Somehow, possibly by accidentally falling into a time warp, I ended up in June, and have no idea where the first half of the year disappeared. It was only yesterday that I threw back a whiskey (sorry, sipped it, yes, I’m not that uncivilized) to celebrate New Years Eve, and now this!
To be fair, things are rather peachy, and I surprised myself by reading 50 books till now. There was a time when that number seemed like my dream of ever joining the Starfleet: impossible. But here we are, I did it! Will I reach a 100 this year? Well, the plot thickens…
Kelly @Another Book In The Wall often tags me in various things and every time she does I get excited, then overwhelmed, don’t feel creative enough to participate, and eventually just give up and silently hope everyone forgot about it. Now on the other hand, I feel like I’m on a roll, and the Mid Year Freak Out Tag is a great way to see what I’ve been up to so far.
Shall we?
Best Book You’ve Read This Year?
Beartown.
‘Nuff said. Well, no, it’s not true. I can literally not shut up about Fredrik Backman’s book. I will keep recommending it to everyone all the time. You remember Barney from How I Met Your Mother and how he promoted Ted all the time?
That’s me with Beartown.
Hi! Have you read Beartown?
Best Sequel You’ve Read in 2018?
Well, that’s easy, because I only read one sequel this year. Yes, I’m horrible at keeping up with series.
The Final Trade by Joe Hart is the second book in the Dominion Trilogy, set in a dystopian world where a mysterious worldwide epidemic reduces the birthrate of female infants from 50 percent to less than 1 percent.
Dunn-dunn-dunn!
It’s good. Try it.
New Release You Haven’t Read Yet But Want To?
The Outsider by Stephen King. Obviously.
Most Anticipated Release For The Second Half Of The Year?
Hands down The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi.
The second book in The Interdependency series is a book I’ve been waiting for ever since I finished The Collapsing Empire last year.
Seriously the best book I’ve read in 2017.
A delicious space opera with a bunch of wiseass characters, awesome humour and some weird, sort of backwards technology, this book is a must-read for sci-fi fans.
Biggest Disappointment?
The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll.
I was looking forward to reading this after I saw the glowing review by Dennis.
I usually rely on his opinion a lot because we seem to have very similar taste in books, but this one was a disaster for me.
What a waste of such a pretty cover!
Biggest Surprise?
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.
First of all, I don’t read many contemporary books. Seconly, I have never read anything by Celeste Ng before, so I had no idea what to expect.Well, it was not this for sure!
A brilliantly written story about small town politics, family dynamics and secrets that is just so relatable.
Favorite New To You Or Debut Author?
He’s not a debut author, but for me he was a new discovery this year. I only read Turtles All the Way Down so far, but I enjoyed it a lot and since then I have bought four more of his books.
Newest Fictional Crush?
I wouldn’t call it an outright crush, but I did develop a certain admiration for badass Takeshi Kovach, the protagonist of Altered Carbon.
Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever really had a crush on any character. I just simply don’t seem to read the sort of books fictional crushes usually come from.
Newest Favorite Character?
Wolf!
I do love a wiesass and William Oliver Layton-Fawkes is the true embodiment of a smartypants with his razor sharp comebacks.
Book That Made You Cry?
I’m a barbarian, I don’t cry on books.
Book That Made You Happy?
Well, this was a hard one, because most of the time I just simply don’t read the sort of books that makes one happy.
The books I read usually make me shrivel up in horror, upset me, make me contemplate life.
But I think we can safely say Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson has done none of those things, so in conclusion, we can say it possibly made me happy.
It didn’t make me miserable for sure.
Favorite Book-To-Film Adaptation?
True to my savage nature I also don’t watch movies very often, and have not seen any this year so far.
Favorite Post You Have Done This Year?
That would be the one in which I confess that I don’t like books, and attempt to tell you why. A book blogger who doesn’t like books?
Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought This Year?
I love most of the covers I bought this year, but I think The Girl In the Tower is the prettiest so far.
What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of the Year?
ALL OF THEM! No, but really… I have about 600 books on my virtual list of books to read, but the ones that often pop in my mind and fill me with a sense of urgency are Force of Nature, Six Stories, The Great Alone and the Red Rising Series, starting from book #2.
I’d love to see Vera, Debby, Samantha, Annemieke and Kristina freak out, just a little bit.
Mwhahaha!
Awesome answers! Since You’ve Been Gone puts me in such a great mood. I want to read more of her books this summer. Haha. 💕
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I’ve been eyeing a book for a while cuz i’ve seen two versions of it and one had more dogs than the other and i wanted to read it. I only realised recently that she wrote that too. Unexpected everything i think it’s called.
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I thought the unexpected everything was a sequel at first. Hahaha.
