Mid-Year Reading Reflection | What I Read in the First Half of 2019

Believe it or not, 2019 is already more than halfway over, and for us book bloggers, that means it’s time to talk about how we’re doing with our reading challenges and complain about how many new releases we still have to catch up on.

In all seriousness though, I do really enjoy getting the opportunity to reflect on the reading I’ve done so far this year.

Mid-Year Reading Reflection | What I Read in the First Half of 2019

A lot of the questions I’ll be using come from the Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag, but I’m adding/taking away a few as well. I’ll leave all the questions at the bottom of this post if you want to answer them on your own blog!

Book covers are from Goodreads and link to the books’ respective Goodreads pages.

1. How much have you read?

As you can see, I’m not doing too great with my Goodreads challenge at the moment. However, I still have hope that I can turn it around and complete my challenge by the end of the year. AND, the good news is that I’ve been liking the books I’ve been reading—my average rating so far this year is 3.9.

2. Favorite books of 2019 so far?

I’ve read a lot of books that I’ve really enjoyed, but here are the six that have earned full five-star ratings:

Read my review of The Art of Breaking Things

3. Favorite new series?

Crazy Rich Asians was an interesting reading experience for me, as I read it partially as an audiobook and partially as an ebook. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, and am very excited to both read the sequel and watch the movie adaptation.

The Fever King is also a good book, though I should probably reread it before starting the sequel because I read it so late at night that I don’t think I was able to really enjoy the story, and I also don’t remember a whole lot of the plot.

Read my review of The Fever King

4. Favorite sequels?

I have not read a whole lot of books so far this year that are parts of series, but I did read this novella sequel to When Dimple Met Rishi and it was adorable, of course.

5. New releases you need to read?

There are a bunch of books that have released this year that I really want to read, but these are a few of the ones that I’m most excited about.

When I was writing this post I went through my Goodreads list and literally wrote down 18 books that I could use for this question (and there wee others that I considered adding), but alas, I have to at least make it appear as though I’m caught up with new releases.

6. Most anticipated releases for the second half of the year?

I wrote a whole post on this topic not too long ago, but here are a few that I’m especially looking forward to:

7. Biggest disappointments?

I was definitely disappointed by Fake It Till You Break It, but on the bright side, this is really the only book I’ve read so far this year that I would consider a disappointment.

Read my blog tour post for Fake It Till You Break It

8. Biggest surprises?

I was interested by In the Neighborhood of True, but I didn’t know I was going to love it as much as I did, so that was a very pleasant surprise!

Read my review of In the Neighborhood of True

9. Favorite hidden gems?

I’ve been trying to avoid repeats, but I have to list In the Neighborhood of True again because I feel like it deserves so much more hype.

Read my review of In the Neighborhood of True

10. Favorite new author?

I finally got around to reading an Emma Mills book, and just like I knew I would, I loved it!

11. Newest fictional crush?

Sahil from From Twinkle, With Love, for sure.

12. Newest favorite character?

I have to go with Evelyn Hugo for this one. She’s so interesting and ambitious and flawed and just an amazing character.

13. Book that made you cry?

Two books have made me cry this year, and unsurprisingly, they’re both also favorites of 2019.

Read my review of The Art of Breaking Things

14. Book that made you happy?

I reread Jedi Academy recently, and it made me happy because it’s just so sweet and innocent and Star Wars-y.

15. Favorite adaptations?

I didn’t like that the Cameron Post adaptation left out a very large chunk of the book, but overall I thought the movie was pretty well done.

16. Favorite review you’ve written this year?

My review for In the Neighborhood of True‘s blog tour was my favorite review by far.

17. Favorite covers?

These all happen to be books that I enjoyed, and their covers are totally gorgeous.

Read my review of You Asked for Perfect

Read my review of The Art of Breaking Things

And that’s all the questions! In case you want to do this on your own blog as well, I’ll leave both the questions that I used and the original questions for the Mid-year Book Freak Out Tag below so you an copy/paste them:

Questions That I Used:

(click to view questions)

1. How much have you read?
2. Favorite books of 2019 so far?
3. Favorite new series?
4. Favorite sequels?
5. New releases you need to read?
6. Most anticipated releases for the second half of the year?
7. Biggest disappointments?
8. Biggest surprises?
9. Favorite hidden gems?
10. Favorite new author?
11. Newest fictional crush?
12. Newest favorite character?
13. Book that made you cry?
14. Book that made you happy?
15. Favorite adaptations?
16. Favorite review you’ve written this year?
17. Favorite covers?

Original Questions:

(click to view questions)

1. Best book you’ve read so far this year?
2. Best sequel of the year so far?
3. New release you haven’t read yet, but want to?
4. Most anticipated release of the second half of the year?
5. Biggest disappointment?
6. Biggest surprise?
7. Favorite new author? (debut or new to you)
8. Newest fictional crush?
9. Newest favorite character?
10. Book that made you cry?
11. Book that made you happy?
12. Favorite book to movie adaptation you’ve seen this year?
13. Favorite review you’ve written this year?
14. Most beautiful book you’ve bought or received so far this year?
15. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?
16. Favorite book community member?