The Year of Mindful Reading ✦ 24 Books in 2019

[El]

In 2018, I re-discovered my love of reading and challenged myself to 24 books. I reached that target halfway through the year and decided to push myself and double my reading goal to 48 books. I ended up reading a total of 38 books (I blame my newfound passion for adult colouring in the last few months of 2018 for those 10 missing books!).

Even though I smashed my original goal in 2018, I've decided to "only" go for 24 books in 2019. I want to be more selective with my reading choices and steer away from the frantic reading frenzy in which I found myself last year. Too many library holds were returned unread, and too many novels were finished in a haste to avoid late fees!

[El]

Let's do this!


01. ★★☆☆☆ Premier de cordée (First on the Rope)
02. ★★★★☆ War and Peace 💛
03. ★★☆☆☆ Beast
04. ★★☆☆☆ The Best Australian Stories 2017 🗭
05. ★★★★☆ The Name of the Wind
06. ★★★★☆ Burial Rites 🗭 🎧
07. ★★★☆☆ More Than This 🗭 🎧
08. ★★☆☆☆ Frankenstein 🗭 🎧
09. ★★★★☆ Couleurs de l'incendie 🗭 🎧 💛
10. ★★★☆☆ We3 💭
11. ★★☆☆☆ Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening 💭
12. ★★★★★ Sabrina 🗭 💭
13. ★★★★☆ Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind 🎧 💛
14. ★★★★☆ Assassin's Apprentice 🗭
15. ★★★☆☆ Beartown 🗭 🎧
16. ★★★☆☆ Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe 🗭 🎧
17. ★★★☆☆ The Natural Way of Things 🗭 🎧
18. ★★★☆☆ The Knife of Never Letting Go 🗭
19. ★★★★☆ La Belle Sauvage 🗭 💛
❌ L'Ombre du vent (The Shadow of the Wind) 🗭 🎧
20. ★★★☆☆ La fille de papier (The Girl on Paper) 🎧
21. ★★★☆☆ La femme qui ne vieillissait pas
22. ★★★★☆ La Tresse (The Braid)
23. ★★☆☆☆ Les Fiancés de l'Hiver (A Winter's Promise)
24. ★★★☆☆ And the Ocean Was Our Sky
25. ★★★☆☆ History of Wolves
26. ★★★★☆ The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet 🎧
27. ★★★★★ Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking 🎧 💛
❌ Neuromancer
28. ★★★☆☆ Leah on the Offbeat
29. ★★☆☆☆ Soeurs
30. ★★★★★ Northern Lights ❤️
31. ★★★★★ The Subtle Knife ❤️
32. ★★★★★ The Amber Spyglass ❤️
33. ★★★☆☆ Astrophysics for People in a Hurry 🎧
34. ★★★☆☆ Cicada
35. ★★☆☆☆ Suki
36. ★★★★☆ A Snow Garden and Other Stories

😃

〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰〰
📑 Currently Reading
🎧 Audiobook
💭 Graphic Novel
❤️ Year's Favourite
💛 Special Mention
❌ DNF
🗭 Link to my post about the book
★☆☆☆☆ Technically flawed (e.g. poor editing, narrative inconsistencies)
★★☆☆☆ A struggle to finish due to style, tone, characters, plot or themes
★★★☆☆ Mostly enjoyable, with some limitations or lacking spark
★★★★☆ Great style, tone, characters, plot and/or themes
★★★★★ A resonant masterpiece

[Ilona]

It is great to hear that you re-discovered your love for reading! Best of luck with your goal this year :)

[El]

Ilona wrote: "It is great to hear that you re-discovered your love for reading! Best of luck with your goal this year :)"

Thanks Ilona!

[El]

I'm writing down mental notes of books or categories I always want to read but somehow never get around to, in the hope that this year I will:

▸a Stephen King novel;
▸LGBTQI books from my TBR;
▸2018 library books I regretted having to return without getting the chance to read them;
▸more comics;
▸all books from one author;
▸Russian classics;
▸Japanese literature (Murakami?);
▸fantasy.

