30 December 2013

2013 Wrap Up

2013 has been a pretty great year for me reading wise. I've read a lot of amazing books (some not so amazing); discovered some new authors (that I now love) and learned how to work Edelweiss properly. Other than reading, 2013 has been pretty great for my personal life too. I decided to quit university because I wasn't enjoying it; I got a job working as a Library Assistant (which is awesome!) and there was a lot of other stuff that happened that I'm just too lazy to list.

I've also saw some pretty amazing movies this year. There were so many book to movie adaptations out this year and if I had to pick my two favourites they'd have to be Catching Fire and The Host. Those were the two that I felt stuck the closest to the book and even when they didn't, I still loved them. Man of Steel is definitely my favourite non-book related movie (I'm not counting comic books here). I'm a massive Superman fan and always have been, so I knew this was going to be my favourite movie. There's still so many movies that were released this year that I haven't seen yet, but I'll get around to them next year.

2013 has also been a pretty great year for TV. Some fantastic new shows started this year that I'm completely in love with. Orphan Black and Bates Motel are the two main new ones that I can't get enough of. I was always dying to know what was going to happen next in both of these because you could never tell! Vampire Diaries has been my favourite show that I discovered this year though. It's been on for a couple of years, but I've always avoided it up until March when I should have been studying for Uni. I spent almost 2 weeks working my way through the show and getting caught up in Season 4 and now I'm wondering why I didn't start it before. Oh, and I'm definitely Team Delena. Right from the start <3.

The best book I read this year would definitely have to be These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Megan Spooner. I didn't expect this book to be as good as it was, but it completely blew my mind! I've even bought myself a physical copy of the book because it was just that good! The worst book I read has to be The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler. This book was so bad that I didn't even finish it. I gave up 24% of the way in because it was just completely ridiculous and the main character was extremely stupid.

I set myself 4 reading challenges this year and I only completed two of them. I completed my Goodreads Challenge to read 200 books this year (209/200) and I also completed the Dystopia Reading Challenge (36/24). Technically I did complete the Out-do Yourself Challenge, but I haven't linked up any reviews since June so I'm counting it as a fail. And I definitely failed the Paranormal Reading Challenge. I think I gave up in August because I just wasn't in the mood to read about mermaids. Oh well. I've set myself some challenges for 2014 which you can check out here if you want.


So overall, 2013 was definitely a brilliant year. I'm really looking forward to 2014 and hopefully it will be even better than 2013!

12 comments:

  1. SAM CLALFIN *inhales exhales* I agree that, yes, catching fire has got to be one of the best things that happened this year sigh. It's good to hear that 2013 has been a good year for you! :D I hope 2014 will be as good or even better than this year! happy new year! :'D

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    1. HE'S SO PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL <3 I just knew my Catching Fire gif had to be of him. It definitely was! It's the best book to movie adaptation I've seen so far (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Mockingjay Parts 1 & 2 will be awesome). Thanks Abby!
      I hope 2014 is a fantastic year for you too! Happy New Year :)

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  2. YAY for a pretty awesome year! I've set myself 5 challenges for next year, one of them the Goodreads challenge, so we'll see how I do!
    Hopefully 2014 will be an awesome year!

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    1. Ooh! I've still to decide what I want my Goodreads Challenge to be for next year. What other challenges are you doing?
      Hopefully it will be! :)

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    2. I'm doing the Dystopian Books Challenge, the Review Pile Challenge, the Series Challenge and the TBR Pile challenge! All well rounded since I love reading dystopians, I want to keep on top of my NetGalley list so the Review pile should help with that, and since my TBR list is ever growing... I need to tackle books from previous years! And the series challenge is to finally end those series that I've started and left half way...

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    3. Ooh, lots of great sounding challenges! I'm also doing the Dystopian Challenge & the Series Challenge! I've made a massive plan for all of my review books so I know which ones I need to read each month :)
      Haha, I've got a lot of series like that too!

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  3. OMG I love Vampire Diaries and I'm so happy you discovered it and found out how amazing Damon really is. :) (I may be slightly obsessed with him.) It sounds like you had a great year! Here is to a great reading year in 2014!

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    1. Me too! I can't believe I put off watching it for so long! Haha, I couldn't not love Damon. He's just the best <3
      Haha, I hope it will be a great reading year!

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  4. I binge watched VD this year too. I believe back in August I spent about a week of doing nothing else. Lol.
    Sounds like you had an amazing year. With some positive life changes. :)
    Happy New Year Sam! All the best for 2014!

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    1. Haha, that's exactly what I did! I was supposed to be studying for University, but I spent most of my time watch TVD on Netflix :)
      I did! It's definitely been my favourite year.
      Happy New Year, Brittany! I hope 2014 is a great year for you :)

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  5. Finnick <3 I'm so happy they casted the right guy! He's one of my favourite characters in the books and he nailed it :D I'm also Team Delena. Good luck with the reading challenges, I'm also doing Dystopia, Fairytales & series (and some others, haha)

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    1. Me too! I did have my doubts about him when he first came into the movie, but he won me over in like 5 seconds. Yay for Team Delena! :D
      Thanks Mel! Haha, you always do tons of challenges! :)

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