My Reading Stats for 2022 – A Bookish Overview!

Yes it’s that time of year again where geeky bookworm girls get excited about stats… so let’s just skip the preamble and get right to the good stuff!!

Once again I’m realllly happy with my ratings. I mean, 3.7?! That’s way above average!! And I’d like to take the credit for this- but clearly the actual credit goes to the wonderful books I’ve been reading! 😉 (mostly I did also DNF a lot more books this year, which no doubt affected my ratings!)

The BIGGEST shift in my stats is definitely the steady decrease in YA. Year-on-year, I’m clearly choosing to read fewer books for teens (and is not that surprising considering year-on-year I get further from my teens 😂).

Amazingly there were no massive changes in the genre of books I read. I normally do see a shift here, so I was surprised to see no standout changes.

I also read about the same number of library books- at a whopping 76% of books! (basically libraries are my book-supply-lifeline and I couldn’t live without them!)

That said, there was one other MASSIVE change- and that’s the number of audiobooks I’ve read. It’s gone from a mere 25% to 48%!!!!!! That’s almost double!!! And to be honest, I’m not surprised by this shift. Not only do I think audiobooks are *AWESOME* (since I have (re)discovered the joy of being read to) I also know that I wouldn’t have done much reading at all this year if not for all the audiobooks I consumed (/devoured like a craven audiobook fiend).

So yeah, while a lot of things have stayed the same, there have been some BIG CHANGES!

Still, sometimes it’s the little things that count, such as…

Starting off this list with a small pleasure.

A HUGE slog (but not as bad as the last time! I gave it an extra banana… granted that was still only a total of two bananas- but that’s an improvement nonetheless!)

I’m pretty torn about this one, not because the book I’m choosing is in any way good (it’s not), but because I actually hated Time Traveller’s Wife more… I just couldn’t bring myself to finish it! So Constant Princess wins- purely because I suffered through it till the bitter end! 😂

This book cut DEEP!

23!! Isn’t that incredible?! (if you’re into DNFing that is 😉 ) Honestly, I’m so proud of this- you can read all about my DNFs in detail in my post!

12- way up from previous years! I’m super pleased about this, because I used to reread all the time and am resurrecting the habit. I feel like it’s a way to just show appreciation and love for a good book (and also rewarding myself with a memorable and comforting treat!) After all, what could be better than reading Lord of the Rings and Austen?! Somehow I managed to enjoy all these books more than the first time I read them!

(Granted on a funny note, I reread Looking for JJ and Selfie by accident cos I thought I’d never read them before)

Well duh!

Total waste of time. It feels like a book that desperately wants to say something profound whilst not saying much of anything at all.

I can understand this (considering I also rated it pretty high)

I quite liked this! not an amazing book, but it does what it said on the tin, so I think this is pretty harsh!

This was so hard to choose!!! I’m going to give you a few (you’re welcome 😉 )

This was a year of some super special non fic!

And that’s a wrap! So how was your reading year? Have your ratings been good? Did you discover any brilliant books? Let me know in the comments!

My Most Disappointing Books of 2022

Ahh the dreaded disappointed books list. Love em or loathe em, I can only say I wish the day would come when I have nothing to put on one of these lists. BUT IT IS NOT THIS DAY! Because, even though my list is reasonably short, there were still books that MADE ME WANT TO GOUGE MY EYES OUT WITH A SPOON! Ok- enough clichéd references- there’s definitely enough lame things in these books…

Atlas Six– guys I don’t get the hype- this was a messy book with messy characters. I realised halfway through that not much had actually happened in terms of plot yet. Overall, I was simply unimpressed by this tiktok “sensation”.  

Little Thieves- it pains me to put this on here. But this book stole my time and I’d like to get my own back. Sold as a retelling of Goose Girl, except from the villain’s perspective, one of my biggest gripes with this book was the characterisation of our wicked main character. Because (***spoiler alert***) she’s not actually wicked at all. As much as we are told that she stole someone’s whole life… the sting is taken out of that concept, since we learn said character wanted her to. It kinda undid the hard work of the concept for me, as she’s now not much of a villain. I was looking for a redemptive arc or a morally grey character with dubious justifications or even an anti-hero origin story- yet I got none of that. Add to that a host of gods who don’t quite fit the story and a romance I didn’t buy into and it’s no wonder I was left cold. This was not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination- there were even things I quite liked- only ultimately I was left mildly irritated and VERY disappointed.

God of Small Things– frankly, this made it onto this list because of the ick factor. If not for the small (okay HUGE) matter of including incest, it would’ve just been another booker prize book I didn’t love, nothing to see here. Unfortunately, because of that ending, I will now remember this book for all the wrong reasons.

When You Disappeared– how can something work in one book, but not in the other? I was really impressed with how twisted John Marrs’ book the One was… but the darkness was too much for me in this one. It just sickened me one too many times. Spoiler warning: this has a bit of everything I can’t stand- from child death to rape (a twist that didn’t work for me at all). Plus, the male perspective pissed me off. Which I suppose was half the point- it’s just a shame it put me off the book.

Fire and Blood– this is an odd one for me, as I predict I will doubtless really enjoy the show. But this book made it to one of my most disappointing reads of the year, due to the off-putting writing style. Written in the style of a historian maester, it sadly reads as very dull. With heinous and unlikeable characters, this makes it a very hard book to connect to. It was more like a damp disappointment than something to get all hot and bothered over.

