Athena's Reading List 2014

[Anna Begins]

Athena;

Well, people that can't afford it just don't get their medications.  My mom hasn't had her Heart or blood pressure meds for two months!  Minimum wage here is a joke too.  $9.00 an hour in California and the highest is in Seattle and there it is $15, barley enough to get by, certainly not enough for healthcare.  Heathcare used to not be mandatory, but under "Obama care" now you do.  And that is the catch.  As Julie says, the program only cuts down the price by 1/2.

I love the Netherlands, please let me stay with you  Actually, I am planning my 5th trip in 5 years to Amsterdam next year, maybe May or August.  I don't want to be there on Queens Day!!!! 

I'm going to try some Jodi Picoult myself sometime this year.  I am starting with The Pact, but The Storyteller looks good too.

PS- I had this all quoted and pretty but then I pushed something on my computer and it erased your quote!

 

Hope you all don't mind if I jump in here .

 

 

When you get into the Medicaid system, it will actually pay all of your costs in most instances. We also looked into signing up for that ,but if you get into the System, THEY tell YOU what Dr's and hospitals you have to use . I guess it's still a good route for those that need health care ,but we were hesitant to try that . It's really nice to have your own Dr's that you have seen for years and trust .

 

So, I  hope eventually ,someone down the road will make more improvements in our health care system.

 

Like Kate said, sadly, there are lots of people who fall between the cracks with the current one. They all DESERVE good health care, but it'd still be a real struggle to pay for it .

Not at all- jump right in.  I'm on disability, so I am under Medicare.  They do absorb the cost, but only a small percentage.  Like, I had a $3000 Ambulance bill (they took me 5 miles) I still had to pay $2000 of it.  My meds, thankfully are cheap.  They won't even cover something as basic as a pap test or childhood immunizations.  I should add that I don't ever go to the doctor and the one I do have (not a general doctor) I have to pay $125 out of pocket because she just simply will not deal with insurance, it's such a mess.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Anna Begins

[Athena]

Athena;

Well, people that can't afford it just don't get their medications.  My mom hasn't had her Heart or blood pressure meds for two months!  Minimum wage here is a joke too.  $9.00 an hour in California and the highest is in Seattle and there it is $15, barley enough to get by, certainly not enough for healthcare.  Heathcare used to not be mandatory, but under "Obama care" now you do.  And that is the catch.  As Julie says, the program only cuts down the price by 1/2.

Wow, that's crazy . I can't believe your mum and other people are not getting their medications, that should not be allowed! Strange that the minimum wage is so different per state. Here it is €8.60 ish per hour I think (if I looked it up correctly), it's just been raised for July. It's a shame healthcare is so expensive there and obligatory, nice that the price is cut down in half but it's still way too much!

 

I love the Netherlands, please let me stay with you  Actually, I am planning my 5th trip in 5 years to Amsterdam next year, maybe May or August.  I don't want to be there on Queens Day!!!! 

I'm going to try some Jodi Picoult myself sometime this year.  I am starting with The Pact, but The Storyteller looks good too.

PS- I had this all quoted and pretty but then I pushed something on my computer and it erased your quote!

I hope you have an awesome time here in the Netherlands! What do you plan to do during your visit? If you'd like we could meet up next year, though I have to warn you, due to my disability I may only be able to spend an hour with you, that depends how I'm doing next year (I'm hoping a bit better than now though ). Amsterdam is about two hours on the train from here but if I have time then it might be nice to meet. I totally understand though if you're hesitant meeting someone from an online place so feel free to say rather not. Are you going with someone or on your own?

 

I hope you enjoy The Pact, I really enjoyed it when I read it earlier this year. It's one of my favourite books of 2014 so far. When There's Smoke is a short story about one of the characters in Jodi's new book, it's not out yet but will be in a while (I'm waiting for paperback release). It sounds quite good, the book and the short story, and the short story was free so I wanted to get it of course. I think I might wait with reading it though until just before I can read the book, otherwise it's possible I might've forgot about the story when the book comes out. That said, it could be nice to read it sooner and then re-read it when the book's out..

