Dor Does Books

This post is a lie. For a start, my reading year runs from Christmas day because I'm fairly likely to be able to get a good start on it, and a good start on it means I'm more likely to meet my reading goal of 100 books, something I've never managed.

That, too, is a lie. 

I don't count my books conventionally. Books shorter than 175 ish pages count as half a book, books longer than 500 pages count as 2 books; "hard" books approaching this page limit may count as 2 (stuff like Bring Up The Bodies), "easy" books or re-reads approaching this limit may not. The page count attained in abandoned books is added up and divided by 250 to the nearest whole number. 

In 2013, I read 96 and a half books - or 91 books if you want to count them individually. Which is not too shabby, especially considering the disaster which happened over the summer and rendered me unable to concentrate on anything for the best part of 3 weeks. Due to that, this year has contained a lot of re-reads.

I abandoned only 5 books this year - a book only counts as abandoned if I've read more than 80 pages - so it's hard to make a significant comment about why I stop reading, but reflecting on the books I've finished but not enjoyed (as well as a couple I've loved), the blurb is usually to blame. 

So, in a completely unscientific, highly subjective way, here's a roundup.

The Best/Most Interesting books of the year:

These are the books which stand out to me when I look back over my list. It's a bit predictable, but I've gone for Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn because I haven't yet read Gone Girl (It's been on my Kindle since the summer), because it was the first of her books I read so it had a freshness to it Dark Places (also highly recommended) didn't. Also, because I'm a former self-harmer. When I look back on this year, it is with forced pride that I didn't fall off the wagon, although I came breathtakingly close on a couple of occasions. The Uncommon Reader is a very short and funny novella about her majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, discovering a mobile library behind Buckingham Palace. If you are on this site, you need to read that book.

Most Annoying/Disappointing books of the Year

I judge a book according to the blurb because I think that's fair. These are subjective views, not objective, and these are the books which have actively annoyed me, either from having deathly stupid plotting (Elijah's Mermaid), everybody saying it was great when actually it wasn't (The Night Circus), being self-indulgent nonsense (How Should a Person Be?), having the stupidest conclusion ever that doesn't stand up to scrutiny (Mr Penumbra's 24 hour Bookstore), having a punchline which doesn't work (Habits of The House), being offensive to me as a woman (The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving), reading as though it was written to satisfy demand (Every Seventh Wave), or being filled with factual errors (Netherworld). There are plenty more which just weren't very good, but these are the ones I could happily rant to you about. 

Books I liked nobody else appears to have read

 Funny, and (emotionally) true. Also, my Mammy enjoyed it.

 Stupid cover, stupid blurb, but underneath a really good Book Club worthy story. 

 Again, a stupid blurb which fails to mention the MC is intersex. The second book is stronger than the first (which is a bit plotless, but makes up for it at the end), but I'd recommend reading them in order.

So there you go. Roll on 2014. I'm already behind with my reviews.