Surprise Top 13 of 2013 and 2014 Reading Goals

Surprise Bitches, bet you thought you'd seen the last of me...

Yes well I know it's not unheard of for me to just vanish into the aether and then not reappear for 2 years but I think that just adds to my charm n'est pas?

So I return in the New Year with a plan to slowly reintegrate myself into a more active participatory role in the book community and this time I have Gifs! (gods all bless Tumblr).

Top 13 Reads of 2013
Since no one has any idea what I read last year (except those few whom I actually communicate with through other mediums) I thought I'd start with a list of my favourite reads of 2013. This list won't include any re-reads or multiple books by the same author. Also in no order of favouritism.

Angelfall by Susan Ee 

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell  

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

Unravel Me - Tahereh Mafi

Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare

Etiquette and Espionage - Gail Carriger

Just One Day - Gayle Forman

This Song will Save your Life - Leila Sales

Siege and Storm - Leigh Bardugo

Untold - Sarah Rees Brennan

Battle Magic - Tamora Pierce

The 5th Wave - Rick Yancey

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

Reading Goals for 2014

I kinda failed with some of my goals from last year so hopefully I can succeed with this year's.

1. Read at least 150 books

2. Read at least 1 non-fiction book a month

3. Read at least 1 classic book a month

4. Read more from my TBR pile than re-reads

5. Get back into the habit of filling my reading journal properly

6. Try to get back into book community (see already trying with this one!)

What goals are all you lovely folk setting for yourselves in 2014? 

Hopefully y'all will see more from me soon - alas now I have to go be domestic, ironing calls!

Ray

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December and 2010 Round-off

Well damn... it's now 2011 and I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out where 2010 went. This year has been a blur really and so much has happened so I shall summarise the year as quickly as I can before moving onto the round-off for December.

January
I started this blog and proceeded to neglect it for a few months. This month was actually my most prolific in terms of reading but I suppose that was because my second semester lectures didn't start until the beginning of February.

February-April
Not much happened in terms of blog or life in general

May
This was the month I finally got my blogging pants on and really went to town getting everything spruced up. Coincidentally it was also the last month of my first year in University.

June
Back home and I kicked my heels for a few weeks because at the end of the month I went on Cricket Tour to Barbados resulting in a 3 week slump in posting.

July
Once I was back and in the swing of things again it was in this month that my bestie Jess and I went on the first book-hauling Road Trip of Awesome to see our friend Ellie at her super-cool bookshop in the Peak District.

August
A pretty good month since not only did Jess and I go on *another* Roadtrip the day when Mockingjay came out but I also went to London for a few days with my boyfriend which was fantastic!

September
Ok start to the month but after I moved back to University I was without internet for two weeks so not a whole lot happened.

October
Did my Favourites Fortnight feature that ended up lasting a week. I turned 20 *eep* and my second year of university officially began.

November
The month when everything went tits up. I started the month in the most stressful way possible by trying to doing NanoWrimo, by halfway through the month I quit and tried to salvage my fast-diminishing enthusiasm for my Uni course. But just before the end of November I made the decision to drop out of Uni and had to start the procedure of withdrawing. It was a very stressful time for me and my family since there had been 3 deaths in my extended family in the space of a week or two on top of my problems. But on the bright side I got to read Last Sacrifice two-three weeks earlier than everyone else :P

December
I came home and had to start the incredibly soul-munching task of finding a job and applying to a new course to start in September 2011. In the run-up to Christmas there was quite a worry about my Grandad who was in and out of hospital with pneumonia, thankfully he was able to be home before Christmas Day. After getting a fab load of presents the week between Christmas & New Year brought me closer to  a job that I really want *keeps fingers crossed* so hopefully in the next few days I'll hear more about that.

And What now... ? What does 2011 have in store for me? I just hope it's not too bad...

But anyway back to what happened on the blog in December
Books Read
191. Fourth Comings by Megan McCafferty
192. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
193. Numbers by Rachel Ward
194. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
195. Frostbite by Richelle Mead
196. Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
197. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead
198. Still Sucks to be Me by Kimberly Pauley
199. Sweethearts by Sarah Zarr
200. Persuasion by Jane Austen 
201. Who's Afraid of Jane Austen? by Henry Hitchings
202. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
203. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
204. Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce
205. Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty
206. Plan B by Jenny O'Connell
207. Entangled by Cat Clarke
208. Shift by Rachel Vincent
209. Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder
210. Waiting For You by Susane Colasanti 


20 Books Read which isn't too shabby, out of those I think my favourite book was Entangled by Cat Clarke, I'll be posting a review in the next week since it's official release date is the 6th of January. For a complete list of favourites from 2010 keep an eye out for another post I'll be doing shortly.


Books Reviewed
Definitely was a crap month for reviews - I did only two *facepalm*
Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead
Still Sucks to be Me by Kimberly Pauley
Bizarrely they were both Vampire books 


Apart from a couple of reading challenges I joined for next year and my Blogging Resolutions post there was not a lot of activity on the blog in December so I do apologise.  


Overall 2010 was a mixed year, there were highs (mostly in the summer) and the really big lows have been in the last two months so I saw out the year in rather gloomy mindset - I don't quite know where I'm going at the moment and my future is kinda up in the air. But I want to try and land on my feet and hit the ground running because the only place I want this blog to go is up and I know you guys will help me get there. 


In the next week or so Jess and I will be re-launching our jointly hosted Cover Loving Feature - Covers so Lovely we'd Lick them! if you had been wondering where it went, when Jess's computer went kaput towards the end of November I held off posting my cover choices until she got it working again. Now in the New Year we both have working computers and shall endeavour to bring the feature back to life again!


So thank you lovely folk for sticking with me through all these months and I am gonna do my best to continue posting content that you want to read and really get better at posting reviews consistently since there's no point being a book blogger if you're not talking about books.


Buckets of Hugs and Happy New Year!!
LadyV

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