 

Not at all- jump right in.  I'm on disability, so I am under Medicare.  They do absorb the cost, but only a small percentage.  Like, I had a $3000 Ambulance bill (they took me 5 miles) I still had to pay $2000 of it.  My meds, thankfully are cheap.  They won't even cover something as basic as a pap test or childhood immunizations.

Wow.. that's insane! All these things are covered by insurance here, minus the 'eigen bijdrage', people do have to pay that (and their monthly amount). What happens when people are in really bad shape (ie. a bad car accident) and they can't afford the ambulance? Do they have to get a loan or something? I didn't know the situation was so bad in the United States, other than what I've heard from the people on here about it. It must be difficult if a person needs lots of expensive care .

[Anna Begins]

I hope you have an awesome time here in the Netherlands! What do you plan to do during your visit? If you'd like we could meet up next year, though I have to warn you, due to my disability I may only be able to spend an hour with you, that depends how I'm doing next year (I'm hoping a bit better than now though ). Amsterdam is about two hours on the train from here but if I have time then it might be nice to meet. I totally understand though if you're hesitant meeting someone from an online place so feel free to say rather not. Are you going with someone or on your own?

 

 

What happens when people are in really bad shape (ie. a bad car accident) and they can't afford the ambulance? Do they have to get a loan or something?

I'd love to meet up!  How fun!  This time, a friend will travel with me.  Oddly enough, we are best friends- mirror images- met online.  And don't worry if you can only stay for an hour or back out at the last moment- we both have "issues" and understand

If you get into a car accident, well, you have a huge bill waiting for you.  It completely ruins some people.  When I had my baby, we stayed 3 days in the hospital, that was $32,000.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Anna Begins

[Athena]

I'd love to meet up!  How fun!  This time, a friend will travel with me.  Oddly enough, we are best friends- mirror images- met online.  And don't worry if you can only stay for an hour- we both have "issues" and understand

If you get into a car accident, well, you have a huge bill waiting for you.  It completely ruins some people.  When I had my baby, we stayed 3 days in the hospital, that was $32,000.

It'll be fun meeting up! It's nice that you will be travelling with your friend . And wow.. I can understand that that'd ruin some people. $32,000.., that's a lot of money .

[Athena]

Alan Weisman - The World Without Us

 

 

Genre: Information

Age-range: Adult

Format: Textbook

Pages: 287 (324 if you include the bibliography and index)

Synopsis (GoodReads):What if mankind disappeared right now, forever ... what would happen to the Earth in a week, a year, a millennium? Could the planet's climate ever recover from human activity? How would nature destroy our huge cities and our myriad plastics? And what would our final legacy be?

 

Speaking to experts in fields as diverse as oil production and ecology, and visiting the places that have escaped recent human activity to discover how they have adapted to life without us, Alan Weisman paints an intriguing picture of the future of Earth. Exploring key concerns of our time, this absorbing thought experiment reveals a powerful - and surprising - picture of our planet's future.

 

My thoughts: This is the Reading Circle book for July. Since it was almost July, I decided to start reading the book. It sounded pretty interesting.

 

This book was quite interesting. It describes what would happen to the world and its flora and fauna if humans were to disappear all of a sudden. Various subjects are discussed, such as certain countries, certain species of animals and plants and trees, what would happen to our buildings, our nuclear plants, our chemicals and so on. People of a variety of disciplines were interviewed and asked for their opinion. You'd think all this would make for perhaps dry reading, but that was not the case here. The author describes everything very nicely. I really liked the writing style. It was very lively.

 

One thing I liked less was that the units were in imperial units so I couldn't always easily work out what would be the metric unit. It makes sense since the author is an American, but I felt it would've been even better if both imperial and metric units were included (or just SI).

 

Another thing I had a little bit of trouble with, but this is just me, is that I didn't know some of the words used. These were mainly words of certain trees, plants or animals. I very possibly knew these words in Dutch, but not in English. This is more of a criticism of myself than the book really, but it was something that slightly hampered my reading of the book.

 

The book makes me think about what were are doing to the Earth as humans. I thought it was very impressive and thought provoking that so many plants, trees and animals would most likely thrive so much better without us. While I knew some of the knowledge, a lot of it was new to me. I think all of us should try hard not to ruin this planet but instead spend attention on what we do and think about the consequences. One of the people mentioned in the book mentions a kind of belief that humans are all important, personally I think animals and nature have a right to exist too on this planet and that we should all try and live together in harmony. We should try and take care of the environment.

 

Overall I enjoyed reading this book. It was very educational and I enjoyed the writing style. Some of the subjects interested me more than others, but this is logical. I learned a lot from this book and feel it would not be bad for some people who don't take much care of the environment, to read this book. If you're interested in the subject of this book I'd recommend it. I look forward to discussing it in July.

 

Rating: **** (8/10)

[pontalba]

Great review, Gaia! I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

 

I'll be reading it directly after I finish the Nesbo I am reading now.

[Athena]

Thanks Kate , I hope you enjoy it too!

[bobblybear]

Great review of The World Without Us.   I've nearly finished it and I agree that it is very thought provoking. I always knew (as everyone does) that humans have changed our planet's ecosystem greatly, but didn't realise to what extent and the many ways we have impacted things. I know what you mean about the plant names - as I've been reading it, I've wondered if the author has some background in botany as he is constantly naming plants and trees that I have never heard of. It's a very detailed book, but at the same time it's quite easy to read and understand.

[Athena]

Thanks BB ! I'm glad to read I'm not the only one who struggled a bit with all the plant and tree names. I look forward to read your review of the book and discuss it with you (and Pontalba, and perhaps others) in July .

[Athena]

Sinéad Moriarty - Emma Huntington 4: Mad About You

 

(this cover doesn't match the covers of the other three books, which is a shame. It's still a nice cover though.)

 

Genre: Adult

Age-range: Chick-lit

Format: Paperback

Pages: 385

Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's part of a series)

 

My thoughts: I absolutely love the first three books in this series, it's one of my favourite chick-lit series. When I found out there was a fourth book published, I bought it and read it soon after I received it, I was quite excited to read it.

 

This book was very enjoyable. So far, all books I've read by Sinéad Moriarty have been more than just chick-lit, they touch on deeper issues which is something I really like. This book also talked about deeper issues while also being very fun and enjoyable.

 

I really liked to read about the characters. The story isn't just about the main character, there are quite a few side characters with their own little stories and plot lines. I quite enjoyed this. I found the characters to be interesting (there are some new characters as well as characters from the previous books).

 

I really liked the writing style, the book reads easily. There were quite a few unexpected plot twists, but others I did guess though not until just before they happened. I didn't mind that though, the book was a very enjoyable read (I read it in a day). I wanted to keep on reading to find out what would happen.

 

While this book can certainly be read as a standalone I do recommend starting at the beginning of the series if you're interested, because then you can follow the story from the beginning and you get more out of each book. I actually read book two first in this series, I hadn't realised it was part of a series when I bought it. So the books certainly can be read seperately, but are the most fun when read in the proper order.

 

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I love this series and the author didn't disappoint me with book four. I have a few of her other books on my TBR so I look forward to reading those too.

 

Rating: ***** (10/10)

[Athena]

Nagaru Tanigawa - The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan Volume 1 (re-read)

 

 

Genre: Manga, Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Young-Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 160

Synopsis (back of the book):Yuki Nagato, the sky president of the literature club, has never been ver sure of herself around other people. But around Kyon, the only boy in the tiny, three-person club, Yuki finds herself faltering even more than usual. For Kyon, and her precious club, uki must find her confidence and let her true personality sine! Enjoy taking a fresh look at your favorite charcters in this brand-new story set in the world of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya!

