Annual End Of Year Survey 2018

It's that time again, looking back at the best of everything this year in the booky world. This survey was created by Jamie over at https://www.perpetualpageturner.com/ and I take part each year. I'm phrasing my categories slightly differently so for the full proper wording check out Jamie's page. I've also missed out the blogging related questions.

2018 Reading Stats
Number of books you read: 155
Number of re-reads: 6
Genre you read the most from: horror

Best in Books 
Best book you read in 2018
I read so many good books this year. I'm struggling to even narrow them down to three choices in each category. My top three short series reads are the first row, the best three longer series reads are the middle row, the best three standalone in the third row. I'm unhappy at a few I couldn't fit in!

Book you thought you'd love and didn't
I love prepper apocalypse fiction and it was highly related on prepper sites but poorly rated on Goodreads. I couldn't connect to the story because of the mass info dumping of instructions on prepping on every page. It killed the flow and made it tough to get in to. I like seeing people prepping and getting how-to info, but this goes way overboard.

Most surprising book you read (good or bad)
I don't read much Scifi but I read more of it this year and enjoyed it! I heard everyone raving about Murderbot but it is way out of my normal reads. I was surprised to really enjoy the four novellas! I was surprised to really enjoy The Best of London as I'm not a fan of books in that time period but I enjoyed the Dracula story twist. Last Stand didn't get the best reviews but it was a good apocalypse story.

Book you pushed the most people to read
I never push people to read anything I like. I review it and let people make up their own minds whether they want to go and read it or not. I talk about my favourite books a lot but I'm not one to really recommend anything except to my dad. I think there a few books that fellow bloggers seemed interested in reading after seeing my reviews so I'll mention them.

Best series you started in 2018
Loved the first two and can't wait for the third!

Best sequel of 2018
I enjoyed reading this series but loved book 7 the best!

Best series ender in 2018
I loved every book in this brilliant zombie variant series!

Favourite new author
It has to be Matthew Reilly. I read two books of his this year-Contest and Great Zoo Of China,  and gave both of them five stars so I certainly want to read more by him!

Best book outside your comfort zone
I tend to only read Scifi where there are dinosaur planets or a killer loose on a ship or colony, if it is fast paced but I read outside of that this year and found some good stuff! I'm not a gamer, it's not my kind of thing but I really enjoyed Ready Player One!

Unputdownable book of the year
I read a lot of books that I got lost in this year! It's so hard to pick a winner so I'll narrow it down and pick three! *sweats*

2018 read most likely to re-read next year
I've got too many books to read to start re-reading stuff I only read this year!

Favourite cover of 2018 

Most memorable character
Well it just has to be Murderbot! Who can resist a socially anxious robot on the run, who is addicted to watching trashy serial space drama! Now I want to see Sanctuary Moon...

Most beautifully written
This book certainly needs a mention. I loved the blending of flashback and present, the haunting scenes in the camp, the resistance plot, the twists on the bike race and great characters. I loved the way this was written.

Thought provoking/life changing book
I'm picking a book that fascinated me. I'm always interested in things like time travel and the desire to change things. However this book shows that small changes can have real consequences so that is a bit scary! Also scary is the plot of Death coming after you for cheating it so Final Destination 3 was a bit unsettling. As for Ready Player One, who wouldn't want to access the Oasis! It sounds so amazing!

Book you wish you'd read sooner
I can't really say there was one to be honest! I read a lot of these books soon after buying them, even if they weren't 'new'.  I read a few on the spur of the moment that I never looked at before. I didn't discover some books and then take years to read them. Even A Dance with Dragons-I read that less than 2 years after I fell in love with the HBO series. No book for this one!

Favourite passage/quote

“I COULD HAVE BECOME a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”
― Martha Wells All Systems Red

 
Shortest book you read
Pretty Dead Girl by Tim Miller at 4 pages long. If this was fleshed out to 100 pages it might have made a good story but compressed like this, it wasn't a good read. 

Longest book you read
A Dance With Dragons part one by George RR Martin. It checks in at 624 pages. I need to read part 2 next year.

Book that shocked you the most
I was shocked at how BAD this book was! The coup that toppled Margaret Thatcher was fast moving, interesting and at times exciting-but this book managed to be dull, boring and hellish to plough through!

One true pairing
Hmm, I'm not really a romance kind of person at the best of times. I struggled with this as I tend to avoid romance in my books as far as possible but I did like Elena and Adam's interesting relationship.

Non romantic relationship
It has to be Dillon and Quax from Salechii by Carolyn McCray. Dillon is smart, brave and helps his dad run the shark theme park. His best friend is robot employee Quax who has become phobic about sharks after watching Shark Week on TV! It'a a brilliant bromance!

Favourite book this year from previously read author
I read a lot of good books by favourite authors this year! Rick Chesler writes great stuff and I loved the three of his I read this year but I'm picking The Tank because it was different and so much more than I was expecting. I LOVE this series by Sonya Bateman and this sequel was brilliant! Endurance was just a brilliant read.

Best book recommended to you
I had already bought this book but other blogger friends read it first and enjoyed it!

Newest fictional crush
No such thing for me. I read the books, enjoy reading about the characters but I'm not interested in thinking romantically about them ever! Instead I'm going to go for the adorable dragon Lucky in Matthew Reilly's Great Zoo Of China!

Best debut
I liked a few debuts by authors that I read this year! But this one was also released this year so I'm going to pick it.

Best worldbuilding
I loved the whole concept of the OASIS, the detail that was in it, the grim reality that people were trying to escape from into a virtual reality that was much better. Loved it!

Most fun to read
My idea of fun is different from other people! I had a lot of fun with these horror books-serial killer at the summer camp, giant snake attacking Amazon tour boat and a bunch of vampires and demons taking on an evil cult! Fun!

Book that made you cry
I didn't cry at anything this year but I did find two of the deaths in this book pretty sad to read about!

Hidden gem of the year
I read a few little gems that came out of nowhere this year so they can take a bow!

Book that crushed your soul
No such thing!

Most unique book
This one is unique in the sense that the MC is blind and her guide dog is a shifter, which was fun. Good characters, nice paranormal plot, not heavy on romance. Excellent YA!

Book that made you mad
I got really annoyed at this book for the dreadful characters that made me want to scream. I could put up with it because the plot was decent but when the author decided to kill all my favourite characters at the end of book one, I had no interest in book two!

Looking Ahead 
Book you didn't get to that is 2019 priority
Lots of them! I had two good months of reading ruined by a slump, destroying horror month and Scifi month so a lot of books I wanted to read got missed out!

Most anticipated non debut
I'm only aware of a handful of new releases ahead of time for next year. I haven't had a chance to look at them so I can't call this the MOST anticipated, just intriguing. I liked her urban fantasy book Bloodshot.

Most anticipated debut
I'm not currently aware of a debut novel that I want to buy coming out next year.

Most anticipated sequel/series ender
No doubt about it, I can't wait for the next Extinction Trials by SM Wilson!

Hope to accomplish
Putting a massive dent in the TBR next year by buying less and reading more, without getting too stressed about monthly targets! I want to clear my bookshelves of as many books as I can and send them to the charity shops AND reduce the pile on the ereaders!

2019 release you've read and recommend
I don't read ARCs.