thank you! The font selection gave me a bit of strife, but I ended up pretty happy with the ones I finally settled on, so it’s very nice to hear that they were appreciated.
Beautiful post, Emily! You have read some wonderful books in 2014! I want to read Roxanne Gay’s book this year. The book I totally love from your list is the one on Montaigne – I want to get it now! It was nice to see some of your old favourites there – ‘Ramona the Pest’ and ‘The Elegance of the Hedgehog’ :)
Thank you Vishy! I hope you will enjoy Roxanne Gay’s book – she’s very funny, and her perspectives are wonderful. And I highly recommend the book about Montaigne – I think you’d greatly enjoy it! :)