 

My thoughts: I really wanted to read volume five in the series, but upon flicking through the last pages of volume four I realised I didn't quite remember what had happened in this book series so far. So I decided to re-read all of them.

 

Since this series is a continuing story these reviews might be a bit shorter than usual. I enjoyed this book and the characters. At times, as happens more often with manga, I was confused who said what. The illustrations of some of the characters look a bit alike (in the TV show of the main series they have different hair colours which helps, but in a black and white book you don't get that). At other times, little icons were used to denote who said what, but they were too small for me to make out exactly who was who. A few times the letters of their names were used, but this confused me too and made me think hard. That's really my only criticism of the book (and indeed most of the manga I've read). I quite enjoyed the story and things came back to me as I read it. I love the character of Yuki. Note that this is a spin off series from the Haruhi Suzumiya series, and in this series some of the characters have different personalities than in the main series (I liked Yuki a lot in the main series too though). I haven't read the books or manga of the main series, I've just seen the TV show and film. Overall I enjoyed re-reading this book and look forward to read the other volumes (actually, upon writing this I have already finished volume two).

 

Rating: **** (8/10)

[Athena]

Nagaru Tanigawa - The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan Volume 2 (re-read)

 

 

Genre: Manga, Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Young-Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 160

Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's part of a series)

 

My thoughts: After re-reading volume one in the series I wanted to re-read volume two (I read them both during the same evening).

 

This book continues the story that began in book one. Some things were more familiar to me than others, some things I didn't remember at all. This is no fault of the book but most likely due to my brain, anyway.. This book brought in a new but familiar character. This changed things up a bit but was fun to read. I had the same problems as in the previous book, that on occasion I wasn't sure who said what. See that review for more details.

 

Overall I enjoyed re-reading this book and look forward to re-read volumes three and four as upon the first time reading them I enjoyed those more than books one and two. I don't know it it'll be like that again now, but I look forward to find out.

 

Rating: **** (8/10)

[julie]

Athena

 It looks as though you have found lots of enjoyable books lately . I'm glad of that . What is your total up to at this point ? We are almost exactly 1/2 through the year right now .

[Athena]

Thanks Julie . I've read 105 books so far (I hope to be adding three more to that today, the manga books are pretty short). I'll be writing a half year post tomorrow looking back at the past half year and see what kind of reading I did (I kind of want to write it today maybe this afternoon..). Most of the books I read this year have been very enjoyable, I have a lot of 8, 9 and 10 ratings, I read a lot of good books.

 

How is your reading going lately?

[Little Pixie]

Those Nagaru Tanigawa books look good ; have you read the other, similar series ?

[Little Pixie]

Thanks Julie . I've read 105 books so far (I hope to be adding three more to that today, the manga books are pretty short). I'll be writing a half year post tomorrow looking back at the past half year and see what kind of reading I did

 

Ooh, goodie. I had a quick look at my list and I think it`ll inform my reading for the second half of the year ( looking at what I really liked reading ( cosy mysteries ) and what I`d like to read more of ( books translated into English ). )

[Athena]

Those Nagaru Tanigawa books look good ; have you read the other, similar series ?

I haven't read any series that feature characters who are like Haruhi (she's kind of unique), but I have read series similar to the rest of the story (by the way, in the main series some of the characters in the book are not just high school students but actually have a different background and personality. This series reads more like a 'normal' contemporary, but the main series, which features aliens, espers and time travellers, is more of a different genre (I'm not sure if it'd be science-fiction or fantasy or paranormal..). Some of my favourites include Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances and Love Hina. I have read more books like it but these two would have to be my top favourites. Both are due for a re-read when my boyfriend's things are here, he owns the books and they are in the UK at the moment.