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Oh, I like freaking out. Thanks for thinking of me, I’ll definitely freak out a little. 😊❤️
Beartown is being added to my TBR list. I’m actually really excited about reading it knowing you enjoyed it so much. 👌👏😊
I bought Little Fires Everywhere but, in my usual fashion, is it still staring at me unopened and unread. 🙈 I will read it this year. I hope… 🙈
50 books is amazing, what a great progress, well done. 👏👏👏
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Beartown and Little Fires were those rare books i specifically bought cuz i wanted to read them right then and i did and now i’m so happy 😀
I hope you’ll enjoy both of them! ❤
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I read Beartown last year and I’m right there with you, recommending it to everyone. I’m currently reading the sequel, Us Against You. Little Fires Everywhere for Biggest Surprise – I think I’d agree with you there to too 🙂 Great post, I had fun seeing all your choices xx
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Ooh, the sequel!!! Do you like it?😃
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So far, so good, I’m only about a fifth of the way in – it’s no Beartown but it’s nice to be back in Sweden and experiencing Backman’s writing!
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Couldn’t agree more with you about Beartown! I’ll be reading the sequel soon and can’t wait!
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Yay 😃 hope it will be just as good
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Congrats on reading 50 books so far, Norrie!! You totally got this!! 🙂
I can’t wait to read Beartown, I’ve heard so many great things about it lately & I’m super excited about Little Fires Everywhere as well, so I’m thrilled that you enjoyed both.
Hope the rest of this year has even better books in store for you! ❤
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Thank you 🤗
I hope you will enjoy both books!
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Wow, congrats on the 50 books. I might get that amount read by the end of the year. Oh and I just have to read, Little Fires Everywhere, too. So many people saying so many good things, and I’m tempted.
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You totally do! Hope you’ll like it 😃
I think I pretty much dropped all my hobbies this year and just read…
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It’s on my list to buy!m☺️ Ah, and giving up hobbies helps with reading time. That makes sense. I was windering when you found time to sleep!
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Ha! I don’t sleep 😂
Ok, i do, but usually not more than 6hrs…
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Oh dear, I couldn’t cope with anything less than a good 7 hours these days. There was a time when I could get by on less, but those days are long gone. Enjoy it while it lasts. 😜
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Great overview. I’m recommending Beartown all the time too. I read it last year and I was simply amazed because I didn’t expect to be blown away. But I was. It’s such a great book.
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I felt the same way. When i heard it was about sports i thought it will be meh… i was wrong 😂
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The first half of the year has whizzed by. I think my university assignments ate me, and now I’m finished I can’t believe half of the year has gone already 🙈
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I remember those times, when ibwas still studying… i lost great chunks of time there 😂
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eeeek! I am TOTALLY freaking out! Thanks for the tag, this looks fun :]
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Yay! Can’t wait to see your books and answers 🤗
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I just recently did a post on Little Fires Everywhere. Not really a review, but a discussion about whether or not this book is contemporary or historical fiction. I find it interesting that you labelled it contemporary!
(I agree that it was a good book; although I found I didn’t really like any of the characters very much. Maybe Moody.)
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I think it has to be set 50 years ago to be historical but i might remember incorrectly.
I liked Moody too! Izzy was also cool for me… the misunderstood poor soul 🤗
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Yeah, I’ve heard about the 50-year-old rule. But there are others who consider the more important element is that the historical time period/event is crucial to the plot. I do think the 90s were a different world than we have today; and I think Ng chose that time period for a reason, instead of setting it in today’s world. (Although, I also find it weird to think of the 90s as “history”!)
Yes, I felt Izzy needed a more understanding mother!
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Yea, poor Izzy was not lucky with that mum of hers, and how they never talked about how they really feel.
Now that you mentioned i think i remember seeing the article with Ng. Don’t remember what she said tho
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ahah yep.. I must had fallen on that time warp too xD Oh wow !! Congrats on 50 books, im not even as near ahah, hopefully one day I shall aswell ❤
Thank you for tagging me ! I saw it vaguely yesterday and had a thought of "mmmh, maybe I shall do that…" ahah so perfect timing on your part !
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Yay, can’t wait to see yours!
Those time warps, eh? Dangerous 😂
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Wow, well done on reading 50 books already this year! That’s my GoodReads goal for the whole of 2018 haha! I loved Beartown and Turtles All The Way Down as well and I’ve had Little Fires Everywhere downloaded on my kindle for months so I think I’ll be moving it to top of my tbr list now 🙂
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Thank you!
Upon reflection i think i i g this far cuz i stopped doing my other hobbies like coloring which took hours usually. Also don’t play video games that often lately. So more time to read 😃
Hope you’ll enjoy Little fires!
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I just bought a copy of Beartown, now I’m even more excited to pick it up!
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Yay!
Hope you’ll enjoy it! Look forward to seeing your review 😃
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You have so many good answers. There are a lot of books on this list I really want to read. There are a couple that I’ve already read and really liked. I can’t wait to do this tag because I am also freaking out it’s June. I can’t get get over that. Plus this tag just seems like a lot of fun.
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It was fun! I was scrolling through my list of books andcwas like ” huh, i read that this year! forgot about that one!” 😂
Hope to see your list soon!
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I just did my post the other day. I completely forgot about a lot of the books I read. I had to use goodreads to help remind me lol.
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I love goodreads! Somtimes i think i read a book recently, only to find out it was last year…
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I totally understand what you mean. Time flies so it could feel like I just read something but in reality it was so long ago.
