I love books. I have loved them ever since I was taught how to read in kindergarten. You could almost say I was born with a book in my tiny little hands 😛 I have beautiful memories of nights spent reading with my grandma in bed, and later on getting super excited about the Harry Potter book releases. As a teenager, my passion for reading allowed me to learn English through blogs and websites that I precariously translated with Google Translate (I know, I know, not the best approach). I grabbed my first book in English around 4 years ago —His Majesty’s Dragon, the first book of the Temeraire series. I was so lost with the vocabulary I just had to drop it and go for something simpler. Two years later I could read it without the need to grab a dictionary.

I personally read a lot, around 4 to 5 books every month, so in the last year I opted for buying e-books instead. There’s nothing better than the feeling of a physical book in my hands, turning pages and feeling the texture of the paper… but imagine how many shelves I should have in my house for the amount of books I read 😛 I prefer having them all in the same virtual space and keeping my physical space uncluttered.

This past year I decided to participate in the Reading Challenge of GoodReads (by the way, add me over there if you have an account! Here’s my profile). I had set my goal to read 24 books, but I surpassed it and read 34! 😀 I decided to look for a meme on the internet to review my year in books, and I came across this one from this blog which seemed perfect for me. I have customized some of the questions and shortened the length of it to fit my particular needs.

I can’t pick just one, but definitely the Warriors series. I was hooked from the first book on and couldn’t stop! Not even in between to read other books 😛 I spent the last 3 months of the year reading about cat clans, territory borders and StarClan.

I read the first 3 books of The Selection and was excited about the story of Princess Eadlyn, but ended up being truly disappointing. I was looking forward to reading more about this world, but I felt like it was forced and not necessary at all.

I was positively delighted with Confess. It’s surprising to me because I’m usually not into contemporary romance, but I thought the concept behind the story was very original and left me thinking a lot.

Warriors was definitely the best new series I started. There’s also The Lunar Chronicles, which I was super sad of finishing.

I must again mention Confess. I hardly ever read outside fantasy and historical romance, but the cover of the book and the description made me give it a try. I do not regret it! Really beautiful book.

You’re going to get tired of me mentioning these books, but Warriors, the original arc, has been definitely the most thrilling series this year for me. I could just not put down any of the books!

Obviously Harry Potter 😛 They’re my must re-read for every year! Also Fantastic Creatures and Where To Find Them and Jorge Bucay’s self-help books.

8. Favorite cover of a book I read in 2016.
Gosh, I’m torn! I actually have three favorites, all of them part of series. From The Lunar Chronicles, Winter is my favorite. There’s something aesthetically pleasing about books with black covers and contrasting elements. Then there’s The Selection (from The Selection series), and of course Warriors had to make an appearance. I decided that the Spanish edition of Midnight, from The New Prophecy series, is my favorite cover of this year. I love the big cat face and how the scenery under it is a small teaser of what’s going to happen inside the book.

9. Most memorable character in 2016.
I’m torn between Fireheart and Brambleclaw from Warriors!

10. Most beautifully written book read in 2016.
I really loved how the Hearthfire Romance books were written. Then again, most historical romance books I read have truly beautiful, descriptive writing.

11. Most thought-provoking book in 2016.
I re-read, like every year, the books of Jorge Bucay, a local writer who always inspires me to better myself with his self-help books.

12. Book I can’t believe I waited until 2016 to finally read.
Warriors! I can’t believe I doubted it because it was about cats (btw, not a big biiig fan of cats).

13. Shortest and longest book I read in 2016.
Twelve Days in December with 85 pages.
Winter (from The Luncar Chronicles) with 832 pages.

