If you're still following this blog, you might have noticed how inactive I've been for the last year. For pretty much the whole of 2024, I've been playing constant catch-up with my blog posts, falling further and further behind. I haven't had any drive to post, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.
Honestly, I just don't have the same enthusiasm for reading that I used to. I still read a fair amount, I just don't have any passion for it. If you've been reading my (sporadic) monthly wrap-ups, you'll already know this... but I'm sorry to say, k-pop got me! I was losing focus on my reading at the end of 2023, so maybe I was feeling weak, looking for something else to fixate on. But my focus has definitely shifted.
So all I can do is apologise for my inactivity. I've not been updating, and I don't see that changing any time soon. I'm going to do one last yearly roundup, and then I'm putting this blog on indefinite hiatus. I won't delete, and I won't say for sure that I'll never come back, but for now, I won't be posting, and with no plans of returning.
I really enjoyed the three years I spent posting about my reading - I got so many nice messages, and I broadened my horizons through all the recommendations I received. But it's time to call it a day. I've cancelled the last of my book box subscriptions, because I don't get excited receiving them any more. I've stopping hunting down special edition books. I'm not setting any reading goals for 2025, as I don't think I'll stick to them. I'm still going to run my Book Club, because I love the social aspect, but that's about it.
So, without further ado, my final post:
2024 Yearly Round-up
Stats:
This year, I read a total of 56 books.
43 of these were new reads, 9 were re-reads, and I DNF-ed 4 books.
Goals:
This year, I set six goals to complete each month. I didn't do very well, and to be honest, I kind of gave up on hitting my goals towards the end of the year.
1. Take part in a “social” read (11 / 12 months)
2. Read a current subscription book (01 / 12 months)
3. Read a backlog subscription book (03 / 12 months)
4. Read a free book (02 / 12 months)
5. Annotate a book (02 / 12 months)
6. Read a sequel I’ve been putting off (06 / 12 months)
I had a total of:
twenty-five 5★ reads;
four 4★ reads (and two 4½★);
eight 3★ reads;
ten 2★ reads,
and five 1★ reads.
I read 9 hardbacks; 18 paperbacks, 26 ebooks, 2 audiobooks, and I tried to struggle through 1 ARC.
My favourite books of the year were: Butter (Yuzuki), These Violent Delights (Nemerever), The Full Moon Coffee Shop (Mochizuki), the Magnus Chase series (Riordan), and The Sunshine Court (Sakavic).
And my the thing I'm most salty about this year is Obsidian Moon Crate taking everyone's money and running. I know I'm never getting that money back now, and that's fine, it's not the end of the world. But it drives me up the wall that there's no way of holding the owner to account. The website has been shut down, and I doubt the email inbox is being monitored any longer. Short of flying to Georgia and banging on her door, there's nothing doing.
The Secret History - Donna Tartt (re-read) ★★★★★
The Little Friend - Donna Tartt ★★★★★
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (re-read) ★★★★★
Heroes - Stephen Fry ★★★★★
The Bacchae and Other Plays - Euripides ★★★★★
An English Murder - Cyril Hare ★★★☆☆
Grieving Gold - Daniel McDaniel (DNF) ★☆☆☆☆
Castle in the Air - Diana Wynne Jones ★★★★★
An Enchantment of Ravens - Margaret Rogerson ★★★☆☆
The Invocations - Krystal Sutherland ★★★★★
The Salt Grows Heavy - Cassandra Khaw ★★☆☆☆
A Study in Drowning - Ava Reid ★★☆☆☆
The Stolen Heir - Holly Black (re-read) ★★★★★
The Prisoner's Throne - Holly Black ★★★★½
Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse - Otsuichi ★★★★½
The Lamplighters - Emma Stonex ★★☆☆☆
Lockwood & Co: The Creeping Shadow - Jonathan Stroud ★★★★★
Lockwood & Co: The Empty Grave - Jonathan Stroud ★★★★★
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (re-read) ★★★★★
House of Many Ways - Diana Wynne Jones ★★★★★
The Sunshine Court - Nora Sakavic ★★★★★
The Sunshine Court - Nora Sakavic (re-read)
My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite ★★☆☆☆
Butter - Asako Yuzuki ★★★★★
Magnus Chase: The Sword of Summer - Rick Riordan ★★★★★
The Sunshine Court - Nora Sakavic (re-read)
An Arrow to the Moon - Emily X.R. Pan ★★★★☆
The Mary Shelley Club - Goldy Moldavsky ★☆☆☆☆
The Last Man - Mary Shelley ★★☆☆☆
Touching the Void - Joe Simpson ★☆☆☆☆
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (re-read) ★★★★★
The Witchwood Knot - Olivia Atwater ★★★★★
We Were Liars - E. Lockhart ★★☆☆☆
The Spirit Bares its Teeth - Andrew Joseph White ★★★☆☆
In My Dreams I Hold a Knife - Ashley Winstead ★☆☆☆☆
By the Pricking of My Thumbs - Agatha Christie ★★☆☆☆
In Order to Live - Yeonmi Park ★★★★☆
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1980 version) - Oscar Wilde ★★★☆☆
The Wicker King - K. Ancrum (re-read) ★★★★★
Troy - Stephen Fry (DNF) ★★★★☆
Magnus Chase: The Hammer of Thor - Rick Riordan ★★★★★
Magnus Chase: The Ship of the Dead - Rick Riordan ★★★★★
Blacktop Wasteland - S.A. Crosby ★★☆☆☆
These Violent Delights - Micah Nemerever ★★★★★
Stalking Jack the Ripper - Kerri Maniscalco (DNF) ★☆☆☆☆
The Seventh Bride - T. Kingfisher ★★★☆☆
The Full Moon Coffee Shop - Mai Mochizuki ★★★★★
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami (DNF) ★★☆☆☆
The Whistling - Rebecca Netley ★★★★★
We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson ★★☆☆☆
She - H. Rider Haggard ★★★☆☆
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop - Hwang Bo-Reum ★★★☆☆
The Hollow Places - T. Kingfisher ★★★★★
A December to Remember - Jenny Bayliss ★★★★☆
King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard ★★★☆☆
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (re-read) ★★★★★
I haven't seen anything like this floating around this year, but I love the design, so I used last year's template.
This is based on a bookstagram wrapped template by @_readbyrach
I love that one of my top genres is "Sports", purely because I re-read All for the Game so many times! It's also the reason that Nora Sakavic was my top author.
Thank you @petrareads for tagging me! I thought Goodreads would make my life easier but it turns out that it was hiding information from me lol. Thank god I keep another record of the books I read!
Here’s the template if anyone wants to do the tag! Here’s mine.
