End of Year Survey: 2018 Edition!

Posted January 6, 2019 by Kate

Hello lovelies!

Happy 2019 to all of you :) With a new year comes reflection on the year past, so I stole Perpetual Page Turner’s 9th Annual End of Year Survey for book bloggers! But it was fun to go back through and see my year in blogging and reading. If you’re interested, feel free to steal! I didn’t answer all the questions, because some of them didn’t apply, so for those I just left them out. 

**2018 READING STATS**

Number of Books Read: 133 books read in total
Number of Re-Reads: 47 books that I reread! 
Genre You Read The Most: contemporary romance and urban fantasy

End of Year Survey 9th Anniversary 2018 in Review Reading books read Cover to Cover Book Blog Kat Snark Kruback perpetual page turner

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

Restore Me by Taherah Mafi was a continuation of the beloved Shatter Me books, which I absolutely adored! But Restore Me just fell short of those expectations and felt like a gap-filler between the old series and the continuation. 


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

Ace of Shades by Amanda Foody was quite the shock. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting out of this one, but I definitely wasn’t expecting to completely love it and the Six of Crows vibe I got from it! 


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

This is basic … but I’m still pushing everyone to read Throne of Glass


Warcross by Marie Lu cover to cover book blog kat snarkBest series you started in 2018?

Marie Lu is known for her villainous plot twists and her penchant for anti-heroes, and Warcrossthe first book in her new series, was everything I love about a Lu book: a spicy writing style, fast-paced, addicting, delightfully over-the-top and full of twisty-villainy. 

I absolutely adored the video game aspect incorporated into this book. It made this sci-fi aspect unique, and the setting of a futuristic-Japan had me wanting to look around with my mouth wide open in awe. 

Warcross had me sitting on the edge of my seat – I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next! Emika was such a thrilling main character to follow, too. She was witty, sharp, intelligent, and rebellious. What more could you ask of a YA heroine?


Best Sequel of 2018? 

Rebel Hard by Nalini Singh was amazing! Cherish Hard came out for the first time earlier this year, and it met those expectations and soared :) Nayna and Raj were so cute together, and it was great to see a romance in modern-day Indian culture.

That is not my culture, so experiencing it through Nayna was absolutely thrilling :) 


Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

Can I use Kingdom of Ash, again?

Any Nalini Singh book is perfect for this category, as well. Her first book in the Trinity series Silver Shadows was another huge hit in the world-building category. It’s so intricate, and she really built up the culture of the bear clans to an astonishing level of detail. In the last book of her Psy-Changeling series, Allegiance of Honorwe got a huge peek at the whole-world scope of her world.


Favorite new author you discovered in 2018?

CG Drews!! (i.e., the book blogger Cait @ PaperFuryA Thousand Perfect Notes was wonderful

   


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

Steampunk was a new thing this year! I read my five required steampunk’s in 2017 for the Romance Roundabout Reading Challenge, loved the genre, and then forgot about it until I had to read my five required reads for the genre this year! So that’s what I’ve done during December, and I’ve enjoyed it every step of the way! I started with Kiss of Steel by Bec McMaster, finished out the London Steampunk series, and I definitely recommend! 


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

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff and Amy Kaufman was great!! I read that chunky tome in a day, I was just so sucked into the story :)


Book You Read In 2018 That You Would Be MOST Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

As you can see from the beginning of this post, I’m an avid re-reader, so it’s highly probable that I’ll reread a good portion of these books. But a few I’ve already ear-marked (besides Silver Silence, which I’ve already read and then re-read) are …

   


Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2018?

Made You Up by Francesca Zappia centers around the main character who is schizophrenic. It was something that I hadn’t experienced before, and it was really interesting. 

Beard in Mind by Penny Reid centers around Shelly Sullivan, who has OCD. I’m going to be honest, I thought I knew what OCD was before I read this book. There’s the prevalence of “oh yeah, my room’s really neat, it’s because I’m OCD…” in modern society, but in reading this book, I learned just how inaccurate that phrase really is. (My Review of Beard with Me)


Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2018 to finally read? 


