Hey bookworm friends, the end of the year is quickly approaching, which means I’ve been thinking about my reading stats and reminiscing. I’ve loved reading since I was a tiny child, but I only recently started tracking it consistently. Lately, I’ve been watching the booktuber BooksWithEmilyFox‘s videos about her favourite books from past years which inspired me to make a similar list. I went through all the years I set reading goals on GoodReads and picked the standout for that year. So here are my favourite books from the last 9 years (I’ll have a decade’s worth of favs at the end of this year! 🤯)
Note: This list is from the perspective of my 2024 self; if I’d picked a favourite at the time, the list might have been completely different!
2015
Reading Goal: 11/20
This year, I finished Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I thought the last book at the time, The Last Olympian was a fantastic ending. I still have to read the new Percy Jackson books!
Honorable Mentions: I also read the whole of Heroes of Olympus series, which I also loved and Dune. I
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In 2016 I read The Kingkiller Chronicle and it stayed with me but I liked The Name of the Wind more than the sequel. I’m not holding my breath for the continuation but if it’s published I’ll happily continue.
Honorable Mentions: The Nameless One (The Edge Chronicles 11)
2016
Reading Goal: 7/20
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2017
Reading Goal: 13/20
I know I read some books that I didn’t log properly on GR because I didn’t fully understand how it worked. Case in point: this year I read The Two Towers and The Return of the King but only logged Return of the King🤷🏽♀️. Luckily I love The Lord of the Rings as a whole.
Honorable Mentions: A History of the World in 100 Objects & The Invisible Library, both books I’ve mentioned a lot on here before 😉
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Ok, so the first three years of setting goals didn’t go smoothly. I was busy with work and completing my Master’s degree! Enter 2018: I started a new job at a library in another town with a two-hour commute time. My reading suddenly boomed and thrived!
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I read all of the Avatar: The Last Airbender Comics on bus rides because they were quick and fun and ATLA is one of my favourite TV shows. I loved being back in this world and having more adventures with Team Avatar but The Promise was my favourite story.
Honorable Mentions: The Monstress Graphic novels (I still have not finished this series though), Girls of Paper and Fire
2018
Reading Goal: 58/50
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2019
Reading Goal: 45/45
Circe was the first Greek Myth Retelling I read and I adored it!
Honorable Mentions: Winter of the Witch (The Winternight Trilogy #3) & Empire of Sand (Books of Ambha #1)
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I discovered cross-stitching during the pandemic which accounts for the drop in my reading. I also had a virtual book club with friends which helped to keep me sane so that’s where a huge chunk of my reading came from this year. My fav book of 2020 is The Well of Ascension.
Honorable Mentions: Mexican Gothic & Paper Girls graphic novel series.
2020
Reading Goal: 30/30
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2021
Reading Goal: 50/50
This is the year I read The Witch’s Heart and I still think about it a lot!
Honorable Mentions: I feel like this year had a lot of great books and Warbreaker and Fireborne (The Aurelian Cycle #1) were some of the others that utterly consumed me.
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There was another boom in my reading because this is the year I started my bookstagram account. I also got into audiobooks partway through the year. The conclusion to The Aurelian Cycle, Furysong, came out in 2022 and was my favourite of the year! I could have picked Fireborne in 2021 too, but in the interest of variety, I’m not pulling from the same series twice.
Honorable Mentions: Emma, Anxious People, & the Heartstopper graphic novels.
2022
Reading Goal: 76/52
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2023
Reading Goal: 87/40
At the start of 2023, I said to myself I’d give myself a smaller goal so I “don’t have to worry about numbers” but instead I proceeded to more than double my goal 🙃. I found lots of favourite series this year so this was tough but my pick for 2023 is The Prisoner of Limnos (Penric & Desdemona #6).
Honorable Mentions: Witch Hat Atelier, Innkeeper Chronicles, Lore Olympus graphic novel series, & Nettle & Bone
And that’s it for my favourite books from the last 9 years! Some years were harder to pick from than others (I couldn’t resist adding honorable mentions😂). I enjoyed taking a closer look at my reading journey thus far and a big thank you if you read to the end 🖤!
Let’s chat in the comments!
How long have you been tracking your reading? Have you read any of my favourite books from the last 9 years?
This is such a great idea! 🥰 I love Percy Jackson so much and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the new books, they’re amazing and still have that nostalgia factor!
Thank you 😊!That’s so good to know they still feel nostalgic and are great! I’m hoping to get to them soon!
I haven’t read any of these. I did start Name of the Wind but wasn’t interested enough to finish it. Or even read very much of it.
I think I started keeping track, if somewhat intermittently, in 2019. 2023 was the first year I managed to keep my reading log/journal for the full year.
