So you've seen which books I read this year, but I haven't written yet about the best books of 2013, my personal favourite books of 2013, what books I'm looking forward to for 2014, or any other typical end-of-year book blog fare. I kept coming up with different angles for these end-of-year posts, so instead of writing five different entries I decided to join in the 2013 survey created by Jamie over at The Perpetual Page Turner (thanks Jamie!). Jamie created the questions four years ago and now conducts this survey annually herself, inviting any interested book bloggers to participate.
1. Best book you read in 2013?
Hm, tough one. Probably May We Be Forgiven by A. M. Homes.
2. Book you were excited about and thought you were going to love more but didn't?
The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer. I had read such great reviews about it that I personally recommended it for book club. But it did not live up to those reviews, not even close. If it wasn't for the fact that I wanted to review it here on the blog I might not have finished it. I read other disappointing books this year but none that I was as excited about prior to reading.
3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book you read in 2013?
May We Be Forgiven. I hadn't heard much about it, just picked it up in a bookstore and thought it looked good. It was a game changer for me, in the sense that I now want to read everything else she's written.
4. Book you read in 2013 that you recommended most in 2013?
Easy - The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. It's such a well-written, feel good novel, with hilarity and emotional resonance to boot. There are very few people to whom I would not recommend this.
5. Best series you read in 2013?
It's relatively rare for me to read series, so it is with surprise that I realize I have a ready answer for this one: the Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St Aubyn.
6. Favourite new author discovered in 2013?
Either A. M. Homes or Jennifer Egan.
7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you?
I read more non-fiction this year than I anticipated, but I would probably say Death Comes to Pemberley, a crime novel, was the greatest departure from my norm.
8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book of 2013?
Oh, it would have to be Gone Girl. Although strictly speaking I read it the first time towards the end of 2012.
9. Book you read in 2013 that you are most likely to re-read next year?
I don't really do this (unless I have to for book club). I would re-read a classic, or I might re-read a book that I loved years later - but almost never the very next year. I believe that the joy in returning to a book derives from the changes within oneself, and a year is not long enough to evoke changes in me significant enough that they would cause me to see a book in a new, interesting way.
10. Favourite cover of a book you read in 2013?
This is difficult, especially as I purchased many of my 2013 books electronically. I think the Faber & Faber cover of Deborah Levy's Swimming Home is beautiful. I also love the book covers created for the Patrick Melrose novels in the MacMillan box set. They are pleasantly tactile, too.11. Most memorable character in 2013?
Probably Patrick Melrose, simply because I spent so much time with him. But Don Tillman, the professor at the core of The Rosie Project, is also highly memorable.
12. Most beautifully written book in 2013?
Tinkers by Paul Harding. Which is quite something, as I also re-read The Great Gatsby this year.
13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2013?
May We Be Forgiven, by A. M. Homes.
14. Book you can't believe you waited UNTIL 2013 to finally read?
I didn't read a book this year that neatly fits into this category. No classics that I should have read ages ago but just read this year for the first time. I suppose I had been wanting to read A Visit from the Goon Squad all through 2012 but only got to it in 2013, so perhaps that counts.
15. Favourite passage / quote from a book you read in 2013?
I couldn't possibly pull out a passage and say it was my favourite out of all 40 books. So I will just set out a couple of excerpts which I had highlighted on my Kindle app this year and which I found beautiful and touching.
From Me and Rory MacBeath by Richard Beasley:
"When 'Forever Young' came on, Harry and Ruth started singing along, and although I couldn't see, I was pretty sure Harry was crying when she was singing it. Towards the end of the song I remembered when it was that I'd last seen Rory smile, really smile, before this night. There he was, grabbing my leg at Brown's Beach, breaking the surface of the water, grinning and laughing like a madman. That had been the last time. Then I thought about how much had happened since that day, and I realized then, for the first time, that the song was really just a prayer, and I felt sad, as sad as Harry's voice, because I couldn't see how anyone could really stay forever young."
