2021 in books & my top 4
Happy New Year! 2021 was a good year for me. In the summer my boyfriend and I travelled with our second-hand camper van through the Netherlands. In October we went to Paris. And in December he asked me to marry him! Bookwise 2021 was also good. I didn’t read as much books as I hoped, but I read many amazing books. Quality over quantity! And 33 books in one year isn’t bad at all. Here are some more numbers:
I read a total of 13146 pages in 2021. On average a book had 398 pages. As you can see in the graph below most books I read had between 300 and 500 pages. The shortest book was Dragon Bike, an anthology edited by Elly Blue, with 157 pages. The biggest book was The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel with 779 pages.
Most of the writers from the books I read were female. 27 books were written by women, 3 books by men and 3 books were by multiple writers or a non-binary writer.
Slightly more than half of the books I read were written by writers from the United States, the United Kingdom or Australia. The nationalities of the other writers vary. Exactly a third of the books has a writer of color. 27% of the books have a main character of colour. 18% of the books have a main character that falls in the LGBTQIA-spectrum. I’m quite content with the diversity of my reading!
Compared to previous years, the genres aren’t very diverse. Most books I read were either fantasy, science fiction or historical fiction. I read a lot less contemporary books than in other years.
Just like the year before, most books I read in 2021 were published in the last ten years. I read only seven books published before 2010. The oldest book I read was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, originally published in 1813. I read three books published in 2021: The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley, The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles and The galaxy, and the ground within by Becky Chambers.
Most of the books I read were stand-alones. But (not counting rereads) I also started six new series and finished five series. My favourite series starter was A Deadly Eduction by Naomi Novik. I hope to continue The Scholomance series this year. The best series ender was The galaxy, and the ground within by Becky Chambers, the last part in the Wayfarers series.
Only two books were rereads: This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone and The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco.
Best books of 2021
As usual I am not able to choose one favourite books. I gave four books 5 stars and I loved them all! So here are my favourite books of the year in the order I read them:
The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
One evening her father asks Li Lan a peculiar question: Would she like to become a ghost bride? A rich family wants her to marry their son who recently died. This practice isn’t very common, but actually exists. I loved how Chinese folklore and details about life in Malaysia during the 19th century are interwoven in the story. The line between fantasy and historical fiction is crossed when Li Lan becomes involved in the Chinese afterlife.
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa
When his grandfather dies, Rintaro inherits his grandfather’s bookstore. A talking cat appears in the bookshop and asks Rintaro to help him save books. Initially this seemed simply a fun story about books. But like a fairy tale, small life lessons are hidden between the pages.
The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry
This story is about a supernatural ability I would love to have: Charley is able to bring a character from a book into our world. His brother, Rob, isn’t particularly happy with the problems this family secret causes. Some book characters are quite dangerous and they don’t always want to go back to their books. Because Charley is his little brother, Rob reluctantly helps him. Real problems arise when book characters appear that were not brought to life by Charley…
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
This book was the perfect read after my visit to Paris. It’s about Odile and her work at the American Library in Paris during the Second World War. Life in occupied France is hard, but the staff manages to keep the library open during the war. I adored the characters in this beautiful book. Especially because the story is based on real people and events.
Time for tales and tea 