2014: A Year In Books

[Chart showing my (self-assigned) genre breakdown for 2014 reading]

I know, I know. It's January 3rd and I should have had this post up a couple of days ago. But, as an extreme introvert, I should probably not work in a retail centric job, that way I'm not drained of all energy and joy by the end of December, either. Also, I'm still recovering from a flu. So take your meaningless complaints about this bloggers punctuality and shove 'em...somewhere. (What? My mom reads this, she'll tsk at me if I get too descriptively vulgar.)

I did not read nearly as many books in 2014 as I intended to. I read 68 total. Which is a low number for me, possibly not for the average person. It's terrifyingly low compared to some of my book buddies, though. The thing is, reading is not a competition. Reading the fastest or the most only benefits you, so if rapidly accumulating knowledge is what you want, do it. If you'd rather savor a read or prefer not to treat it as homework, slow down. There are some books I have to read quickly because I'm reviewing them for a publication and those often bump my personal reading aside for a bit. I've also had a busy year with a promotion, a(nother) move, starting and running a teen book group, and my mom visiting. I gave myself permission in the late spring to take the pressure off myself. And I'm glad I did, it's helped me evaluate some of my habits, ruts, and preferences and compile some new goals for 2015. But more on that in another post. This is about the past. The list below is of the 68 books I read in their entirety this year. I have not included ANY partial reads, even if they were, say, 90% finished.

Quick Facts:

• I read 19946 pages this past year. (As I read a ton of advanced copies, some of my numbers are based on the final published text counts).
• As you may have noticed from the chart above I read most heavily in Fantasy (primarily Young Adult) and Mystery.
• Nature was my least read category, and it was only nature essays, but I actually read something in it!
• I started 14 new series.
• I finished 3 series.
• I reread 2 books.
• Favorite read of 2014: It's a 3 way tie, all for their own reasons - The Weird Sisters, Jackaby and The Girl in the Road
• Worst read of 2014: The Iron Trial.

Books Read* in 2014 
*In their entirety

1. Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
2. St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised By Wolves by Karen Russell
3. The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
4. Fade to Black by Francis Knight
5. Fluff Dragon by Platte F. Clark
6. The Shape Stealer by Lee Carroll
7. Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh
8. Timmy Failure: Now Look What You've Done by Stephan Pastis
9. Phoebe and Her Unicorn: A Heavenly Nostrils Chronicle by Dana C. Simpson
10. Misadventures of Salem Hyde: Spelling Trouble by Frank Cammuso
11. Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
12. The Mockingbird Next Door by Marja Mills
13. Princesses Behaving Badly by Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
14. The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
15. The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco
16. Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff
17. The Boundless by Kenneth Oppel
18. The Thickety: A Path Begins by J. A. White
19. The Given by Vicki Pettersson
20. Unicorn Magic: Bella's Birthday Unicorn by Jessica Burkhart
21. Lily the Unicorn by Dallas Clayton
22. The Stone Wife by Peter Lovesey
23. The Empty Glass by J. I. Barker
24. The Last Policeman by Ben Winters
25. Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett
26. The Intern's Handbook by Shane Kuhn
27. Wonderland by Stacey D'Erasmo
28. The Language of Bees by Laurie R. King
29. The God of the Hive by Laurie R. King
30. Greek Street: Blood Calls for Blood by Peter Milligan
31. Morning Glories: Volume One by Nick Spencer
32. The One Safe Place by Tania Unsworth
33. American Innovations by Rivka Galchen
34. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
35. After the Funeral by Agatha Christie
36. The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
37. A Conspiracy of Alchemists by Liesel Schwarz
38. Gris Grimly's Frankenstein by Gris Grimly
39. The Unofficial Middle-Earth Monster's Guide by The Mordor Collective
40. Starting From Happy by Patricia Marx
41. One Kick by Chelsea Cain
42. Zooburbia by Tai Moses
43. Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
44. Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times by Emma Treyvane
45. Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
46. The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
47. Grim by Christine Johnson
48. Pretty Deadly Vol. 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick
49. Courage: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls by Karen Finneyfrock, Mindy Nettifee, and Rachel McKibbens
50. Rooms by Lauren Oliver
51. The Rumplestiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde
52. Maplecroft by Cherie Priest
53. The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
54. Through the Woods by Emily Carroll
55. Displaced Persons by Derek McCulloch
56. What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund
57. The Tombs by Clive Cussler
58. How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are by Anne Berest, Audrey Diwan, Caroline de Maigret, and Sophie Mas
59. Jackaby by William Ritter
60. The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins
61. Between the Spark and the Burn by April Genevieve Tucholke 
62. The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett and Jory John
63. The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency: The Case of the Missing Moonstone by Jordan Stratford
64. Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King
65. Rest in Pieces by Bess Lovejoy
66. Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood
67. The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst
68. The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne

So how was 2014 for you?