[El]

🗭 The Best Australian Stories 2017 🗭

[Fri 15 Feb]

I'm almost halfway through. So far it has been a mostly enjoyable read, but a few things are annoying me:

👎🏻 I'm already noticing a structural narrative pattern whereby the last sentences of a story, if not the last few words in some cases, are so obscure that they render futile any attempt at deciphering their meaning. They are so vague and open that, similarly to reading a horoscope, they will lend themselves to any and every interpretation, which defeats the purpose of trying to understand them in the first place. This effect worked well in the first story, but unfortunately for the subsequent stories, felt repetitive after that.

👎🏻 It sometimes feels like the main character's background, location, era and even gender are revealed too far into the stories, stripping the opening pages of their impact as they are all underpinned by these attributes. This narrative style is also used several times throughout the collection and again, gets tiring quite quickly.

👎🏻 Beyond the obvious Australian connection, children are the recurring elements in these stories, but they also share an overwhelmingly desperate and resigned tone. Rejection, loss, harm... all run through the characters' veins. Maybe this is a collection best savoured in bite-sized pieces to avoid the overload.

[Fri 17 Feb]

I've now finished the book and 2-starred it. Unfortunately, much of what I said above remained true throughout the collection, to the point where I just wanted to be done with it. The cross-story commonality in themes, tones, characters traits, narrative structure, etc. had me wondering whether this should be expected in short story collections, as I have not read that many. But I remember having a completely different, and much more enjoyable, reading experience with Fortune Smiles. The stories here were all very short as well, no more than a dozen pages each. Still, I was astonished that despite each of them being written by a different author, most seemed to have the same "voice" and style.

🔝

[El]

I'm about to start The Name of the Wind as one of my fantasy reads for the year. I had a sneak peak at the Goodreads rating (I don't usually like to check ratings before I start a book as I find it really influences my expectations) and it got me even more excited!

[El]

I'm doing something I've never done before - having more than 1 book on the go (War & Peace didn't count as I was effectively treating each volume as separate books with breaks in between).

I've always marvelled at and been intrigued by people on Goodreads or BookTubers who do this, having always been a one-book-at-a-time, start-to-finish, type of reader. But I thought I'd give it a try for 2 reasons:

- I've been itching to try audiobooks for a little while now and thought that combining different reading media (one audiobook and one paper book) would be a less confusing introduction to multi-reading

- I also thought that by mixing up the reading material, I might actually get through more books. If I'm reading one book and this book happens to be a bit of a drag (as has been my experience so far this year), then I'm stuck with it until I finish it, which might take longer if I'm not enjoying the book. If I have another book to switch to, that would give me a break from the less interesting book while still progressing towards the completion of another book, and I could return to the other book with renewed enthusiasm (hopefully).

I've decided to multi-read The Name of the Wind (paper) and Burial Rites (audio). It's my first audiobook and so far I'm actually surprised at how much I'm enjoying it! I find I visualise the imagery more as my eyes are not occupied with reading, and I probably go through the text faster than if I were reading on paper as I don't "get the chance" to get stuck on words or sentences.

A final thought - as I'm getting carried away with multi-reading, I thought I could push it further and add a THIRD medium to the pile with Kindle ebooks. To make sure I really mix it up and don't get confused with overlapping storylines, I could use my Kindle for my non-English reads (as they're easier and cheaper to come by that way anyway). I'll see if I get around to do that!

[[deleted user]]

L.O.D. wrote: "In 2018, I re-discovered my love of reading and challenged myself to 24 books. I reached that target halfway through the year and decided to push myself and double my reading goal to 48 books. I en..."


I feel you on the library holds going unread and returned. I get carried away putting books on hold as it sometimes seems like it takes forever to get a book and the next thing you know I have more than can possible read.

