TGIF #3

Last Friday of 2017, what?

Thriftbooks.com - This is my favourite place to buy books, hands down. I mean, I love amazon for new and kindle books obviously, but for used books, this website wins. It doesn't have everything, but I'd say 90% of the time I find what I am looking for, and under $5. They have coupons for new users, and a reading rewards program - every time you spend $50, you get a $5 reading reward. I don't want to look at how many rewards I've gotten because then I would see how many times I have spent $50 and I don't want to. Cheap books, if you want them, off you pop.

Grateful - that 2017 is almost over. Bye Felicia.

Interesting - I got some gift cards for christmas as I'm sure you did too, and I was curious to see if people were savers or spenders, so I asked on Instagram stories. At first it really looked like the savers were going to win by a landslide, then it evened out. I asked because I am a must spend immediately even if I don't need anything kind of person and I simply do not understand people holding on to them.. like at all. You have free money to spend, why aren't you spending it? But anyway, it was pretty close. Interesting. I wish I was a saver, but nope.

Food blogs - I do not exactly follow any food bloggers, like daily or weekly or whatever, but when I am searching for recipes (via pinterest, of course) I find myself opening recipes from these 4 blogs over and over. I like easy, simple, tasty, mostly healthy recipes. I've made several from each of these blogs, some once or twice, some a million times.
- Budget Bytes - favourites are black bean burgers and curried chickpeas
- Minimalist Baker - favourites are falafel and mediterranean baked sweet potatoes
- Amuse Your Bouche - favourites are mushroom stroganoff and veggie burritos bowls
- Pinch of Yum - favourites are creamy garlic herb mushroom spaghetti and 5 ingredient chicken tikka masala.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend and a safe new years eve.

Are you a saver or spender of gift cards?

Books of 2017 - best & worst + stats

Yay bonus book day! Last year I shared my stats from the year and I couldn't wait to do the same this year. I find statistics so freaking fun, there's something about looking at a bunch of information and turning it into numbers and patterns. Just me? I mentioned how I do it in this post if you are curious. Goodreads has an export function and basically I just export to excel, sort the books and extrapolate the data from there. See? SO MUCH FUN!

This year, I read way more e-books vs real books or audiobooks. Oops. I tried to make an effort to read more real books this year but the simple fact is that e-books are just easier and I can cart them around everywhere without a backache. Plus there's the whole instant gratification thing, I am not a patient person. I was actually doing really well with real books and the ratios were closer together, but in the last few months I went absolutely crazy with e-books and left real books in the dust. I still prefer real books, but there's no denying e-books are more convenient. 

5% were male authors, 95% were female. 

I am 0% surprised by this. I think half of it is that I have always gravitated towards female authors, and half is that I read a lot of romance books, so...

38% were from the library, 9% were arcs, 25% were kindle unlimited, 20% were purchased and 7% were free, borrowed or gifted. I pay for kindle unlimited too, but I don't include them in my 'purchased' shelf on goodreads. I do sometimes include freebies, which makes no sense I know. I just want to know when I 'bought' them, even if they are free. I want to know how long they are sitting on my kindle for. My stats are 1% off and I think that's my book of the month book but I don't want to re-do my graph, so...

I am way too embarrassed to share how many books I purchased in 2017 - way too many that's for sure. The worst part though is that of the ridiculous amount of books I purchased in 2017, I only read 20% of them. I just 'had to have them'... so they could sit on my kindle or shelf at home.

I don't even want to look at the stats for how many books I didn't read that have been sitting on my shelves or kindle for years. I know, I have a problem, you don't need to tell me. 

I'm going to try, try, try, try not to buy (that many) books in 2018. Like, seriously. 

Moving on.

2% were nonfiction.

I am totally not surprised. Nonfiction is not my jam. I never 'read' non-fiction - I always audiobook them and they are almost always celebrity books.

Lily Collins // Lauren Graham // Anna Kendrick // Leah Remini // Gabrielle Union

Month by Month breakdown

Clearly, I was bit by the reading bug in the second half of the year.

Star rating breakdown

Like last year, I am quite fond of the 4 stars. About the same amount of 5 and 3 stars. I don't think I am particularly stingy with my 5 stars, but I don't like rating things 1 or 2 stars. I avoid this by sitting real nice and comfy in that comfort zone of mine, so it's rare that I read something I hate because if it doesn't sound like my jam, I don't read it.

I actually have 2 DNFs this year - Intuitive Eating (I tried the audio, wasn't retaining anything, meant to get the real book and then just decided not to) and The Dovekeepers (I tried, but I am clearly in the minority with that one).

My favourite books this year

The Wall of Winnipeg & Me (and her other books) // The Duet // Mean Streak // The Hating Game // The Hate U Give // Weathermages of Mystral // A Conjuring of Light // The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo // The Secret Keeper // Beartown // Happiness for Beginners // Bet Me

Runner up reads

My Not So Perfect Life // Dark Matter // The Memory Book // The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet // The Rose Garden // Confessions // When Dimple Met Rishi // The Many Lives of Fitzwilliam Darcy // A Thousand Letters // Bird Box // Just One Damned Thing After Another //Tell the Wolves I'm Home // The Mountain Between Us // Alpha & Omega series // The One and Only Ivan

Favourite romances

To say I went a little bit nutty with romances this year would be an understatement. Here are my top 10. If they are already listed above, I didn't include them here even if they were romances. I know some of the titles and covers are ridiculous, don't judge me.

Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold // the first 3 in the Black Dagger Brotherhood // Dark Sexy Knight // Turbulence // the Rock Chick series //everything I read by RS Grey // The Vixen & the Vet // Heartbreaker Bay series // After We Fall // the Winston Brothers series

Disappointing reads 

(they weren't necessarily bad, they were just disappointing for some reason or another)

Dead Witch Walking // Ensnared // Before I Fall // The Wonder // Dangerous Minds

Wish I hadn't read these

Wintergirls // Everything is Illuminated // Mansfield Park

Maybe putting Mansfield here is a bit mean, but I'd rather have just left it on the 'Austen books I've never read shelf' instead of forcing myself through it.

Best books by month - this was much harder to narrow down than last year!

January: The Hating Game // February: Bird Box // March: A Conjuring of Light // April: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo // May: Beartown // June: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet 

July: Confessions // August: The Wall of Winnipeg & Me // September: Own the Wind // October: The Duet // November: Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold // December: The Gamble

That's all folks. Linking up with Steph & Jana.

If I had to choose just one book to be my favourite of 2017.... I would probably definitely hands down no questions say The Wall of Winnipeg and Me. I read it four times. But just like last year, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to everyone. But I'd recommend it to myself!

So, uh, anyone else really love statistics, or just me? What was your favourite book this year?