A year's worth of book reviews & the 2015 reading challenge

This year has gone ridiculously quickly, does anyone else start to majorly think about the inevitability death at the end of the year.. or month.. or week.. or day? Just me? 

At the beginning of 2014, I decided to set myself a goal of reading 15 books on Goodreads which doesn't sound like very much at all but remember I am in sixth form which basically means there is no time between sleeping and working, the existential crisis also takes up a fair bit of my time too. So I thought I would do very short reviews of all the books I've read this year, I will link to full reviews where I can and give a quick rating.

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K Rowling (5/5)

I should start off by saying I was re-reading these books, I am a massive Potterhead so obviously I've already read the books. After visiting the Harry Potter Studios in December 2013 (followed by a 20 hour Harry Potter movie marathon - go hard or go home guys) I was feeling emotionally distraught about Harry Potter, so I thought re-reading the books to kick off the year would kick off some of the intense feels I had been feeling (it didn't) but I think it's quite obvious I love this book. It's well written, in fact I read this within 24 hours I loved it so much. 

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K Rowling (5/5)

If you don't like Harry Potter, just scroll down until you reach book 8. I also gave this a 5/5 rating, I know most people think the Chamber of Secrets is the worst book but I don't at all. I love the concept and I also liked Harry going to stay with the Weasleys for the first time, again it was very well written and just enjoyable. If you don't like the books in the Harry Potter series, I hope you enjoy your life without a soul.

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K Rowling (5/5)

Basically all of the Harry Potter books have a high rating from me, they are my favourite book series and Harry Potter is a prominent part of my life. A lot of people say this is one of their least favourite books in the series but for me it's possibly my favourite, Voldemort isn't really in it and my favourite character Sirius Black is introduced (although the ending for Sirius and Harry breaks my heart), and Remus Lupin is introduced too! What's not to love about that? It's a very calm book in the sense that Voldemort's not after Harry, I liked how you got to see a lot more of the general wizarding lifestyle in this book like Hogsmeade and life in general around the castle.

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K Rowling (5/5)

This is the Harry Potter book where things get serious and the whole series gets a lot more intense from this point, but I still loved it. The whole book is quite the mystery as you're pondering the question 'who put Harry's name in the goblet of fire?' for the entire thing, but it is just a downright amazing book. I'm assuming if you're intending to read this book, you've read the first three so there's not much I need to say, you know how Harry Potter goes.

5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K Rowling (5/5)

Funnily enough, the first time I read this book it was my least favourite Harry Potter book. It is a hefty read and I think the length automatically gave me a bad impression, however upon re-reading it I think it may be my favourite book. I love the introduction of Luna Lovegood as a character, I love the development of Neville Longbottom's character, I love the introduction of Professor Umbridge as a character like don't get me wrong she's a terrible sadist but a great villain! (I hate certain parts of the book which I won't say because I don't want to spoil it but if you know you know). It's actually as easy to read as the other books, it's just longer.

6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K Rowling (5/5)

Part of me loves this book just because it's so heavily focused on Draco and I imagine Tom Felton when reading it (I know it's bad to imagine the actors as the characters in the book but hey I like imagining Tom Felton). This book gave so much depth to Draco Malfoy, and it was quite intense and dark and just so interesting to read. 

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K Rowling (5/5)

If I had to describe this book in 3 words, these are the words I would choose: ALL THE FEELS. This book had me tearing up and crying upon re-reading it, I remember the first time the ending just had me speechless, I was so numb from emotion I couldn't cry, but I remember being really sad for about a week after reading this, it was pretty bad. I think this book ends the series really well, and quite realistically. It shows the true side of war that it's not just villains who die, but the heroes die as well (no more spoilers from there okay) which I think is good even though it means having to say goodbye to some of your favourite characters. I like the epilogue too, it makes you feel like Harry going to be fine without you being emotionally invested in him (yes I do really believe I know the characters, no you don't have the right to judge me)

8. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (4/5) Review here

I should explain that the review I've linked you to is a review I did on my old blog, don't bother following it as it is closed but I thought I'd link you to a full review I did over there. I did quite enjoy this book, it was a very quick read and I like the feminist themes in it, considering when it was written the feminism is quite strong (hell to the yeah). I'm very interested in psychology (I actually mentioned reading this book in my personal statement for University) so I found this book really interesting as it talks about depression and electro-convulsive therapy, it can at points be triggering so sometimes I had to stop reading it for a while but if you're not easily triggered that shouldn't be an issue. Sylvia Plath had an interesting but short and tragic life which I was actually not too informed about until after researching it post-reading this book.

9. Autobiography - Morrissey (3/5) Review here

The review I did on this book was actually the first post I did on this blog funnily enough. It's a shame I didn't much like the book. The very beginning of it was quite interesting as it was about Morrissey growing up in Manchester and the formation of The Smiths (if you didn't know, The Smiths are one of my favourite bands right up there with The Beatles and Morrissey is pretty cool too), however there is a lot of detail on the various court cases Morrissey was involved with and it becomes quite difficult to read as it's vague, there aren't many specific events for him to talk about. The thing that annoyed me the most is that there are no chapters! It was bad enough that for the first 20 pages there are no paragraphs, and he splits up words and sentences over pages nearly all the time, but no chapters made it really hard to know where to stop reading and where to pick up. It's a shame, I really really wanted to like it but I found it hard to read and didn't enjoy it too much after the first half. I've heard this is being adapted into a biopic which I'll still watch, hopefully they'll be able to turn this book into something good.

