What books did I read in a year? How can you read more?

Hello and welcome to The Young Reader’s Review! After watching many “What/How many books did I read in a year” videos on Youtube, I was very tempted to make a post of the sort myself since I enjoyed watching this content. After doing a poll on Instagram (add this blog on Instagram; link in sidebar!) where you all ever so kindly expressed your support, I decided to go through with this idea. Now, I started this list at the beginning of August last year (so pretty much a year ago) so here are the books that I read in an entire year. I hope that this might also give you some ideas to which books you could read in the near future! As a side note, I read all of the books in their original language except for those in German, Japanese and Russian since I unfortunately do not master those languages (yet). I also decided to include novellas and plays since I found that reading, for example, a Shakespearean play can be a more difficult read compared to some young adult novels. Anyway, here are the books in the order that I read them in ( if you have any questions regarding these books, whether that be my opinion or what they are about, feel free to ask me in the comment section): 

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (novel) 🇺🇸
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (anthology) 🇬🇧
Le Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac(novel) 🇫🇷
Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan(novel) 🇫🇷 
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(novel) 🇺🇸
L’Assommoir by Emile Zola (novel) 🇫🇷
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (novel) 🇺🇸
Confusion (Verwirrung der Gefühle) by Stefan Zweig (novel) 🇩🇪
The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife (La Zapatera Prodigiosa) by Federico García Lorca (play) 🇪🇸
The Call of the Wild by Jack London (novella) 🇺🇸Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (novel) 🇬🇧
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (novella)🇺🇸
The Aspern Papers by Henry James (novella)🇺🇸
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne (novel) 🇺🇸
Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Crónica de una muerte anunciada) by Gabriel García Márquez (novel) 🇨🇴

The Plague (La Peste) by Albert Camus (novel) 🇫🇷
Phèdre by Jean Racine (play) 🇫🇷
A Man’s Place (La Place) by Annie Ernaux (novella) 🇫🇷
On Beauty by Zadie Smith (novel)🇬🇧
Sentimental Education (L’Education Sentimentale) by Gustave Flaubert (novel) 🇫🇷
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt (novel) 🇺🇸
Caminos de Libertad by Maite Carranza (novel)🇪🇸
Othello by William Shakespeare (play) 🇬🇧 
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (novel) 🇬🇧
Dangerous Liaisons (Les Liasons Dangereuses) by Choderlos de Laclos (novel) 🇫🇷

Remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro (novel) 🇬🇧
Zadig by Voltaire 🇫🇷
The Huron (L’Ingénu) by Voltaire (novella) 🇫🇷
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (novel)🇬🇧
Tartuffe (Le Tartuffe) by Molière (play) 🇫🇷
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (novel) 🇬🇧
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (novel) 🇺🇸
Les Caractères by La Bruyère (collection of portraits and maxims) 🇫🇷 
For Whom the Bells Toll by Ernest Hemingway (novel)🇺🇸 
L’Affaire du Chevalier de la Barre by Voltaire (essay collection) 🇫🇷
Howards End by E.M. Forster (novel) 🇬🇧
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (play)🇬🇧
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (novel) 🇬🇧
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (play) 🇬🇧
We (Мы) by Yevgeny Zamyatin (novel) 🇷🇺
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (novel in three volumes) 🇯🇵
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (novel) 🇺🇸
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (novel) 🇬🇧
Colonel Chabert (Le Colonel Chabert) by Honoré de Balzac (novella) 🇫🇷
Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut (novel) 🇺🇸 

