Tara’s 2018 Reading List – How’d I Do?

Well well well, if it isn’t December already! Back in February I posted my To Be Read list, and—to be honest, it may have been a touch overambitious. “Overambitious?” you scoff. “But it was only eleven books!” 

True enough, my friend. True enough. 

Eleven books. Not even a book per month. And yet I’d been in a reading slump that lasted nearly all of 2016-2017. So let’s take a look at how I actually did with this TBR pile, shall we? 

Here’s the list of books I hoped to read in 2018. 

1. Wink Poppy Midnight – April Genevieve Tucholke
2. A Shadow Bright and Burning – Jessica Cluess 3 1/2 stars. Enjoyed the read
3. Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman  Read this one and absolutely loved it. 5 Stars. Might be my favorite read of the year.
4. The Night Circus  – Erin Morgenstern – Started reading and am still about 1/4 of the way through
5. The Rose & the Dagger – Renée Ahdieh – Started this one too but struggling to finish. Maybe next year!
6. The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
7. And I Darken – Kiersten White
8. Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card
   
9. The Two Towers / Return of the King – J.R.R. Tolkien
10. The Raven Cycle – Maggie Stiefvater

So. Yep. Pretty shabby job, Tara. I read exactly two of the books on my list. I still want to read all of the ones I didn’t get to, so they’ll be continuing through to next year’s goals!

I may have failed at my list, but I did actually manage to get out of my slump! I’ve actually read 19 books this year (with one more that should be finished in the next week or two). So despite my failed list I’m actually pretty pleased with how things have gone. For those interested, my other read books of 2018 are: 

1. All the Crooked Saints – Maggie Stiefvater
2. The Wrath and the Dawn – Renée Ahdieh 
3. The Immortals series (Four books) – Tamora Pierce 
4. These Broken Stars – Amie Kaufman
5. Kitchen Table Tarot – Melissa Cynova (review post here)
6. Austenland – Shannon Hale. This was a reread and delightful as ever!
7. The Gifts of Imperfection / Daring Greatly – Brené Brown 
8. Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
9. The Martian – Andy Weir
10. The Winter Sea – Susanna Kearsley. Another reread and one of my fav books of all time. If you like Scottish historical fiction with fantastic elements (is that too niche? haha) read this immediately.
11. The Little Book of Hygge – Meik Wiking
12. The Call – Peadar Ó Guilín
13. The Scorpio Races – Maggie Stiefvater. Also a reread and also delightful. 

Kind of a mish-mash of genres, now that I’m looking at it. I loved so many of the books I read this year and it was beyond wonderful to love reading again. 

Did you have a TBR pile this year, ambitious or otherwise—and how did it go for you? Did you read any of the books above? Let me know in the comments! Hearing from you guys is so much fun, and talking about books is equally awesome, so let’s have a conversation 🙂 

What was your favorite book you read this year? 

Happy Reading, friends!