New Year, Old Favorites: Books 2013

So one of my goals for 2014 was going to be to read more. I felt like I hadn't read very many book in 2013. Then it turned out I actually read 62 books, which is fewer than the 87 I read in 2012, but still an acceptable number, as I was going to set my goal at 52, or a book per week. It was nice to accomplish my new year's resolution without even knowing it.

Due to my resounding success at accomplishing my "read more" goal, my revised reading goal for 2014 is to read the books I've put on my "to read" list. I've even gone so far as to sort the list by genre so I can more easily find what I'm in the mood for.

(Also I just noticed that the longest book I read this year was 600 pages. Since I read exclusively on my kindle, I no longer have any sense of how long a book is. I'm always "73%" through the book. I probably wouldn't have read that one 600 page book if I had known it was that long, I wasn't that interested in it...)

I use Goodreads to keep track of books read and books to read. I'm always annoyed with that site, since I feel like they could be doing things about 1000 times better, but what can you do. At least it tells me how many books I've read. If you'd like to be reading friends, find my profile here.

The point of this post was to mention my favorite books of 2013. So here goes:

1. Garment of Shadows by Laurie King
2. A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
3. Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
4. The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
5. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
6. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
7. Imagine by Jonah Lehrer
8. When We Were on Fire by Addie Zierman

What were your favorite books this year? I'm always looking for recommendations!

Tags:

books,

2013 review

Recent Comments

Violet Irisovna Fri, 01/17/2014 - 08:49

Thanks for sharing your list! Speaker for the Dead and A Year in Provence are favorites of mine as well, and I garnered some new books for my to-read shelf. I was a little horrified to realize at the end of 2012 that I'd only finished 43 books (I gave myself some leeway for being in graduate school but still...) so I was pleased when my final count for 2013 turned out to be more than double, at 90 books. Some of my favorites from the year are: Bellwether - Connie Willis, Daughter of Smoke & Bone - Laini Taylor, The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield, The Lumatere Chronicles (starting with Finnikin of the Rock) - Melina Marchetta, Ghostwritten - David Mitchell, Furies of Calderon - Jim Butcher, The 19th Wife - David Ebersoff. I love YA Fantasy and read a lot of it - about every second book on my favorites list falls into that genre. :)

Vanessa Deneen Thu, 01/16/2014 - 21:29

I like goodreads as well, although I also admit that some things on the site could be better. =P I like being able to keep track of books that I have read and ones that I would like to read. I also love discovering new books! Congrats on getting so many read last year! I have been slacking on my reading over the past few years. I have definitely been better at it over the last month. I hope to keep it up!

Dawn Evans Mon, 01/13/2014 - 07:35

Impressive number Marisa - I never give myself any reading goals as I read a lot anyway and always have a shelf full of ones waiting to be read. I like my paper and I do not see that changing any time soon. I have only been on goodreads 9 months and I see I have done 29 books in that time which seemed poor compared to you but then I noticed that my longest is 860 pages and there are 3 others around the 800 page mark and many over 400 so I didn't feel so bad LOL I don't see me reaching 87 - I'd never fit the Tv programmes in!!

Maggie Buckley Sat, 01/11/2014 - 11:29

I use Goodreads! - My user id there is MagsGraphics. We'll have to connect! :)

Barbara Baker Fri, 01/10/2014 - 18:27

I'm an avid reader too. I generally read at least one book a week, but more often I read at least 2 a week. I'm still reading paper books though -- don't have a Kindle (or such). You're doing great on your goals! Happy reading! Barbara

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Marisa Lerin

About Me

Hi There! I’m Marisa Lerin and you’ll see me around at DigitalScrapbook.com a lot. I started this site in 2010 soon after I discovered a new love in digital scrapbooking. DigitalScrapbook.com has gone through some significant changes since that time and it’s grown into this lovely community site you are seeing now. I am daily surprised by the turn of life’s events that has led me down this path. If you're new to the site, welcome! Here are a few tidbits about me that I hope will help you get to know me better!

I’m originally from Minnesota, USA, but spent a good chunk of my childhood living abroad (in Bolivia and Hong Kong). I returned to Minnesota to attend university, got married and then moved overseas again (Korea, then Jordan and 1 year of traveling). My designs are heavily influenced by these many nomadic years. I am currently back in the USA, now living in the great state of Oregon!

I have no official training for what I’m doing, since I decided very wisely (haha) to study physics in university. I am always learning new things about digital scrapbooking, and this community has been immensely helpful for that!

If I manage to stop digital scrapbooking you will probably find me watching TV, reading or baking. I also enjoy writing for the blog here at DigitalScrapbook.com where I talk about whatever happens to be catching my fancy at the moment.