10. The Fault in Our Stars - John Green (4/5) Review here

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble but this book was ridiculously overrated. Don't get me wrong, I loved the writing style of John Green and I liked how the story wasn't just a sob story like most stories about cancer (although I could be generalising, books about cancer generally aren't my thing) but it was quite light-hearted given the topic. Although, I knew how it was going to end (thanks for that one Tumblr), however even if Tumblr hadn't spoiled it for me, I would've guessed it was going to happen anyway because you're given plenty of warning for what's going to happen. I did enjoy it, but I think it was overrated and rather cheesy, but John Green has a lovely writing style.

11. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D Salinger (4/5) Review here

The reason I wanted to read this book is because John Lennon's murderer apparently was influenced by this book to kill John, I knew nothing would ever justify the murder but I was interested to see whether there was any sort of explanation within this book. I can see how a paranoid schizophrenic may be triggered by this book as most of the book is just Holden Caulfield complaining about how phoney people are. The book is very symbolic, and I did like it after I got over Holden's constant whinging. Once I discovered that Holden isn't meant to be a likeable character, I enjoyed the book a lot more. It's very well written and whilst there isn't a dramatic, intense storyline, you do get quite drawn in. It's a marmite book in that you either rate it a lot or don't think much of it, for example my Mum really didn't like it but me and my Dad quite liked it.

12. My Mad Fat Teenage Diary - Rae Earl (4/5) Review here

I absolutely loved the TV adaptation of this, the book is different in that it's set in the 80s rather than the 90s (which I preferred because she mentioned Morrissey on practically every page) and that all the characters have nicknames like Haddock and Battered Sausage. If you like the TV series, you may enjoy this because there's a lot of similarities but it's less structured than the TV show as that has an ongoing storyline and this book is just literally diary entries. Nonetheless, I liked it and the Morrissey references made me very very happy.

13. Spain for the Sovereigns - Jean Plaidy (1/5)

I hate historical fiction with a passion. I had to read this and the next book I'm going to mention for my History A level to aid with my coursework. This was the most difficult book to read, it got better towards the end but I just really didn't like it at all. If you're interested in the Golden Age of Spain perhaps you'll like it but I wasn't, and it wasn't written in a way that drew me in.

14. The Last Queen - C.W Gortner (3/5)

Again, I really don't like historical fiction, but this one was much better than the other one I had to read. I may as well point out that this is very graphic, if you don't like reading about the sexy times then edge away from this. I still wouldn't re-read this and most of the book is a solid 2/5 for me but by the end I couldn't put it down, it gets very intense and interesting by the end, it made the Golden Age of Spain a bit more interesting for me.

15. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury (5/5) Review here

If you're interested in Philosophy or literature in general, give this a go. This book is about a dystopian future where fire fighters burn books and the protagonist is one of these fire fighters, but then he meets a 17 year old called Clarisse who makes him question his entire life. I read this book really quickly, it's not so simplistic that you feel patronised but it is simple enough to read without having to concentrate majorly hard. I really want to see the film of this as well, I would definitely recommend this. I think the Philosophical aspects of this really appealed to me as Philosophy is one of my favourite subjects in school (and this was actually recommended by my super cool Philosophy teacher)

16. The Talented Mr. Ripley - Patricia Highsmith (4/5)

I did intend to do a full review of this but I didn't get round to it and now I feel like I can't talk about it in enough detail for a full review, but I had seen the film of this and loved it. This was another book I mentioned on my personal statement because it's linked to mental illness and crime, the book feels like two different books because something happens halfway through that changes the way the book is done. The protagonist is a man who is good at impersonation and he's essentially a psychopath, I found this book very interesting but it felt like such a different book by the end so I preferred the first half to the second half.

17. The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K Rowling (4/5)
This isn't so much a novel but a collection of short stories, which I did enjoy, they were well written and a must-read for anyone who is into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (you may or may not have guessed by now that I love Harry Potter), plus the illustrations inside, although few, are really nice. My favourite story was The Tale of the Three Brothers, which is the most famous one of them all as it's a strong theme throughout Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I just thought it was the wrong with the strongest underlying message. The only issue I had with this book is that I felt a little odd reading it on the bus as not everyone would've realised it was Harry Potter related, they would've just seen an 18 year old reading a kid's book, so bear that in mind.

My 2014 reading challenge wasn't particularly challenging, so I decided to amp it up a bit - you feel me?

This challenge is over 50 books essentially, so I've amped up my challenge a fair bit.

Wish me luck on my challenge, add me on Goodreads to see the journey and stay tuned for many many more reviews on this blog!

What was your favourite book this year?

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