It took a long time (most people posted them in December and here’s me in February…), but the wrap-up is finally here. All in all, 2018 was an excellent year for reading. I surpassed my last year’s number of books read by 4, found a new all-times favourite, began reviewing every book I read, and, of course, started writing a blog on June 17th, which is something I’ve been planning since 2016.
- New books read: 64, which is 4 more than in 2017
- Books reviewed: 39, give or take a few
- DNFs: 10
- Out of books read, 39 books (61%) were written by female authors, 23 (36%) by male authors, one (1.5%) by a non-binary author, and one (1.5%) by a mixed-gender team
- The longest was The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, with 430 378 words and the shortest was The Pauper Prince and the Eucalyptus Jinn by Usman T. Malik with 22 366 words. Both according to the Calibre counter.
- 23 books (36%) were not part of a series
- 16 (25%) books were self-published
Top 13 Books Read in 2018
I didn’t want to limit myself to any commonly used arbitrary number, so here’s not 5, not 10, but 13 books I loved the most out of all 64 books I finished last year. Titles link to my reviews.
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee
City of Lies by Sam Hawke
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft
The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
Review to come later in February.
The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley
City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
…and, of course (did you really think I’d omit it?):
The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan
Finished Jan 1st 2018 and not only it killed my will to read for a month, but in the whole of 2018 nothing came quite close (and I doubt in 2019 will either, though I’d sure like if it would). It was just that good. Highly recommended to anyone looking for school settings, literary fantasy, trippiness, masterful use of multi-POV, books with more layers than an onion, and disability representation.
To Other Worlds 
I’ve been wanting to read Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, and this was the best motivation ever. Can’t wait!
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Ooh, I hope you enjoy it!
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You did so well! 😍 I have Foundryside and The Mere Wife on my wishlist. I’m also hoping to read The Bear And The Nightingale, The Gentleman’s Guide and some Sanderson books this year! ☺️
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Thank you! Looking forward to your reviews of them!
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The Gray House was on my list last year and I never got to it. Now I have to!
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Yup 😛 It’s a bit confusing but really really good.
And for me, it’s always fun/interesting getting new people into it because pretty much everyone I talked to about it had a slightly different reaction.
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So many interesting books! I have Foundryside so I’m glad you enjoyed it. The Magpie Lord looks Victorian and I’m a sucker for Victorian books at the minute.
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I’m going to be going through and review hopping, but I’m already excited for these new titles I hadn’t heard of.
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Just read Foundryside and LOVED IT. I also read The Way of Kings last year, high five!
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Awesome! I plan to read Words of Radiance sometime later this year, reading challenge allowing. Then probably a big break before Edgedancer and Oathbringer. I do like those books, but man are epics draining.
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Agreed, it took me about two weeks to get through WoK (and I read one book at a time). I really have to mentally set the time aside and accept it’s going to take me a bit.
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Took me a mortal age as well. Lots of information + slow pace and…yeah. I wasn’t struggling at any point unlike some, it just wasn’t fast going. I might have to read a couple novellas or something mid-WoR if I want to keep the blog alive…
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yay for awesome reading years! (and as for wrap-ups … better late than never 😜) I love seeing everyone’s stats for the year, and it looks like yours were much more diverse than mine haha. the only book on your list that I’ve read is Lady’s Guide – which I LOVED – and I’ll have to check out some of the others!
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Wrap-ups and toplists are always so fun to look at, agreed. And yeah, it’s a funny thing – my reading list used to be a complete sausagefest until I did a 50-book Bingo challenge in 2017/2018 where I aimed to have over 50% women and ended up with 75%. After that, I don’t even have to try anymore, it just sort of swung in the other direction on its own.
Lady’s Guide is amazing too.
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that’s definitely interesting! my stats also skew very female (I think also around 75%, at least according to BookSirens 😜) so this year I’m looking more at own voices authors: cultural, LGBTQ, etc. it’s definitely great to add diversity to your reading experience like you have!
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Yeah, this is a very good idea, too! I’m unlikely to spice up my yearly Bingo challenge with additional criteria when it resets in April, since I’ll dial back down to one card to focus on sequels and other stuff I neglected because I was chained to a 50-book challenge, but I recently got the suggestion to focus and review more forgotten, older writers, especially women, to hopefully help out a bit – I really like the idea.
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I really do want to read The Gray House at some point because I am finding I kind of love weird, but I also feel like it would be a huge time commitment for me. Maybe next time I’m on vacation. 🙂
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Well, I hope you get to it at some point 😛 But yeah, it’s far from a small book. I was in awe at the size of the paperback (absolute unit).
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What a great reading year, and I loved reading your statistics — especially that you read a good number of self-pubbed/indie books! I have ARCs for Foundryside (I had to set it aside monthhhssss ago and never got around to picking it back up) and The Bird King, it excites me that they topped your list & I’m excited to read them.
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I had one of the two Bingo cards in a challenge I’m doing focused on indie and underrated books and it definitely shows. Though the results have been…mixed.
Hope you enjoy them too! I honestly need to reread The Bird King to review 😅
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Better late than never, eh!
Woohoo for reading more books, reviewing all of them AND the book blog 👏🏼👏🏼
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