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Reading Challenges 2018

January 1, 2019 Leave a Comment

2018 has come to its end, and with that, I’m wrapping up things on the blog, and moving on from the last year, into a new year. The reading challenges I participated in this year were a lot of fun, but I wish I would’ve had the time to participate more. With my current schedule, I could only update the challenges once a month, but I didn’t really find the time to visit the challenges pages, or communicate with other people participating in this challenge, as I would’ve liked.

I didn’t participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge this year because I knew it would be tough to set a number now that I’m working full time, and juggling all that with studying, writing, and finding contractors for the home we’re building. I did participate in a few other challenges.

For the Netgalley Reading Challenge, I aimed for Silver level – 25 books. I ended up only reading and reviewing a miserable 2 books from Netgalley, so I didn’t win this challenge. Hopefully I’ll do better in 2019 but I have a nice line-up of Netgalley books waiting for my review right now, so I hope so!

The next challenge I participated in was the Beat The Backlist Challenge. I aimed to read at least 20 books from my backlist this year… but only managed to read 1 book from the backlist. Still some progress, but not as impressive as I had hoped. My plan is to make a list of books on my backlist for next year and cross them off one my one, hopefully that’ll help.

For the A-Z Reading Challenge 2018, I had to read books starting with every letter of the alphabet. I didn’t quite make it, but I made some good progress – I got 19 out of 26 letters.

Next up, for the New Release Reading Challenge, my goal was to read 61-100 new books this year… And I ended up reading 72, so that’s one challenge I completed! YAY!

Last but not least, I participated in the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge, for reading mystery books. I aimed for third level, reading 26-35 thrillers, but ended up only reading 14 books.

I think most of my failing has to do with lack of time, and with reading less books than usual. In comparison, I read 189 books in 2017 and only 79 in 2018, less than half of my usual number. I hope to read at least 100 books in 2019 but that migyht be stretching it.

I’ll be participating in a few challenges again next year, but I might drop a few and maybe participate in a few new ones. We’ll see. Happy New Year!

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Reading Challenges 2017

January 1, 2018 Leave a Comment

2017 has come to its end, and with that, I’m wrapping up things on the blog, and moving on from the last year, into a new year. The reading challenges I participated in this year were a lot of fun, but I wish I would’ve had the time to participate more. With my current schedule, I could only update the challenges once a month, but I didn’t really find the time to visit the challenges pages, or communicate with other people participating in this challenge, as I would’ve liked.

Anyway, time to look over my progress. As usual, I participated in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. My goal was to read 180 books this year and I succeeded, as I ended up reading 189 books in 2017. That’s a lot less than I read last year, but this number is more doable for me with my current time frame, combining work and writing, and I actually prefer it.

For the Netgalley Reading Challenge, I aimed for Silver level – 25 books. I ended up only reading 15 books from Netgalley, so I didn’t win this challenge. However (and this might just be me) but Netgalley started offering less and less books… at least in the categories I like, so I ended up not requesting that many books either.

The next challenge I participated in was the Beat The Backlist Challenge. I aimed to read at least 20 books from my backlist this year… but only managed to read 16 books from the backlist. Still some progress, but not as impressive as I had hoped.

For the Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge, I wanted to read 40 fantasy books last year – which I already admitted beforehand, was a pretty ambitious goal. Well, guess what? I made it! Not only that, but I read a whopping 54 fantasy books in 2017.

I also participated in the Dystopian Reading Challenge, but that was a total bust. I tried to read more dystopian, but I couldn’t even find more dystopian books. Is dystopian dead? I hope not, and that I’ve just been looking in all the wrong places. I had aimed to read 6-10 dystopian books, but ended up reading only a meager 3 dystopian books. Pretty sure I won’t be signing up for this challenge next year.

For the New Release Reading Challenge, my goal was to read 61-100 new books this year… And I ended up reading more! 125 of the books I read this year were new releases. Go me!

Last but not least, I participated in the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge, for reading mystery books. I aimed for third level, reading 26-35 thrillers, and ended up reading 37 thrillers. Another success!

So all in all, in terms of reading challenges, 2017 was a bit of a mixed bag. I won some challenges, failed some others. Ultimately, I had a lot of fun reading, and that’s the main reason why I’m doing this, right? On to 2018!

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Reading Challenges 2016

December 30, 2016 Leave a Comment

2016 is gradually coming to its end, and I’m wrapping up things on the blog, moving on from the previous year to the new one. As such, I wanted to look at my progress on my reading challenges.

As I do every year, I once again participated in the Goodreads Reading Challenges. This year, I’d aimed for 200 books read and reviewed – I actually managed to read and review 295 books this year (this includes both my regular reviews and mini-reviews), so not only did I finish this challenge, I added in an extra 50%.

For the Netgalley Reading Challenge, I had aimed for the highest category – hardcore, meaning I had to read and review 41+ Netgalley books. If I count in the mini-reviews then I made it (most of those are for Netgalley books) but not counting mini-reviews, I only managed to read and review 33 Netgalley books this year.

