2017 End of Year Survey

A survey from The Perpetual Page Turner, who’s doing this for the 8th year running. I toyed with the idea of translating to Norwegian, but decided against it. I think I’d have more interesting answers if I were still at the series guzzling age (I used to read something like a book a day for years). Any questions I can’t think of answers to, I’ll just leave blank. Here goes:

2017 Reading Stats

Number Of Books You Read: 71
Number of Re-Reads: 34
Genre You Read The Most From: Children’s/YA Fantasy OR Maritime Fiction (the latter being all Patrick O’Brian, but 20 books is a hefty chunk out of 71)

Best in Books

1. Best Book You Read In 2017?

Best of the non-rereads was probably A Shepherd’s Life.

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Bobla, unfortunately.

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?

Um sakne springe blome, as I couldn’t see what everyone was so VERY excited about at ALL.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

I was a pretty bad (i.e. innefficient) book pusher in 2017, books for the book circle and suggested to my daughter don’t really count, do they?

5. Best series you started in 2017? Best Sequel of 2017? Best Series Ender of 2017?

I have great faith that Keeperen og havet (which I’m reading at the moment) will be the best sequel published in 2017 that I’ll (ever?) read. As for the rest, it really is Master & Commander and Blue at the Mizzen, at least for the series I personally read in 2017…

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2017?

I really liked Vernon God Little, weird as it was, so hopefully D. B. C. Pierre has written more books.

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Arbeidsnever was pretty good for a collection of short stories (I do not like short stories).

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

Apart from the whole Aubrey/Maturin thing? Percy Jackson was pretty hard to put down towards the end. I did go to bed and leave 50ish pages, so not impossible to put down, but it was a wrench.

9. Book You Read In 2017 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

The Harry Potter series, since we’re seeing The Cursed Child at the end of January it seems necessary to prepare by rereading the original seven…

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2017?

Bobla!

11. Most memorable character of 2017?

I’m going to cheat and say Carrie Fisher. I’ve never been much of a Star Wars fan so she hasn’t really been on my radar, but it was in 2017 I «discovered» her, and read Wishful Drinking. And now I want to read everything she ever wrote.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2017?

Ahem. It’s going to have to be O’Brian. All of them.

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2017?

I can’t think of any that actually fit the bill, which is a bit sad. Some of the rereads were life-changing in ways when I first read them, but not so much the fifth and twentieth time around.

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2017 to finally read?

I’ll go with Lars er LOL. I should have read it in 2016 so I could have nominated it for Bokbloggerprisen, I might have pushed it on to the shortlist if I had.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2017?

«Neither fowl nor fish nor good red herring». Said by Jack Aubrey at some point in the series. It’s one of my favourite expressions ever.

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2017?

Longest must surely be Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Shortest might be Um sakne springe blome.

17. Book That Shocked You The Most

As with question 13, none this year.

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

I’m not a shipper, really. I tend to be happy with letting the author ship for me.

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

Yes, well, it’s going to be the friendship between Jack and Stephen, isn’t it?

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2017 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

Discounting rereads, I liked John Green’s story in Let it Snow more than I liked the one other book of his that I’ve read, The Fault in our Stars.

21. Best Book You Read In 2017 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure:

I liked Jane Ashlands gradvise forsvinning more than I expected to, and I’d never have read it if it wasn’t for Bokbloggerprisen.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2017?

23. Best 2017 debut you read?

I don’t think I read any.

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

Harry Potter all the way.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

Tegnehanne: Blod, svette og tress-is.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2017?

I sob through the last 80 or so pages of Robin Hood every time.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Reinertsens biography of Henriette Schønberg Erken. More people should read it.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2017?

Vernon God Little.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

Your blogging/bookish life

1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2017?

2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2017?

Jeg elsker vaffel. Mostly because I’ve been meaning to write about cookbooks more for probably the last ten years.

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog?

Et forsøk på oversikt, which I just managed to cram in before the new year.

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)?

Bokbloggertreffet.

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2017?

Getting the last book in Bente Lohnes fantasy series for kids, Gullridderen, quite totally unexpected as a gift after it has been the one book I was missing from the series for years and I had more or less despaired of ever finding it.

6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?

Getting around to blogging. Still working on it. Reading a lot less than I would have liked and rereading a lot more than planned, both due to concentration problems caused by tiredness following chemo.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

Owlcrate Jr. I bought a three-month subscription for my eldest daughter for the summer months, she loved it and would definitely like a long-term subscription.

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

Not really, it was a bad year for challenges.

Looking ahead

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2017 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2018?

Already on it: Keeperen og havet.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2018 (non-debut)?

3. 2018 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2018?

Anything from The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch, whether novel or comic (graphic novel if you will).

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2018?

Blog about a larger proportion of the books I read. Read somewhat more new (to me) books rather than rereads. That’s two things.

6. A 2018 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone (if applicable):

Not applicable.