Nomes from Inkcrush is back with her Faves of 2011 meme! You guys may have seen my post months ago with the Faves of 2011 (So far), and this one is to sum up the year that was “Twenty Eleven”. You can check out the five days’ themes and their categories at Inkcrush and join in yourself!

Day Four: The Random

1. fave first sentence

I am going to make this first paragraph, I don’t think you often get out much from a sentence. Mine is “It has been sixty-four years since the president and the Consortium identified love as a disease, and fourty-three since the scientists perfected a cure. Everyone else in my family has had the procedure already. My older sister, Rachel, has been disease free for nine years now. She’s been safe from love for so long, she says she can’t even remember its symptoms. I’m scheduled to have my procedure in exactly ninety-five days, on September 3. My birthday.” This is from Delirium by Lauren Oliver. The book had me hooked from that paragraph onwards!

2. fave book title

I was so intriqued by Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake simply because of it’s title. Turns out it’s an amazing book too, but I love the title!

I also liked Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion which is a zombie romance (yes you read that right!), and the title is so fitting.

3. fave reading experience (ie: created a great reading memory)

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin - I was in a good emotional place at the time I chose to read that book. And I read it in ONE sitting at Gloria Jeans cafe. It was one of those books where you read and read and can’t put it down and time just moves around you. And before you know it, you’re the loner that’s been at the cafe on her own all day. LOSER. lol But it was a great book. It reminds me of coffee and hot chocolate. :)

4. book with the best food in it (made you so crazy-envious-hungry)

OMG Sweetly by Jackson Pearce. I mean… it features a chocolate/candy shop. And Jackson Pearce made me so hungry whilst describing in great detail the delicious chocolates and candies that were created in that shop. Sweetly made me gain weight - because I ate a lot whilst reading it!

Runner up is Anna & The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins….. all that French food, are you serious? Drool!

5. book with the most sensual weather (made you shiver/sweat)

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater had such descriptive passages about the cold setting in as well as the layers of snow. The colder it got, the closer Sam was to changing back into a wolf for good. So the weather was a pivotal part of this book.

6. most embarrassing book cover (feeling sheepish in public or just plain ugly)

Since I am 27, any books that have an over the top teeny looking cover usually end up with me keeping the book face down when I am on the bus or train! There was probably only really two books this year where I felt a little silly - just to clarify, I really enjoyed the covers themselves, they were both completely cute. But just not cute in public. haha

Shut Out by Kodi Keplinger has a young girl on the cover with war paint on her cheeks.

The other book was Babe In Boyland by Jody Gehrman which was a cute cover of a girl with big eyes holding up a finger under her nose that has a moustache painted on it. REALLY eye catching and great for it’s target audience, but as I’m older than the target audience I felt a little sheepish. lol

7. can’t believe you waited this long to read the book (!)

Oh I waited so long before I got around to reading Wither by Lauren De Stefano. And I promtly kicked myself hard for waiting so long before reading it, because it turned out to be one of my very favourite books of 2011! I am eagerly waiting for Fever to come out!

8. book you’d give your mum/sister to read

I gave BOTH my mum and sister (and recommended to like three of my friends) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Technically not a 2011 read for me, but it was the book I was recommending this year.

9. book you’d give your dad/brother to read

My dad/brother/male friends all really don’t read very much, to my great disappointment! But I wouldn’t hesitate recommending The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. A book from a male protagonists point of view and has a fair bit of gruff to it!

10. book you’d like to give your past-self to read (ie, me, when I was 15)

The DUFF by Kodi Keplinger. If only at 15 years of age I realised we ALL feel like The DUFF sometimes. Not just me! It would have been a great boost to the self esteem back then I am sure.

11. book that lived up to (or superseded the hype)

Anna & The French Kiss & Lola & The Boy Next Door both by Stephanie Perkins. So much hype surrounded these books, but the hype was so justified, and in Anna’s case I felt superseded it. Both are fun, feel good books, and you cannot help but get so caught up in the romance. I loved them both.

12. book you stayed the latest to finish (confess!!!)

I stayed up past 1am (on a work night this is unheard of for me!) to finish Sweetly by Jackson Pearce. There was a certain part in the book, and as soon as you got past that check point, it was like there was no going back. I needed to find out what happened, and was determined to finish it before sleeping!

13. book you were *dying* to get your hands on the most

Oh probably Shatter Me by Tehereh Mafi. I had actually pre-ordered this book on Book Depository, and they take about a week and a bit to get the order to Australia. In the meantime whilst waiting for the book to arrive I saw it at Big W here, and ended up buying it TWICE because I couldn’t wait for the pre-order. So I have a paperback and a hardcover version of the book due to my inpatience. Probably the best book I read in 2011 though so it was worth it!

14. fattest brick of a book you read (by page count)

I’m not entirely sure, but I know that recently when I read The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin that had 452 pages. And I read that in one sitting… there was a few orders for coffee that day! But it was definitely a chunker of a book.

15. killer cliffhanger award

SO many this year!!! 2011 is the year of the trilogy I believe. SO many books came out as #1 of a #3 part book series, and so I am pretty sure as a requirement of having a trilogy a cliffhanger was mandatory!

But the biggest ones go to:

Delirum by Lauren Oliver
Divergent by Veronica Roth
The Devouring by Simon Holt
Everneath by Brodi Ashton