 

Kare Kano is about a high school boy and girl who are both very smart and compete to be best in class. The series is about the relationship between these two characters and their friends. It's quite cute.

 

Love Hina is about a boy who's trying to get into university and his friends. His friends are all girls and they all live in the same house/hotel/spa thingy (I can't remember at the moment what it is). It's about him and the relationship between him and his friends, and about the girls/friends too. It's quite funny as he doesn't mean to end up in situations where he accidentally walks in on a girl changing for example, but it happens quite a bit and they react to that, and that's kind of where it starts. Something also important is that he has a memory of a childhood friend with whom he made a promise, but he doesn't remember her name. Part of the story is him piecing together who this friend was and what he feels for her now.

 

Ooh, goodie. I had a quick look at my list and I think it`ll inform my reading for the second half of the year ( looking at what I really liked reading ( cosy mysteries ) and what I`d like to read more of ( books translated into English ). )

That's a great idea . Any particular cosy mystery books or translated books you want to get to? And when you say translated, what kind of genre and from which country?

 

I'll be posting some reviews next and a while after a post looking back on my reading.

[Athena]

Nagaru Tanigawa - The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan Volume 3 (re-read)

 

 

Genre: Manga, Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Young-Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 163

Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's part of a series)

 

My thoughts: I'm re-reading the first four volumes in this series because I want to read volume five and I can't quite remember what happened in the first four volumes.

 

This book was enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed the second half of the book because of the plot twists happening in it. I still have some trouble sometimes making out who says what (see the review of the first book in the series) though it didn't happen as often in this book. I like some of the characters but some of the other ones can be a bit overbearing and loud. I don't think I would like them much if I were to meet them in real life. It is however very funny to read about.

 

Rating: ***** (9/10)

[Athena]

Nagaru Tanigawa - The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan Volume 4 (re-read)

 

 

Genre: Manga, Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Young-Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 163

Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's part of a series)

 

My thoughts: I want to read volume five in this series but couldn't quite remember what had happened in the first four volumes, so I've been re-reading them.

 

This book was pretty interesting. There were some great plot twists that I really enjoyed (plus, there are some drawings of books in there which I particularly liked). While a certain thing that happens might not be how it would happen in real life, I did enjoy reading about it. Nagato and Kyon are great characters, and in this book I found Ryouko less annoying than in the previous book, she was very caring in this book. Overall I quite enjoyed re-reading these volumes.

 

Rating: ***** (9/10)

[Athena]

Nagaru Tanigawa - The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan Volume 5

 

 

Genre: Manga, Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Young-Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 158

Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's part of a series)

 

My thoughts: Volume five! I was looking forward to see how the story would continue, so after re-reading volumes one through four I read volume five.

 

Like the previous books, this one was quite enjoyable too. I enjoyed reading how the story continued. Some of the things that happened in the story, reminded me of the TV series (in a good way). I liked reading about all the characters and the illustrations are very nice. I'll have to wait another while before book six is out.

 

Overall I quite enjoyed reading this book. I really like most of the characters and it was fun to read about them and what they do.

 

Rating: ***** (9/10)

[Little Pixie]

I haven't read any series that feature characters who are like Haruhi (she's kind of unique), but I have read series similar to the rest of the story (by the way, in the main series some of the characters in the book are not just high school students but actually have a different background and personality. This series reads more like a 'normal' contemporary, but the main series, which features aliens, espers and time travellers, is more of a different genre (I'm not sure if it'd be science-fiction or fantasy or paranormal..). Some of my favourites include Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances and Love Hina. I have read more books like it but these two would have to be my top favourites. Both are due for a re-read when my boyfriend's things are here, he owns the books and they are in the UK at the moment.

 

Kare Kano is about a high school boy and girl who are both very smart and compete to be best in class. The series is about the relationship between these two characters and their friends. It's quite cute.

