End of 2010 Survey

My individual “Best of 2010” posts might not be finished yet, but I thought I’d go ahead and participate in this survey from The Perpetual Page-Turner. Because you really can’t gush enough about good books. : )

1. Best book of 2010? Hands down: Anna and the French Kiss. Which I coincidentally just reviewed!

2. Worst book of 2010? Nothing I read was THAT awful.

3. Most Disappointing Book of 2010? Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro just did not live up to the hype, in my opinion. I loved the format the story was told in, but the plot just didn’t go anywhere for me. Based on other reviews, I expected much more mystery and creepiness. The story just…existed. Moon Called by Patricia Briggs, and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater were also books that were new, to me, that I didn’t really enjoy as much as I’d hoped to. Frankly I found both a bit tedious and boring. Bonus: I cannot wait to answer this question next year, because I’m pretty sure I read an ARC of my most disappointing book of 2011 last week.

4. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2010? Nevermore by Kelly Creagh. I’d heard it was good, but it was Phenomenal!

5. Book you recommended to people most in 2010? Vampire Academy. A lot of my friends read YA, but hadn’t heard of this series yet. I practically forced them to read it!

6. Best series you discovered in 2010? A 5-way tie: All 3 of Richelle Mead’s series (Vampire Academy, Dark Swan, Succubus), Chloe Neil’s Chicagoland Vampires series, and Kim Harrison’s Rachel Morgan/The Hollows series. Each one was spectacular in its own way, and completely went above and beyond my expectations.

7. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2010? Stephanie Perkins, Kelly
Creagh, Rachel Hawkins, Kiersten White, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Richelle Mead, Chloe Neill, Kim Harrison. I was a bit behind in my series reading, in case you can’t tell. : )

8. Most hilarious read of 2010? I like the bits of humor woven into all of the Hollows/Rachel Morgan books. Rachel’s pixie partner Jenks is definitely one of my top 10 favorite characters of all time. His very inventive swearing never fails to make me laugh. Especially when it involves slandering “sell out” pixie Tinkerbell by saying things like “Tink’s a Disney Whore”.

Jenks and Rachel on the Japanese cover of Dead Witch Walking.

9. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2010? All 3 of the Hunger Games novels. Another great discovery I made, very late.

10. Book you most anticipated in 2010? Vampire Academy: Last Sacrifice by Richelle Mead.

11. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2010? Nightshade by Andrea Cremer was definitely the prettiest!

12. Most memorable character in 2010? Rose Hathaway from Vampire Academy and Rachel Morgan from the Hollows.

13. Most beautifully written book in 2010? I thought Carrie Ryan’s The Dead Tossed Waves had some beautifully written passages.

14. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2010? Vampire Academy. It made me fall back in love with reading after a long dry spell. And lead me to discover one of my new favorite authors. Pretty much starting a chain reaction of new literary discoveries.

15. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2010 to finally read? The Hunger Games. I put book 1 on my Amazon wish list in 2008. I can’t believe I held out that long. And that people I know told me “not to read it because it was awful.” What?!?!? But in a way, I’m also glad I waited. If I had to wait a year between each book, I would have had a meltdown.

Book Blogging in 2010 (optional):

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2010? Too many to count! I’ve always read a few, but this year discovered some amazing new blogs.

2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2010? I’m so new, I haven’t written that many yet. But I’m pretty proud of my Anna and the French Kiss review.

3. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)? I had an amazing time at both Charlaine Harris’ and Richelle Mead’s release day signings in NYC this year.

Charlaine Harris

Me!

Richelle Mead

6. Best moment of book blogging in 2010? Having people embrace me and friend me my very first week of blogging. Reaching nearly 1,000 hits my first week helped too.

7. Best bookish discovery (book related sites, book stores, etc.) Paperback swap was new to me this year, and provided me with dozens of new books to read. Joining netgalley was great too. I was offered e-ARC’s to read my first week online!

Welcome to Bookshelf Lust!

So this is my first post. I’ve been toying with the idea of creating a book review blog for the past few months. Circumstances in my life lead to me having more free time to read, and it just seemed like the natural next step. I’ve been a blogger for over five years. And have been running a successful fashion and photography blog since 2008. I can’t tell you when I first fell in love with reading, but can say with certainty I can’t remember a time in my life where I wasn’t obsessed with one book or another. Whether it was making my parents re-read the same Dr. Seuss book to me every night (Wacky Wednesday!) or flipping out over the “Vampire Diaries” series in 6th grade, books have always played a major part in my life. I’ve always been the girl passing her favorite books along to her friends and classmates. So naturally, I’d want to start a review blog. I think I got my entire 6th grade English class to fall in love with LJ Smith. And I’ll proudly say I was the first person I know—by over a year– to read the Twilight series. I might miss the days when fandom wasn’t scary and obsessive, but that doesn’t mean I won’t find something else to love just as much. This blog will be a collection of the books, authors, and imaginary worlds I fall in love with… one page at a time.