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.
