The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • Podcast
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Policy

#AMonthofFaves: 2014 Timeline

December 26, 2014

month of faves

I’m a bit late to the game but Traveling with T and Estella’s Revenge are two of the fab book bloggers who came up with the A Month of Favorites event. They’ve been working it hard but it was T’s post about her year-in-review that piqued my interest and made me curious to see I’ve done this year. So, without further ado here are the bits and bobs of my reading life!


  • Books Read So Far- 164

  • Pages Read So Far- 56,166

  • 5 star books: 6

  • 4 star books: 85

  • 3 star books: 49

  • 2 star books: 15

  • 1 star books: 8

 

It’s pretty clear I don’t do a lot of 5 star books but that is largely due to the fact that I use Goodreads to track my stats and they call a 5 star book Amazing, which is just not a word I use a lot- unless we’re talking about Salt & Straw’s sea salt with caramel ribbons ice cream. That is AMAZING.

If Goodreads changed Amazing to Loved than my numbers would go up dramatically because there are a fair amount of books I love. And, yes, for some people this is splitting hairs but for me amazing would be beyond love. Weird, right? But there you have it.

Favorite 5 Star Book Not Released in 2014:

ocean end of lane
William Morrow Books, June 2013

At the opposite extreme would be a book that many raved about but that I could not even finish. In blogland we call this DNF (did not finish) and for some wise folks life is too short to read things they’re not enjoying. I’ve struggled with that in the past, feeling as if I have some kind of honor code that means every book must be finished but this year I joined the LITS club and have been dropping more books (and movies) when I did not like them. Sadly, it was Joshua Ferris’ To Rise Again at a Decent Hour that did not grab me in any way. I tried but gave up less than halfway through- and I know a lot of you loved it. Mea culpa.

month of favorites

 

Month I Read the Most: September- 17 books

Month I Read the Least: January- 11 books

Longest Book I Read : No contest on this one and I loved all 1,098 pages!

month of faves
Dutton, September 2014

Favorite Bookish Moments:

Going to some outstanding events and meeting Hillary Clinton, Cary Elwes, Richard Ford, and Lorrie Moore.

How about you? What were some of your favorite books this year? Did you read more or less than you thought you would?

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
library
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
ALA Midwinter 2013: Book-o-Rama
It’s Not You, It’s Me: Mini-Reviews
eight
Eight Books I Can’t Wait to Read This Fall
Monday January 12th: What Are You Reading?

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature, Reading Tagged: books, Goodreads, lists

Comments

  1. Shannon @ River City Reading says

    December 26, 2014 at 4:22 am

    The Ferris was my least favorite book this year! And I totally agree with you on the Goodreads star ratings…I don’t do many fives, but I end up with a ton of fours. I think I’m going to stop rating books there in the New Year and just rate in my own spreadsheet because I really, really hate their star system.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 26, 2014 at 8:54 pm

      I’m not even surprised- we seem to have pretty similar taste but it is reassuring to know you didn’t like it either because so many people did that I thought there must be something wrong with me.

      I do have my own star ratings but just figure people use Godoreads- and I’m not even sure how much I want to tie my reviews to ratings anyway.

      Reply
  2. Debbie says

    December 26, 2014 at 5:32 am

    Best book I read this year – All The Light We Cannot See
    Book I could not finish – The Good Lord Bird
    Longest book I read – The Edge of Eternity ( loved every page of the entire trilogy)

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 26, 2014 at 8:52 pm

      I have All the Light We Cannot See but just could not get into it when i started it. I think it was the 3rd ‘war’ book I’d read in a row so gave up too quickly. I still have the copy and it’s on my 2015 list!

      And yes, the Follett trilogy was awesome all the way through. The only problem? I wanted all 3 to ome out at once so I could remember every character’s family!

      Reply
  3. Allison @ The Book Wheel says

    December 26, 2014 at 12:49 pm

    I really need to read the new Ken Follett series!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 26, 2014 at 8:55 pm

      Yes! Lots of world politics!

      Reply
  4. Cynthia Robertson says

    December 28, 2014 at 7:51 am

    You read so fast, Catherine. 164 books in a year is stunning! I dislike the star ratings on Goodreads and Amazon, too, and wish there were some other way.

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      December 28, 2014 at 3:12 pm

      I am able to read quickly, Cynthia, but I am thinking i need to cut back a bit in 2015. Too much pressure, not enough joy is not good for reading!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Goodreads
  • Instagram

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Bookshop

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Bookshop. If you click on a link that takes you to their site and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2025

Copyright © 2025 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in