2020 Sucked, but These Books Didn’t

Today’s the day. No, the year isn’t quite over just yet. But today’s the day I reveal the best books I read this year. Obviously, I’d like you to take a look at the video to hear what I have to say, but because we’re talking about the year’s best I’m also writing about them here.

Every one of these books was a five star read for me. In order read:

The Forgotten Man – Robert Crais
PS I Still Love You – Jenny Han
Chasing Darkness – Robert Crais
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz
Flash Boys – Michael Lewis
Suspect – Robert Crais
The Sentry – Robert Crais
Taken – Robert Crais
The Last Olympian – Rick Riordan
Born a Crime – Trevor Noah

As you can see, Robert Crais wrote HALF of my five star reads for the entire year. Insanity. If you can believe it, there were other books of his I didn’t rate as highly. But he really set the bar this year. He’s been one of my favorite authors for some time, but he dominated my reading this year. I read him nine times. He’s cemented himself as the best crime novelist writing today and I have too many reasons to hit on right now.

It would be pointless to write this and not mention the top of the top. The best book I read this year was The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I previously wrote a review on here for it, so no point in reviewing it again.

Most surprising, the number two book of the year was Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime. I went in with limited expectations and page after page, chapter after chapter was impressed. I’m limited in my exposure to memoirs, but this an excellent read and I imagine on par with any other.

Lastly, I feel obligated to mention Rick Riordan. I read four of the five Percy Jackson books this year. He seemingly improved with every single one, with his best coming with the final in the series. It was full of heart-wrenching, heart-stopping moments that made me happy to have taken a chance on the books. A phenomenal finale to a rather enjoyable series.

What were some of your top reads this year?

New Video! Are There Too Many Literary Adaptations?

I know there are going to be some strong thoughts on this topic. I think it’s difficult to say there is too much of something we really like, BUT I obviously think it’s a valid question if I took the time to make a video out of it! Now watch or don’t and just tell me what you think!

2017 Reading Challenge: The Lightning Thief

I’m probably the last person in America to have started this series. I mean, at this point Rick Riordan is writing a dozen other series he started after concluding this one. Oh well. Better late than never, right? Anyway, I have only good things to say about this one! Watch and see!

This book was the 7th book from my 2017 Reading Challenge and satisfied the requirement to read a book everyone else seems to have read already. This is also 1 of Amazon’s 100 Books Everyone Should Read. Two birds with one…book? Ha!

What did you think of this book?

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2017 Reading Update

I’ve decided to do a little recap at the start of each month regarding my reading. I’ll be comparing my progress to where I should be and also to where I was during my previous best reading year. It’s just another thing to help me reach my goal to read 50 books in a calendar year. Let’s go.

Books read

2017: 10

2012: 1

January was a record! I thought my previous record was twelve, but it turned out to be 9. I just squeaked by it last month. But look how far ahead of my best year’s pace I am! In 2012 I read 44 books, the closest I’ve ever gotten to my 50.

Time

57 hours, 15 minutes

Pages

3001

2017 Reading Challenge

7 books

Genres

Young adult: 2 books

Literary fiction: 3 books

Mystery: 2 books

Fantasy: 1 book

Nonfiction: 2 books

Ratings

1 star: 1 book

2 stars: 1 book

3 stars: 3 books

4 stars: 4 books

5 stars: 1 book

Average: 3.3

Best Book

The Lightning Thief

That’s it for January! Percy Jackson just narrowly won the month as the top read, that video will be up soon! How did you do to start your 2017 reading journey?

A Story I Know You’ll Love

Ron Lynch is a name likely completely unknown to you. And Matthew Flores is probably no different. But the rest of the world is becoming more and more acquainted with the two by each passing day. Let me tell you why.

Ron Lynch is a mail carrier for the United States Postal Service (USPS). For those of you located in other parts of the world, USPS is our primary snail mail service. Recently Ron Lynch discovered 12-year-old Matthew searching through junk mail for anything he could read. And Matthew even asked him if he had any extra mail that he could read because his family doesn’t have a car and can’t afford for him to take the bus to his local library. But Mr. Lynch decided to do something just a little bit better than junk mail. He put this on Facebook.

One would expect the typical person to have a few hundred friends on Facebook and to actually interact with a fraction of them, right? Wrong. This post has caught fire. People all over the world have been rushing to send young Matthew books to read. And I’m asking you to join in! I’m not asking you to send him a box of all your favorite books, but if you do have a book or two that you think this young boy would enjoy, then I say ship it to him. I’m getting on Amazon and finding something for him right now as I sit here and write this. I’m even going to include a personal message.

Matthew just wants to read as much as he possibly can, and I want to help him do that.

Let’s all give Ron Lynch a nice salute for what he did. He showed us that the world isn’t such a bad place after all. There are plenty of good people all around.

PS: The address for Matthew’s local post office is at the end of the first picture. You may have to click “see more” depending on your device.

This happened after just a few days.

I decided to send him a boxed set of the Percy Jackson series! But then I realized that he’s already gotten it. 😦 I’m going to think about this for a day or two and then decide. But you don’t need to wait for me!

It would be really nice of you to share this post with your friends, followers, or whomever. Because it’s impossible to have too many books, right? 🙂