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In case you missed the best books lists we're reminding some of the Top Books Lists created by BookLikes book bloggers. Let's see which book were the most popular among BookLikes' book bloggers in 2014.

Best Books of 2014! by Char's Horror Corner

First the authors that each had two books on my list:

The Cormorant and Wakening the Crow by Stephen Gregory. This was my favorite author discovery of the year and The Cormorant my favorite book.  Mr. Gregory is an author of stunning prose and originality. I will faithfully purchase whatever books he puts out for the rest of my life. (A big thank you goes out to Valancourt Books for this discovery!)... read more & see all top books

Best of 2014 by E.

Not everything on this list was published this year. Not everything on this list will be to your liking. I'm not doing a Worst Of List this year, because who needs all that negativity, really? You can click on the title of each book to read my review. If you would like a rundown of all the books... read more & see all top books

Best Books of 2014: Non-Fiction by Literary Ames

Here are my top 12 non-fiction reads of 2014, covering health, politics and feminism... read more & see all top books

My Top 14 YA Books of 2014 by KARIN'S BOOK NOOK

#1: GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE by Andrew Smith

Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the story of how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa. To make matters worse, Austin's hormones are totally oblivious; they don't care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation... read more & see all top books

Best Paranormal Romance Reads 2014 by Cat's Books: Romance

I adore Paranormal, Science Fiction and Fantasy Romance. I adore it so much I feel like a a plate spinner at a middle school talent show just trying to keep up with all my series and the new good stuff. I know I missed a lot of great reads from new to me authors and ones for which I have long standing love. I hope to catch up next year. Here are my best Paranormal Romance Reads of 2014... read more & see all top books

5 Star Reads of 2014 by Jessica (HDB)

In the world of Jessica, five star ratings are not given lightly. I'm lucky if I find one or two books a month that really blow me away, and make my "I'm going to shout love for this to the ends of the Earth" list. This year I devoured 200 books and, of those, only 29 made the cut. Out of those, I've chosen a few to highlight. Let's take a look, shall we?... read more & see all top books

Some Of My Favorites From 2014 by Bookfanatic

I stopped at 10 and I tried to stay away from series because well that would have created a whole other problem as in a really, really long list. I read a lot of books in 2014 that I really, really loved. I started out thinking that I could make myself pick just one and in my mind one quickly became 5 and 2 books into this list 5 became 10. So this is where I make myself stop... read more & see all top books

Favorite Reads of 2014 Part I: Interesting Facts and My Top Ten by The Reading Perusals of Rose Summers

So, in total for this year, I've read 168 books (maybe slightly more because there were some I didn't mark, but I know it was less than 200), which is way, way less than my total from 2012 (which was 365 books), and far less than the goal I set for myself this year (450)... read more & see all top books

Best Book Covers and Book Titles in 2014 by HFK

You should never judge a book by its cover, but it happens. This year I bought lots of books with beautiful covers, but unfortunately only read few with covers that I would label as doable... read more & see all top books

Books I Read and REALLY Liked in 2014 by Batgrl: Bookish Hooha

I've been enjoying everyone's end of year summings up (in various fun forms) and thinking on making one of my own - and I couldn't quite come up with a way to rank anything. Which is I suppose what happens when you end up reading a variety of random things. Anyway, there's no order to this - except I have a particular fondness for the first book mentioned. History wins out this year, which isn't always the case... read more & see all top books

My Top Books of 2014 by hippieed perceptions

As I was going through my read book list, I realized that this year kind of sucked for reading for me.  The few that I loved, I really really loved though, so I guess that is something.  I did kind of cheat because I added Geek Love even though I'm not quite done.  When you know, you know though... read more & see all top book

My Top Books of 2014 by YA FANATIC

As I near my 200 book goal I want to share with you my top books of this past year. I've read many not so great books but have also found some new favorites. I also started listening to audiobooks, several of my favorites are because I listened to them. These are in no particular order (except maybe the first one). Enjoy... read more & see all top books

Books Read in 2014 by Ani's Book Abyss

As it stands, it isn't easy to narrow 150 books down to a Top Ten list.  And so I chose to re-format my list just a little bit.  I also needed to account for the fact that I like Young Adult novels differently than I like Adult and non-YA novels--Yes, there is a difference in how I perceive a book dependent on target audience. Without further ado, and in no particular order... read more & see all top books

