#reading 2018

Happy New Year! I ended 2018 and started 2019 being sick (my friend brought a cold while visiting Amsterdam) so I’m currently typing this while sniffling in bed. A very different start to the new year than what I have imagined. I asked on my Instagram for some feedback about what kind of posts you would like to see from me in 2019 and some of my real life friends, as well as followers asked me to talk more about books that I am reading. I have set up a highlight on my Instagram where you will find updates about what I’m currently reading but I thought it would be fun to share more of my reading progress with you all!

This post is going to reflect on my reading year of 2018. I will start by sharing some stats that I kept track of throughout the year, as well as my GoodReads page (which you can also follow) and then I will talk about best and worst books of 2018! Keep reading if you’re interested!

MY STATS

Books read: 80

Page count: 28,152

Challenges I participated in: 3

Femmuary 2018

Book-Tube-A-Thon 2018

Non-Fiction November 2018

GOODREADS 2018 READING YEAR IN REVIEW

Shortest book: The Beautiful Cassandra by Jane Austen

Longest book: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Average length: 300 pages

Most popular book: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Least popular book: Psychology of Emotion by Paula Niedenthal 

My average rating for 2018: 3.2 stars

MY READING GOALS 2018

Read 80 books (completed)

Read more books by female authors (45 books read // completed)

Read at least 1 classic per month (20 books read // completed)

Read more non-fiction (36 books read // completed)

DNF books if I don’t enjoy them (completed)

BEST BOOKS OF 2018

This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay

The Brain: The Story of You by David Eagleman 

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Unjustifiable Means by Mark Fallon 

Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 

Psychology of Emotion (2nd Edition) by Paula Niedenthal 

Option B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant

Just Kids by Patti Smith

WORST BOOKS OF 2018

A Beautiful, Terrible Thing by Jen Waite

The Truth About Cancer by Ty Bollinger 

The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry 

A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Communicate to Influence by Ben and Kelly Decker

Othello by William Shakespeare

2018 was a difficult reading year for me because I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to read 80 books. In 2017 I was able to read 80 books kind of by accident and thought that I could do it again in 2018. Although I achieved my reading goal this year I did not enjoy the reading process or my reading habits. I started graduate school in September and since then I’ve not had as much free time to read because I would rather dedicate it to reading articles. The books I would pick up to read I would also not enjoy as much and overall this made me question why I read books that I don’t like, which is usually because of hype or bookstagram/booktube recommendations. 

As you can see from the list of my favourite books of 2018 a lot of them are non-fiction books focusing on medicine or psychology and these are genuinely one of my favourite sub-genres to read when it comes to non-fiction books. I also love memoirs and Just Kids by Patti Smith was a truly great recommendation by @welldonebooks Another funny item on the list is my “Psychology of Emotion” textbook. Yes, a textbook made it as one of my favourite books! 

However, my least favourite books consist of books about relationships, which turns out is a subject matter I don’t like reading about or really bad non-fiction. I don’t recommend reading “The Truth About Cancer” by Ty Bollinger because although the author questions the pharmaceutical industry he used outdated research to support his claims, which threaded the line of “fake news”. It’s also a Christian book, meaning that the author formed his opinions based on their religious beliefs and I did not like reading about his opinions on science based on his religious misinformation. The authors stand on vaccinations is also very misinformed; therefore, if any of you have better recommendations for cancer books, I’d love to know! The other non-fiction books on the list might have shared useful information that I already know about, so they did not wow me and I didn’t learn anything new from them, which is the main reason why I would not enjoy a non-fiction book. I always apply critical thinking to my reading experience and I think this shows while looking at my worst books list! 

I hope you found this post useful and will hopefully use my best books of 2018 as recommendations for good books to read in the future! My conclusion is that it’s not always about the quantity of reading but the quality that will make me enjoy my reading year! I will talk about my reading goals for 2019 in my next post but until then you can friend me on GoodReads! Let me know if I should continue with these book posts!

PTSD by Guillaume Singelin

After returning home from an unpopular war, Jun becomes an outsider in an indifferent world. Alone, desperate, and suffering from wounds both mental and physical, she seeks relief in the illicit drugs she manages to purchase or steal. Jun’s tough exterior served her well in combat, but she’ll need to nurture her vulnerability and humanity to survive at home. With the support of her fellow vets, the kindness of a stranger who refuses to turn away, and the companionship of a dog named Red, Jun learns to navigate the psychological trauma that she experienced in the war. Singelin's PTSD is an adult fiction graphic novel that grapples with the reality of being a war veteran about a traumatized war vet who must fend for herself against all odds.

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Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I was able to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Jun is a homeless, pill popping vet scarred by her experience in some nameless war. She works hard to rely on only herself after feeling like her government has let her down and left her with nothing after, wringing her dry. Jun doesn’t run with other vets but when she takes notice of how the local gangs are taking more from these other homeless vets by overcharging them on medications Jun finds herself fighting another war.

There is a colorful cast of characters, among them is Leona and her son Bao who run a small restaurant and get involved in trying to feed the homeless vets around them after they first meet Jun. Then there is Grey, an old grizzled vet who gifts a dog named Red to Jun as a companion. Through Red, Jun starts to find a bit of peace that makes it easier for her to reach out to others.

This story is dark and quite gritty. The artwork seemed a bit... cute for what was being told but somehow it worked. The coloring was fantastic. You could tell when you were in the past learning what Jun went through to become so jaded because the coloring reflected those scenes. Dark, somber, muted.

So UK peeps or non UK maybe. Who is planning on going to Reading festival in the summer?

The two friends who said they would come with me have bailed. So I need some friends/people to hang out with while I'm there.

At this point in time I'm not really up for selling my ticket cause I still want to go. So if any of you guys are going, particularly if you've got a weekend camping ticket, just drop me a message if you feel like adopting a friend for a weekend.

Signed,

Rapture (Bel Dame Apocrypha #3) by Kameron Hurley

After years in exile, Nyxnissa so Dasheem is back in action in service to the bel dames, a sisterhood of elite government assassins tasked with eliminating deserters and traitors. The end of a centuries-long holy war between her country, Nasheen, and neighboring Chenja has flooded the streets of Nasheen with unemployed - and unemployable - soldiers whose frustrations have brought the nation to the brink of civil war.

Not everyone likes this tenuous and unpredictable "peace," however, and somebody has kidnapped a key politician whose death could trigger a bloody government takeover. With aliens in the sky and revolution on the ground, Nyx assembles a team of mad magicians, torturers,and mutant shape-shifters for an epic journey across a flesh-eating desert in search of a man she's not actually supposed to kill.

Trouble is, killing is the only thing Nyx is good at. And she already left this man to die...

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My review for audiobook:

I loved this series, okay. I gushed about the first one and did even more gushing after I finished the second book (my favorite of the trilogy) and I will continue the trend by gushing about this book.

I love the characters almost as much as I hate them. They’re imperfect, some of them are just not really great human beings, some of them make choices that make me think, “welp, there is a place in hell for you” and other times think “welp, there is still a place in hell for you but you definitely had good intentions, congrats on that at least”. Bad things happen and sometimes for no particular reason then bad things just friggen happen, it’s uncontrollable. I cheered, I groaned, I yelled, I cried a little. This was a good book.