Bikyclist

Day 01 - Best book you read last year
This is the one year that I didn’t make it to triple digits, (due to life getting in my way haha) so my options are somewhat more limited than in other years. That said, I’ve read some great books this year. I’m also going to limit it to new books, books that I read for the first time in the last year, which limits it some more.

So, mostly going backwards chronologically: Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson was fantastic, Clockwork Prince, and City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare are amazing, (as all of hers always are) Black Heart by Holly Black, Fear by Michael Grant, an AMAZING book/series I fucking adore and am absolutely hanging out for the next., and The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd were my 10/10 star books for this past year (I’m not really critical enough, most of the books that I read rate pretty highly, you’ve got to be appalling to get less than five, but 10/10 were the ones that leave me thinking my life is better having had read these books, either for thoughtful reasons, or just brilliant storytelling and characters and worlds I loved having been introduced to)

Now, I’m going to talk about a couple of the books in more detail.
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened - Jenny Lawson / The Blogess.
Now I’m not normally a fan of the autobiography - not generally my cup of tea, but this book is HILARIOUS. Im a massive fan of her writing style - its not everyone’s taste, but it is mine. This book made me laugh and cry, and I’ve read it three times now.

Fear - Michael Grant
Apparently I’ve been a fan of his since I was barely a teenager, even if I didn’t know it: he cowrote The Animorphs books, and I fucking adored those books. Now, his Gone series is brutal and raw and I love these books. I think that they get better and better as the series goes on, and his characters go through hell time and time again. It has the nice supernatural element I enjoy in all my books, and the YA element which helps make a better tighter story - I love YA books, they cut out all unnecessary crap like pages of description and romance for the sake of getting a character laid… I don’t like useless padding for a book. I love a good long book, but I want every word to be there for a reason, to advance the story, and I find that YA is better at that than many adult books. Anyway, back to Fear, if you enjoy the idea of The Hunger Games, kinda crossed with Tomorrow, When The War Began and mashed up with something like a teenage Lost (kinda, maybe? All alone on a crazy enclosed island location where things aren’t always what they seem? If what I understand about lost is right haha) these are the books for you. I totally recommend them. AMAZING. and really pretty covers - all black with the name of the book in bright bold outline-y writing.

The Vast Fields of Ordinary - Nick Burd
I really enjoyed this book. I was going through a phase of reading all the LGBTQ books I thought sounded interesting - and this one delivered. I liked the story, and the characters, and I really enjoyed the restlessness that you feel in the book, the characters are at a turning point, but are stuck where they are - in that break between high school and uni. And I relate to those kinds of ideas. Not entirely sure why I specifically really enjoyed this book, I just really did. Good read, if you ever get the chance.

Day 02 - A book that you’ve read more than 3 times
Day 03 - Your favorite series
Day 04 - Favorite book of your favorite series
Day 05 - A book that makes you happy
Day 06 - A book that makes you sad
Day 07 - Most underrated book
Day 08 - Most overrated book
Day 09 - A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 10 - Favorite classic book
Day 11 - A book you hated
Day 12 - A book you used to love but don’t anymore
Day 13 - Your favorite writer
Day 14 - Favorite book of your favorite writer
Day 15 - Favorite male character
Day 16 - Favorite female character
Day 17 - Favorite quote from your favorite book
Day 18 - A book that disappointed you
Day 19 - Favorite book turned into a movie
Day 20 - Favorite romance book
Day 21 - Favorite book from your childhood
Day 22 - Favorite quote about books
Day 23 - A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t
Day 24 - A book that you wish more people would’ve read
Day 25 - A character who you can relate to the most
Day 26 - A book that changed your opinion about something
Day 27 - The most surprising plot twist or ending
Day 28 - Favorite title
Day 29 - A book everyone hated but you liked
Day 30 - Your favorite book of all time

ETA: Links, Tags and fix ipad autocorrects. Its still set on American, apparently.

Today has been a reading day. So far I’ve read City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels and I just finished City of Lost Souls!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, at 500ish pages each, that is a fair bit of reading. Even for me. :) 

But back to CITY OF LOST SOULS:

I’m torn between these two emotions: (thankyou to the .gif gods who created them, whoever you are)

and

I LOVED IT.

No spoilers, just that I thought the ending would be so much more heartbreaking than it was; not that it wasn’t a great ending, because it was, or even that it didn’t have its sad moments, its just that I’ve been used to Cassie Clare CRUSHING MY SOUL with each ending (Not City of Glass, obviously) and to have that NOT happen thwarted my expectations, which was a good thing.

I really enjoyed the massive amount of character development; we got so many perspectives and everyone got a bit of screentime to explain motives and explore their psyches a bit more in depth than ever before, which was awesome.

I love them all. I haven’t gotten this attached to characters in a long time. :)

Counting down the days til Clockwork Princess! (Can’t start counting yet for City of Heavenly Fire, its too long to bear right now. :p)