Top 14 Reads of 2014 by Book Sand Worm 

Keep in mind that by “favorite”, I mean this list is very subjective. In looking back, these are the ones that I enjoyed the most even though I read a lot of very good books this year... read more & see all favorite books

Top Ten Reads of 2014 by Unabridged Chick

I read about 50 books for 2014, which is a huge drop from my typical year (almost by half!). Pregnancy, and the resulting baby, are to blame, and while I'm a little disappointed, the aforementioned baby -- our Little Reader -- is so frickin' cute, I kind of can't care. I still walked away with some stellar reads for 2014, and once again, had a challenging time identifying the top ten of this year.  In the end, I picked the books I still talk about obsessively, that I purchased (for myself and/or others), and that I want to reread or force others to read... read more & see all top books

Best of 2014 - Part 1 - The Reliables & Part 2 - The Overachievers by Tina's Reading Books

Part 1: My 2014 reading year was much better than my 2013 reading year.  Not in volume, because I read about the same number of books.  But In quality. In 2013 I  had a massive reading slump and was down 75% in my total reading for the year as compared to 2012.  Nothing seemed to work for me past a few strong installments in long running series and  couple of new-to-authors that came out strong. In contrast, 2014 started out strong... read more & see all top books

Part 2: So as I look over my reads this year and compare them to the physical books I've amassed over the last 30-ish years on my shelves, I am struck by the difference in page lengths. Which in a round-about way brings me to this segment of my Best of 2014.The Overachievers are the two authors whose works this year was so good that I had to include two of their books in my top ten.  A rarity for me... read more & see all top books

You may also want to have a look at: 

•  The Highlights, The Favourites and The Flops of 2014 by Scarlet's Web
• Favorite Reads of 2014 - TOP 10 by MAY'S BOOKS
• Rose's Favorite Reads of 2014 - Part II: Superlatives by The Reading Perusals of Rose Summers
• 5 Best Mystery Books Of 2014 by New Books and More
• Best of 2014 - Part 3 - The Newcomers by Tina's Reading Books
• Best of 2014 - Part 4 - The Honorables by Tina's Reading Books
• Worst Reads in 2014 by HFK
• Nonfiction I Liked in 2014 by carriemesrobian
• 89 Books for 2014 by LOVE ME SOME BOOKS
• BEST OF 2014 by IT'S A MAD MAD WORLD
• Top 14 of 2014 by Too Fond Of Books
• Best reads of 2014 by Lora's Rants and Reviews
• A Selection of Recommended Books of 2014 by Reading Rainstorm
• Top Sellers from 2005 to 2014 by VALANCOURT BOOKS
• A round up of my reading year, my 2014 5* Reads and what's on for 2015 by Kitty Horror
• Best Books of 2014 by Wit and Sin
• Best things I've read and watched in 2014 by Familiar Diversions
• Worst things I've read and watched in 2014 by Familiar Diversions
• Year in Reading 2014 by The Fish Place
• 2014 Wrap Up by Bookworm Blurbs
• My 2014 Reads by Susana "Lost in Fantasy Land"
• My Top Reads in 2014 (Excluding classics and rereads) by Jennifer's Books
• My Top Book of 2014! by Miles Exchange
• The books I enjoyed most in 2014 and the ones I'm already looking forward to in 2015 by Audio Book Junkie
• Best Books of 2014 by sunsetxcocktail
• Bookish Personalities of 2014 by A GREAT BOOK STUDY
• Favorite Reads of 2014 by Tackling Mt. TBR

• 2014 Top 14 Books by SlowReader's Kingdom
• 2014 Edition - A Year of Reading in Review - The Best by Crystal Starr Light, Raging Snarky Stormtrooper Pony
• My top ten reads of the year by MandyM
• A BAKER'S DOZEN: My Off-The-Beaten-Path Favorites From 2014 by BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BOOK BLOG
• Best Contemporary, Best Historical, and Best of 2014 by Whiskey in the Jar Likes to Read
• Year in Review by Rachel the Book Harlot
• My Favorite Books of 2014 by Obsidian Blue

If we haven't included you top list, share it or add a link to your blog post in the comments box below. 

23/8 - The blurb on GR makes me think the book is going to be a cross between Robin Sloan's Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore and a book from Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series - books within books, characters aware that they are being read, and a detective story all at the same time. Sounds crazy weird and like a book that a reader's either going to get and love or not and hate. I hope I love it. Here goes... To be continued...