[El]

bookescape wrote: "L.O.D. wrote: "In 2018, I re-discovered my love of reading and challenged myself to 24 books. I reached that target halfway through the year and decided to push myself and double my reading goal to..."

It really is frustrating!

[El]

🗭 Burial Rites 🗭

An elegantly written, atmospheric book. The first audiobook I've ever listened to and I really enjoyed experiencing the story via this format.

What bugged me however is (view spoiler)[how Agnes is introduced to us as this strong, independent, smart woman, yet her behaviour towards Natan seemed completely out of character and actually rather disappointing from someone I had come to admire throughout the book. I didn't like how this theme of irrational infatuation was also echoed by Tóti's feelings towards Agnes, and even Steina's to some extent. (hide spoiler)]

Apart from that, I found the writing near-perfect, with the spare, carefully selected use of simple words creating a strongly evocative imagery.

🔝

[El]

🗭 More Than This 🗭

I selected this book as part of my goal to read all (or most) books from one author. I decided to pick Patrick Ness as A Monster Calls was one of my 5-star reads of 2018 and I know I want to read The Knife of Never Letting Go this year before the movie comes out (I actually already have the book out from the library, hopefully I get around to reading it before it's due back!).

I was pleasantly surprised not only by the themes explored in this YA book (view spoiler)[(teen homosexuality, failed parenting, child abuse, domestic violence, guilt, depression) (hide spoiler)] but especially by the angle with which they were treated. I'm not a YA specialist but I thought it was a brave way to address them given the audience.

It was interesting to find that the central theme of A Monster Calls was also key in More Than This, namely that people and their actions are not black and white. I wonder if this is a running theme in Patrick Ness books and if it is part of The Knife of Never Letting Go.

The book lost stars because I felt that the encounters with the "villain" were repetitive and contrived, the science-fiction / conspiracy elements could have been more fleshed out, and I didn't particularly warm up to the main character.

🔝

[El]

🗭 Frankenstein 🗭

This will be a fun one to review:

• The creature felt like a parody of an emo kid (although that might have to do with Dan Stevens's narration)
• Frankenstein was an unlikable spoilt brat
• The number of time the word "countenance" is used throughout the novel would make for a dangerous drinking game

More seriously, I usually expect higher quality content and writing style from my classics, especially from such a renowned novel as this one, but I was truly shocked at the amount of repetition of not only words but also trains of thoughts. It felt like the author latched on a couple of themes and just ran around in circles with them.

🔝

[El]

🗭 Beartown 🗭

Ok, so I don't think Fredrik Backman is for me. I didn't think much of A Man Called Ove - it was fine, but I thought the author tried too hard to pull on the heartstrings (a pet peeve of mine) and the whole thing read like a long Buzzfeed article, crammed with forcefully funny-smart observations. I had heard that Beartown was different from his other books, and hoped that the writing would sit better with me this time. Unfortunately, I'd say it was even worse, as this time pretty much every chapter started and/or ended with a lecture on life delivered condescendingly to us poor readers. And what was with all the non-specific sentences randomly popping up, like "a girl sits with her best friend in a house in a town in a forest?". Again, it felt forced and I didn't buy whatever little purpose this literary device had.

I was actually close to DNF'ing this book halfway through because of the writing style, but the pace picked up after "the scandal" happens. Overall, the story was fine - I did give it 3 stars. Some of the characters were written with beautiful complexity (although I thought there were too many for any of them to fully develop), I enjoyed how the author intertwined the themes of loyalty, sense of belonging and morality, and there was actually the occasional beautifully written "pearl" of a passage. But the general writing style was a major drawback for me.

🔝

[El]

🗭 Couleurs de l'incendie 🗭

This was a pure delight. I had 5-starred Au revoir là-haut (The Great Swindle in English) when I read it a couple of years ago and I've considered it one of my all-time favourites since. I wasn't sure the sequel would hold up but I'm glad I was wrong. Again, the writing was everything. Spot on, vivid descriptions and characterisations, laugh-out-loud witty in places but also soberly restrained when needed. I listened to the audiobook read by the author and his delivery was impeccable.