The Constant Princess- I can’t say I was wholly disappointed by this book, since I generally know what to expect from Gregory these days… and that’s not a whole lot. This book was the same old ahistorical historical fiction, with a bunch of gross bits thrown in and a half-crazed unlikeable heroine. Add to that the fact it made THE TUDORS boring, rambling and pointless… and perhaps you can see why I was unimpressed.

Annnd… a (dis)honorable mention goes to The Time Traveller’s Wife– because as I mentioned in my DNF post, I frickin loathed it. I just didn’t finish it for it to cinch the official title of worst book of the year!

And that’s all for now! Time for the moment of truth- what did you think of these books? Have you read them? Do you agree or disagree? Did I go too far with any of these? Let me know in the comments!

Books I Successfully DNF’d in 2022! (A New Record!!)

I DNF’d a total of 23 books this year. That’s right: 23 BOOKS! This coming from a girl who always felt like she had to finish everything she picked up, regardless of whether it was remotely enjoyable or not. But I’ve turned over a new leaf- as you can see! 2022 was the year I fully embraced the DNF- because life is too short to read every. single. book (especially when you don’t even like them).

Now, given the sheer quantity of DNFs, I’m not going to go into detail about every single one. A lot of them were simply too dull or too graphic or not what I was looking for. Empire of Pain was obviously too painful (I may try to pick it up again when I’m feeling braver). I kissed Shara Wheeler reminded me why I didn’t like the author’s writing style. And Shuggie Bain was just too gloomy. Still- there were some that stuck in my mind (for all the wrong reasons) and I just *have to* talk about them… Let’s get into some of those lowlights, shall we? 

One to Watch– watch out- this one’s a little depressing. Which was a real downer, considering I was hoping for something light and frothy. I found it disappointing that the protagonist’s whole personality hinged on being plus sized. It kind of defeats the message of looking beyond appearances if you do nothing but focus on appearances. I just wasn’t getting what I wanted out of this book.

The Magician– I was so disconnected from this. There really wasn’t enough going on to keep my interest and there’s only so many times I can hear it repeated that the main character was not doing what his family wanted. I think there is a generational gap going on here, because some people really like (non) stories like this and I don’t get it.

Parable of the Sower– I held onto this book a lot longer than I should have, because I know what a brilliant author Octavia Butler is. But unfortunately, I don’t want to read a book about the end of the world right now (cos it feels like we’re living it! Perhaps (hopefully) something to pick up one day when the world is less grim.

Robber Bride– this is the one I had the highest anticipation for, because, while I didn’t love Handmaid’s Tale, I can see Atwood is talented and I really liked Alias Grace. Plus, I’d been meaning to read another Atwood for ages. But MY GOD the pacing. I don’t know what it is about the most acclaimed Atwood books not being my thing… but they are really not my thing.

Firekeeper’s Daughter– the writing style simply wasn’t for me. I was put off by the amount of telling- so much of the characterisation was written in a very basic way, in the vein of: “she’s my best friend, I’ve known her for years, here’s our entire history blah blah blah”. I also didn’t like imagined conversations to give us her parent’s backstory. Books like this have made me wonder if I’m even into YA anymore (which would be fair enough if I’m not 😜)

The Kingdoms– this was so unusual… perhaps a little too unusual for me. I loved the world building and the integration of Franco-British culture. Still, at times it was too strange for me and it lost me when it jumped back in time. I struggled to find my footing and then lost my way entirely. I read so much of this- nonetheless I couldn’t continue anymore. Time travel books are very hit or miss for me- speaking of which…

Time Traveller’s Wife– I wish I could go back in time and un-read this book. It wasn’t simply that I didn’t jive with this book, I actively hated it. Everything about the concept creeped me out. I just really don’t like it. Everything about the concept really creeps me out. I don’t like the paedophilic/grooming implications of her meeting her future husband as a child when he’s 40. It’s not cute, it’s creepy. There is the implication that this is all fine and dandy, since she makes the first move in the present, but that just comes across as victim blaming. She doesn’t have true agency- she was groomed from childhood to seek him out. I don’t even like when the main character meets himself as a child and gives instructions to have it be “our little secret”. Again, this is the sort of thing that groomers and child abusers do. I don’t understand why this book is popular, because I don’t find any of this quirky or romantic. It not only makes my head spin, it grosses me out. It would’ve been my least favourite book of the year if I’d finished it.

Babel– this was also a great big NOPE for me! Which was a real shame, as I was very much looking forward to this book. What I signed up for was a dark academia adventure set in 1800s Oxford… what I got instead was a plotless rant about history with a very basic linguistics lesson on the side. Not that it felt very grounded in history- modern phrases like “China is the future” and words like “diversify” aren’t exactly contemporary to the 19^th century (which is rather amusing for a book about the history of language). Even for dark academia, there was too much focus on the academics to the detriment of everything else. Plus, for a book supposed to bring the focus onto the unseen in society, the characters read as flat caricatures. They read like stereotypes to me. And I knew the book wasn’t going to get any better when I was told, instead of shown that “he would have killed for any of his cohort”- without any evidence or action to back that up!! I was just supposed to believe they were best friends out of a couple of conversations!! Which brings me onto the awful amount of telling. Every single emotion was telegraphed through lines like “He was a child starved for affection”. Every. Single. One. I’m genuinely confused by all the people saying this book was beautifully written- because I couldn’t see it. I don’t care how popular this book is, I was completely fed up reading it and never wanted to pick it up.

Annnd that’s all for now! I’m sure one of those are bound to get me sent into bookworm exile! Sooo dare I ask- what did you think of these books? Have you read them? Did you manage to finish them? Let me know in the comments!