2015 Year-End Challenge Wrap-Up

December 30, 2015 Challenges 16

As usual, I did really well with some of my year-long challenges but failed a couple of them pretty badly. Here’s where things stand as of Dec. 28, 2015:

 

Invalid challenge name.

I passed the challenge! My goal was 12 books. I read and reviewed 14, and read several others that I haven’t reviewed yet (but will try to get to.) I’m way behind in linking the reviews to the challenge page, but I’m calling this one finished!

 

Invalid challenge name.

Nailed it! My goal was 5 books; I’ve read and reviewed 9 (plus at least one that I haven’t reviewed yet.)

 

Cruisin' Thru the Cozies 2015

Cruisin' Thru the Cozies 2015

Host: Socrates\' Book Reviews (Yvonne)
Progress: 25/20 (125%)
1 January, 2015 — 31 December, 2015
Completed!

125
  1. Twisted Threads by Lea Wait
  2. The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham
  3. Death and the Redheaded Woman by Loretta Ross
  4. Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King
  5. The Accidental Alchemist by Gigi Pandian
  6. Ladle to the Grave by Connie Archer
  7. The Edge of Dreams by Rhys Bowen
  8. The Counterfeit Heiress by Tasha Alexander
  9. The September Society by Charles Finch
  10. Marked Fur Murder by Dixie Lyle
  11. A Fright to the Death by Dawn Eastman
  12. Shadow of a Spout by Amanda Cooper
  13. Henrietta Who? by Catherine Aird
  14. Deadly Desires at Honeychurch Hall by Hannah Dennison
  15. The Religious Body by Catherine Aird
  16. Dressed To Kill by Lynn Cahoon
  17. The Case of the Dotty Dowager by Cathy Ace
  18. Purl Up and Die by Maggie Sefton
  19. Murder at Barclay Meadow by Wendy Sand Eckel
  20. Thoreau in Phantom Bog by B. B. Oak
  21. The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch
  22. Threads of Evidence by Lea Wait
  23. A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn
  24. Home By Nightfall by Charles Finch
  25. Thread and Gone by Lea Wait

Blew past the goal post!  My goal was Level 4 – Sleuth Extradinaire = 20+ books. As of this writing, I’ve read and reviewed 26 cozy or cozy-historical mysteries. (I define “cozy” as not heavily violent and usually not featuring police as the primary detectives, with some exceptions to the latter — Aird’s and Marsh’s mysteries in particular.)

 

Fairytale Challenge 2015

Fairytale Challenge 2015

Host: The Daily Prophecy
Progress: 4/5 (80%)
1 January, 2015 — 31 December, 2015
Failed

80
  1. Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen
  2. The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey
  3. Valiant by Sarah McGuire
  4. A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston

Made it! My goal was Magic Mirror (5-9 books), and I read and reviewed 6 books that count toward this challenge. I also read Winter, but [hangs head] I haven’t reviewed it yet.

 

PopSugar 2015 Reading challenge

PopSugar 2015 Reading challenge

Progress: 14/25 (56%)
1 January, 2015 — 31 December, 2015
Failed

56
  1. Death and the Redheaded Woman by Loretta Ross
  2. Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen
  3. Dreaming Spies by Laurie R. King
  4. The Accidental Alchemist by Gigi Pandian
  5. The Edge of Dreams by Rhys Bowen
  6. The Counterfeit Heiress by Tasha Alexander
  7. The Amazing Thing About the Way It Goes by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
  8. Valiant by Sarah McGuire
  9. Night Moves by Nora Roberts
  10. The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith
  11. Evergreen Springs by RaeAnne Thayne
  12. A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston
  13. Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix
  14. The Martian by Andy Weir

Oh, well. I had challenged myself to do half of the categories (25 books). In the end, I only managed 18, mostly because a lot of the books I read didn’t fit the categories. You can see all the categories here, or click on the titles to see which category each book met.

 

Top of the Hoard 2015

Top of the Hoard 2015

Host: Lark @ The Bookwyrm\'s Hoard
Progress: 2/20 (10%)
1 January, 2015 — 31 December, 2015
Failed

10
  1. The September Society by Charles Finch
  2. The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch

FAIL! I wanted to read 20 books from my existing TBR pile/list. So far, I’ve only managed 3 reviews, although I’ve read 5 books in all. (Still unreviewed are An Uncivilized Yankee and Summers at Castle Auburn.) I’m counting this a total and ignominious FAIL.

 

2015 Reading Challenge

2015 Reading Challenge
The Bookwyrm’s Hoard has
completed her goal of reading 180 books in 2015!
hide

Surpassed my goal! I set my goal at 180 books, and as of Dec. 28, I had read 191!