I took out 1 star because I thought his depiction of female characters felt a bit dated in places and overly preoccupied with physical appearance and sexuality.

I wonder if I'd enjoy his crime thriller series as much as his historical fiction. I might talk myself into trying Alex one day - the reviews warn it is disturbingly graphic.

🔝

[El]

🗭 Sabrina 🗭

I LOVED this. And I also loved that once again, a random library pick-up turned out to be a 5-star (this happened last year with Travelling in a Strange Land). To be honest, I did pull out the book from the graphic novels shelf thinking it was the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Vol. 1: The Crucible comic that the Netflix TV show is based on (it's surprisingly better than it lets on, by the way).

I actually can't exactly explain why I loved this so much. I loved the art, which mirrored the tone - minimalistic but precise and effective. It hooked me right in from deep within. It felt so real and grounded.

FYI, it was the first graphic novel to be longlisted in the Man Booker Prize (in 2018).

🔝

[El]

🗭 Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe 🗭

Hmm. Another 3-star. This book gets raving reviews everywhere, so I think I just wasn't the right audience for it. It had a lot of introspection for a main character who wasn't all that self-aware, and I found that a little frustrating. It was still a sweet and enjoyable story, but I guess it was meant to be more of a slow-burn, coming-of-age type of novel, whereas I had expected something a little more rom-com like Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, which I loved.

🔝

[El]

🗭 Assassin's Apprentice 🗭

I quite enjoyed this little guy, which I read (and finished 3 days late) as part of a June Buddy Read. I wasn't too sure what to expect from such a well-known series and author but I found that I really enjoyed the writing style and thought it was well suited to the charmingly quaint, olden-days themes of medieval loyalty, secret bastards, etc. Yet all the political intrigues remained accessible as told from the eyes of the young hero (who in the first few chapters is quite possibly the most self-aware 6-year-old I've ever read about!).

I think I'll definitely be interested to read the rest of the series at some point.

🔝

[Ilona]

I am very much enjoying your reviews and it looks like your challenge is going great! :)

[El]

Ilona wrote: "I am very much enjoying your reviews and it looks like your challenge is going great! :)"

Thanks Ilona :) My challenge wouldn't be going so well if I hadn't discovered audiobooks this year!

[El]

🗭 The Natural Way of Things 🗭

An interesting, well-written book which worked quite well as an audiobook read by an Australian narrator. Unfortunately, I felt like it never really went beyond the initial premise which was just an excuse for character development within an unrealistic setting, about which we were never given much substance (I think the book "blurb" contained more explanation about the setting than the book itself).

Also contained one of my pet peeves in all forms of storytelling: descriptions of characters' dreams.

Now I wonder why I gave it 3 stars - I think the audiobook narrator helped and it was well written and quite short so it still managed to keep up my interest.

🔝

[El]

🗭 The Knife of Never Letting Go 🗭

I finally got to read this book which I was so excited about! But I also discovered after reading it that the movie which was supposed to come out this year had been delayed until next year, with re-shoots required as it was apparently "unreleasable" (that's a good sign - not).

Anyway, this book is part of my goal to read everything by Patrick Ness, and this review is going to be almost identical to More Than This. Again, massive kudos to Patrick Ness for bringing up and handling strong themes the way he does (child abuse, guilt, sexism, feminism, sense of belonging, depression, etc.). But again, I felt that the encounters with the villains were very repetitive, there was a lot of exhausting running through the woods, the aliens felt a little tacky (maybe because I kept picturing Jar-Jar Binks for some reason?!), the world-building could have been more immersive and the main character, again, wasn't all that interesting. Still, I enjoyed it, it was a really fast read for a 500+ page book, and again, I think every teenager should read a book by Patrick Ness.

