I'll be honest, 2016 has been an awful year of reading for me. I didn't make any personal reading goals, and just as well because I only managed to finish 15 books. All fiction.
This year has been sloppy, unfocused and unproductive. I can't tell you how many reading slumps I've had - and not just the usual I'm-too-tired-to-read excuses, I've literally not enjoyed reading in these periods.
BUT, despite this, I have read some incredible books this year. After starting my Bookstagram in February, I have been introduced to new, seriously talented, authors and genres.
After completing each book, I wrote the title and one of my favourite 'stand out' quotes on a scrap piece of paper so I could review them at the end of the year.
Here is my 2016 wrap up.
1) Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.
2) Jackdaws, Ken Follett
She stood like a man, hand on hip, leaning forward, making her point with a belligerent forefinger; but all the same there was something enchanting about her.
3) Persuasion, Jane Austen
Men have held every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs so much higher a degree the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.
4) The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone wherever you felt like it.
5) Colors of Immortality, J.M. Muller
Meth was fairly rampant throughout the area, and it seemed to flow among these parks much the same as it spread through the veins of its intravenous users.6) The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
7) The Making of Gabriel Davenport, Beverley Lee
Nothing tasted like freedom. But freedom laced with the sting of failure was a bitter pill to swallow
8) The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
So we beat on, boat against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
9) Red Queen, Victoria Aveyard
Anyone can betray anyone.
10) The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
You can steal a book but you can't read one.
11) Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living.
12) Glass Sword, Victoria Aveyard
I must keep my eyes ahead, and away from the fire of a fallen prince. I must freeze my heart to the one person who insists on setting it ablaze.
13) Isle of Winds, James Fahy
Robin crossed quickly to the wardrobe and opened it. Things had been so odd lately it wouldn't have surprised him to have seen a lamppost lurking behind fur coats.
14) The Mystery of the Blue Train, Agatha Christie
I do not argue with obstinate men. I act in spite of them.
15) The Liberty Box, C.A. Gray
Even the air felt thick with chemicals.
Have you read any of these novels? Which one was your favourite? Comment below.
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