2016: Or, the year I read some long books very slowly

According to my goodreads reading challenge, I haven't read very much this year. Twenty one books, at the time of writing. Twenty two if I can finish Empire of Storms before New Year's Eve. 

The number is deceptive though. My page count has possibly never been higher (except for the years when I re-read the entire HP series in a couple of weeks). I read some really long books this year: War and Peace; Winter; Carry On; and now EoS. YA in general seems to be getting longer. Crooked Kingdom - top of my list for next year - is going to take a while to get through. Gone, apparently, are the days of a YA novel being around 300-400 pages long. Now they span to epic proportions. Not that I'm complaining; it gives me longer to enjoy a world and it's characters. It just means that I'm reading fewer books and, if buying paperbacks, less frequently as they no longer fit so easily into handbags. 

So while I am a little disappointed that I didn't reach my 2016 reading goal, I am pleased that I've read some really good books. Here's the complete list:

The Wrath and the Dawn

An Ember in the Ashes

All of the Above

Carry On

Poems by Emily Dickinson, series one

The Forbidden Wish

Six of Crows

The Unmumsy Mum

Radio Silence

Shadow and Bone

A Court of Mist and Fury

Siege and Storm

Ruin and Rising

Winter

Rebel of the Sands

PS I Still Love You

Nothing Tastes as Good

The Graces

The Accident Season

The History Boys

War & Peace

That breaks down as:

1 play

1 poetry book

1 non-fiction

1 classic (definitely going to focus on increasing this one next year)

17 YA (13 fantasy, 5 contemporary)

3 male authors, 15 female (four books were written by the same author!)

So not as diverse as last year, which is a shame, but at least that gives me something to focus on next year. Plus, there's nothing wrong with reading lots of novels in a genre that you love. 

And this list doesn't include the vast number of picture books I have read throughout the year - most multiple times in the same day to the point that I now have them committed to memory. Nor does it take into account the large amount of reading time that has been lost to writing this year; I've had a really productive year where my writing is concerned and have lots of exciting projects to continue to focus on in 2017.