 

Love Hina is about a boy who's trying to get into university and his friends. His friends are all girls and they all live in the same house/hotel/spa thingy (I can't remember at the moment what it is). It's about him and the relationship between him and his friends, and about the girls/friends too. It's quite funny as he doesn't mean to end up in situations where he accidentally walks in on a girl changing for example, but it happens quite a bit and they react to that, and that's kind of where it starts. Something also important is that he has a memory of a childhood friend with whom he made a promise, but he doesn't remember her name. Part of the story is him piecing together who this friend was and what he feels for her now.

 

Ooh, thanks for those - they do look nice.   

 

That's a great idea . Any particular cosy mystery books or translated books you want to get to? And when you say translated, what kind of genre and from which country?

 

I want to read more of the cosy Inspector Gamache series, and also want to read more from South America and Spain ( I`ve got Mario Vargas Llosa`s Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, and a couple more from Carlos Ruiz Zafon, plus Night Train to Lisbon).

 

I also want to look at some European mysteries ; I came across this Dutch one, I don`t know if you`ve read any of them ?

[Athena]

Ooh, thanks for those - they do look nice.

You're welcome .

 

I haven't read any of the books you mentioned but they sound quite intruiging ! I hope you enjoy them. I might have to look into a few of those myself .

[Little Pixie]

You're welcome .

 

I haven't read any of the books you mentioned but they sound quite intruiging ! I hope you enjoy them. I might have to look into a few of those myself .

 

I imagine if they`ve gone to the trouble of translating so many from that author, that must be good. Hopefully.

[Athena]

I imagine if they`ve gone to the trouble of translating so many from that author, that must be good. Hopefully.

Yep! I hope so too .

[Athena]

Update on my reading after (almost) six months

 

Statistics of the first half year of 2014 (for more details see post #3 in this thread)

 

Days: 181 (01-01 <-> 30-06)

Total books read this year: 108

Amount of pages read (averaged): 30340

Average amount of pages per book: 280

One book per x days: 1.7 days

Pages per day: 168 pages

Amount of books bought: 458 + lots to come + some ebook comics -> too many

Amount of books free: 9

Reads TBR / R: 93 (86%) vs. 15 (14%)

Male / Female authors: 56 vs. 49 (excluding 5 unknowns or multiple)

Nationalities (from most to least): US (39), UK (30), Netherlands (21), Japan (7), Australia (2), Belgium (2), France (1), Canada (1), Ireland (1), Norway (1)

New authors vs. known authors: 55 vs. 51 (3 a combination)

Standalones vs. series books: 60 (55%) vs. 48 (45%)

Genres (most to least): Information (21), Contemporary Fiction (20), Chick-lit (18), Fantasy (16), Science-fiction (8), Biography (8), Detective (7), Thriller (6), Literature (6), Historical Fiction (4)

Type: Textbooks (94), Manga (8), Comics (4), Graphic Novels (2)

Format: Paperbooks (107) (91 paperback, 11 hardback, 1 hardcover), Kindle (1)

Ageranges: Adult (70)(61%), Young-Adult (30)(27%), Children's (14)(13%)

Fiction vs. Nonfiction: 84 (78%) vs. 23 (22%)

Languages: English (70) (64.x%), Dutch (38)(34.x%), Flemish (1) (0.x%)

Publication Years: Oldest books are from 1990, most books are from 2000-2014.

Ratings: Mainly 10s, 9s, 8s. Average rating: 8.6

 

Totals of Reading

 

I didn't think I'd be able to read quite as many books as 108. I haven't read this many books in six months in quite a few years (I did do so when I was a child at primary school). I've read 30340 pages, which is quite a nice number. Before this year I hadn't calculated the amount of pages so I can't really say if it's a lot or not, but it sounds like a lot to me. Especially considering the average amount of pages per book was 280, I read 168 pages per day and it took 1.7 days per book. I read quite a few short books for the read-a-thons, quite a few medium sized books (300-500 pages) and also quite some long books (500+ pages).

 

Buying and free books

 

I bought xxx too many books. Unfortunately I didn't succeed to buy not so many books nor did I manage to spend not so much on books. This is a real shame compared to the goal I had at the beginning of the year, but I do understand it considering my stress and what I've been through. I downloaded and was given some free books, though no where near as many as I got for free last year (last year I downloaded a lot of Kindle free books), which is perhaps a good thing for the ebooks that I regretted downloading last year.

 

Zooming in on the variety of books

 

Most of the books I read I hadn't read before, only 13% were re-reads. This isn't too bad, though most of my re-reads were books I read as a child and not adult books. Male authors and female authors were about even, with the males slightly ahead.

 

I read from a variety of countries, though the most from the US, UK and the Netherlands. This isn't really surprising, as I find these three countries quite interesting (well, I live in the Netherlands so..). I read ~65% English books and ~35% Dutch, I read one Flemish book. Since I buy all of my books in either the Netherlands or from the UK it makes sense that these three countries rank in my top three of which countries I read books from this first half year. I would like to read a few more books from other countries too, though I don't have as many of those in my TBR. I would find it hard to read a book about slavery or poverty, it would be a very emotional read and not something I'm really looking for much. I read books that sound interesting to me. I would certainly never not read a book based on what country it's from (as long as it's in a language I can easily read).

 

I read almost the same amount of books from known authors as from new authors. I read more standalone than series books, 55% of my reads were standalones. I think that's quite nice, about an even amount of new and known authors, as well as standalones and series books. I have to admit, often I am a bit reluctant on starting a new series because I'll want to read the whole series over the next while and that means reading a lot of a certain genre and type of book. That said, I have a lot of series I'd like to read, so I would like to read a bit more series.

 

I read books from a variety of genres, with at the top information books, contemporary fiction, chick-lit and fantasy. I'm happy with how it works out overall to be honest. I have more books on the TBR from some of these genres and less of for example science-fiction so it kind of makes sense. I read from a variety of genres and like a variety of genres so that's nice.

 

The large majority (87%) of my books were 'text'books, with 13% being manga, comics or graphic novels. I like it like that. I like to read a manga/comic/graphic novel or illustrated book now and then but 'text'books are my more thing. I do hope to be reading a bit more manga in the future since my boyfriend has some manga books I want to re-read.

 

Most of the books I read were paperbacks, with a few hardbacks, one hardcover and one Kindle book. I haven't used my Kindle for the past few months, I do hope to change this in the future but I find it more difficult to see what's on my TBR there since I usually look at my shelves. I also just prefer to read paperbacks. I did however manage to read 11 hardbacks and 1 hardcover, which was good. I hope to be reading some of my TBR non-paperbacks in the future, since while I much prefer paperbacks it doesn't mean that the story or text in the Kindle and hardback/cover versions isn't good or exciting to read.

 

I read a lot of adult books (61%, but also some young-adult (27% and some children's books (13%). I think this is a nice spread, though almost 40% apparently are books below my age (not that there's anything wrong with that). It's slightly skewed though because of some books I'm not sure if they count as children's or young-adult so they count one for each. I read 108 books total and the total for the ages comes up to 114, so there are 6 books I counted double.

 

I read 78% fiction and 22% non-fiction. I read slightly less non-fiction compared with last year. I'm happy with this statistics. I like to read non-fiction sometimes, to learn something, but fiction is my first choice, I love a good story the best.

 

Most of the books I read were published in 2000-2014, with only a few read published in 1990-1999. My average rating is a 8.6 and most of my ratings are 8 or higher. There were a few books that I didn't enjoy much, they got a 5 or less.

 

Overall I'm quite happy with my reading in the first half of 2014. I hope the second half of 2014 brings more brilliant beautiful books.