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Fantastic list! And one of my all time favorite Ron Swanson gifs. I’ve been going back and forth on the Outsider so hopefully you’ll enjoy it and pass along a good word! Happy reading for the rest of the year 🙂
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For me Stephen King can do no wrong 😂
Ron Swanson is pure awesomeness!
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You barbarian haha! I admittedly cry over everything anymore. Not sure what that says about me! I love how you put this together ❤
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❤️
I can cry on films, so i guess I’m not entirely hopeless 🙈
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Hehe, no not entirely then ❤ 😉
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Yeah lets freak out. I love this tag haha. Great answers! The Girl in the Tower has such a gorgeous cover. I hope it will be translated to Dutch soon. ❤
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Fingers crossed!😃
Can’t wait to see your freak out post 😁
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What a wonderful post, Norrie! Your Girl in the Tower cover is stunning! The US cover is pretty, but I like yours more! Little Fires Everywhere was indeed fantastic! Hope your second half of the year is as great s your first!
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Thank you!
That US cover is kinda retro. Reminds me a lot of books i had in the 90s and early 2000. 😃 It defo has more of a fantasy feel than the UK version.
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Loved your article! 50 Books! That’s amazing! I’ve only read three this year so far (Sweetbitter, Every Day, and Everything I Never Told You). I’ve seen Bear Town and Since You’ve Been Gone every time I go to the bookstore. I’ll try to check those ones out. I’ve had Turtles All The Way Down for awhile now, one of these days I’ll finally get around to reading it.
The last book I read was actually by Celeste Ng. It was Everything I Never Told You. So incredible and so heartbreaking. I can’t wait to read Little Fires Everywhere. It’s going to be a Hulu miniseries!
That’s funny what you said about movies. These days I’m much more of a TV watcher than a movie watcher, so I haven’t seen any recent movies in quite awhile, LoL. Although, I did read Every Day and am looking forward to watching the movie adaptation of that novel.
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I hope you enjoyed all three books you read 😃
I’m kinda looking forward to that series but on the other hand I’m worried they will screw it up…
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Yes! All three books were excellent! I even quite like the Sweetbitter TV series. I thought it was a pretty decent adaptation.
I have the faith that the Little Fires Everywhere series will be good. Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington are going to be in it. So that definitely gives me hope it will be okay.
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Yay lovely answers for this tag! I’m so glad you got into John Green’s books and I hope you will love more of his books this year. Also yay for that Morgan Matson title, all of her books make me smile, they’re such feel-good contemporaries 🙂 I heard amazing things about Little Fires Everywhere, I can’t wait to read it at some point 😀
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yay, i hope you’ll like little fires 😃
my reading turned very fluffy this year indeed
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Awesome post 🙂
I just loved Turtles All the Way Down Sooooooooooooo much…
I hope you have a awesome year ahead.
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Thank you 🤗
Turtles surprised me in a good way.
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Time really flies by! I was absolutely sure June 1st was yesterday!
This is a great tag and I might have written down one too many titles that you mentioned! Although it feels like too many books and so little time, but I want to read them all!
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Right?
Sometimes i think it would be better if i could stick to a set tbr or something 😂
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So Red Rising is probably top 3 favourite series OF ALL TIME. You need to finish it this year and then please fan girl with me over it! I keep seeing so many positive reviews for Bear Town and Little Fires.. guess I’ll add those to my never ending list. Do you ever freak out when you realize how many books you truly have left to read with more books getting released all the time?! No? Just me …. okay I’ll wallow in this corner alone. :’)
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Only all the time… keep doing the maths and with my current speed it will be around 7 years to finish my current tbr 😂
But of course it doesn’t stop growing…
So I’m joining you in the wallow corner 🙈
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OH my goodness!! that makes me want to find out how many years it will take me … but i shouldn’t, no i definitely wont .. *starts counting furiously
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❤ 😀
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Let me first tell you how much I appreciate those B99 GIFs. Especially Rosa.
And I also need to read Golden Son and Morning Star xD
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We should make it our goal this year.
(Like we don’t have enough already, eh? :D)
In b99 Gina is kind of my fave, but love Rosa too, cuz she’s quite similar to me when i’m in the office 😀 😀
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Loved your answers Norrie 🙂 I am so glad that you loved John Green and Turtles All the Way Down. It was my favorite of last year. I have read 3 of his books to date. I hope to read all of his books someday 😀
I can’t wait to start Bear Town, but I am a little skeptical. I haven’t read any book involving sports before, so I’m not sure yet. But I am looking forward to reading it and its sequel. That Celeste Ng book and The Great Alone are also on my TBR 🙂
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❤
I think you'll be ok with Beartown. It's mainly about the people and mothers, fathers, kids, and how they are affected by a certain thing and how a sport event is a convenient excuse for people to overlook stuff that is just not ok.
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That’s good then 😊
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Nice, I hope you enjoy The Great Alone and the rest of the Red Rising books when you get to them! 😀
Hopefully the second half of the year will bring you plenty of good reading. ❤
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Thank you ❤
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