You know on your Goodreads profile, there’s a page to see your “Year in Books.” It not only shows you all the books you’ve read that year (as the title implies) but also the shortest book, longest book, highest ranked, most popular, and least popular book you read that year. If you haven’t guessed by the title of this post, I am going to talk about the most popular book I have read for the past few years. The most popular book on Goodreads is based on the number of people who read the book.
Most Popular Book for 2019: Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days) by Susan Ee
It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister Penryn will do anything to get her back. Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.
Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.
Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where she’ll risk everything to rescue her sister and he’ll put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again.
I have read a lot of paranormal fantasy books in my days, and unfortunately they do tend to blur together. However, I do remember really enjoying this series. I liked the heroine Penryn and her motivation and character strength and Raffe had great character growth over the trilogy. I really liked the conclusion of the series was realistic and not all hunky dory, rose colored glasses on everything. It is YA, but I still found it enjoyable and not the angsty mess that usually accompanies that title. Clearly, I’m not the only one considering it’s reviews/ rankings on Goodreads.
Most Popular Book for 2018: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.
Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, for fifteen-year-old Christopher everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. Then one day, a neighbor’s dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructive universe is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of his favourite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. What follows makes for a novel that is funny, poignant and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world entirely literally
This book is incredibly fascinating and also a bit sad. Christopher was super cute and endearing and it was so interesting to read through is thought processes. I really just wanted to hug him throughout the second half of the book after his personal crisis, which is the sad part I referred to early (beyond the dead dog.) It is a super quick read.
Most Popular Book for 2017: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Tyrannical Nurse Ratched rules her ward in an Oregon State mental hospital with a strict and unbending routine, unopposed by her patients, who remain cowed by mind-numbing medication and the threat of electric shock therapy. But her regime is disrupted by the arrival of McMurphy – the swaggering, fun-loving trickster with a devilish grin who resolves to oppose her rules on behalf of his fellow inmates. His struggle is seen through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a seemingly mute half-Indian patient who understands McMurphy’s heroic attempt to do battle with the powers that keep them imprisoned. Ken Kesey’s extraordinary first novel is an exuberant, ribald and devastatingly honest portrayal of the boundaries between sanity and madness.
This is a classic and I am obviously not surprised to find this book as one of the most popular. The writing and imagery are great, though the themes of sexism and racism and disturbing practices towards the mentally ill present throughout the entire book are hard to read. That all being said, I loved the Chief Bromden as a narrator and I think this is one of those books that everyone should read at some point in their lives.
Most Popular Book for 2016: Allegiant (Divergent 3) by Veronica Roth
The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered – fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she’s known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories.
But Tris’s new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend to complexities of human nature – and of herself – while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love
Obviously this is the conclusion of the Divergent series. I actually really enjoyed the first book, but in my opinion, they slowly went downhill after that. I think this is one of the few books I have read where the ending is not HEA. Yes, while it may be more realistic, I read books knowing I want it to be unrealistic and wanting the couple to fall in love and justice to be restored and all those things that aren’t a given in real life. I wish they wouldn’t have split this film into 2 parts, because a) part 1 was awful, and b) it was totally unnecessary. I think the only film that ever needed a ‘part 2’ is Harry Potter, because those books are long af, and the movies still left out massive parts of the story to get it to a reasonable time frame
Thanks for reading! I always love randomly going back and looking at my year in review. I read a lot, especially this year with covid and quarantine and being unemployed. So I’ll give you an update at the end of the year about the embarrassing amount of books I have read haha. Stay tuned for my next post, Least Popular Books I’ve Read (according to Goodreads.)
The Travelling Reader 
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