End of Year Survey {2015}

18:20 Cilla 6 Comments



I'm always keen for a little reflection, especially at this time of the year. So I can't resist this survey created by Jamie @ The Perpetual Page Turner. I answered every question, so get comfy if you want to read the whole thing!




 Number Of Books You Read: 43 as of today. It's not a lot at all compared to many readers out there, but this is double my reading goal for the year, so I'm happy with it!
Number of Re-Reads: 7 - 6 of which are from the Princess Diaries series.
Genre You Read The Most From: I haven't kept track, but just by looking over my Goodreads Year in Books, I would say the answer to this is Fantasy.


1. Best Book You Read In 2015? It's impossible to choose just one, so you get my top three instead!




2. Book You Were Excited About and Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t? Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I saw the movie first, and enjoyed it enough that I snapped up the novel when I saw it in the bookstore. Unfortunately it never clicked for me. 

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read? The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider surprised me in a good way. I hadn't read any of its review when I picked it up, and I went in expecting it to be just meh. I ended up loving the characters and was pleased with the journey they went on.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)? The entire Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. As soon as I found out one of my colleagues loves reading and has similar taste in books as mine, I gushed about Cinder and the gang. She actually did and is now a big fan as well. :'D She's the fourth person I hooked on to Lunar Chronicles, but I think the other three started reading them last year.

 5. Best series you started in 2015? Best Sequel of 2015? Best Series Ender of 2015? 

Best Series I Started in 2015: The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. 
Best Sequel: I actually don't think I read any sequel this year... >__>
Best Series Ender: Winter by Marissa Meyer

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2015? I discovered Leigh Bardugo this year and I'm definitely planning on reading more of her work!

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone? Yes Please by Amy Poehler. I don't generally read memoirs, especially when I'm not so familiar with the person, and I don't know Amy's work that well. Yes Please is such a good read though.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year? This is a toss-up between Winter and Ruin and Rising.

9. Book You Read In 2015 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year? I want to say Winter, but I'm not sure I want to commit that much time to re-reading it. Never say never, though.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2015?

Photo taken from my instagram. Just look at those colours. *__*

11. Most memorable character of 2015? Nikolai Lantsov won my heart this year, as both a charming, witty man (hello, new book boyfriend), and a multidimensional character.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2015? The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. This is Picoult at her finest, which meant lots of heart-wrenching emotions and beautiful, quotable lines.

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2015? It's not one book, but the first thing that popped into my head is Animorphs by K.A. Applegate. I'm working my way toward the end of this series, and at its high points, it always gets me thinking about moral dilemmas. 

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2015 to finally read? To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I didn't grow up somewhere this was a compulsory reading, but my aunt's bought the book about five years ago. I put it off fearing it would be difficult to read; I ended up not being able to put it down.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2015? "You do it because the doing of it is the thing. The doing is the thing. The talking and worrying and thinking is not the thing." - Amy Poehler, Yes Please

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2015? According to Goodreads:

Shortest Book I Read in 2015: The Queen's Army by Marissa Meyer
Longest Book I Read in 2015: Winter by Marissa Meyer

17. Book That Shocked You The Most (Because of a plot twist, character death, left you hanging with your mouth wide open, etc.) Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo. I remember swearing out loud at one stage because of a plot twist.

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!) Cress and Thorne from The Lunar Chronicles. I don't have my copy of Winter with me, but there's a line where Thorne basically went, "I just want to see you" and I melted.

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year. Cinder and Thorne from The Lunar Chronicles. I love their dynamics; these two together always make for entertaining scenes.

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2015 From An Author You’ve Read Previously. Waah this is hard! I'm going to go with The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult.

21. Best Book You Read In 2015 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure: Yes Please. The main reason I picked this up was because Cam had such good things to say about it.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2015? Hands down, Nikolai Lantsov from The Grisha Trilogy.

23. Best 2015 debut you read? I don't think I read any debut this year, eeep. I did post my review aof  debut, however, and that is The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I would absolutely recommend this to everyone.

