Top 5 Tuesday 2021 wrap up

Hello bookworms!! Happy… not Tuesday!! Yes, I am finally doing my Top 5 Tuesday 2021 wrap up, but I’m not posting it on a Tuesday because I didn’t make a freebie post in December 2021. But, I still wanted to hold myself accountable for all the things I said I would do, that I did not do.

For a wrap up, I usually just go through all the previous weeks where I said I would do something by the end of the year, and we see how I went. In 2020 I had a final tally of accomplishing 2/15 things (13%), and in 2019 I did 13/44 (29%) things. Which means we’re sitting at about an average of 20% completion across the board. or 25% if you add both tallies together. Shameful.

If you missed the January-March 2022 topics post, please see this link!! And, Top 5 Tuesday was created by Shanah @ Bionic Book Worm, and is now being hosted here, at Meeghan reads.

Top 5 Tuesday 2021 wrap up

top 5 books on my holiday wishlist

Yes, I know — this is technically a 2020 post, but I wanted to see if I actually got any of these books yet! Books I listed were:

• Ever the Hunted — Erin Summerill ✅
• Fantastic Creatures in Mythology and Folklore — Juliette Wood ❌
• History is All You Left Me — Adam Silvera ❌
• Swamp Thing — Maggie Stiefvater ❌
• Nevermoor — Jessica Townsend (Goldsboro edition) ✅

Result: 2 / 5

You know, two out of five isn’t bad, especially if you consider that one of the books I DID get was one of my unicorn books. You know, a book that you’re pretty sure you will never, ever, ever see IRL. But, let me tell you, persistent searching and google alerts help you find the thing you’re looking for. Plus it fills up your inbox with useless spam more often than not.

top 5 bookish resolutions

This is honestly shameful. My 2022 resolutions post is coming out in a couple of days, and while I wanted to basically copy this entire list, I didn’t. Mostly because (spoiler), I only completed one of these.

• 100 book goodreads goal ✅
• tackle the TBR ❌
• action the ARCs ❌
• book buying ban (ish) ❌
• read it, review it ❌

Result: 1 / 5

First things first, nice alliteration past Meeghan. Even I’m impressed by how catchy some of these sound. Did it help me achieve anything? Sadly, no. My TBR ended up with 68 MORE books on it than I started the year with, I only read 6 ARCs all year (I currently have a back catalogue of 28 that date back to 2019), and while I bought LESS books in 2021 than I did in 2020, it was still more than I read. And reviewing? I reviewed a grand total of ONE book in 2021. That’s what you call an EPIC fail.

top 5 anticipated books of 2021

Let’s see how much I anticipated them… either I read them, or I didn’t.

• A Court of Silver Flames — Sarah J. Maas ✅
• Covet — Tracy Wolff ✅
• A Vow So Bold and Deadly — Brigid Kemmerer ✅
• An Echo in the Sorrow — Hailey Turner ✅
• Yolk — Mary H. K. Choi ❌

Result: 4 / 5

Not bad at all!! This was the list from the start of the year (we’ll get to part 2 later on), so I’m glad I stuck to my guns here. My excuse for Yolk is that it sits in a weird place on my shelf and I can’t quite get to it easily, so it is overlooked. A lot. But, there’s always my 2022 TBR!!

top 5 books I will definitely* read in 2021

Can I just say, that little asterisk that let’s me be all “but no punishment if I don’t! LOL” is the biggest saving grace ever.

• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown — Holly Black ❌
• The Iron King — Julie Kagawa ❌
• Cinderella is Dead — Kalynn Bayron ❌
• We Contain Multitudes — Sarah Henstra ❌
• Too Sharp — Marianne Delacourt ❌

Result: 0 / 5

Yesssss… So, no excuses for this. But I will make a concerted effort to remember to LOOK at my list for 2022 in say, October?!

top 5 books I meant to read in 2020

I mean, I don’t specifically say that I will try and read them in 2021… but… I’m already being mean to myself. Why stop now?

