Another Book Survey!!!

It's that time again, folks.  Survey time, that is.  And what could be more fun than reading another bookish survey?  This time, Jamie at The Perpetual Page Turner is hosting, and I thank Laura and Sarah for turning me on to this one.  I'm still visiting family in Wisconsin for the holidays and haven't had time to devote to a book review, so here's a way of easing me back into blogging for the new year. I did a full post here about my year of reading for 2014, along with some notable titles, but surveys are so much more fun to do!


Number Of Books You Read: 108
Number of Re-Reads: 17 (most of these were either Bill Bryson/David Sedaris audio books or novel-length works of Harry Potter fan fiction)
Genre You Read The Most From: literary fiction
 1. Best Book You Read In 2014?

Ruby by Cynthia Bond

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?


Hmmm...quite a few, actually. But I'll go with The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion, simply because I loved his first book so much.

 3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read in 2014? 

There were a few of these, too.  Maybe Sue Monk Kidd's The Invention of Wings for a pleasant surprise and Sarah Waters' The Paying Guests as an unpleasant one

 4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did) In 2014?

Not sure if this counts, but in my day job as a bookseller, I pushed The Rosie Project into dozens of readers' hands.  Nearly everybody loved it.

 5. Best series you started in 2014? Best Sequel of 2014? Best Series Ender of 2014?

This is a little tough.  I didn't begin or end many series this year, and many of them I didn't care for. I'll go with The Hawley Book of the Dead by Chrysler Szarlan, which is the first book in a proposed series, but nothing else has been published yet.

 6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2014?

I reckon that would be the author who wrote the best book I read this year: Cynthia Bond

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Lexicon by Max Barry, a sci-fi fantasy thriller

 8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

"Unputdownable" and "action-packed" don't always, or even often, go hand in hand for me when reading. Maybe Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven

 9. Book You Read In 2014 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

Most likely some novel length piece of Harry Potter fan fiction

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2014?

Hmmm...maybe the cover of David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks

11. Most memorable character of 2014?

THis would be a three-way tie: Holly Sykes from The Bone Clocks, Jude from A Little Life and the elephant from The Tusk that Did the Damage

 12. Most beautifully written book read in 2014?

Ruby by Cynthia Bond

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2014?

Well, I cannot stop thinking about Jude from The Little Life, which I finished about one week ago, and I can't remember getting hung up on any other character like that this year.  So let's go with that.


 14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2014 to finally read? 

There's no book that I read in 2014 that I had put off reading.

 15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2014?

This is *obviously* too much work to answer. 

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2014?

I read lots of 32 page picture books in 2014 that didn't count toward my books read.  I read a lot of picture books when I'm shelving.  Longest was probably A Little Life at around 700 pages.  Either that or The Bone Clocks

 17. Book That Shocked You The Most

Probably Ruby. Gah, I'm starting to sound like a broken record. 

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

I don't even know what this means and obviously don't care enough to look it up.  Something -shippy.

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

Probably a Snape/Harry mentor/student relationship in one of my fanfics. 

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2014 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

Invisble Love by Eric-Emmanuel Scmitt

21. Best Book You Read In 2014 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:

That would probably be The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, thanks to Alice at  Reading Rambo, among others.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2014?

Don't think I have a new crush.  My old crush on fanfic Severus Snape remains as active as ever, though.

23. Best 2014 debut you read?

See above, re: my mention of Ruby about a bazillion times

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

Eh, I don't know.  Maybe The Bone Clocks or Station Eleven?

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

All of my Bill Bryson audio books

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2014?

Too many to list.  I can pretty easily cry in books.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

This seems too redundant to answer.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Again, Ruby

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2014?

I can't answer this question based on the incorrect usage of "unique." 

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

I got pretty irritated with The Flamethrowers.  And I definitely didn't like it.