Well, the first half of the year has gone by, so I thought I'd show you some good old statistics regarding my favourite books from this year so far. These are from the books that I've read this year, so they may not necessarily be published in 2014.
The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (Panacea Candidate)
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi (Panacea Candidate)
Cress by Marissa Meyer (Panacea Candidate)
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J Maas
Heir of Fire by Sarah J Maas (Panacea Candidate)
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
Ruins by Dan Wells (Panacea Candidate)
Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor (Panacea Candidate)
Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover
The Immortal Crown by Richelle Mead (Panacea Candidate)
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
And now time for the stats!
Favourite vs Not Favourite
So that comes to a 13% favourite rate. So one in eight(ish) books is a favourite. Surprisingly high! (This is out of 148 books that I've read so far this year, as of 21st July)
Panacea Candidate?
A reminder: a Panacea Candidate is a book that I want everyone to know about. A favourite is a book that I would read over and over again. All PCs are favourites, but not all favourites are PCs, as evidenced by the graph.
Series vs Standalone
Not surprising that only one book is a standalone, since so many of my favourites are SFF, which tend to be series. The one standalone on the list is a contemporary (the only contemporary, actually). Which brings me to my next graph-
Genre Breakdown
Yikes, that's a lot of high fantasy! But again, not particularly surprising, since that's my favourite genre. What is surprising is that there are only one each of contemporary and paranormal fantasy. I honestly thought there would be more of those- seeing as though if you go back and look at all of my favourites, there are quite a few of those genres. Surprising that there haven't been too many standouts in those genres so far this year. Holding out for Silver Shadows, Isla and the Happily Ever After and The Blood of Olympus in the second half of the year though. [Edit: Okay, so I read Silver Shadows and it's a favourite. So bump up paranormal fantasy to 2 books!]
The two science fiction ones are Cress and The Rithmatist: The Rithmatist I was pondering as to whether I should put it in high fantasy, but I ended up putting it in science fiction, since the primary genre is steampunk.
By Brandon Sanderson?
So this is a graph that I felt like putting in. 8 out of 19 favourites are by a single author: Brandon Sanderson. I think every single book by Sanderson has been a favourite for me, except Elantris. The man has such great ideas and amazing world building!
Do I own the book?
So the one ebook I own is Heir of Fire (as an eARC), and the only reason I don't own that one is because it's not out yet. The four not owned ones are The Well of Ascension, The Alloy of Law, The Name of the Wind and The Republic of Thieves. RoT I'm waiting for a specific edition to come out, and the other three I just haven't gotten around to buying. I will definitely get my hands on them eventually though....
Some questions for you. So far this year:
How many of your favourites have been standalones?
How many have been contemporaries? And what were they?
What percentage of your favourites do you own?
