A new year means a time to make resolutions, and for us book lovers, some of those may be bookish resolutions. For me, my TBR pile is beginning to get out of control, so I would like to make a good dent in it this year. There are also many specific books that I am particularly interested to get to, either because they’ve been in my pile for ages or because I intended to read them last year and never got a chance. For these reasons, I’ve decided to make specific lists of both standalones and series that I want to get to in 2016.
I am determined to get to most if not all of these books that I’m listing, so I definitely plan on checking back periodically throughout the year to see what I’ve completed. Essentially, these are my 2016 book bucket lists! I’ve already written a post about series and trilogies that I plan on starting this year, so I’ll keep this list mainly to standalones that I would like read (with a few exceptions). If you want to check out my series and trilogies TBR, click here!
1. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn – My goal is really to read the rest of Gillian Flynn’s books this year (so Sharp Objects as well), but I figured I’d just include one in this list. This is on my January TBR, so I’m hoping that it will be one of my first reads of the year. I can’t wait to dive into another one of her novels, even though I’m going to be sad when I run out of books!
2. More Than This by Patrick Ness – I read A Monster Calls about a year and a half ago now, and it is absolutely insane that I have not read anything else by Patrick Ness yet. On top of starting the Chaos Walking trilogy, I would also really like to read this novel. Patrick Ness’s writing is beautiful and some of the best that I have ever read, so I am incredibly eager to experience more of it.
3. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell – Though I own three, I have not yet read a Rainbow Rowell book. Now, contemporary romance type stories are not usually my thing, but I have heard such fantastic things about her work that I really want to give it a try. The plots for many of her novels also sound more like something I would enjoy than a lot of books usually found in the same genre. I would also like to read Fangirl this year, but I have decided to start out with Carry On, mainly because it sounds the most appealing out of all of her novels to me.
4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – I have been dying to read this book for a long time, and it has been sitting on my shelf for ages. I am so eager to experience all the epic nerdiness that is this book! Also, I purchased a copy of this for my dad for Christmas, so I’m hoping that we can read it together some time during the year.
5. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – This was one of the books on my “Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read” list from last year. Embarrassingly enough, I have never read any Tolkien novels; I’ve not even seen any of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit films. This totally hurts my film nerd, book nerd, and general nerd status! I’m planning to finally watch the films this year and, in terms of the novels, I would at least like to start out by reading this one before the end of 2016.
6. Alice by Christina Henry – I purchased a copy of this with a gift card from Christmas and I absolutely can’t wait to read it! If you’ve read my other posts, I’m sure you are already aware of my obsession with retellings/reimaginings. Take that and make it into a dark retelling and add a morally ambiguous villain? Yes please! I’ve already added it to my January TBR, so I’m planning for it to be one of my next reads.
7. This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee – Speaking of retellings, here’s another one! I saw a few reviews for this while browsing blogs and it sounded like my kind of story, so I recently picked up a copy. This book seems particularly interesting because it includes the actual publication of the story that it is a reimagining of (Frankenstein) as a plot point, something that I’ve never personally seen this type of novel do before. I have not heard all that much about it, but everything that I have heard has been very positive, so I’m interested in giving it a try.
8. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier – This was the top book on my “Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read” list. The film version of Rebecca is one of my favorite films of all time. I absolutely adore this story, but incredibly enough, I’ve never actually gotten around to reading the novel. I definitely want to fix that this year; I know that I am going to love reading this and experience the story again in a whole new way. And I’ll definitely be using this as an excuse to re-watch the movie for the millionth time!
9. Wool by Hugh Howey – This is one of the exceptions to my list of standalones because it is the first book in a trilogy. My dad got me a copy of this for Christmas, so I didn’t have it yet when I made my series and trilogies list. I must admit, the main thing that originally attracted me to this novel is the fact that it sounds a lot like one of my favorite series of games, the Fallout series. I’ve also heard nothing but fantastic things about this book and the entire trilogy as a whole, so I am very eager to get into this one.
10. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab – This is another exception to the standalone list because it is the only book out so far (though not for long) in the series. Since Vicious ended up being my favorite book of 2015, I am now on a quest to consume every Victoria Schwab book in existence. I hoping to read the sequel, A Gathering of Shadows, this year as well, so I may go ahead and marathon the two after that is released.
11. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes – This is yet another book that was on my “Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read” list. It was always in the list of options for summer reading when I was in school, but I never got around to choosing it. I’ve wanted to read this for ages, so I think it’s about time that I do!
12. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors of all time, yet I still have a couple of books of his sitting on TBR. I have also not read a novel by him in over a year, something that needs to be fixed at once! This definitely sounds like it is going to be a great one. I am hoping that I can get around to reading The Graveyard Book this year as well, but Neverwhere is my top priority at the moment.
13. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – Again, another book that was on my “Books I Can’t Believe I’ve Never Read” list. This is also another book I feel like I should have read in school but never did. We actually never ended up reading any Steinbeck at all in school, which, as an avid writer and reader, I definitely need to rectify. My dad, who is a big Steinbeck fan, got a copy of this for me for my birthday, so I really want to give it a read sometime soon.
14. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo – This is another exception to the standalones because, as of right now, this is meant to be a duology. I picked up a copy of this right after it was released last year but I never had an opportunity to read it. This sounds like it is going to be a fantastic read; the plot definitely seems right up my alley. I’m hoping to get to this one relatively early on this year because I am far too excited about it to wait any longer!
15. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin – I’ve mentioned many times before that I have been experiencing a massive Game of Thrones addiction these past few months since I started watching the show. Because of this, I have been desperately wanting to read any and all books even remotely related to the series. And, excitingly, I ended up getting a copy of this one for Christmas! I have the main series of novels on my series and trilogies TBR, so I definitely needed to add this one on here.
16. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee – Last but not least, I think that I finally need to give this one a go. I sort of ended up chickening out of it last year. As I’ve said before, I’m sure there is a good chance that it will turn out to be a lot better than I think it is going to be, and I really do want to read it. As long as I keep in mind that this is a first draft of To Kill A Mockingbird and not a sequel, I’m sure I will end up enjoying it.
What are some of the books on your TBR that you particularly want to get to in 2016? Let me know in the comments! 🙂
-Ariana
The Quirky Book Nerd 