Best of 2012: Books

Hey, guys! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I did! I got to spend a lot of time with family (including some who I don't get to see very often) and eat too much good food. I was blessed with some really awesome gifts, including a stack of books, but more on that in a later post.

It's that time again...the time when bloggers, myself included, feel the need to write these end-of-the-year posts. :) I'll be writing about my favorite movies of the year, how I did with my 2012 resolutions, and my new goals for 2013. But for now, I want to talk about books.

I set myself a goal to read at least 80 books this year. So far I've read 94, though I'm pretty sure it will hit 95 over the weekend (my list is here). Twenty of those were rereads, which wasn't bad, but I was hoping to revisit more of my favorites this year. These were some of my favorite books I read for the first time this year (keep in mind that these were not necessarily published in 2012).

{Click on the title to read my reviews on Goodreads: The Girl Who Chased the Moon, Winnie-the-Pooh, The Healer's Apprentice, Princess Academy: Palace of Stone, Al Capone Does My Shirts, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma, Forest Born, The Merchant's Daughter, Al Capone Shines My Shoes, Attachments, When You Reach Me, Three Times Lucky, Short-Straw Bride, The Sugar Queen, A Tale Dark & Grimm}

I realize that pretty much all but four of the above books are YA or children's books. What can I say? I didn't read very many "grown up" books this year. But I did read a lot of amazing middle-grade stuff. I read or reread three lovely series: the Chronicles of Narnia, Shannon Hale's Books of Bayern, and The Mysterious Benedict Society series.

You might remember that I started off this year keeping track of what I read in this book journal. Well, the special journal itself was a nice idea that didn't work out so well. There was too much space inside for things I didn't want to write about, and not enough space for what I did want to write about. So in 2013, I'll still be keeping a book journal, but in a pretty blank notebook so I can do things my own obsessive way. :)

If you're wondering how I did with my other bookish resolutions this year, stay tuned. I'll confess all my failures in a later post. :)

What were the best books you discovered this year? And just out of curiousity, what was the worst book you read in 2012? For me, it would be The Casual Vacancy (more about that here).
 

Until next time,