The Books of 2014

For 2014, my goal was to read 50 books, and I ended up with 52, which was fun. I'm trying to up the amount of books I read every year; I used to feel really good about reading 30 books in a year, then I made friends who read over 100 books a year. Which makes me feel a bit like a disappointment. But I do enjoy most of the books I read, and sometimes I have other hobbies that take up more of my time, so I'm trying not to feel too bad about that.

I think my favorite new discovery this year was the Lunar Chronicles series. It's a sci-fi take on classic fairy tales, and it is incredibly well written. Not to mention that each new book in the series features a strong, intelligent female character whose life isn't all about finding the right man, which I love. This world needs more of that. The only downside from finding this series was that I didn't know it was a series when I picked up Cinder, and the final installment doesn't come out until November of 2015. It's heartbreaking, really.

I also did quite a bit of rereading, which is one quirk I have. I love rereading books, especially when a new book in the series is coming out and I don't remember all the details of the previous books. And sometimes I just want to reread a book or a series because I love it so much. I think 2015 might continue some of that trend; I have quite a few series that I haven't read in four or five years, and I'm started to get the itch to read them again.

And now, on to my list!

1. The Monuments Men by Robert M. Edsel
2. Champion (Legend #3) by Marie Lue
3. Austenland by Shannon Hale
4. Steelheart (Reckoners #1) by Brandon Sanderson
5. Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale
6. The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman
7. Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer
8. Allegiant (Divergent #3) by Veronica Roth
9. Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2) by Marissa Meyer
10. Cress (The Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer
11. The House of the Scorpion (Matteo Alacran #1) by Nancy Farmer
12. The Lord of Opium (Matteo Alacran #2) by Nancy Farmer
13. The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football by Jeff Benedict
14. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
15. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
16. The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner #2) by James Dashner
17. The Death Cure (Maze Runner #3) by James Dashner
18. Partials (Partials Sequence #1) by Dan Wells
19. Fragments (Partials Sequence #2) by Dan Wells
20. Ruins (Partials Sequence #3) by Dan Wells
21. The Wide, Wide Sea (Chaos Walking #2.5) by Patrick Ness
22. Snowscape (Chaos Walking #3.5) by Patrick Ness
23. George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl
24. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl
25. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
26. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl
27. Matilda by Roald Dahl
28. The BFG by Roald Dahl
29. The Thief (The Queen's Thief #1) by Megan Whalen Turner
30. The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief #2) by Megan Whalen Turner
31. The King of Attolia (The Queen's Thief #3) by Megan Whalen Turner
32. A Conspiracy of Kings (The Queen's Thief #4) by Megan Whalen Turner
33. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
34. Vodnik by Bryce Moore
35. The Water and the Blood by Nancy E. Turner
36. This House Is Haunted by John Boyne
37. The Kill Order (Maze Runner #0.5) by James Dashner
38. Blackout (Blackout #1) by Robison Wells
39. The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
40. Dangerous by Shannon Hale
41. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
42. Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
43. Linger (Wolves of Mercy Falls #2) by Maggie Stiefvater
44. Forever (Wolves of Mercy Falls #3) by Maggie Stiefvater
45. Sinner (Wolves of Mercy Falls #4) by Maggie Stiefvater
46. The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games #1) by Suzanne Collins
47. Catching Fire (The Hunger Games #2) by Suzanne Collins
48. Mockingjay (The Hunger Games #3) by Suzanne Collins
49. Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) by Maggie Stiefvater
50. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1) by Rick Riordan
51. The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2) by Rick Riordan
52. The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3) by Rick Riordan

Who Are You? A Topic for Each Week of the Year {Week 3: Hobbies}

3. What were your favorite activities as a young child? Were you interested in sports?

To a degree, I was a bit of a boring child. My main hobby and my first love, of sorts, was reading. I was always, always, always reading something. I was reading adult-sized novels by the time I was nine or ten (which was when I started reading The Work and the Glory). I would take them to reading time in elementary school, and when we had substitutes, they would often do a double-take when they saw the size of the books I was reading.

In eighth grade, my schoolwork was slipping. I was getting some of the worst grades I had ever gotten, and my mom's threat? If my grades didn't improve, she would take away my books. Because I was spending too much time reading the books I wanted to read and not enough time actually doing my homework. My grades turned around quite quickly because I knew she would follow through. Also, as a five-year-old, I would usually sleep with a pile of picture books next to my head, so I was quite literally always with a book.

A related hobby was writing. I wrote my first story in second grade, and then in third grade I started writing more because of my teacher's focus on creative writing. It then became a bit of an obsession. I would carry a legal pad and a bundle of pens with me most places I went. At family gatherings, I could be found sitting by myself and writing stories. I loved making my own "books" (which were usually binders that I had decorated). I wanted to be an author when I grew up until I discovered my penchant for editing.

My love for writing also manifested itself in journal writing. I started my first journal when I was eleven, and it quickly became my mode of venting. I would write about all my eleven-year-old woes and fears. Sometimes I'll go back and read the funny things I wrote in that journal. This is a hobby that has stuck with me throughout my adult life. I have now finished fourteen journals and have just started my fifteenth. I have started keeping ticket stubs and programs and anything else that can be easily stuck inside my journal, so they have also become my scrapbooks of sorts.

As a kid, I also really enjoyed certain kinds of crafts. I was always trying to find some new little craft I could do. My favorite was probably friendship bracelets. I had a few different ways I would make them, and I often wore five or six of them until they would start to fray. Another craft I really enjoyed was counted cross stitching. I loved watching the picture take shape as I would work my way through each color. The last craft I did on a regular basis was crocheting. I loved doing it because I could sit and watch TV while crocheting, and it was always really satisfying to finish a project.

