Hey bookworm friends. Today’s post is one I’ve been working on for a long time because it’s a sort of timeline of my life in book-form. I read one book published in every year I’ve been alive. I was born in 1990 and it’s wild to think I almost have 4 decades worth of books 😲! Most of the books I picked are favourites but sometimes that wasn’t possible. I’ve read far more books for some years than for others. And for some weird reason, I found it really hard to find a book published in 1994 that I wanted to read! That’s the last year that I finally finished for this project. I also did my best to select books that accurately represent what I was reading at the time, generally (except for the 90s books which I read years later). Alright, let’s get into it: One book per every year I’ve been alive!
One Book Per Every Year I’ve Been Alive
1990s
- 1990: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan – Enjoyed but not invested enough to continue the series.
- 1991: Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder – Assigned reading in high school.
- 1992: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis – So bleak but the medieval atmosphere is top notch, great book.
- 1993: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski – I really liked it & still intend to read the rest of the series at some point.
- 1994: Something Rich and Strange by Patricia A. McKillip – Read this novella as part of Dreams of Distant Shores & did not like. Review.
- 1995: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire – I remember loving this one.
- 1996: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin – Loved it, got up to the 4th book and will only continue if it’s ever finished.
- 1997: Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klaus – Probably one of the first romance books I ever read and where I fell in love with werewolves.
- 1998: Beyond the Deepwoods by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell – The start of my absolute favourite middle grade series!
- 1999: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky – Destroyed me when I read it (probably when the movie came out, I think).
2000s
- 2000: The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot – I was obsessed with the movie but didn’t get far in the book series.
- 2001: Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve – This was a fun series.
- 2002: The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale – The start of another all-time favourite series that scales super well from middle grade to young adult as it goes along.
- 2003: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray – I read this in high school and really liked it but don’t remember anything about it.
- 2004: Summer Boys by Hailey Abbott – Read this during my very short-lived contemporary romance phase.
- 2005: Zorro by Isabel Allende – I read this in Spanish and absolutely loved it!
- 2006: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson – I was gifted this by a friend and loved the trilogy. Still meaning to get to era 2 of Mistborn one day.
- 2007: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss – Also gifted by a friend. Loved it so much it became my personality.
- 2008: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows & Mary Ann Shaffer – This out of my comfort zone read paid off a lot, what a beautiful story.
- 2009: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld – Discovered as a teen, loved it but I only recently finally finished the series. Review.
2010s
- 2010: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare – My teenage & early adulthood years were consumed by the Shadowhunters.
- 2011: The Martian by Andy Weir – I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this one as much as I did.
- 2012: Avatar The Last Airbender: The Promise by Michael Dante DiMartino, Gene Luen Yang et al. – As a huge fan of ATLA, I adored reading the graphic novels.
- 2013: A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan – I’ve been reading this series for the first time recently but it’s so good!
- 2014: Think of England by KJ Charles – A really great but short historical romance, also read recently.
- 2015: The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins – A really weird read that worked for me!
- 2016: Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan – This was a really fun graphic novel series, I ate it all up quickly.
- 2017: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden – Another favourite series, so atmospheric with excellent characters.
- 2018: Circe by Madeline Miller – This book is where I fell in love with myth re-tellings.
- 2019: Fireborne by Rosaria Munda – I need everyone to read this series, it’s incredible and it deserves so much more attention.
2020s
- 2020: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – I read during early during the shutdown and it was one of the things that helped keep me sane.
- 2021: The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec – This debut is stunning, I love anything by this author.
- 2022: When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd-Banwo – Another out of my comfort zone read that I was surprised by, I enjoyed this one a lot. Review.
- 2023: The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz – A really unique sci-fi that I fell in love with. It didn’t get a great average rating but I think it’s a very “love it or hate it” kinda book. Review.
- 2024: The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler – A novella that I enjoyed because it made me think. Review.
- 2025: Once Was Willem by M. R. Carey – My favourite read from last year, it felt so deeply me.
- 2026: A Ghastly Catastrophe by Deanna Raybourn – Veronica and Stoker have my heart. As does this series as a whole.
