I read more books than ever this year. My initial goal was to read 20 books and because of the joining the classics groups realizations below, I read 55! Most of them were read after June and even though I read a lot of short stories, the long ones made up for it. I read 17,774 pages for an average of 323 which is about the length of book I averaged in the past. 
 Up until this year, I thought all of these things sucked but I was wrong. 
 1.) Social media. Goodreads shows it can be about more than selfies and politics. There are so many great conversations without posturing or arguing. 
 2.) Audio & Kindle books - until this year, I had a thing against audio books, and to a lesser extent Kindle books. Now I've embraced them both especially when Audio and Kindle are combined with whispersync. It's a great way to get through long books. I absolutely love Goodreads feature of showing your kindle highlights when you want to. Physical books are still my favorite but now I love all three mediums. 
 3.) Short books, novellas and Tomes - I used to think the optimum book length was 300-350 pages and mostly only read those length novels and nonfiction. Now I've embraced short stories, novellas and Tomes and won't shy away from them in the future. 
 4.) Classics - I read mostly classics this year and found that I liked ones in all different genres that I never thought I'd like. 
 5.) Online book groups - I joined the Catching up on Classics Group only to read one book,The Name of the Rose, and it was such a great experience that I'm in for the long haul now. There are great people from all over the world and THE BEST moderators. 
 6.) Challenges - I used to think that Challenges were strange but now I get it! I loved the Classics BINGO challenge so much that I'm doing it next year and adding 2 more challenges. Now that I'm reading real long and real short books I wish Goodreads had a number of pages challenge too. 
 Favorite Books 
 Over 700 pages - tie - Bleak House by Charles Dickens and [[book:Don Quixote|3835] by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 
 Favorite Novella - Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote 
 Favorite short Story -The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy 
 Favorite book under 500 - Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe 
 Favorite Children/YA - The Secret Garden byFrances Hodgson Burnett 
 Favorite Non-fiction - Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow 
 Favorite Newer fiction - The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter