2019. január 16., szerda

My Top Ten of 2018 - Books


It's that time of the year again when I try to think back on all the media I consumed in the past 365+ days, and select ten of each as best of the best, and let me tell you, this is one of my favourite times. True, it's incredibly hard to make a selection when there's so much good shit coming out, but I love talking about things I love and I love making lists too, so why would I complain? I don't. Except about my own performance when it comes to books, because you see... you can't really make a list of the 10 best books released in 2018 when you've only read 15 of them, and only about three of those can be deemed amazing. I promise I'll try to do better next year and read more new releases, but for now, I'll have to contend myself with a list of the 10 best books I read in 2018, regardless of release date. Oh, and in strictly chronological order because I don't want to play favourites among my favourites. Right, here it goes! 

1. I, Claudius – Robert Graves

I've been meaning to read this for a while now and I honestly don't remember what prompted me to finally do it, but boy am I glad I did! It was slow going because I read it on my work computer whenever I ran out of actual work to do, but I enjoyed every second of it. Graves' Claudius is now one of my favourite fictional renderings of any historical character, but all the others are written brilliantly too. It induced me to do tons of research and I subsequently learned a whole lot about this era of the Roman Empire, which is what I love the most about reading historical fiction: it always makes me want to look up the actual history behind it. I also love drawing the family trees for myself to keep track of all the characters and how they're related to each other, and this book has a hell of a crazy one:


From the distance of a year even I can't make sense of some of this. 

2. Queen Victoria - Lytton Strachey 

I actually had this bookmarked for years on my laptop at home, and I opened it so many times with the intention of reading it that I actually memorised its first line: "On November 6, 1817, died the Princess Charlotte..." But then one day I finally had to admit it to myself that I will never actually take the time to read it at home, so maybe I could just... open Gutenberg.org at work and have it bookmarked for reading there? Yeah I'm dumb sometimes. But I did it and I read it and I loved it so much. I said it before that I will never tire of reading about the Victorian era, be it fiction or non-fiction, and that's obivously true for the Queen herself too. I actually have several more Victoria biographies added to my TBR. Nevertheless, I think this one will always hold a special place in my heart. 

3. Crooked Kingdom – Leigh Bardugo

I'm actually so damn proud of myself for finishing all five grisha books in a relatively short time, instead of my usual routine of reading the first one and then abandoning the series for years. I loved Ruin and Rising too but I wanted to choose just one of these books for my list, and in the end I went with Crooked Kingdom because it was the more daring and unusual of the two. It took risks that paid off in full, went to places I never expected it would, and in the end still managed to be satisfying. I can't wait to see Nina's story continue in King of Scars. 

4. Nevernight – Jay Kristoff


This was definitely one of the most unique and innovative fantasy books I've read in recent years, and for that alone it deserves to be on my list. The worldbuilding is so rich and extensive that I was almost convinced to start taking notes about halfway through, which is always a good sign, and the characters were all incredibly vivid and interesting. It's especially noteworthy that the author managed to take the often-told story of "main character has to win a competition to achieve their goals" and managed to make it not only entertaining as hell but actually suspenseful. Even if you're pretty certain that she's gonna be one of the winners, you can be certain about absolutely nothing else, and other books with a similar premise (*cough* Throne of Glass *cough*) could learn a lot from Jay Kristoff. 

5. The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry (review)

I already sang odes about this book elsewhere and I'm not sure what else is left to say. Beautiful writing, haunting atmosphere, wonderfully unique characters, a story that I can't quite put my finger on but which grabbed me nonetheless and still hasn't let go. If only the author's 2018 followup, Melmoth, was half as amazing... still, I'm eagerly waiting fo her next book. 

6. Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking – Deborah Cadbury (review)

Oh how I loved getting lost in this wonderfully twisted, continent-encompassing, royal-imperial family tree. Some of the featured historical figures and their fates were already familiar to me, but others were new, and I would gladly read full biographies on any single one of them, they're just that fascinating.  

7. The Gown – Jennifer Robson (review)

Next to The Essex Serpent, this was the other book that most defined my 2018 reading year, one that I will definitely find myself thinking about for years to come. Again, I think I said everything I possibly could in my review. I adored this book.  

8. Babel – Gaston Dorren (review)

If there's one thing I love more than learning languages, it's thinking about learning languages. This book provided me with ample material for my "will learn one day" list, as well as some wonderful bits of etymological trivia. Highly recommended for any wannabe polyglot!  

9. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

Me and Dickens have a relationship that has so far rested on a pretty contradictory statement: I love his writing style, and yet I've never managed to finish any of his books. Not his fault, to be fair. It's just that so far I always tried to read his books while I was already reading twenty other books, and they always lost out to something else in the end. The idea that I should remedy this has been on my mind for a long time, so I was pretty thrilled when just as I decided that it was finally time for me to stop lurking in this one Goodreads group and start to actually participate in their challenges and discussions, they announced that their December group read would be A Christmas Carol. What an opportunity! So I devoured this wonderful little story in no time, and crowned a new favourite.  

10. Legendary – Stephanie Garber


Caraval was one of the best books I read in 2017, and the sequel definitely lived up to my expectations, even if I didn't necessarily agree with the direction it took in the end. I enjoyed being in Tella's shoes this time and all the lore-building that brought with it - God I wish I could have that pack of cards, magical or not. The new characters were fun to read about and the book even managed to manintain the same sense of suspense and feeling of never quite knowing what's going on that made the first one so enjoyable, and that's why I'm choosing to believe that even with the big revelation at the end, things are still not quite what they seem, and there will be more twists, turns and shocks to come in Finale. This is honestly the only thing I can believe because otherwise the answer to the question of Legend's identity is pretty lousy, and I refuse to believe that.

All right, so that was it for 2018! Please share in the comments YOUR favourite reads of the year! 

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