Darian's 2013 Book of the Year

Hello! It's Darian again. I'm here with my bracket for the year of 2013. I have used Goodreads to help me track my book ratings for the year. 

My bracket consists of 32 books out of the 41 that I read this year. The way I decided which 9 didn't make it was to decide my favorite out of the ten 2 or 3 star books, which was The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle. This book went in with the other 4 and 5 star books. 

Here's the list of the 41 books I read in 2013:

(Since a lot of the books Darian read this year were from the Children's Illustrated Classics series, the versions can be difficult to find on Goodreads. Because of this, a lot of his books will not have pictures of the cover in the post.) 

1. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins : 5 stars

2. The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan : 5 stars

3. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger : 5 stars

4. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins : 4 stars

5. Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan : 4 stars

6. The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan : 4 stars

7. The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan : 4 stars

8. The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan : 5 stars

9. The Alchemyst by Michael Scott : 4 stars

10. The Magician by Michael Scott : 4 stars

11. The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan : 4 stars

12. The Sorceress by Michael Scott : 4 stars

13. The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting : 3 stars

14. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede : 4 stars

15. Doctor Doolittle's Circus by Hugh Lofting : 4 stars

16. The Lightning Thief: The Graphic Novel by Rick Riordan : 3 stars

17. Swiss Family Robinson - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

18. Huckleberry Finn - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

19. The Prince and the Pauper - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

20. Pinocchio - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 3 stars

21. The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

22. King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

23. Treasure Island - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

24. Oliver Twist - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

25. White Fang - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

26. The Jungle Book - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 2 stars

27. Beauty and the Beast - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 3 stars

28. Peter Pan - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

29. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 3 stars

30. Little Women - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 3 stars

31. The Wind in the Willows - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 3 stars

32. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

33. Great Expectations - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 3 stars

34. The Secret Garden - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 3 stars

35. A Little Princess - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 3 stars

36. The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

37. Gulliver's Travels - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

38. Frankenstein - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

39. Black Beauty - Treasury of Illustrated Classics : 4 stars

40. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card : 5 stars

41. The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan : 4 stars

The way I got each candidate was by taking the 4 and 5 star books, as well as The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle and putting them randomly into a slot with a number generator. The way I decided who won out of each two was to take my rating of them and if there was a 4 and a 5 then the 5 would win. If there was a 4 and a 4 or a 5 and a 5 I would choose the one that I liked best and they would make it to the next round. Here is my bracket of the 32 candidates:

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card won as my favorite book that I read in 2013. Choosing between The Lost Hero and The Throne of Fire was pretty hard because they're both by the same author (Rick Riordan) and his way of writing is really good. Other ones, like Serpent's Shadow vs. Ender's Game were pretty close. I would say that the final two was probably the hardest out of all.

At first, Ender's Game seems kind of mellow, but then it gets into more of an action type of book. It seems to change the theme from action to mystery to all sorts of other ones. Finally, at the end, everything is solved and although it does leave off all of a sudden, it leaves off at a good place so that it doesn't leave you wondering about that much.

The Lost Hero did include humor and action and adventure, but it really just didn't have that many mysteries. It was kind of plain. (Although there is one large mystery of that series.) It was just more ordinary of a book than Ender's Game.

The genre of Ender's Game is sci-fi adventure and action with a hint of mystery. I would recommend it to people who can oversee the military part of it and the children cussing. I really loved this book because it was just awesome and there is always something that you're not expecting.

This year I'm going for 32 books again to make a good bracket. I am planning on finishing up some of the series that I have left, such as The Lost Hero series, the Ender's Game series, and the Alchemyst series. I'm planning on going after some harder books than the Illustrated Classics, maybe even the originals.

I'm planning on the next blog post from me being when I finish the current book I'm reading, Jane Eyre. I've started with the children's version, but I'm going to switch to the original. I'm planning on doing reviews on books that I give 4 and 5 star ratings this year.

I recommend that you look through my bracket and see some of the books and compare them for yourself. I definitely recommend (if you can get past the bad parts) reading Ender's Game. I also recommend The Lost Hero and its entire series.