2017 in Books

2017 has been an amazing reading year for me. Only this year did I begin to actually organise my reading; keep lists of books I have read and lists of books I want to read. It was this year I finally began to learn how to use Goodreads (Okay, I did that yesterday, so maybe I’ll learn a lot more in the new year).

2017 proved to be a year where I read a lot of books. More than anticipated. 20 more books than anticipated. That is crazy! And I very much enjoyed most of them! 2017 was also a year where I did not DNF any of the books I began! Maybe I have become a more flexible reader, or maybe I have become better at picking my books. I don’t know, but I am happy for this experience.

owlcrate

This year I began an owlcrate subscription, and I am so glad I finally got to do so! It was my birthday present from my boyfriend back in May and it has opened my eyes to a world og book merchandise and all the creative little shops that exist. And I love it!

Owlcrate has also introduced me to a variety of books I had never heard of, and thus also to authors I had never heard of. This means that 2017 for me has been a year where my knowledge of books and pretty much anything book related was seriously widened. If one can say that…

ARC’s

This year also became the year where I received my very first ARC (Advance Reading (or Review) Copy). It was something I dreamed of doing someday after having settled as a bookstagrammer – or a book blogger, when I finally got my blog up and running. It was such an amazing experience, and I still feel bubbles in my chest when I think of it or look at my books; An author actually wanted me to read her book, write down my thoughts and post a review of the book. And not just one author: Two authors. I cannot believe it.

I keep being in awe of writers. Of authors. They get to do this fantastic thing; write down stories for me to read! They’re like super stars to me. And then suddenly, some of them want to hear my thoughts on their books. I am still so thrilled! And so happy! I honestly didn’t expect to be able to do this in my very first year in the online bookloving community. The ARC’s I received can be seen in the image at the top of this post.

I am so grateful for this experience I would like to thank M. P. Tonnesen and Lene Krog for giving me this experience and for letting me review their amazing stories: Desert Skies, Rebel Souls and Pigen fra Månehøjen!

The reads

I managed to red 40 books in 2017, and although a few of them were for my class in literature at the teacher education, I actually enjoyed all of them. Some more than others of course 😉

I read a variety of books this year including two children’s books. I rarely read children’s books, which I can see is actually a mistake. Especially since I work with children, because I wouldn’t know where to start, if they asked me to read a book to them.

The Holiday Bag

This year I tried my local library’s new concept; a holiday bag. A concept, where one of the librarians of my local library mixed a bag of books for me based on some questions I had answered as I ordered one. It is a concept I hope, they will keep doing and a concept I hope more libraries will begin, since it is a really great way to find new authors and new reading material. Without this bag who knows if I would have ever been introduced to The Girl at Midnight or Regnfaldet.

The best read(S) of 2017

This is a tough one, since I feel I have read a lot of amazing books this year. Some of the books that I have the best recollections of are:

• Half Lost by Sally Green, which was an outstanding reading experience – so was the entire trilogy(!) – and I really look forward to reading more of Sally Green’s work.
• The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison. This was a creepy read. One of those, where you are sometimes scared how much you like the book, because it is actually quite disturbing. I cannot recommend people read this enough, and I sincerely hope thet one of the Danish publishing houses will decide to publish it!
• Haabet by Mich Vraa was amazing! I don’t normally read this genre, but I was swept away by Vraa’s writing! I even contemplate on reading more of his books alone because of his skills as a story teller!
• Spektrum by Nanna Foss. Yes. I know Spektrum isn’t one book. But Nanna writes exceedingly well and the books are so different, yet all the same. In a good way! And I love how the main character’s change from book to book. Even though it makes it so much harder when the book ends.
• Til døden os skiller by Kit A. Rasmussen. This was so good, and I also possible just read it at the right time, which made the experience so much greater! I loved how the book was written like this mystery I, the reader, needed to solve – yet there was no mystery, only a tough story, where I could only hope for a happy ending. It is such an important story to tell and I think Kit did an amazing job!

Okay, I could keep on going, but I promised myself I wouldn’t make a top 20 out of 40 books. I could do that though. Or well… a lot of book would probably share the places. So this is a handful of the books I enjoyed this year.

Happy New Year

The bookstagram community, Goodreads and all the book bloggers I follow has opened my eyes to the importance of being organised and I have tried to be this year, but I still need a lot more practise!

All in all 2017 has been amazing and I can ony hope that 2018 will be even more so!

Happy New Year!