Link-ups
A Good Book & Cup of Tea is hosted by Lisa R. Howeler @ Boondocks Ramblings, Erin @ Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, & Cat @ Cat’s Wire
Let’s chat in the comments!
Have you read any of these books or series? Or, out of these decades which one have you read the most books from? 🖤.
What an interesting challenge for yourself! I like the idea.
Thank you, it was really fun to find the titles and then fill in the missing gaps 🙂 I’m glad you like the idea!
I loved the Doomsday Book! 🙂
Me too, at the time I didn’t give it a very high rating because I was traumatized lol but it’s stayed with me and the more I think about it, the more I think I should have given it a higher rating it’s a great book.
This is the coolest project ever! It must have taken a long time to figure out. I’m not sure I could do it, lol.
Thank you, Tammy 🥰 It actually did take me a few years to put it all together because I had to fill in missing gaps where I hadn’t organically read from that year. Well if you ever do do it I’d love to see it haha but yeah It’s time consuming for sure!
Such a cool idea, and I like the presentation, placing the books on the timeline.
Thank you, Zezee 😀 Glad you like the idea & I’ve been wanting to make a little visual timeline for a while now.
This is so cool! I may try this sometime soon. I’m a sucker for a good challenge, and this was a great one!
Thank you :D! Oh yes, if you do end up doing this I would love to see it!! 😃
This is such a cool and fun idea!! *_*
Hehe, thanks Susy!! 😊
This is such a cool project! Congrats on finishing this, this looks so challenging but fun 🙂
I really appreciate that! 😀 Haha yes it was challenging but it was a cool way to look at what I’ve read through the years lol.
This is such a fabulous idea! I can imagine it was hard trying to find/pick books for some of the years, but I am so impressed with your resulting list 😀
Thanks so much, Rebecca 🙂 ! Yeah some years were hard to pick because I had too many and some were hard to even find one! I do want to focus on reading more books from the 90s now haha.
What a fun idea for a blog post!! I need to look into what was published the year I was born for an Instagram tag sometime as I don’t have a clue 🙈
I had no idea that Witcher and Wicked were published such a long time ago 🤯
I need to try the Robert Jordan series one day, and Blood And Chocolate. For some reason I seem to have read very few werewolf books 🤔
I loved the Princess Diaries movies and books and cant believe how different the grandma is between the two 😂 although her Missing and Mediator series were my absolute obsessions. I think those and Sabrina probably helped lead to my fantasy love.
I’ve seen the adaptation for The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society but never read the bokk 🙈 glad to hear it was a hit for you.
Circe is what made me fall for these kind of retellings too 😍 I also adored Mexican Gothic, Shadowhunters, Bear & Nightingale and of course Lady Trent.
As a fantasy fan I feel awful for not having read anything by Sanderson yet or having tried the Game Of Thrones books or The Name Of The Wind. I also somehow forgot all about The Witch ‘s Heart despite owning it 🙈 definitely need to pick it up soon.
I think I’ve probably read the most books from the 2020s 🤔 I’ve always been a reader but now that I pick up new releases I’d imagine a big chunk of my titles are newer rather than older. Plus I missed a lot of the 2010s releases when I kept falling in and out of a slump 🙈
Thanks, this one has been brewing in the background for years now, glad to finally have completed it, I only wish I had a 5 star example for every year but that’s way too hard! I know right, it’s not like we were aware of literature the year we were born😝 that one definitely something to look up later!! haha I am curious to see that as well though! It was a fun project to do too because I was surprised at how old a bunch of books were that I wasn’t expecting.
Hmm yeah I need more werewolf books too ! I also remember liking the blood and chocolate movie though I don’t think it did particularly well lol.
I remember almost nothing about the princess diaries books, but the movies live rent free in my head. Oh wow cool, those are series that I’ve never even heard of, interesting!
Oh nice, I thought the movie for Guernsey was also great!:D The book is a great example where something so outside of my comfort zone was such a success!
Ah, Circe being our spark for myth retellings is yet another thing we have in common, that’s so awesome! Glad you love all of those too 😃.
I don’t think you should feel bad, the world of fantasy is SO vast and there’s no such thing as reading something ‘too late’, it’s there for you if you want later 🙂 And this way you are not left waiting endlessly for some stories to end😂. HAHa glad I could remind you about The Witch’s Heart then 😛.