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year? I loved the world in The Grisha Trilogy. It was beautiful, but there were also parts of it that were racked with poverty, and I thought those were written really well.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read? Princess in Love by Meg Cabot. The climax of this book was genuinely adorable.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2015? I can't remember really crying over any book this year, but the end of Ruin and Rising got me quite emotional.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year? The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider. To me, anyway, this was a hidden gem. I have no idea if there was buzz around this or not. 

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul? The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult.

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2015? Aah this is a difficult one to answer. Let's just say I think all of them are unique in their own way.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)? I don't remember getting mad over any book this year. I remember feeling very frustrated with Journey to the Center of the Earth though.



1. New favorite book blog you discovered in 2015? Given I started in April, every book blog I discovered this year was new to me. It's too hard to pick just one favourite when I adore them all.

2. Favorite review that you wrote in 2015? Hard to choose, but I really enjoyed writing this review for Ruin and Rising.

3. Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog? Because I think I managed to get my points across best here: Physical or Virtual Bookshops?

4. Best event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, memes, etc.)? I loved  being part of Jillian's Blogger Positivity Campaign. 

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2015? Winning a giveaway from It Starts at Midnight and Feed Your Fiction Addiction's discussion challenge. I'd never won anything like it, so that was really exciting!

 6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year? I started this blog this year, so really everything was a challenge! The most challenging thing, however, is managing my time so I can blog and read regularly as well as do everything else I've been doing with my life.

 7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)? Things I Have Learned from the Book Blogging Community

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love? Too Old (or Too Young) For That Stuff. I was really excited about writing this topic, so wished I'd gotten more feedback on it. 

9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores, etc.)? I made new bookish friends at work. That has to count as a great bookish discovery, right?

10.  Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year? I completed my Goodreads challenge! I set it very low at 20, but I'm still pleased. I don't think I've been very successful in the other two challenges I joined, but that's to be reflected for another day.



1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2015 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2016? Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot. I have got to finish the re-read of the series already.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2016 (non-debut)? Passenger by Alexandra Bracken. I love time-travel stories, and I'm hoping this lives up to the hype.

3. 2016 Debut You Are Most Anticipating? I'm excited for A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro. I'm always game for a Sherlock retelling.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2016? Remembrance by Meg Cabot. I LOVE The Mediator series when I was in high school, and I look forward to catching up with the characters.

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2016? I want to be more organised with my blogging and get to know more awesome bloggers.

6. A 2016 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone: I haven't read any 2016 release yet, but hopefully once the year starts I will :D

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous24 December 2015 at 08:00

    To Kill a Mockingbird is my all-time favorite! The Grisha series rocks my socks off. I am actually re-reading it now!
    Hope you get some great books under the tree! Merry Christmas!
    Missie @ A Flurry of Ponderings

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    Replies
    1. Cilla27 December 2015 at 18:20

      Have fun with the re-read! :D My family actually doesn't do presents on Christmas, but I may be able to persuade them to get some of these for me on my birthday haha. Merry Christmas, Missie!

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  2. Anonymous26 December 2015 at 21:13

    I loved And Then There Were None as well <3 I'm glad you enjoyed the book! I'm looking forward to reading more of Agatha Christie books in the future, hopefully in 2016 :) Happy reading, Cilla! 43 books isn't too bad :) Merry Christmas!!! <3

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    1. Cilla27 December 2015 at 18:22

      Right back atcha :D I'm glad you realised that bit about the ending! I hope to read more of Agatha Christie books in 2016 too - I'm really keen to read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in particular. Thanks, Jillian, and Merry Christmas! <3

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  3. Shooting Stars Mag27 December 2015 at 01:09

    That's exciting that you started your blog this year and had a great time with it! I never finished reading all the Princess Diaries books, but I DID read most of them. I still want to read Royal Wedding though. And I LOVE the Lunar Chronicles - still need to read Winter. soon though!

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.blogspot.com
    -stop on by; I always comment back!

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    Replies
    1. Cilla27 December 2015 at 18:23

      Thank you, Lauren! My friend is bugging me about getting to Royal Wedding haha; she thinks it's brilliant. I hope you'll get to read Winter soon! It's quite a big book but worth the read in my opinion! :D

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