 

Summary

On the whole, I did pretty well, finishing all my challenges except PopSugar and Top of the Hoard. Apparently, choosing specific titles (Top of the Hoard) didn’t work for me as well as some of the broader categories did. I’ll have to think hard about whether to repeat Top of the Hoard next year.

I also had a goal of reading more new-to-me books than re-reads this year, and I suceeded with that goal. Of the 191 books I read this year (as of 12/28/15), 123 were books I had never read before. That’s about 64% new vs. 36% old – nearly two new-to-me books for every re-read. Yeah!

I was absolutely terrible at adding my review links to the challenge pages this year. Next year, I plan to take on fewer challenges and work harder to add my links as I go.

 

Related Posts

16 Responses to “2015 Year-End Challenge Wrap-Up”

  1. Quinn @ Quinn's Book Nook

    You’ve done so well! I am really excited about joining some challenges for 2016. I’m not exactly sure which ones yet. I know I’m signing up for the Audiobook Challenge and the Goodreads (although I don’t know what my goal will be yet) and the Contemporary Romance Challenge.
    Quinn @ Quinn’s Book Nook recently posted…2015 in Reflection and What’s NextMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I do the Goodreads challenge every year (since I discovered it), but I’m going to be more circumspect this year about joining other challenges, because I’m rubbish at remembering to post my review links to the challenge page. I plan to do the Blogger Shame Challenge, and I’m considering the NetGalley & Edelweiss Challenge because they go well together. I’ll either create my own TBR pile challenge or find one that works for me. And I’ll probably do Cruisin’ Thru the Cozies for old times’ sake. I’ll do some shorter challenges when I can, like COYER. Overall, I’m trying to streamline the time and effort the blog requires, while still enjoying myself!

  2. Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library

    Great job with your reading and meeting the bulk of your goals! I’m impressed with the 72% of the PopSugar Challenge. That one was hard! I signed up for the Historical Romance challenge but failed miserably at it. This was not my year for historicals. I only read 2 and 1 was a reread!
    Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library recently posted…Find the Good – ReviewMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      That 72% on the PopSugar is misleading, because I only committed to 25 of the 50 books. So it’s actually more like 36%, if you count all 50 categories. And while I did well on some of the other challenges, I was really bad about linking up. This year, I plan to do fewer challenges and stay on top of the ones I do.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Looks like I’m not the only one; you’re the second person to say you sometimes forget to link up. That makes me feel better, somehow. 😉

  4. Adriana @ BooksOnHerMind

    You did really good! I missed out on completing my goal for two of my challenges too but I figured that I did read books for the challenge so I won in some ways (:

    I was also terrible at adding reviews to the link-ups so you and me are in the same boat. What challenges are you taking part in 2016?
    Adriana @ BooksOnHerMind recently posted…2015 Reading Challenges Wrap-UpMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Oh, I’m glad I’m not the only one who forgets to link up!

      I’ll do the Blogger Shame Reading Challenge for sure; I’ve already signed up. Probably the NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge, because they complement each other a bit. Probably Cruisin’ Thru The Cozies because I’ve done it several years running and I’m a little better about remembering to post review links. And I’m looking for a TBR Pile challenge that suits my style; if I can’t find one, I may run my own. My goal is to do more reading from my TBR list than I did this year!

      Other than those, I’ll probably only do the COYER challenges and maybe a few short-term challenges if I’m really on top of everything else. I went challenge-happy this year and it was too much to keep track of. I’d rather focus on making sure I get my reviews cross-posted to Goodreads and Amazon within a week of going live on the blog — that was a real problem for me in 2015.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Well, so far I’m only signed up for one year-long and one shorter challenge (Blogger Shame and COYER Going Back to Basics, respectively.) I’m working on designing a personal TBR list challenge for this year, because all the existing ones I can find seem to require me to own the books I read. Sure, I’ve got plenty that I own, but also plenty I want to read that I don’t own because I can borrow them from the library.

      • Bea

        I’m hosting the I Love Libraries challenge, which encourages people to check books our from their library and the Finishing the Series challenge, where it doesn’t matter if you own the books or borrow them.

        • Lark_Bookwyrm

          Both of those are really good (and enticing) options. But in the interests of streamlining my blogging and challenge maintenance, I’d really rather stick to one all-encompassing TBR list challenge. 🙂 Part of the problem is the amount of time it takes me to stay organized. I’ve realized that the blog sucks a lot more time than I’m comfortable with. I don’t want to give up the things I love about blogging, but all the organization and keeping track of everything takes time, and if I do fewer challenges, that eliminates at least a little of that.