I do remember most of the books I read in 2018 and know my favourite is still The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnussen.
The other year where a single book stands out to me is 2021, when Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz was easily my favourite.
That’s fair. As much as I loved the Kingkiller Chronicles I’m on the side of dnf’ing things that don’t work for you!
Oh wow nice okay that’s awesome! Keeping up with tracking reading for a whole year is a lot of work for sure. & it’s great that you have a great memory for the stuff you read back in 2018, If I didn’t keep track I’m pretty sure I would not remember a lot. The Sealwoman’s Gift sounds neat but I don’t think I know it, I’ll go look it up!
I definitely don’t blame you for adding in those honourable mention sections as picking one book for a whole year is incredibly hard 😬 I’ve somehow only read one of your actual favourites (Circe, and I adored it too) but you know that I want to check out Witchs Heart, Brandon Sanderson & Lois McMaster Bujold soon. The Percy Jackson books are on my must read list for 2025 as well and I’d really like to get to The Name Of The Wind too, even if the series may never reach completion.
I do really want to try and read the Fireborne books sometime too, although exactly when I’ll get to them who knows. And I’d be curious to try LOTR as well although I’m not entirely sure how I’ll find it.
The only other books that I’ve read are Mexican Gothic and Winternight but I did adore those too 🥰 its lovely to see Girls Of Paper & Fire getting a mention too as it’s another I majorly need to get to sometime.
So I have lots of these on my TBR and know who to turn to to gush about them with if I also love them 😂
BTW have you seen the blurb for Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s 2025 release?
I was only going to pick one and then I realized how difficult that was especially for the years I read more😂 Yay you’ve read Circe too, so glad you loved it as well though that checks out for you 😉! I hope you love any others that you may try in 2025.
LOTR might not be that hard to find depending if you want to borrow or own it. They’re certainly popular enough that I’m sure libraries and bookstores will have them 🙂
I loved Mexican Gothic but that’s one I regret reading at night time before bed lol. For Girls of Paper and Fire I read the whole trilogy and enjoyed my time with it all. Yes oh I’ll defs be here if you ever want to gush!🖤🖤
Hmm no I don’t think I have now that you say that… I’ll have to go look, thanks for the heads up! 🙂
I’m not surprised as I’d majorly struggle to highlight just one book too. Although it’s good at least as it means you’ve read lots that you’ve adored. Yeah I think it was during the year that I wrote reviews but never posted them actually 😂 but I adored it and can’t believe I haven’t read the authors other book yet. I’m glad you loved it too. And yeah it is pretty fitting for my tastes, although I think that was one of the first like it that I picked up.
Thank you 🥰
Yeah I’d be surprised if the library don’t have them really. They definitely used to as I did borrow one once years back but never really got far with it.
Oh lol I can understand that as it was pretty disturbing 😂 thats lovely to know and yay thank you ❤️
I majorly can’t wait for it!! Although I would say it sounds like another not to read before bed for you I’d imagine
Yeah it’s wonderful having lots of great books to pick from, not a problem at all 🙂
Ah haha okay I see, well you still have that for that so no worries :).
Yeah I would be shocked too if a library didn’t have it.
Yeah parts of Mexican Gothic are quite disturbing plus I had read less horror things at that time.
Good to know, as I really can’t read or watch creepy things before going to bed because then I have nightmares 🤣
Definitely 🥰
They do tend to get rid of some older books but I can’t imagine them doing it with classics.
They definitely are I’m a variety of ways. And I guess you do get more used to it with time to some degree.
Yeah I can’t say for certain but that’s the impression that the blurb gave me. I refused to stop where I was with a book as i was convinced it would give me nightmares once so I read on only to find myself convinced that something else I couldn’t cope with before bed was about to happen. So I played Tetris until gone 2am trying to clear my mind 😂🙈
I’ve read three of these — Percy Jackson and Return of the King. Glad you enjoyed them!
I began tracking my reading in May 2007, more or less on accident. I was waiting for school to start and wanted an excuse to write, so I began posting blog posts on MySpace about my weekly trips to the library. After I realized MySpace only kept the last five posts, I thanked my lucky stars I’d typed them up originally in MS Works and could copy-paste the text to blogger. That became This Week at the Library, which later migrated to WordPress under the name, Reading Freely because TWATL was a mouthful. This is a screenshot of what it used to look like!
Oh cool 🙂 Thanks!
Ah, MySpace! I miss it so much! That’s actually such a fun way to start tracking your books! But yes so glad you had all of your writings saved elsewhere too 😅! It’s cool to know the history of your blog and thanks for sharing a screenshot! Is the picture an actual picture of the library you went to?
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