Feed The Bookworm! My 2016 Reading Challenge Results

I am a big reader; regular, eBook, and audiobook. I don’t care how the information gets uploaded into my brain as long as it does. I keep track of my consumption on GoodReads (both the phone app and the website) and have been participating in their reading challenge since 2011. My goal for 2016 was to read 70 books, but I ended up reading 87. My best was 88 books in 2013 and my worst was 41 books in 2014. My goal for 2017 is 80 books. How I choose what to read will be another blog.

Below is my ranking system when I blog about them. It is a bit broad because it is hard to categorize a book unlike a movie. I do rate them on GoodReads and give a little review if you are interested (everything below is linked). It comes down to: I really recommend, I recommend, or I do not recommend. I do separate out the fiction from the non-fiction and have been trying to rotate in more non-fiction recently. Enjoy!

Top 10 Personal Favorites I Have Read This Year (Fiction and Non-Fiction):

1. Room – Emma Donoghue
2. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry – Gabrielle Zevin
3. The Wise Wan’s Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2) – Patrick Rothfuss
4. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
5. The Rook (The Checquy Files #1) – Daniel O’Malley
6. City on Fire – Garth Hallberg
7. Lily and the Octopus – Steven Rowley
8. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things – Jenny Lawson
9. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir – Jenny Lawson
10.  Arcadia – Iain Pears

Special Mentions:

• All the Dresden Files books I’ve read so far – Jim Butcher
• All the Thursday Next books I’ve read so far – Jasper Fforde
• All the James Bond books I’ve read – Ian Fleming

Fiction Awesome:

• Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
• For Your Eyes Only (James Bond #8) – Ian Fleming
• Thunderball (James Bond #9) – Ian Fleming
• The Spy Who Loved Me (James Bond, #10) – Ian Fleming
• First Among Sequels (Thursday Next, #5) – Jasper Fforde
• In a Dark, Dark Wood – Ruth Ware
• On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (James Bond, #11) – Ian Fleming
• You Only Live Twice (James Bond, #12) – Ian Fleming
• Cold Days (The Dresden Files, #14) – Jim Butcher
• The Man With the Golden Gun (James Bond, #13) – Ian Fleming
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, #1) – Ian Fleming
• Room – Emma Donoghue
• Octopussy and the Living Daylights (James Bond, #14) – Ian Fleming
• Skin Game (The Dresden Files, #15) – Jim Butcher
• One of Our Thursdays is Missing (Thursday Next, #6) – Jasper Fforde
• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry – Gabrielle Zevin
• Broken Homes (Peter Grant #4) – Ben Aaronovitch
• The Book Thief – Markus Zasak
• The Wise Wan’s Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2) – Patrick Rothfuss
• The Road – Cormac McCarthy
• The Prince Bride – William Goldman
• The Rook (The Checquy Files #1) – Daniel O’Malley
• Working for Bigfoot (Dresden Files #15.5) – Jim Butcher
• Three Men in a Boat – Jerome Jerome
• Lily and the Octopus – Steven Rowley
• The Slow Regard of Silent Things (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2.5) – Patrick Rothfuss
• City on Fire – Garth Hallberg
• Foxglove Summer (Peter Grant #5) – Ben Aaronovitch
• Arcadia – Iain Pears

Non-Fiction Awesome:

• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear – Elizabeth Gilbert
• Listful Thinking: Using Lists to Be More Productive – Paula Rizzo
• The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It Every Time -Maria Konnikova
• Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things – Jenny Lawson
• Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir – Jenny Lawson
• The Upside of Stress: Why Stress is Good for You and How to Get Good at It – Kelly McGonigal
• But What if We’re Wrong? Thinking about the Present as if it were the Past – Chuck Klosterman

Fiction Recommended:

• The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah
• Dune – Frank Herbert
• The Martian Chronicles – Ray Bradbury
• A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
• Cocaine Blues (Phryne Fisher, #1) – Kerry Greenwood
• Flying Too High (Phryne Fisher, #2) – Kerry Greenwood
• Murder on the Ballarat Train (Phryne Fisher, #3) – Kerry Greenwood
• Death at Victoria Dock (Phryne Fisher, #4) – Kerry Greenwood
• The Green Mill Murder (Phryne Fisher, #5) – Kerry Greenwood
• Blood and Circuses (Phryne Fisher, #6) – Kerry Greenwood
• Ruddy Gore (Phryne Fisher, #7) – Kerry Greenwood
• Urn Burial (Phryne Fisher, #8) – Kerry Greenwood
• The Three Musketeers – Alexander Dumas
• Slade House – David Mitchell
• Fool – Christopher Moore
• Raylan – Elmore Leonard
• Still Alice – Lisa Genova
• Raisins and Almonds (Phryne Fisher, #9) – Kerry Greenwood
• Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
• Rogues (short stories) – Multiple Authors
• The Woman Who Died a Lot (Thursday Next #7) – Jasper Fforde
• Death Before Wicket (Phryne Fisher, #10) – Kerry Greenwood
• Strangers on a Train – Patricia Highsmith
• Kitchens of the Great Midwest – J. Ryan Stradal
• Away with the Fairies (Phryne Fisher, #11) – Kerry Greenwood
• Bleak House – Charles Dickens

Non-Fiction Recommended:

• Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard – Chip Heath
• You Are A Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life – Jen Sincero
• Nerd Do Well – Simon Pegg
• H is for Hawk – Helen Macdonald

Books I Re-Read:

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter, #1) – J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2) – J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3) – J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4) – J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5) – J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6) – J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7) – J.K. Rowling

Fiction NOT Recommended:

• Driving Heat (Nikki Heat #7) – Richard Castle
• InterWorld – Neil Gaiman
• Moby-Dick; or, The Whale – Herman Melville
• Fates and Furies – Lauren Groff
• The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
• Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
• A Spool of Blue Thread – Ane Tyler
• Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
• The Book of Strange New Things – Michel Faber
• Ulysses – James Joyce
• Germinal – Emile Zola
• High Heat (Nikki Heat, #8) – Richard Castle
• The Girl in the Spider’s Web – David Lagercrantz

Non-Fiction NOT Recommended:

• Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink – Elvis Costello

Past Rankings from old blog:

• 2011
• 2012
• 2013
• 2014
• 2015

I accept all friend requests on GoodReads if you want to friend me there.