It makes sense to have read the most books from the present decade where you’re really into writing reviews and following what’s new. I suspect I’d be similar or maybe more from 2010’s…hard to say!
Yes I can imagine it was one that took a lot of work but it was worth it in the end. You’re right that finding a five star for every year would be tricky though, especially as some books sound destined to be one but don’t live up to our expectations so it would take multiple tries for some years.
Very true 😂 I only found out the big movie of my birth year when I was in my 20s. And I imagine it was, it can definitely be surprising seeing just when some things were published.
I didn’t even know there had been a movie for that one 🙈
I can remember a bit but not over much, basically that the grandmother was completely different (and painted her eyebrows on daily, I cant imagine the movie one doing that 😂), that they put on a musical of Hair I think and that it had various lists and notes throughout which I loved. I think her dad may even have been alive but I’m not sure 🤔 but I definitely remember the movies more strongly too. Isn’t there going to be a new one sometime? Missing got a TV series but it was completely different from the books.
Thats wonderful that it was a hit like that 🥰 I really do want to read it sometime, especially given its format.
I’m kind of not surprised as it was such a popular one. I love that we have it in common too though.
Thats very true although some of those seem rather unlikely to ever get finished and even if that ends up being the case I’m determined to read them.
Yes very true 🥰 I fell into a major slump sometime during the 2010s and have so many books to catch up on from that decade 🙈
Aw, thank you so much🥰! Yeah, and I don’t read nearly fast enough for that! Maybe with time I’ll be able to re-make some years that aren’t fives haha.
Ohh what is the big movie of your birth year? Yes absolutely, I always love a new angle to look at books through haha.
😂…yeaahhh no wonder it wasn’t very popular!
It’s funny that you remember that detail, I can’t imagine the movie grandma drawing on her eyebrows. Ahaha what? I love Hair so that’s really funny to me they put on that musical! I have no clue about a new movie, if so it passed me by entirely.
ah yes, a love a good epistolary format! Here’s hoping you can get to it! It’s short so that helps.
So true! Not that surprising but still cool 😎.
Ahh well that’s fair, if only just to experience the parts that did get written. 🙂
Oh no 🙁 Yet again, it could be a cool project to work on for if you ever want to read more from those years.
Thats true you could always update it as you come to books you’d have read anyway 🥰
Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves. I’ve accidentally visited a few places it was filmed in too – the waterfall from one scene and the castle that was his home (thats the one I mentioned as being in the new Practical Magic).
I think thats why it stuck with me 😂 I’ve never seen Hair 🙈 glad to hear you love it though. I just looked and its been confirmed by Anne Hathaway on Instagram apparently 🥰
Thank you.
Thats very true. And I definitely do want to read some of them. I have a few on my Kindle already as I was very good at adding to my digital shelves at the time 😂
Yeah 🙂 it’d be fun to see how this list would look like 10 years in the future or whatever.
oh, I don’t think I’ve seen that movie i just looked it up and doesnt look familiar at all. I’ve seen Robin Hood Men in Tights though which i’m guessing is vastly different😂. Cool that you got to see some locations though that’s always fun.
Ohh nevermind I’m sorry I jut realized I confused it with Hairspray and actually know nothing about Hair ooops!! 😅
Ahh omg that is Excellent news Charlotte! thanks for letting me know and I cant wait! 😍
It’s nice you have some waiting in your Kindle, then :D!!
This is a great idea for a post, and I definitely want to have a go too! (Although my list will be considerably longer, LOL!)
Some of my favourites on your list too: Doomsday Book, Wicked, Mortal Engines, Zorro, The Name of the Wind, The Martian …. 🎉🎉🎉
Thank you and yes please I would love to see your books per year! 😃 The fact that it’s longer just means you’ve had more time to discover more book gems!! All the ones you listed are ones I enjoyed, too I’m so glad to hear they’re some of your favs 🙂
Positive thinking! 😆💖
I’ve already started scribbling down some titles… 🎉
heheh yes! 😄❤️ & Yess so happy to hear that and so curious what those titles will be!