Hello, bookworms!

As many people in the book community, I am an avid BookTube watcher; I have been following some of my favourite booktubers for years now, and every year the videos I wait for the most are the Best and Worst Books of the Year.

As I have mentioned at the beginning of 2022, one of my goals for the year was to make more creative content here on the blog, so I thought… Why don't I combine my BookTube binge watching with something a bit more useful, like writing a blog post? So, today I am here to share with you the books I'm planning to read in February, but with a twist.

Between December and January, I have watched a grand total of 52 videos of Favourites of 2021 (I have made a playlist on YouTube, which is public and you can find here); while I was watching the videos, I would write down each title that came up — including the ones that were honorable mentions — on an Excel document (this is also public and you can find it here) and who mentioned it. After a while, some titles began to come up again and again, so I have chosen the most popular ones and will be spending the month of February reading them. I had to twist the rules a bit, but don't worry, I am going to explain in a second.

In this article, I am going to walk you through a bit of the process. In the follow-up at the end of the month, I will be sharing my thoughts on the books I've chosen. I have watched videos both from creators I follow or know of and creators I had never heard of; I have tried to diversify the research as much as possible and I have tried to pick BookTubers that read across as many different genres as possible, but of course it will never be a completely unbiased result, as with all statistics. After that, I went on and excluded all the books I'd already read (in pink) and the ones I knew for certain were sequels (in green). 

Among the remaining ones, there was one book that came up 9 times, so I knew I had to read it. I was shocked to know that 9 out of 50 people put People We Meet on Vacation By Emily Henry on their favourites, because they are not all only romance readers. 

Then there were three books which appeared 7 times, one of which I'd already read (The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake) and one of which was a sequel (JadeLegacyby Fonda Lee). My original plan was to exclude all sequels, however — since the first and second were mentioned either as past favourites or 2021 favourites — I have decided to read the first book, Jade City, as the series as a whole has been a huge part of BookTube this year. The last book that came up 7 times is A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson, which I am very happy is on the list, as I was planning on reading it soon anyway.

Here's where I started twisting the rules, because The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin was mentioned 6 times, along with Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert. Since also Chloe and Dani were mentioned, I should have done the same thing I did for Jade War. However, I am not remotely interested in any of the Brown Sisters books and I am not ready to start The Fifth Season. So, I decided to exclude Get A Life Chloe Brown and The Fifth Season because they are both book I have previously owned and then unhauled. I am sorry for the die hard fans of these two series, but I can't do it this time.

With 5 mentions each, we have Heartstopper, vol. 4 by Alice Oseman (which I have of course already read), TheLoveHypotesisby Ali Hazelwood, Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (which I have read and hated, thank you very much), They Never Learn by Layne Fargo (which was also one of my 2021 favs) and The House in the Cerulean Sea (which I don't want to support, see here) by T.J. Klune. I have chosen to read The Love Hypotesis, because it was everywhere in 2021 and I felt it was very representative of the year. Was TikTok right? Were booktubers influenced by the hype? Stay tuned to find out. I've also chosen Malibu Rising because I have had it on my TBR for the longest time and I even had an e-ARC for it.

Now, for our final picks. All these books were mentioned 4 times: Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko, The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang, Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston, If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio (my absolute fav of 2021), Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (read), Beach Read by Emily Henry, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, A Good Girl's Guid to Murder by Holly Jackson (in my own top three of 2021) and Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (in my top three), On Earth We Were Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. I have of course excluded the ones I have already read + Beach Read because I was already going to read the other Emily Henry's books. I then picked Amari and the Night Brothers and Legendborn because they were already on my TBR.

However, since I am a masochist, once I was left with these 7 books I told myself… Why don't I make it ten? So, I also decided to try and read Raybearer. Project Hail Mary and The Sword of Kaigen both intrigued me, but they were too long and I wouldn't have time; On Earth We Were Briefly Gorgeous is at the top of my TBR, but I feel like it's going to be extremely hard-hitting and I have a busy month ahead, so I had to choose bewteen the books that were mentioned three times.

So I was only left with the last two books to pick. I am not going to list all the books that were mentioned three times (you can find them in the Excel file), so trust me on this one. Since I had it on my February TBR I picked In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead and since I was going to read it anyways for booksandlala's Literally Dead Book Club, my tenth and last pick is Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby.

So, to recap, these are the ten books I will read for this "experiment":

✏︎ People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry (adult romance);
✏︎ Jade City by Fonda Lee (adult fantasy);
✏︎ A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson (adult gothic horror);
✏︎ The Love Hypotesis by Ali Hazelwood (adult romance);
✏︎ Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid (adult historical fiction);
✏︎ Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston (middle grade fantasy);
✏︎ Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (young adult fantasy);
✏︎ Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko (young adult fantasy);
✏︎ In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead (adult thriller);
✏︎ Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby (adult thriller).

I cannot wait to read them all and see what I think of them. Let me know if you've read any of them and which one you think will be my favourite among these ones. See you soon!

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