2014 End of Year Book Survey
I've read and commented on a ton of these from other readers, so I thought I'd fill it out for myself! (Images and survey source)
also known as "okay I really LOVE Tell the Wolves I'm Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt"
1. Best Book You Read In 2014?
Tell the Wolves I'm Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt. SO MUCH FEELS
2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?
Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China, by Guy Delisle. It fell terribly short from the expectations I got from reading his previous travelogue about Pyongyang, North Korea.
3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read in 2014?
Orange Is the New Black, by Piper Kerman. Much different from the TV series. Not in a bad way, but many of the characters had different names and slightly different background stories.
4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did) In 2014?
Where'd You Go Bernadette, by Maria Semple
5. Best series you started in 2014? Best Sequel of 2014? Best Series Ender of 2014?
Didn't start any series in 2014 except Divergent. Not necessarily the best; just the only. I plan on the reading the last two books this year, so it wasn't too bad, but it didn't draw me in like The Hunger Games did. I think I'm getting tired of dystopian YA fiction as the flavor of the month.
6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2014?
Carol Rifka Brunt!
7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?
Creative Confidence, by Tom Kelley (of IDEO) - I read this for an engineering class. The man is a genius inventor and breaks down the cognitive/psychological process of innovation. He "assigns" you exercises to stretch your creative muscles. You aren't born with creative genes - you work and improve the flexibility and speed of your creative flow.
8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?
Lexicon, by Max Barry. For such a harmless-sounding title, there was a lot going on in from cover to cover!
9. Book You Read In 2014 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?
Tell The Wolves I'm Home
10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2014?
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. I even spent the majority of my review gushing over the many metaphors on the cover.
11. Most memorable character of 2014?
Frank from In the Miso Soup, by Ryu Murakami
12. Most beautifully written book read in 2014?
Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri
13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2014?
Lexicon, by Max Berry. It made me rethink how the media is very careful with word choice, how a certain combination of words leave people susceptible to persuasion, and how words have the powerful potential to corrupt. It was particularly thought-provoking to me because of my profession as a marketer.
14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2014 to finally read?
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint Exupery
15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2014?
Nope, too much work and too many passages.
16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2014?
Longest: The Pickwick Papers before I gave up on it (914 pp), and then Her Fearful Symmetry (637 pp)
Shortest: The Little Prince (98 pp)
17. Book That Shocked You The Most
In the Miso Soup, by Ryu Murakami. For those who have read this book, I'm so sorry for stirring up traumatic memories. That Bar Scene, in particular.
18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)
Georgia McCool and Neal from Landline, by Rainbow Rowell
19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year
Johanna Morrigan aka Dolly Wilde and John Kite's 'mentorship' in How to Build a Girl, by Caitlin Moran
20. Favorite Book You Read in 2014 From An Author You’ve Read Previously
Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn
21. Best Book You Read In 2014 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:
How to Build a Girl, by Caitlin Moran. Because I experienced major FOMO when I missed the Readalong Where Everyone Actually Loved the Book.
22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2014?
Alas, no crushes here.
23. Best 2014 debut you read?
Tell the Wolves I'm Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt
24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?
The Night Circus, by Erin Morganstern. She is very descriptive of the delicious foods, lavish costumes, and the magic (very literal magic) of the circus.
25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?
A Dirty Job, by Christopher Moore. What a bizarre ending!
26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2014?
Tell the Wolves I'm Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt
27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?
The Lottery and Other Stories, by Shirley Jackson. Though I've read The Lottery before, I'm glad that I got to read her more obscure stories which were just as good.
28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. I was devastated when I realized what had happened to him at the end!
29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2014?
Still Alice, by Lisa Genova. Well-researched and written by a leading expert in the field (she's a Harvard-trained neuroscientist), it describes early-onset Alzheimer's... from the sufferer's perspective.
30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?
The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens - YES, it means I hated it. Dropped out of the readalong with my poor fellow readers.
I've really enjoyed reading everybody's responses to this questionnaire. (Though some of the questions start to feel redundant and/or silly!)
ReplyDeleteI forgot that you'd read The Night Circus in 2014. If I had filled out this survey the year I read it, it would have won for best worldbuilding, too.
Look at us being all same-samey with our relationship pairings! Although I honestly read very few books with relationships in them so I didn't have too much to pick from!
ReplyDeleteClearly I really need to read Lexicon. It's been on my radar for awhile but I think your answer to #13 just bumped it up the list.
UGH. Tell the Wolves I'm Home. So many feeeeeels.
ReplyDeleteI like that John Kite/Johanna Morrigan was your favorite nonromantic pairing, because even though it sort of GOT to romance territory right at the end, you're totally right about its being more of a mentor/friend situation for the most part. That's what made it so special.
JOHANNA AND JOHN FOREVER. When she gets old enough. Also Tell the Wolves is so good. ALSO if you'd read The Pickwick Papers with our group, I'll bet you wouldn't have dropped out. Because I think it is HILARIOUS.
ReplyDeleteThe questions were incredibly redundant, but I guess that validates the 3 or 4 books that really stand out every year!
ReplyDeleteThough I was not a fan of the ending for The Night Circus, I got completely lost in all those lurid descriptions!
Samey-samey indeed - I think I've managed to avoid love triangles altogether *high-fives self*
ReplyDeleteYES, read Lexicon - while some readers dismissed it as a straightforward dystopian action fiction novel, I liked the interludes of news articles interspersed between the chapters so you can interpret what's really going on and how the media covers everything up.
Many, many feels. and ugly-crying.
ReplyDeleteAs for How To Build A Girl, I didn't consider them a romantic pair while she was building (and re-building) herself, because John Kite was there to give perspective at sometimes and at other times, just be there for her while she tried to figure things out. The relationship was written so well that it didn't even feel creepy when they blurred that line at the end. (Maybe because it was blurred to begin with.)
lol @ When she gets old enough... and then John Kite goes through a guilty internal crisis for all of 30 seconds.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had read it with you! We all tried so hard and keep the morale up but then everyone dropped dead after the 4th round of shenanigans, give or take. Are you doing any readalongs this year?
Villette in March! So we can all read some non-Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte.
ReplyDeleteSweeeeeet.
ReplyDeleteJohn and Johanna!! Yessssss
ReplyDeleteI want to re-read this for all of the John Johanna meetups
ReplyDelete