I also participated in the 2016 TBR Challenge. For this challenge, I had picked the second level, “A Friendly Hug”, which meant I had to read 11-20 books from my TBR pile. To qualify, books had to have been on my TBR pile prior to 2016, so no new releases or new ARCs. Eventually, I reviewed 11 books I’d had in my TBR pile prior to 2016, so I finished this challenge.

Probably my most successful challenge was the 2016 Horror Reading Challenge. I had aimed for the highest level, “Horror Hounds”, for which I needed to read 16+ horror books. I ended up reading 29 horror books last year, crushing this challenge.

The next challenge I signed up for was Flights of Fantasy. Fantasy used to be my favorite genre, but I found myself reading less of it the last few years. So I decided to participate and read more fantasy – and it worked. I didn’t want to overdo it, so I decided to aim for 20 fantasy books in 2016… And ended up reading and reviewing 55 fantasy books. I call that a success!

I also signed up for the Dystopia Reading Challenge. For some reason, I thought I read a fair amount of dystopian books. Either this year was a fluke, or my perception about that is completely wrong, because while I had signed up for 16+ dystopian reads which isn’t that much, I only ended up reading 5 dystopian books.

The next challenge I participated in was the 2016 New Release Challenge. As the title suggests, for this challenge, I had to read and review books that released in 2016. I aimed for the highest level, “New Release Enthusiast”, for which I had to review 45+ books that released in 2016. I ended up reviewing 84 new releases, winning this challenge.

The last challenge I participated in was the Cloak and Dagger Challenge, requiring me to read crime / thriller / suspense books. I’d aimed for the highest level, “Special Agent”, which required 31+ books read in this genre. I ended up reading 28 crime / thriller novels, so I didn’t reach my goal, but I did come close!

So what does this mean? I participated in 8 challenges, and I completed 5 of them. I didn’t complete the Netgalley challenge, except when you count my mini-reviews, and I almost completed the Cloak and Dagger Challenge. The Dystopian Challenge however, was a big fail. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job, and the challenges allowed me to broaden my horizon, and maybe pick up a book that was out of my usual comfort zone.

I plan on participating in about 8 challenges next year too – the number is doable for me, and I don’t want to push my luck and lift it up to 10. I’m pretty happy with how I did, in terms of reading, in 2016. Watch out 2017, because I might win all my challenges next year.

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2014 in a nutshell

December 31, 2014 Leave a Comment

goalsIt’s December 31st, and I can’t believe 2014 is…gone. Just like that. The year went by so fast it’s almost impossible to grasp. Before I start working on my reading resolutions for the new year, I wanted to focus on what I accomplished in 2014, in terms of reading.

According to Goodreads, I read a total of 401 books. That’s not including some books I couldn’t review on Goodreads because they weren’t on there (a small number, but still). Over 400 books. That’s a huge improvement from last year, and to be honest, it’s still a little surreal. Of course this includes some books I read before 2014 (say about 50) but that I didn’t get around to reviewing until this year. Still. 400+ reviews. I need a life, LOL. I’d started with a goal of reading 150 books, then I went up to 200, chose 250 by July, then had to go up to 350 again in September, and now surpassed even that goal. Wow.

This year, I participated in a bunch of challenges. The first one, the Netgalley Reading Challenge, was a huge success. I wanted to read 22 Netgalley books and ending up reading at least three times as much. I didn’t even keep track of the challenge the last few months, since I’d already won. You can see my progress here.

The second challenge, the horror challenge. God, I love horror books. I’d picked the maximum goal, 16+ books, and I think I must’ve read at least a 100. I started keeping track until about 40. You can find my progress here.

Next up, the 100 books a year challenge. Yeah…you can say I kind of shattered that goal. Hehe.

The dystopia challenge proved to be the hardest, but I still won that one as well. I read at least 11 dystopia books this year, and my original goal had been 7. See my progress here.

The last challenge was the YA reading challenge. I went for 30 books, and already surpassed that goal in June. Again, I didn’t keep track of it afterward, but I’m guessing the total must be around 60. My progress for this challenge is here.

 I took a little trip down memory lane and tracked down my resolutions for 2014. The ones I completed are scratched through.

  1. Read and review at least 200 books.
  2. Keep track of progress on reading challenges I signed up for.
  3. Write monthly round-up posts at the end of each month.
  4. Crosspost reviews on Goodreads, B&N, Netgalley and I Heart Yearly Reads.
  5. Add covers of reviewed books on Facebook.
  6. Add covers of received review copies on Facebook.
  7. Bring Netgalley review rate up to 50%.
  8. Bring Netgalley review rate up to 60%.
  9. Bring Netgalley review rate up to 70%.
  10. Organize my Goodreads shelves.

So I didn’t get all of them, but I still got  quite a few, and I’m pleased. Guess the Facebook covers will have to switch over to next year’s goals. My Netgalley ratio went up to 92% even!

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