Another love of mine was music. My whole family is very musical. We all sing, five of us play the piano, two play the drums, and a couple of us fiddle around with guitars. I grew up listening to my dad play the piano, so I learned at a very early age how much I liked music. I started taking piano lessons at about seven, and I had three different teachers. I started with Sherry Evans, whom I loved because I was really good friends with her son. Then she and her family moved back to Idaho, and I started going to Kristen Sorenson. I only took lessons from her for a little while because my mom ended up switching me to Brenda Tuttle, who lived in our ward. I knew her family really well. I babysat her kids regularly and her husband was also my Sunday school teacher. I loved taking lessons from her. She would set up recitals at Riverton Music, where we would get to play concert grand pianos in their recital hall. I still dream about playing those pianos; they were amazing. I stopped taking lessons at about fourteen mostly because I wasn't interested in learning classical music, so Brenda said she couldn't teach me anything else at that point. I still very much regret not applying myself more and continuing my lessons.

I also very much loved singing. I sang all the time, but I was really afraid of singing in front of people. I would get really embarrassed when someone would walk in on me singing in my room or singing to my walkman. That was the worst because I usually didn't even realize I was singing. I didn't get over my stage fright until tenth grade when I started performing in choir.

Choir tour in Southern California, junior year. I'm the first on the left in the pink. Pretty sure we were singing "Up" by Shania Twain here.

Choir tour in Orlando, senior year. This was at Epcot in Disney World. This was the Beach Boys medley.

Orlando tour again. This was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." I'm sitting with Preston and Troy. Troy's hair is honest to goodness one of my favorite memories from high school.

I never participated in organized sports, though I really wish I had. I played softball and basketball with neighborhood friends and at recess. I considered doing organized softball when I was in junior high, but that never worked out. I also considered auditioning for the junior high volleyball team, but I chickened out.

But what I did love was watching sports with my dad. When I was in elementary school, I loved watching Atlanta Braves games with my dad. I love, love, loved baseball. I still remember being crazy excited when the Braves won the World Series in 1995. (We were Braves fans because my dad followed Dale Murphy and then stuck with the team because there isn't an MLB team in Utah.) I also loved watching and going to Utah Jazz games with my dad. I still vividly remember going to my first Jazz game at five years old. My dad kept telling me that if I got tired, we could go home. He took me to a preseason game because he was sure I wouldn't last the whole game, but I proved him wrong. The Jazz beat the 76ers that night, and I watched the entire game and loved every second of it. Some of my favorite sports memories are watching the playoffs with my dad when the Jazz went to the finals in 1997 and 1998. Especially 1997 when John Stockton hit the last-second three to send the Rockets home and advance to the finals for the first time ever. It was awesome. It's mostly thanks to my dad that I am such a huge sports fan now.

My Books of 2013

Every year on Goodreads, which is a website that I am a huge fan of, you can set a goal for how many books you want to read. I love doing this because I want to be reading as much as I can every year, and it's really fun to keep track and see how many I've read compared to previous years.

For 2013, I made the goal of reading 40 books. All told, I ended up 44, which I think is pretty impressive. It is true that some of them were novellas, meaning they were short and I read them in one sitting, but there are plenty of others with enough bulk to make up for the lightweights. I also included the ones I invested a good amount of time in without finishing.

Anyway, here is the full list of the books I read in 2013. The "Book List" tab will now restart for 2014. I'm excited about the books I might discover this year.

1. The Guardian by Gerald Lund (Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to finish this. It was a really weird book. And Gerald Lund is too old to be writing from a 16-year-old girl's perspective. He just couldn't pull it off.)
2. Flesh & Bone (Benny Imura #3) by Jonathan Maberry (This was intense. I read nearly 400 pages in one night.)
3. The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy #1) by Jonathan Stroud
4. Isolation by Dan Wells
5. Between Husband & Wife by Stephen E. Lamb
6. The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy #2) by Jonathan Stroud
7. Ptolemy's Gate (The Bartimaeus Trilogy #3) by Jonathan Stroud
8. Zorro by Isabel Allende
9. Change the Culture, Change the Game by Roger Connors and Tom Smith (I had to read this for work, and it's terrible and pointless.)
10. Fragments (Partials Sequence #2) by Dan Wells
11. A Night of Blacker Darkness by Dan Wells
12. Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
13. Divergent (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth
14. Free Four (Divergent #1.1) by Veronica Roth
15. Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth
16. Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson
17. The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydain #1) by Lloyd Alexander
18. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J.K. Rowling
19. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter #2) by J.K. Rowling
20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter #3) by J.K. Rowling
21. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter #4) by J.K. Rowling
22. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter #5) by J.K. Rowling
23. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter #6) by J.K. Rowling
24. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter #7) by J.K. Rowling
25. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
26. The Rithmatist (Rithmatist #1) by Brandon Sanderson
27. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
28. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
29. The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
30. Matched (Matched #1) by Ally Condie
31. Crossed (Matched #2) by Ally Condie
32. Reached (Matched #3) by Ally Condie
33. The Girl of Fire and Thorns (Fire and Thorns #1) by Rae Carson
34. The Crown of Embers (Fire and Thorns #2) by Rae Carson
35. Legend (Legend #1) by Marie Lu
36. Night by Elie Wiesel
37. Variant (Variant #1) by Robison Wells
38. Feedback (Variant #2) by Robison Wells
39. The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
40. Prodigy (Legend #2) by Marie Lu
41. Fire & Ash (Benny Imura #4) by Jonathan Maberry
42. The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
43. The Bitter Kingdom (Fire and Thorns #3) by Rae Carson
44. The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2) by Maggie Stiefvater
45. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher