The hype of Christmas is in full shriek, and I’m smugly relieved to have completed the most important part of the shopping months in advance: I’ve already bought myself (and my sons) way to many the perfect amount of books to open Christmas Day. We are a dedicated family of bibliovores, and this year we even put our favourite reads of the year on our Christmas card^. (It’s going to become a tradition!)

I’m not game to count how many books I have languishing on my To Be Read piles – I can’t resist adding to their ranks, either. All my TBR titles are there at the recommendation of someone else, and while I’m trying to convince myself that I should make “Don’t add to my TBR pile without removing something else first!” my first and most-deathly-serious-with-huge-ghastly-consequences resolution, I already feel the edges of my determination crumbling…

So please, before the new year and freshly sprouted insanities thump my TBR pile, which book this year has had you besotted, captivated, incensed, encouraged, empowered, fascinated, jealous and/or shouting its praises (or holding it carefully to your chest, reluctant to share the breathtaking wonder) with the whole world?

And, do you have any book or reading related goals for 2014?

^Our choices were:

DS16 – Dragons of Darkness, edited by Orson Scott Card

DS11 – Fortunately the Milk, by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Skottie Young

Me – The Humans, by Matt Haig (as reviewed last week)