If there was anything I did make a conscious effort to improve this year, it was how much time I set aside for reading. I didn’t set a number of books, I just kept a note of them.

All in all, I read forty three books. The odd number may annoy some but it is what it is. Next year, I would like to match or exceed forty three. I’ve already got eleven books on the way from indie authors (the ones I am yet to read, I will share at the end).

Here are the top ten books I read in twenty eighteen, in no particular order, with a brief reason why it made the top ten.

1. The English Patient by Michael Odaatje

because the images and words Odaatje used created a story so humanly beautiful.

2. How To Stop Time by Matt Haig

because I’m a sucker for love, loss and history.

3. Magpie In August by Kindra M. Austin

because it caught me completely off guard and broke my heart.

4. Mythos by Stephen Fry

because it’s wonderfully written, interesting and hilarious.

5. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

because it bridges the gulf between Agatha Christie and Luther.

6. Founding Fathers by Nicholas Gagnier

because of Samantha and how frighteningly real the story is.

7. The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

because there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think about how much the world lost when she passed away, too young.

8. Self – Help by Lorrie Moore

because her style of short story writing is inspiring and enviable.

9. The Custard Heart by Dorothy Parker

because she helped me understand what being a woman is really like.

10. No Matter The Wreckage by Sarah Kay

because she is the poet who helped me fall in love with spoken word and the stories on the tips of our tongues.

To read in twenty nineteen:

Nocturne’s Variations by John Biscello

Pinch the Lock by Candice Daquin

Constant Muses by Kindra M. Austin

Twelve by Kindra M. Austin

A Journal for Damned Lovers Vol 2 & 3 by S. K. Nicholas

Pantheon by Eric Syrdal

Six Red Seeds by Samantha Lucero

Our Numbered Days by Neil Hilborn

Peluda by Melissa Lozada-Oliva

And plenty more on my To Read shelf!

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!