14. Book that shocked me the most.
Again, Warriors 😛 There were so many plot twists I didn’t see coming!

8. Tapa favorita de un libro que leí en el 2016.
Omg, ¡estoy complicada en este tema! Tengo tres favoritos, todos ellos partes de series. De The Lunar Chronicles, Winter es mi favorito. Los libros con fondos oscuros y elementos contrastantes tienen un no se qué que me encanta. Después está la tapa de The Selection, de la serie que lleva el mismo nombre, y por supuesto que Warriors debe aparecer en la lista. Decidí que la tapa de la versión en Español de Midnight, de la serie The New Prophecy, es mi tapa favorita del año. Amo la cara grande de los gatos en la parte superior y la escena que muestran en la parte inferior relativo al contenido desarrollado dentro del libro.

9. Personaje más memorable del 2016.
¡Estoy entre Fireheart y Brambleclaw de Warriors!

10. Libro mejor escrito en el 2016.
Amé cómo están escritos los libros de la seria Hearthfire Romance. De todos modos, los de género romance histórico por lo general tienen una redacción realmente hermosa.

11. El libro que más me hizo pensar en 2016.
Los libros de Jorge Bucay. Son una serie de libros que leo y releo todos los años y siempre descubro algo diferente acerca de mí misma.

12. Libro que no puedo creer que esperé hasta el 2016 para leer.
Warriors, definitiamente. ¡No puedo creer que dudé de ellos por tratarse de gatos! (por cierto, no soy muuuy fan de los felinos).

13. Libro más corto y más largo del 2016.
Twelve Days in December con 85 páginas.
Winter (de The Lunar Chronicles) con 832 páginas.

14. Libro que más me shockeó.
Nuevamente, Warriors 😛 ¡Hubo tantos cambios de trama que no me venía venir!

15. OTP of the year.
Newt and Tina!

16. Favorite non-romantic relationship of the year.
What a tough one, I’m torn between three!
Fireheart and Graystripe.
Fireheart and Yellowfang.
Fireheart and Cinderpelt.

17. Best book I read in 2016 that I read based solely on a recommendation from somebody else.
The Warriors series! I would have never started it my friend Kat hadn’t recommended it to me. Don’t know why, it’s so good!

18. Most vivid world/imagery in a book I read in 2016.
Warriors (please don’t hate me).

19. Book that was the most fun to read in 2016.
The Asylum trilogy was definitely it. I don’t use to read thriller books because I’m very easy to scare, but I think I’ll start doing it from now on, it was very entertaining!

15. OTP del año.
¡Newt y Tina!

16. OTP no-romántica favorita del año.
¡Qué dificil! Estoy entre tres:
Fireheart y Graystripe.
Fireheart y Yellowfang.
Fireheart y Cinderpelt.

17. El mejor libro que leí en el 2016 basado solamente en la recomendación de alguien más.
¡La serie de Warriors! Nunca la hubiera empezado de no ser por la recomendación de mi amiga Kat. No se por qué, ¡son tan geniales!

18. Escenario más vívido en un libro del 2016.
Warriors (omg, por favor no me odien).

19. Libro más divertido de leer del 2016.
La trilogía de Asylum, definitivamente. No suelo leer thrillers porque me asusto fácilmente, pero la verdad pienso hacerlo más seguido, ¡fue super entretenido!

Given that I have surpassed my reading goal in 2016, I set my Reading Challenge to 34 books this year. I’m hoping to be able to read lots of books I’m really excited about in the following months (like Miss Peregrine and The Maze Runner series, for example). Overall, my reading goal is to tackle some of the books in my to-read shelf in GoodReads. Warriors is great and I enjoy reading these books very much, but I don’t want to end up reading only that the whole year (considering the Warriors world has over 50 books!).

Dado que sobrepasé mi objetivo del 2016, este 2017 me propongo leer 34 libros. Espero leer muchos de los libros que tengo en mi lista hace tiempo y me emocionan leer, como la serie de Miss Peregrine y The Maze Runner, por ejemplo. Sigo con muchas ganas de leer Warriors, pero no quiero que sea lo único que lea en el año (¡considerando que la serie consta de más de 50 libros!).