My 2018 in Books

At the begining of the year I’ve made a reading challenge: 30 books. I finished it fast, then raised to 52. After reaching that, I’ve updated the challenge to 60. In the end, I’ve read 85 books this year and this is my 2018 in books:

Goodreads has made an interesting statistics: I read 28,408 pages. The shortest book was The Great Fire of London by Samuel Pepys with 51 pages and the longest book was The Plantagenets by Dan Jones with 632 pages. The most popular was I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. The average rating for 2018 was 4.57 stars, a bit higher than goodreads says, because I gave half stars too, but that option is not available on goodreads.

there are 84 books in the picture because I’ve decided to skip one, where the content didn’t match the name. Instead of book VI and VII of the Republic by Plato it was printed Book IV.

I love statistics, so I’ve made one of my own. From the 85 books I’ve read this year, 26 were fiction and 59 were non-fiction. When it comes to fiction, I’ve read mainly regency books by two well known authors: Mary Balogh and Julia Quinn. Besides them, I’ve also read historical fiction by Philippa Gregory and a new author I’ve discovered by change, but love her books, Elisabeth Hobbes. Before Christmas I’ve started reading lots of novels, a more suitable read for this period. In early January I’m going to read more novels as I’ve started a couple of series and I’m very curious on what happens next.

When it comes to non-fiction, it gets complicated. I’ve read 25 History books, almost as many as fiction. After history, I’ve read 12 Memoirs and 7 Biographies. The lists continues with 6 Philosophy books (7 with the Allegory), 4 books for each of this subjects Politics & Economics, Psychology, and Science & IT. Finally, 2 books about Sport and 1 about Mathematics.

Here is the list of all the books I’ve read this year, in alphabetical order, by title. All of them have reviews on my blog. Only two reviews are going to be published in the next two days.

50 Philosophy Classics by Tom Butler-Bowdon – 4 stars
A Brief History of the Magna Carta by Geoffrey Hindley – 5 stars
A Crime in the Family by Sacha Batthyany – 5 stars
A Daughter’s Love by John Guy – 4.5 stars
A History Of Scotland by Neil Oliver – 3 stars
A Lab of One’s Own by Patricia Fara – 5 stars
A Wager for the Widow by Elisabeth Hobbes – 5 stars
Allegory of the Cave by Plato – – stars
An Armful of Animals by Malcolm D. Welshman – 4 stars
An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn – 4.5 stars
Angelica Stone by Susi Osborne – 5 stars
Black Tudors: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufmann – 4.5 stars
Changeling by Philippa Gregory – 5 stars
Chasing Black Gold by Robert Stone – 5 stars
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella – 4 stars
Courtiers The Secret History of the Georgian Court by Lucy Worsley – 5 stars
Crown and Country: The Kings and Queens of England: A History by David Starkey – 5 stars
Dark Tracks by Philippa Gregory – 1 star
Elizabeth of York: The First Tudor Queen by Alison Weir – 4 stars
Elizabeth: the forgotten years by John Guy – 4 stars
Enlightenment now by Steven Pinker – 5 stars
Everybody Works In Sale by Niraj Kapur – 3 stars
Exodus: immigration and multiculturalism in the 21st century by Paul Collier – 5 stars
Fools Gold by Philippa Gregory – 4 stars
Formula One Years by Timothy Collings – 3.5 stars
God is not great by Christopher Hitchens – 5 stars
Great War Britain Liverpool: Remembering 1914-18 by Pamela Russell – 5 stars
Henrietta Howard: King’s Mistress, Queen’s Servant by Tracy Borman – 5 stars
History by Peter Claus and John Marriott – 5 stars
Hope in a Ballet Shoe by Michaela DePrince, Elaine DePrince – 5 stars
How To Be a Tudor by Ruth Goodman – 5 stars
How To: Get Your Website Noticed by Filip Matous – 3 stars
Human Universe and Forces of Nature by Brian Cox – 2 stars
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai – 4 stars
In a Free Republic by Alison Plowden – 5 stars
Inner Harbor by Nora Roberts – 3.5 stars
Jane Boleyn by Julia Fox – 4 stars
Kings and Queens by Neil Grant – 4 stars
Mad Dogs And Englishmen by Ranulph Fiennes – 5 stars
Mary’s household tips & tricks by Mary Berry – 5 stars
Michael of Romania by Ivor Porter – 5 stars
My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella – 4 stars
On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt – 5 stars
Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness by Gillian Butler – 4 stars
Queens of the Conquest by Alison Weir – 3 stars
Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System by Alexander Betts, Paul Collier – 5 stars
Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn – 5 stars
Shopaholic Abroad by Sophie Kinsella – 4 stars
Shopaholic Ties the Knot by Sophie Kinsella – 4 stars
Simply Love by Mary Balogh – 5 stars
Simply Magic by Mary Balogh – 4 stars
Simply Perfect by Mary Balogh – 4 stars
Simply Unforgettable by Mary Balogh – 5 stars
Sister Queens by Julia Fox – 5 stars
Someone to Care by Mary Balogh – 5 stars
Someone to Hold by Mary Balogh – 5 stars
Someone to Love by Mary Balogh – 5 stars
Someone to Wed by Mary Balogh – 5 stars
Stormbringer by Philippa Gregory – 5 stars
The blacksmith’s wife by Elisabeth Hobbes – 5 stars
The Blank Slate The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker – 5 stars
The Blazing World and Other Writings by Margaret Cavendish – 4 stars
The colour of time by Dan Jones – 5 stars
The Duke and I by Julia Quinn – 4.5 stars
The Eudemian ethics by Aristotle – 5 stars
The Great Fire of London by Samuel Pepys – 5 stars
The People’s Queen by Vanora Bennett – 5 stars
The Plantagenets by Dan Jones – 5 stars
The Plundered Planet by Paul Collier – 4 stars
The Sect of Numbers: Pythagoras’ theorem by Claudi Alsina – 4 stars
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins – 5 stars
The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer – 5 stars
The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn – 4.5 stars
The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman – 5 stars
Thinking, fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman – 5 stars
This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay – 3 stars
Tilting by Nicole Harkin – 4 stars
Toxic parents by Susan Forward, Craig Faustus Buck – 5 stars
Unnatural Causes by Richard Shepherd – 5 stars
Upstairs & Downstairs by Sarah Warwick – 1 star
Walter Rothschild by Miriam Rothschild – 3.5 stars
Wars, Guns, and Votes by Paul Collier – 5 stars
What I Believe by Bertrand Russell – 5 stars
Wheelchairs, Perjury & The London Marathon by Tim Marshall – 4 stars
Wonders of the Solar System and the Universe by Brian Cox – 5 stars