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (novel) 🇺🇸
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (novel) 🇷🇺
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur (poetry book) 🇨🇦
La Curée by Emile Zola (novel) 🇫🇷
L’Ile des Esclaves by Marivaux (play) 🇫🇷
A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin (novel) 🇺🇸 
Britannicus by Jean Racine (play) 🇫🇷
No Trifling with Love (On ne badine pas avec l’amour) by Alfred de Musset (play) 🇫🇷
Dom Juan by Molière (play) 🇫🇷
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare (play) 🇬🇧
The Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley (essay) 🇬🇧
No Exit (Huis Clos) by Jean-Paul Sartre (play) 🇫🇷
Love in Time of Cholera (El amor en los tiempos del cólera) by Gabriel García Márquez (novel) 🇨🇴
Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman (novel) 🇺🇸
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (novel) 🇨🇦
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams (novel) 🇬🇧
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot (long poem) 🇺🇸
Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare (play) 🇬🇧
Alcools by Guillaume Apollinaire (poetry book) 🇫🇷
Poèmes saturniens by Paul Verlaine (poetry book) 🇫🇷 
Swing Time by Zadie Smith (novel) 🇬🇧
Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo (novel) 🇫🇷
The Impromptu at Versailles (L’Impromptu de Versailles) by Molière (play) 🇫🇷
The Misanthrope (Le Misanthrope) by Molière (play) 🇫🇷
School of Wives (L’Ecole des femmes by Molière (play) 🇫🇷
La Critique de L’Ecole des Femmes by Molière (play) 🇫🇷
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (novel) 🇺🇸
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kessey (novel) 🇺🇸
Les Femmes Savantes by Molière (play) 🇫🇷
Le Cid by Pierre Corneille (play) 🇫🇷
A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin (novel) 🇺🇸
The Barber of Seville (Le Barbier de Séville) by Pierre Beaumarchais (play) 🇫🇷
The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham (novel) 🇬🇧

Paradise Lost by John Milton (long poem in twelve volumes) 🇬🇧
The Seagull (Чайка) by Anton Chekhov (play) 🇷🇺
The Red and the Black (Le Rouge et le Noir) by Stendhal (novel) 🇫🇷
A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees by Yoshida Kenko (essay collection) 🇯🇵
House of Spirits (La casa de los espíritus) by Isabel Allende (novel) 🇨🇱
Aspects of the novel by E.M. Forster (essay collection) 🇬🇧
Ved Vejen by Herman Bang (novella) 🇩🇰

There you go. I’m personally very happy with what I managed to read in a year since I think that I truly challenged myself by reading imposing oeuvres that I would’ve never imagined being capable to read such as Moby-Dick, The Canterbury Tales or Paradise Lost and I believe that what I read was quite diverse (different genres, different languages, different themes…). On the other hand, I’m going to be quite self-critical with myself on this point but I would like to read more tragedies and more books in Danish this year. 

Now, enough with me. How can you read more? Unfortunately, for many, reading is a chore: Americans read a mean average of twelve books a year and a median of four. If you look up online “How to read more” you will find tips such as “Cut down time watching TV” or “Bring a book everywhere you go”. If you follow these “tricks” you will obviously read more but I believe that the problem lies in the fact that you are compelling yourself to read. We’re forgetting the most important element of reading: the book itself! Many people say “I don’t like to read” but that cannot be true; books vary so much in genre and style that it is impossible for there not to be one that is suited for you! In order to find the “perfect fit”, I recommend for example having a Goodreads account which is a sort of “literary social media” where you can keep track of the books you like. Goodreads will also consequesuggest books that resemble those you enjoyed. If you’re opting for a more “old-school” approach you can always go have a talk with your local librarian. 

Moreover, I think that it is important to stress that the quantity of books you read is not what matters; what matters is if you appreciated your journey in these different worlds of words. A number is not what defines you as a bookworm. Also, we all have different reading paces, reading habits and reading preferences so it is normal for some to finish more books than others. I personally believe that finding a passion in reading will be your biggest accomplishment. 

That is it for today! If you took pleasure in reading this post don’t hesitate to share it on social media and to give me a follow on Google + (https://plus.google.com/+MargauxEmmanuel ) and to follow this blog on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/theyoungreadersreview/ ). Also, I have a creative writing microblog on Tumblr (http://theinscrutableescapee.tumblr.com/ ) if that interests you. See you next time for a brand-new book review! ʕ•̀ω•́ʔ✧