From May We Be Forgiven byA. M. Homes:
"What I have learned this year is that the job of parent is to help the child become the person he or she already is."
16. Shortest and longest book you read in 2013?
No idea, can't be bothered to look through them all to find out. Doesn't matter, really, does it, the length of a book?
17. Book that had a scene in it that had you reeling and dying to speak to someone about it?
THAT scene in Mateship With Birds - anyone who has read it will know what I mean. But also, on a more innocent note, the scene in The Rosie Project where Don is the cocktail mixer at the medical convention dinner. It had me laughing till I cried. Oh, also - the way The Dinner unfolds is so brilliant, I kept pressing the book on friends so I could talk to them about it.
18. Favourite relationship from a book you read in 2013?
The relationship between the professor and the housekeeper's son in The Housekeeper and the Professor. Closely followed by the relationship between Jake and his mother, Harry, in Richard Beasley's Me and Rory MacBeath.
19. Favourite book you read in 2013 by an author you have read previously?
Eve in Hollywood by Amor Towles, who also wrote Rules of Civility. Closely followed by How to get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid.
20. Best book you read in 2013 based SOLELY on a recommendation from someone else?
So many! I received great reading recommendations in 2013 and much of my reading was inspired by those recommendations. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple; The Rosie Project; The Women in Black by Madeleine St John, the Patrick Melrose novels. All great books. Thanks, bookish friends, for your excellent recommendations!
21. Genre you read the most in 2013?
Literary fiction.
22. Newest fictional crush from a book in 2013?
Mindy Kaling. Ok, she may be an actual real-life person but I'm sure there is some degree of fiction in her depiction on the page.
23. Best 2013 debut you read?
The Rosie Project.
24. Most vivid world / imagery from a book you read in 2013?
I didn't read any sci-fi or young adult fiction this year, the kinds of books where this kind of thing is particularly relevant. The colours and sounds of Pakistan jumped off the page in How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, though.
25. Book that was the most fun to read in 2013?
The Rosie Project, Where'd you go, Bernadette, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me.
26. Book that made you cry or nearly cry in 2013?
I cry frequently, so don't place too much importance on this. I do remember distinct teary moments during my readings of May We Be Forgiven, The Rosie Project, Where'd You Go, Bernadette? and Me and Rory MacBeath. They were all different kinds of tears though - happy tears, sad-for-a-character tears, sad-to-finish-a-book tears, angry tears.
27. Book you read in 2013 that you think got overlooked this year or when it first came out?
The Women in Black, a book about Sydney in the 1950s, was first published in 1993 to little fanfare (although Madeleine St John became the first Australian female writer to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize for a subsequent novel in 1997). I feel as though she should have received greater critical acclaim for this comic little novel.
1. What is one book you didn't get to in 2013 but will be your top priority for 2014?
Timbuktu by Paul Auster. I didn't read a single of his books this year (save for excerpts from a book of letters exchanged between Auster and J. M. Coetzee), and I have this sitting unread on my shelf. I can't wait to crack it open.
2. Book you are most anticipating for 2014 (non-debut)?
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.
3. 2014 debut you are most anticipating?
Umm. Not sure.
4. Series ending you are most anticipating in 2014?
I am not reading a series where the last book is yet to emerge. But I am yet to read the final book of the Patrick Melrose series, titled At Last, so I suppose that is the ending I am most anticipating for 2014. Oh also, I have Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam on the shelf and am very much looking forward to reading this. I might have to re-read The Year of The Flood first, though.
5. One thing you hope to accomplish in your reading / blogging in 2014?
I would like to read more books this year, if it is possible, and to maintain consistency in my blogging. I need to make a list of all the books I want to read this year, because I keep stumbling across them and I'm worried now I will forget them all before the year is up.
Happy 2014 everyone! Here's to a brand new year of reading.
Bibliofilly x
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