What I Read: 2017

I'm getting this up a lot later than I wanted, but better late than never. So today I wanted to highlight my 10 favorite books that I read in 2017, as well as some interesting stats on what types of books I read, total page number read, etc.

These are my 10 favorite books I read in 2017 in the order that I read them.

1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
This was so fast-paced and messed up. I read Gillian Flynn's other books last year too, but this one still is my favorite.

2. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
This is another messed up book that kept me on the edge of my seat. It can be lengthy at times, but I really enjoyed the characters and the plot.

3. Mindhunter by John E. Douglas
This is a book all about how the FBI created their profiling system for murderers and other criminals. It was very fascinating how accurate their profiles can be. They recently turned it into a Netflix show, which is kind of bad in my opinion. It had its moments, but it didn't live up to the book that much. If you love true crime, you need to read this.

4. Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick
I love Anna Kendrick as an actress, and this is her memoir about growing up and her life. I found it to be entertaining, and it was cool to hear about her struggle to get into acting.

5. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
I loved all the characters in this book. It was a fun, adventurous story.

6. To Pixar And Beyond by Lawrence Levy
I learned so much about Pixar while reading this. For example, I had no idea Steve Jobs was involved with Pixar, as he helped fund the company. Mostly, I felt a lot of nostalgia while reading this book. I grew up watching all the major Pixar films, so it was neat to hear about the behind-the-scenes.

7. Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
I had to read this for a class last semester and was blown away by how good it was. It's a time travel story where the main character goes into the past to her ancestors. I thought it was very well done and completely different than most science fiction and time travel stories.

8. Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham
This is another memoir by an actress I really love, Lauren Graham. She was in Gilmore Girls, and this book gives you a look into the behind-the-scenes of that as well as other parts of her life. Like Anna Kendrick's memoir, this one was fun to read.

9. The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer
I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. Stephenie Meyer is the person who wrote the Twilight series, so I expected something sub-par. Boy was I wrong! This book was fantastic! It was very fast-paced, and the plot was incredibly cool. It follows an ex-agent that's on the run, which usually makes for a suspenseful story.

10. Matilda by Roald Dahl
I found this book to be so cute. I've seen the movie a ton but hadn't read the book until this past year.

I'd also like to mention some runner-ups that were great but not quite deserving of being a favorite. I really enjoyed Narconomics by Tom Wainwright, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi, and A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston.

Having read 222 books last year, I know I definitely left out lots of others that were great. Check out my monthly wrap-up posts if you'd like a deeper look at what I've read.

I figured I'd end this post off with some interesting stats of what I've read. So of the 222 books I read, 102 were physical books, 88 were eBooks, and 32 were audio books. I started doing audio books last year, and I really like them. They allow me to get more reading done when I normally would not be able to. As far as a fiction vs. nonfiction breakdown, I read 158 fiction and 64 nonfiction. I thought I had read more nonfiction, but I guess not. I would like to read more nonfiction in 2018. Of those 222 books, 63 were graphic novels. There were a couple highly recommended series I wanted to get into, like Saga and The Walking Dead. I've now finished all those, and I don't think I'll be reading as many graphic novels this year. They're cool, but not a lot of other series appeal to me. In 2017, I read 59903 pages, with an average page length of 270. I also started rating books on a 5 star system last year, so my average rating was a 3.2. The only stat that I'd like to improve of those three is to read more longer books. I definitely lean more towards shorter books. I think focusing on quality vs. quantity this year will be the big thing. That's about it for this post! I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for looking!