Beard with Me by Penny Reid Cover to Cover Book Blog Kat Snark covertocoverlit Book Blogger Book blog reader reading SmartyPants Romance Smart Romance Scarlet St. Claire Clair Billy Winston Winston Brothers Green Valley Pennyverse origin story childhood romance age difference homeless motorcycle club childhood abuse Literary Fiction Epic Love Story 

Favorite cover of a book you read in 2018?

Penny Reid’s Winston Brother’s series has some of my favorite covers! 


Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

Juliet and Kenji from Restore MeIf it wasn’t for Kenji, I probably wouldn’t have finished the continuation. 


Best Book You Read In 2018 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure/Bookstagram, Etc.:

Just Friends by Tiffany Pitcock was a book I got from Bookstagram and Twitter within the same hour, within the same day, so I figured that was fate and picked up a copy. 


A Thousand Perfect Notes by CG Drews PaperFury cover to cover book blog kat snarkBest 2018 debut you read?

A Thousand Perfect Notes by CG Drews was debuted by one of my favorite bloggers and Twitter-personalities: PaperFury!! I’ve been a fan of PaperFury’s blog for a little over a year now, and I can say that, without fail, she always makes me laugh and crave cake. So I knew she could blog, and has an imaginative way with words. But shit if I knew she could write–especially like that! It’s not even the writing style that I’m coo-ing over, although I very much enjoyed it. It was the characters. They were so completely dynamic that they blew me across the page. I crawled into bed around 10:10pm, just planning to start a few chapters and sleep for my busy day. But shit if August and Beck and Joey, and even the Maestro, didn’t unfold from the pages and start walking around in front of my eyes, captivating me.

In 275 pages, Cait had run me through the emotional gamut and kept my eyes glued to the pages. All without her trademark hilarity and dragon-fetish. Although she just had to mention cake. It wouldn’t be Cait if she didn’t mention cake at some point. Shoot, she overrode all my sleeping intentions – which is no small feat. *bows*


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

The Billionaire’s Wake-Up Call Girl by Annika Martin – someone recommended this to me and I was expecting just a quick fluffy romp of a read … and it was so much more! It was light-hearted, yes, but it also had depth and was absolutely hilarious! It was one of my most surprising reads this year! 


Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi was a huge hidden gem! I ordered it on a whim from Amazon because it sounded adorable … and it was! I expected to merely read a fluffy contemporary, but it was so much more than that! 


Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas cover to cover book blog kat snark

Best Series Ender of 2018?

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas, hands down! Oh my gosh … it was the perfect goodbye to a huge cast of characters and I cried the whole way :”} The whole way! 

Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas **sooobbbbbbs major tears** saying goodbye to some of my favorite characters was heartbreaking and crushed. My. Soul.

Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2018?

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas – I cried through the whole damn thing, and it was the longest book I read this year. A Thousand Perfect Notes by CG Drews was also a huge tearjerker – cried the whole way through this one, too! 


Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2018?

Shortest: Fairy Balloon’s by Nalini Singh 

Longest: Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas @ 984 pages


Most Unique Book You Read In 2018?

Okay, I read Illuminae this year for the first time. So obviously … very, very, very unique!! It was a completely different reading experience, but it didn’t take away from the story at all. 


UnWritten by Chelsea M. Cameron Review Cover to Cover Book and Blogging Blog by Kat Snark book talk review two 2 stars dislikedBook That Made You The Most Mad?

 I really did not enjoy Unwritten by Chelsea M. Cameron (review). In short, I did not enjoy the one-dimensional bullet-point “perfect” love interest, the constant *wink-wink, nudge-nudges*, or the passive acceptance of cheating – whether it was in a past relationship or not. 

The main hero was also far too perfect. But on my lord – read my review for a full explanation here! 