2 mins, 5.5 lines later - LOL! Laughing (in a good way) within six lines must be a record. Here's the passage that set me off

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a Winter's Night a Traveller. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell the others right away, "No, I don't want to watch TV!" Raise your voice - they won't hear you otherwise - "I'm reading! I don't want to be disturbed!" Maybe they haven't heard you, with all that racket; speak louder, yell: "I'm beginning to read Italo Calvino's new novel!" Or if you prefer, don't say anything; just hope they'll leave you alone.

It's uncanny how true to my life this is. With the exact same dialogue. It's almost like this particular edition of the book was written just for me. In fact my dad's watching footy in the other room (I'm in bed with the book and my laptop, but I can clearly the hear the commentary from here) and just a few minutes ago he tried to pester me into staying up and watching it with him. He called out to ask if I wanted to watch the footy and I yelled back no. Then he asked why I didn't want to watch the footy and I replied because I'm reading a new book that I've wanted to read for ages (I didn't mention Calvino's name as he wouldn't have a clue who he is/was). Then he tried to lure me with the fact that it's the family team playing (they've been losing for the last few weeks, maybe months now, so it wasn't much temptation), but to forestall any further conversations held at the top of our voices from one room to another, I ignored this last ditch attempt and wrote the first instalment of my review. He gave up after that. Best opening lines EVER !!

Later on page 34, after the chapter about the train station - Thank goodness for that opening chapter where Calvino told me to get rid of all distractions and find a comfy reading position. If I hadn't read that, and found it completely hilarious, I don't know whether I would have continued reading that whole train station section - that was weird. I can't tell you exactly what it was about, just that it was about a train station, or train stations in general. If you've already read If on a Winter's Night a Traveller then you'll know what I mean, and if you haven't I can't explain it to you, you'll just have to read it for yourself in order to understand. Despite the train station weirdness, which was a shock after the hilarity of the first chapter, I'm looking forward to continuing with the Polish book :0. To be continued...

27/8 - I'm enjoying the parts of the book where The Reader and Ludmilla are searching for the rest of the books that they've mistakenly begun reading thinking they were the continuing story from If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, but the 'books' themselves are just plain weird. If I started reading any of the books that have been featured so far I would DNF it and find something a bit more linear and less...I think existential is the word I'm looking for. To be continued...

Full list behind the link.

I don’t think there are. But the reason I don’t there are is complicated . . .

I don’t much like going to movies based on books. Especially if the book said movie is based on is a book that I L-O-V-E-D.

Take the Harry Potter movies—I don’t think I’ve seen them after Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I know I haven’t seen them beyond Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Why? Well, for a multitude of reasons, but all of those reasons can be boiled down to:

Fred and George.

Fred and George Weasley are one of the consistent highlights in Harry Potter (the books). They’re mischievous, they’re hilarious, they are NOT TO BE MISSED.

But missing them is exactly what happens in the movies.

If you’ve never read the books, then you don’t know what you’re missing, but if you have read them . . . the movie versions of Fred and George who occasionally stick their heads into a scene with a snarky comment is not going to cut it.

And Dobby. I’ll bet you that not a single person who had not read the books shed a tear when the Bad Thing that happens in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows happened.

But I did.

Last year, I read the entire series out loud to my husband who had never read it. It was the first time I’d read them since the last book came out, and I was a bit fuzzy on some of the things towards the end.

I had actually forgotten about the Bad Thing.

Until it happened.

Then I remembered. And I SOBBED. Like a baby.

And no one who hadn’t read the books is going to feel anything from the movies that intensely. It’s not possible. Too much had to be cut, too many personal thoughts that readers alone are privy to can’t be translated onto the big screen.

BUT.

That being said, there are people in the world—people who completely boggle my mind, but people nonetheless—who will NEVER read the Harry Potter books. Even if there wasn’t a movie they could easily watch, they still wouldn’t read the books. So for those people, better the movies than nothing at all.

And the same basic principle can be applied to any based-on-a-book movie.

What do you think?

Rest of the a-m-a-z-i-n-g reading places here.

Ancient library, Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

Chinese Garden at the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif. 

You can take the test here. I got The Shining, King's third published novel and first hardcover best-seller. Which Stephen King book are you?

** If you would like to have a proof copy of this one - leave a comment and a contact email address and a winner will be picked at random ***