2013 End of the Year Survey!

Yay for book surveys!  This year wasn’t nearly as productive reading wise as last year since I have been so busy and dealing with some big changes at home, but I still wanted to do this fun survey from Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner!  Between NaNo and the holidays, I’ve had nearly squat read the past two months and I feel horrible for it XD.  I have 3 books I am halfway through that I want to try to finish in the last 4 days of the year; we’ll see what happens….   Anyway, on the the survey!

1. Best Book You Read In 2013? (If you have to cheat — you can break it down by genre if you want or 2013 release vs. backlist)

I am definitely going to have to cheat for this one because it just isn’t possible to pick only one!

Contemporary – Fangirl, The Fault in Our Stars, and On the Jellicoe Road : All of these books were super wonderful and I love them all for different reasons.  Fangirl had the most real and relatable characters, The Fault in Our Stars made me cry and I hated and loved the book for it, and Jellicoe Road was beautiful and heart breaking and I wanted to just hug the book when I was done.

Dystopian – Catching Fire : This is my favorite book from this trilogy and I was so happy with the movie, too.

Sci-fi – Scarlet :  This one is easy because this is one of my all time favorite series so far and the characters, the story, everything is just amazing about it!

Fantasy – Days of Blood and Starlight and Asunder : Both of these were fabulous!  The writing was great in both and the stories were awesome and I can’t wait to finish both trilogies next year!

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Requiem is a definite!  I was expecting so much more, but by the end, I kind of wanted to throw the audio discs out the window of my car. Also, The Vampire Diaries; I love the T.V. show, but honestly, it is nothing like the book.  I like the show much better!

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2013? 

I think I would have to say I Hunt Killers for this one.  It sounded good and interesting, but it was so much better than I expected it to be and I am looking forward to reading the next one!  Teardrop was a second one that I was really surprised by how much I liked it since I wasn’t crazy about the Fallen series.

4. Book you read in 2013 that you recommended to people most in 2013?

For this one, I would say On the Jellicoe Road.  This book was ridiculously wonderful!  Like I said earlier, I wanted to hug it when I was done.  This was one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read.

5. Best series you discovered in 2013?

I started 3 new series, but I have only read the first books of them since two of them only have the first book out and the other I just haven’t picked up the next book yet.  They were I Hunt Killers, Teardrop and Ink.  Ink is a really great read and I loved the imagery in it, so I am very excited for the next one, and I’ve already mentioned the other two.

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2013?

Definitely Rainbow Rowell!  Her  characters and writing style are incredible and realistic.  I loved everything about Fangirl and am really looking forward to the rest of her books.

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?

I guess you could say “out of my comfort zone” was The Fault in Our Stars since it was a cancer book.  I had never read a cancer book before, but it wasn’t just a cancer book because there was so, so much more to it.  I am glad other bloggers convinced me to read it.  Another one was Darkfever, which is an adult romance, which I almost never read, but a friend of mine convinced me to since she loved it so much.

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2013?

I Hunt Killer was pretty thrilling and I didn’t want to stop reading it at all.  It was very exciting and not what I expected and I was disappointed I didn’t have the second book yet.

9. Book You Read In 2013 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

Definitely Scarlet.  I don’t really re-read books since there are so many books in my TBR already, but I suprised myself by re-reading Cinder before Scarlet came out, so I will be re-reading Scarlet before Cress.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2013?

This was just to hard to pick one, so I chose my top two.  Both of these covers are super beautiful and tops favorites of all my reads in general.

11. Most memorable character in 2013? 

Allyson from Just One Day is a memorable one because of how much she changes over the course of her book.  She is so much different by the end than when she starts out.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2013?

Do I have to mention how beautiful and heartbreaking On the Jellicoe Road is again?

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2013? 

Again, On the Jellicoe Road, because this story is so beautiful, I have wanted to challenge myself to write a beautiful story as well that I would love to have other people want to hug like I want to hug Jellicoe.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2013 to finally read? 

The Titan’s Curse because I read the first two in a few months of each other, but why in the world did I wait TWO YEARS to finish this series??

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2013?

“You love me. Real or not real?”
I tell him, “Real.”

I am team Peeta all the way and I love this quote from Mockingjay and I want one of the lovely necklaces I see with this quote on it!

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2013?

Longest was Days of Blood and Starlight at 513 pages.  This was a great sequel and I want the third right now.

Shortest was Two Boys Kissing at 208 pages.  This book was so great!  Definitely more power in it than 208 pages worth.

17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To Somebody About It? (a WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss, etc. etc.) Be careful of spoilers!

Mockingjay.  That’s all I’m saying.  Those of you who have read it know what I mean.  And the movies are going to be so hard to watch.

18. Favorite Relationship From A Book You Read In 2013 (be it romantic, friendship, etc).

Both romantic and friendships:

Katniss & Peeta
Scarlet & Wolf
Zuzana & Karou
Percy, Annabeth & Grover
Levi & Cath

Again hard to pick just one.

19. Favorite Book You Read in 2013 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

Lola and the Boy Next Door and Asunder.  Both of these authors are great in different ways and I love the both of them.

20. Best Book You Read In 2013 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else:

Again…Jellicoe Road.

21. Genre You Read The Most From in 2013?

Fantasy BARELY beat contemporary.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2013?

Wolf from Scarlet – Duh
Ziri from Days of Blood and Starlight – I really love this guy!

23. Best 2013 debut you read?

Definitely Ink by Amanda Sun.  I really enjoyed it and the imagery was wonderful.

24. Most vivid world/imagery in a book you read in 2013?

Days of Blood and Starlight and Ink.  The details of the worlds in both of these books were great and I really love the descriptions of the chimaera in DoBS.

25. Book That Was The Most Fun To Read in 2013?

Lola and the Boy Next Door was really fun to read.  Both Lola and Cricket are quirky and interesting characters and fun to read about.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2013?

The Fault in Our Stars
On the Jellicoe Road
Two Boys Kissing

27. Book You Read in 2013 That You Think Got Overlooked This Year Or When It Came Out?

Two Boys Kissing – At least in my area, this book definitely didn’t receive enough attention like it should have.  This book was so beautiful and it is about so much more than a couple of gay high school boys trying to break a kissing record.  I mean jeeze…it nearly made me cry!

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2013? 

Hard one!  I love all the great blogs I came across.  At the top I think I would have to say Books for a Delicate Eternity.  Chiara is so nice and chatty, plus we have very similar tastes!  Also, Jenea at Books Live Forever is another top pick.  She is super sweet, too!

2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2013? 

Requiem is one of my favorites I did because I actually used an animated gif in it to accent my point.  I don’t often use them, not really sure why, maybe I should more often.

3. Best discussion you had on your blog?

Hmm…perhaps the one about bookish pet peeves.  I love to know other people’s pet peeves and know I am justified in mine as well.  It is really interesting to see the ones that are pretty universal and the ones that are the complete opposite of the norm.

4. Most thought-provoking review or discussion you read on somebody else’s blog?

This one is tough because it is hard for me to remember them over the past year (I have a horrid memory), but I really liked the post I read about blogger burnout.  I don’t really know what to do with myself when I feel that burnout coming on, and the post had really good tips about it.  It was also nice to know that other bloggers get to the burnout point as well, not just me, and they make it through just fine!

5. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?

Definitely YALLFest in Charleston, SC.  Of course, it is also the only one I have been able to go to so far.  I would die if I could go to BEA!  For only a single day, YALLFest is really incredible and you meet all kinds of great authors and people.  My mom went with me to this past November’s and she was shocked when she saw how some of the authors were.  She didn’t realize they liked to drop the F-bomb!

6. Best moment of book blogging/your book life in 2013?

Getting my novel started with NaNoWriMo.  I started one last year, but, though I really liked it, I was beyond stoked with my new story and I began it this past NaNo and got pretty far into it.  I am still working on it and I have a great critique partner who gives great advice and tips, so maybe one day it will be my book I see up for review on the blogs 😀  I’ve always wanted to be a published writer, and I’m getting closer, bit by bit.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

Actually, this is the same as last year.  It is my review of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie.  I have no idea why this one is so insanely popular, but it has been viewed  over 1000 times, which is over 3 times the amount of my next highest post.

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

My dream cast for Cinder and Scarlet.  I had a lot of fun picking out the actors for it and I was hoping more people would comment on it and let me know if they agreed or who they would have chosen instead.  The Lunar Chronicles is super popular (for very good reason) and I was hoping to have more input from readers on my cast choices.

9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

I think I would have to say digital downloads from my library website and being able to put them onto my cellphone to use bluetooth in my car to listen through the speakers.  No more need for CD audiobooks, no more losing my place by taking out a disc, no headphones unless I want to use them and always having the books with me where ever I go right in my pocket.

10.  Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Nope.  I failed beautifully at my reading challenges this year.  Though I nearly made 2 of them.  I was only one away from my Off the Shelf challenge and my Genre Variety challenge.  I made last year’s challenges really easily, but this year I had soooo much going on and some big changes at home (my boyfriend and his son moved in), so it was a new big adjustment for me and I didn’t have quite as much time to focus on reading as I would have liked.

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2013 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2014?

I have to pick just one??  The Beautiful and the Cursed, the Divergent Trilogy, Angelfall and Dare You To are all at the top of the list.  No way to pick a single book.  There are so many that I wanted to read this past year!

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2014 (non-debut)?

Cress by Marissa Meyer, Infinite by Jodi Meadows and Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor are the ones I am most looking forward to.  I want all three of these immediately.

3. 2014 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

Alienated and Cruel Beauty are both debuts I am really looking forward too.  I have been getting into retellings lately and Alienated is one I have been seeing for months, so these are both on my debuts to read list!

4. Series Ending You Are Most Anticipating in 2014?

Dreams of Gods and Monsters and Infinite are both enders that I am really anticipating, but at the same time, I’ll be sad that it is over.

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging In 2014?

Now that I am adjusted to my new changes at home, I am hoping to make some new improvements on the blog and bring in my cousin as partner, which would also mean I could open up review requests again.  I’d also love to meet my reading goals for this year, haha.  Commenting more is something else I’d love to do.  It is sometimes hard because I work during peak commenting hours, but I am going to do better!