The Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag | 2022

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve done a book tag. And I mean a LONG time. But I recently remembered that it’s halfway through 2022 already– as if time could pass any faster– and I decided I might as well keep the tradition going and do the Mid-Year Book Freakout Tag again.

My 2021 Post

My 2020 Post

(it’s kind of ridiculous that I’ve bothered to keep up this blog for that long)

The Questions:

The best book you’ve read this year-

For the past two years when I did this tag I couldn’t choose a single best book of the year, so I just listed a bunch of my 5-star reads, and I think I’m going to cheat YET AGAIN this year….

For fiction:

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn (read my review)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Books 1 and 2) by Douglas Adams (read my review for Book 1)

Pet Sematary by Stephen King (read my review)

Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut (read my review)

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (read my review)

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (read my review)

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (read my review)

(Also… look at this ridiculousness. I actually managed to review ALL of those books on my blog!)

The best sequel you’ve read this year-

Definitely The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. I’m so glad that I finally got to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series this year. Those books are just hilarious to me and my sense of humor and they are so fun to read.

New release you haven’t read yet but want to-

I pay comparatively little attention to new releases, but:

I really want to read R.F. Kuang’s new book, Babel, since The Poppy War was so good and so far her new release is getting great reviews and sounds very intriguing.

Some honorable mentions are Elizabeth Acevedo’s new release, Inheritance (I love her writing so much) and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, which has been all over the bookish Interwebz.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year-

Um, didn’t I just answer that question? The answer is still Babel by R.F. Kuang!

Biggest disappointment-

I really hate answering questions like this, because all book ratings are a matter of opinion and I don’t want to disparage the authors who put their heart and soul into their writing, but I really was not a fan of Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé which was sad because I was expecting to at least like it a little bit. I have a spoiler review on my blog if you’re curious.

Biggest surprise-

Hmm… I’m not really sure what to put on here to be honest. I think I’ll go with Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn, since it’s a really underrated book but one that I ended up loving.

New favorite author (new to you or debut)-

Kurt Vonnegut! I read Slaughterhouse-Five on New Year’s Day to check it off that oft-cited list of books-you-must-read-one-day and ever since then I’ve been totally hooked. More new-to-me authors I loved so far this year include: Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Douglas Adams.

Books that made you cry-

I don’t cry all that easily from books, provided they are fiction, but two of the books that had me on the verge of tears so far this year were Pet Sematary by Stephen King and We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut may have as well; I mostly just remember being super, super disturbed by that book.

Books that made you happy-

This is difficult, since such a depressingly large proportion of the books I read are incredibly doom-and-gloom. Let’s see:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams had me snickering alone in my room like a crazy person.

and The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus used esoteric philosophy to talk me out of nihilism!

Favorite book-to-film adaptation-

Ummm….

I haven’t watched any book-to-film adaptations this year! Sorry. I’m just not much of a TV person.

Favorite posts you have written this year-

I have a lot of posts that I am proud of from this year, but here are three:

A Deep Dive Into The Book Community’s Toxic Cancel Culture

Interview With Mel Torrefranca: Teen Author and Entrepreneur

The Problem With Problematic: The Book Community’s Perpetual Witch Hunt

Most beautiful book you have bought or received this year-

I’m pretty sure that the only book I bought this year was Ruta Sepetys’s I Must Betray You, which incidentally does have a very nice cover. And it was a great read to boot.

Books you need to read by the end of the year-

I’m the world’s most pathological mood reader, so I physically cannot put anything in this category or my universe will implode from the stress and obligatory contrarianism of my brain.

Goodreads goal-

I’m ahead of schedule for my Goodreads goal of 100 books, although I am moderately skeptical of my ability to complete the goal since in August my priority will be shifting to going to college and beginning my real life! However, I will certainly try my best to read 100 books for the third year in a row.

(I’m thinking of getting rid of my Goodreads goal next year, though, as it doesn’t seem to be that productive of a measure of your reading progress.)

Thanks for reading my blog today! How has your reading year been?

Feel free to let me know in the comments!

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