• Among the Beasts and Briars — Ashley Poston ❌
• Spellslinger — Sebastien de Castell ❌
• The House in the Cerulean Sea — TJ Klune ❌
• The Fascinators — Andrew Eliopulos ❌
• You Should See Me in a Crown — Leah Johnson ❌

Result: 0 / 5

Yeah… this is just going from bad to worse, isn’t it…

top 5 series I want to start

Look how optimistic I was back at the start of 2021!! Where did that precious baby go?! Did I start these series?! 👀😓

• The Witchlands — Susan Dennard ❌
• Falling Kingdoms — Morgan Rhodes ❌
• Caraval — Stephanie Garber ❌
• Starfell — Dominique Valente ❌
• The Lumatere Chronicles — Melina Marchetta ❌

Result: 0 / 5

The absolute worst part of this one is that The Lumatere Chronicles has been on my TBR since it first came out in 2011, and I hear nothing but amazing things about it from people who have read it. I just… haven’t read it yet?!

top 5 series I need to finish

Are we ready for MORE cringing?? I am not.

• Shades of Magic — V. E. Schwab ❌
• Grishaverse — Leigh Bardugo ✅
• The Winternight Trilogy — Katherine Arden ❌
• Percy Jackson — Rick Riordan ❌
• The Curse Workers — Holly Black

Result: 1 / 5

Look, the only good thing that I can say about this one, is that I EXCELLED at the one that I did complete. Not only did I finish the original Grishaverse trilogy, I then reread the Six of Crows duology, and then I also read the Nikolai duology. So, three cheers all around for that small miracle.

top 5 authors I want to try

I am actually going to TBR hell. Or maybe I just won’t post this so no one can see how badly I follow through on my plans. Oooft.

• Halie Fewkes ❌
• Dhonielle Clayton ❌
• Lynette Noni ❌
• Naomi Novik ❌
• Rin Chupeco ❌

Result: 0 / 5

Of the 33 individual authors I read books by in 2021, 23 of them were ‘new to me’. But NONE of them were on this list.

top 5 books on my (birthday) wishlist

I seem to have written multiple wishlist posts over the last year and a bit… but this was the one from June. Or my birthday wishlist!

• Broken — Jenny Lawson ❌
• You Deserve Each Other — Sarah Hogle ✅
• What’s Not to Love — Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka ❌
• Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake — Alexis Hall ✅
• The City of Zirdai — Maria V. Snyder ✅

Result: 3 / 5

So, it turns out that I’m better at BUYING books that I am at reading books, but that’s ok. Book collecting is ALSO a hobby. I would like to give myself an extra pat on the back though, as I even read two of the three that I bought, and the third one has been started.

top 5 anticipated books of 2021 (part 2)

Fingers crossed that I anticipated these just as much as the earlier list!!

• Ilahara: The Last Myrassar — C. M. Karys ✅
• The Heart Principle — Helen Hoang ✅
• Court — Tracy Wolff 🌀
• Well Matched — Jen Deluca ❌
• Dark Rise — C.S. Pacat ❌

Result: 2 / 4

I’m giving myself a pass for one of these — Court got pushed back to February 2022, so that one is definitely not my fault. But, I haven’t even bought Well Matched yet (fixing that now), and Dark Rise might sit on my shelf a bit longer than expected because I heard rumours of a cliffhanger ending… 😳

top 5 books I haven’t read yet in 2021

I am SO glad this is the end. I don’t think I could go many more rounds of this 😅

• Aurora’s End — Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff ✅
• The Witch King — H. E. Edgmon ❌
• These Hollow Vows — Lexi Ryan ❌
• People We Meet on Vacation — Emily Henry ❌
• One Last Stop — Casey McQuiston ❌

Result: 1 / 5

Grand total: 14 / 54

YIKES!! That’s… yep. Look, 2021 wasn’t really anyone’s year to be honest. And this just proves my point, honestly. Anyway, onward and upward for 2022!!

How were all your predictions for 2021??

Did you read what you thought you would??