I will read the rest of the series at some point but the next Patrick Ness on my list is And the Ocean Was Our Sky - I got a beautiful illustrated copy out from the library and I can't wait to read it!

🔝

[El]

🗭 La Belle Sauvage 🗭

Wow - I am really enjoying this so far. Disclaimer: His Dark Materials are probably my favourite books of all time but I only read them once in my late teens, so I'd like to read them again to see if that statement still holds true and also because the mini-series is coming out soon and it looks great! But I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I'm enjoying this prequel, and I think it all comes down to the writing. Impeccable, simple but effective, with some well-placed humour - it reminds me of Pierre Lemaitre in a way. Some passages are absolutely delightful. At this point I don't even really care about the plot anymore and I mean this in the best way - it's so cleverly and beautifully written.

I shall update this review once I finish the book.

🔝

[El]

🗭 L'Ombre du vent (The Shadow of the Wind) 🗭

So this is quite interesting: I DNF'ed this book which is something I very rarely do, but I didn't actually "hate" this book. I just did not feel any connection whatsoever to it. It felt very much "bookclub-y", or the sort of book you had to read for Spanish class and write essays about. The writing was beautiful but too "quotable" (and some sentences read a little off but that might have to do with the translation). And it dragged on... so much! At one point I checked my reading progress on Audible and when I realised I wasn't even halfway through, I made the very bold decision to DNF it. I simply did not care about the plot or the characters and the story wasn't giving me any indication that the pace would pick up. Upon reading Goodreads reviews, I confirmed I'd made the right decision and happily moved on to the next audiobook.

🔝

[Ilona]

Did you manage to read that 24th book this year? :)

[El]

Ilona wrote: "Did you manage to read that 24th book this year? :)"

I did! I'm up to Book #33 now, with 2 weeks to go to finish it AND read another 3 books to reach my revised goal of 36 books in 2019! 😱

[El]

Last library haul of the year - I've basically just gone for the thinnest, remotely interesting-looking books on the shelves, with the intention to get through the last 3 books I need to reach my goal in the 2 weeks I've got left! Some of them I've never heard about before and am actually really looking forward to discover.

[El]

Yay! I've reached my revised goal of 36 books read in 2019 (not including DNF's)! I'm so pleased with myself :) I might even reach 37 over the next couple of days which would put this year's book count pretty much on par with last year's (I read 38 books in 2018).

At the beginning of the year I wrote down some "prompts" for genres or themes that I wanted to get around to this year. How did I go?

‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ▸a Stephen King novel
‎‎‎Failed miserably on that one (although I did download the audiobook for Pet Sematary narrated by Michael C. Hall)

‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ▸LGBTQI books from my TBR
Triple check: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Leah on the Offbeat

‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ▸2018 library books I regretted having to return without getting the chance to read them
Hmm, no.

‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ▸more comics
Yep: We3, Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening, Sabrina, Cicada

‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ▸all books from one author
Not quite there yet, although I made good progress with Patrick Ness: More Than This, The Knife of Never Letting Go, And the Ocean Was Our Sky (and I currently have The Crane Wife out from the library)

‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ▸Russian classics
Another fail - I did finish War and Peace at the start of the year and I have The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol out from the library but don't think I'll end up reading it.

‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ▸Japanese literature (Murakami?)
Nope.

‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎ ▸fantasy
Yes: Assassin's Apprentice, Les Fiancés de l'Hiver (A Winter's Promise), The Name of the Wind.

Ok, so I completed 3.5 of my self-imposed reading challenge prompts. I could have kept a closer eye on it and done better, but I did branch out in other ways and read more non-fiction (Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry) which turned out to be, surprisingly for me, some of my best reads of the year.

My best reading experience this year was definitely re-reading the His Dark Materials trilogy on audiobook, narrated by Philip Pullman and a full cast of amazing voice actors. I can confidently say, 15 years later or so after my first read, these are up there with, if not at the top of, my all-time favourites.

[El]

2019 Reading Stats Graphs