January was awesome! I blame the Vampire Academy series for reading much more than usually – I was glued to the pages and literally couldn’t put the books down. I was also able to finish four other books that had been on my currently reading shelf for up to 10 months – and sneak in two short horsey novels to pump up my TBR pile statistics …

It’s 3 a.m. in the morning and Mama Readingrat’s paper children have kept her up telling her stories of their adventures. Now she puts them to bed and tucks them into the 21-stories bunk bed on the night stand, bids them good night, and turns to her blog, feeling tired and exhausted – because there are 21 of them, all vying for her attention. And that are only the ones closest. She loves her charges very much, all 1800-something (yes, she has lost count) – whether they are newborn babes or elderly ladies and gentlemen. As soon as she adopted them, they became her precious children and if she can help it, most will stay with her as long as she lives since she has a hard time kicking out even the ones that disappoint her. But with adoption comes responsibilities – and sometimes, those worry even the most lighthearted hamstering readingrat …

Let me tell you: it’s not as exciting as it sounds. Quite the opposite, in fact. One would think that a book with such a premise – the X-men under a vicious Professor X on a mission to protect a secret space programme set in the historical dystopia of Communist Russia – would be thrilling and utterly nerve-wracking. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. What I got was a great idea weakly executed with flat characters, a forseeable twist, and a writing style and tempo that bored me to death. It speaks volumes that I rejoiced upon finishing it after an eight months hiatus. Maybe I just shouldn’t have picked it up again . . .

“I’m a book-buying addict, I’ve always been. I tend to buy more books than I will probably ever read and yet what happened in 2013 went far beyond my normal standards of crazy. I’ve never bought so many books in the course of one year before and I’m not even sure why I went over the top.”

That’s a quote from my 2013 round-up post. Well, if I’d known back then that 2014 would be even more crazy and over the top, I wouldn’t have mention it at all. I’m planning on integrating an extra page for stats comparison in the near future, but for now, just know that I almost doubled the number of books I aquired. That wouldn’t be that bad, if last year’s number hadn’t been 184 …

Each year, there’s a number of books I can’t wait to get my hands on, but as soon as I have them, it’s just not meant to be: I’m not in the right mood. I have to read other books first. I don’t have the time to reread the previous books in the series. I lose interest. Here is the top ten of said books in chronological order …

… that is the question! For many people, there seems to be an easy answer. There’s so much hating out there, it makes me sick to my stomach, especially since some people just can’t distinguish between Tauriel, a fictional character, and Evangeline Lilly, an actual person who breathed life into said character because that’s her job as an actress. Seriously, people, what the hell is wrong with you?! If you’re in for a Tauriel witch hunt, fine, suit yourself. Just keep Evangeline out of it. For what it’s worth, she did a bloody brilliant job. It’s not her fault that the material she had to work with turned the whole thing into a mess …

I’ve probably forgotten countless characters I love and would love reading more about, but here are a couple of favourites I do remember …