End of Year Survey 9th Anniversary 2018 in Review Reading books read Cover to Cover Book Blog Kat Snark Kruback perpetual page turner

New favorite book blog/Bookstagram/Youtube channel you discovered in 2018?

Caitlin’s Corner isn’t really a book blog, but it’s a lifestyle account on YouTube and Bookstagram that talks books as well as bullet journals!


Favorite post you wrote in 2018?

My Biannual Bibliothon post for the summer! This was the first time I really went all-in with the readathon, and I kept up with my blog post as a day-to-day update. 


Favorite bookish related photo you took in 2018? 

End of Year Survey 9th Anniversary 2018 in Review Reading books read Cover to Cover Book Blog Kat Snark Kruback perpetual page turner
For Easter!

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

You just said it … blogging. I’m a senior in high school, on the cusp of college, and am Editor-in-Chief of my school news magazine, which publishes an 80-page magazine every six weeks. Time is not something I have to spare, and it’s barely enough to get to read the books I want than to talk about them. 


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

My most popular post, year-after-year, is my annual Valentine’s Day Love Letter’s feature. While 2017 was my favorite, 2018 tends to bring in the most hits. 


Biannual Bibliothon Summer 2018 TBR and day one day two day three day four day five day six day seven blog challenges readathon challenge #BBibliothon kat snark books reading book novel ya adult cover to Cover Book Blog www.covertocoverlit.com blogging blog cover to coverPost You Wished Got A Little More Love?

My Biannual Bibliothon post for the summer! I tracked a week’s worth of readathon reading and reactions, and I love it! 

I was so much fun for me, because I’m not a book vlogger on BookTube, so I don’t get to do Readathon Vlogs! So I decided to try the blogging version, as a kind of published Readathon diary for each day of the readathon – and I think it turned out wonderfully! So if you’re interested, I do recommend you give it a go ?


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

I wouldn’t say that I discovered anything new, but the same old ones remain! www.BookOutlet.com’s deals continue to tempt me, Evie Seo and PaperFury continue to put out amazing and seductive designs, but Redbubble stickers are pretty good for me XD Can you hear that? I think it’s my wallet screaming …. ? 


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

Here is a link to my post with my 2018 Resolutions. I did not blog more, I didn’t pressure myself to review every book I read, I did get some bookshelves (!!!), I tracked my books avidly, didn’t use Goodreads as much as I’d have liked .. etc. I think I met moderate success for my goals, but I definitely have several to roll over again for next year. 

As far as reading challenges go, I participated in the Romance Roundabout Reading Challenge successfully, the Modern Mrs. Darcy reading challenge, the summer Biannual Bibliothon, as well as a few smaller challenges and readathons. 

End of Year Survey 9th Anniversary 2018 in Review Reading books read Cover to Cover Book Blog Kat Snark Kruback perpetual page turner

One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2018 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2019?


     King of Scars by Leigh bardugo Cover to Cover Book Blog Kat Snark 

Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2019 (non-debut)?

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

2019 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

Again, But Better by Christine Riccio!! She’s also known as a Youtuber under the name polandbananasBOOKS, and I’ve watched her for years. I can’t wait to read her books!


Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2019?


Two Things You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2019?

I’m trying not to give up on blogging. Life is just really busy right now, and it’s hard to make time for blogging and reading. But it’s something that I really like doing, so I’m fighting like hell to make it work and make it last. In the past few months, some of my favorite book blogs have shut down because the bloggers just got too busy and didn’t have time for it anymore, and I don’t want to become one of those. 

As a second thing, I read a lot of blog posts from my fellow bloggers through my email inbox when I get the emailed notification of a new blog post. I want to do better about going back to the blog post and liking and commenting, rather than just reading the post, enjoying it, and then deleting it and moving on. It’s a small thing for me, but I know it means a lot to the blogger who worked hard to put the post together in the first place. 

What are some of the books you’re looking forward to in the new year? What are some of your blogging/reading goals for this upcoming year? Let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you!


Chat with me!