Shauna's best of 2012 list

Books have brought a level of joy into my life this year that I don't even know how to find the words for. Let me tell you a little story. First of all, I've always loved to read. I was born with a need to want to write/read. I have a big imagination and I was the kid in the class who cheered when we had to write stories for creative writing. I happily wrote stories for homework and on my own as well. I had notebooks and notebooks of them. I also loved to read for fun often and going to the book store was one of my favorite things. However, that desire waned over the years, especially during college as keeping up with schoolwork was difficult enough. I was in college for a long time, and the thought of reading for fun, was just something I couldn't even contemplate while dealing with the stress of college. Once I graduated, I thought I could try getting into reading again, especially because my sister was always encouraging me to try and get into certain books. I did try, and failed. I picked up about four books over the course of four years and could only read about half of each. I was burned out, and I sadly resigned myself to the fact that I would probably never really be able to enjoy reading (and writing) like I wanted to again. But my sister didn't give up. She kept talking about Divergent and The Hunger Games, and I felt like I was missing out on something, huge. I told myself, okay, I need to really try, do to whatever it takes to get myself into reading again, so I made it my 2012 resolution   I admit, my total time away from reading was very lengthy, and it was like I was going in blind. One day last year, I went to Amazon. I immediately went to the YA section, saw some pretty covers and compelling descriptions and hit 'add to wish list'. Haha. I knew nothing of which books were popular (except the obvious ones and didn't know unless you were living in a cave). I was not on Goodreads yet, and had limited knowledge of the book-blogging world. I thought maybe if I could get back into reading, I'd be lucky to read maybe about dozen or so books during the year. So, last Christmas, a friend got me one of those I randomly put on my wish list. It was Across the Universe by Beth Revis. I opened it up and hoped for the best. I devoured it in a couple days. You could blame my obsessions with space/science-fiction, but, it reawakened something in me that I thought was long gone, and I knew, without a doubt, I was back into reading, in a way, I never was before. So to sum it up: For many, many years, I couldn't even get through one book, but this year I read 71 books, and opened my own book blog. I had no idea how much books would come to mean to me, and how much it would consume my daily life. I wouldn't have it any other way, because I've exposed to so many different kinds of stories (both YA & Adult) that have showed me new perspectives on life, and touched my heart in unexpected ways. So, without further ado, here's my top 20 books of 2012. To say this was hard, was putting it mildly. I struggled with this. I knew right away I couldn't just do ten. Anyway, there were a handful of others that could have easily made this list, but in the end, I had to go with my gut. All books are in alphabetical order, as I'm the worst at ranking things!    Were any of my picks some of your favorites this year?! Let me know in the comments! Happy new year everyone! <3