I’m going to try to do a monthly or bi-monthly wrap-up showing my challenges and my personal and blog goals. I hope it will keep me focused on my goals and make me more accountable for reaching them, too!
Challenges
The progress bars and lists show only books I’ve already reviewed, not books I’ve read. In January, 13 of my completed books are eligible for COYER (including 3 short stories sold individually). 2 are eligible for the Cozies challenge, and 7 books are eligible for my TBR challenge.
Audiobook Challenge 2024
Host: Caffeinated Reviewer and That's What I'm Talking About
Progress: 2/10 (20%)
1 January, 2024 — 3 January, 2025
In Progress
Library Love Challenge 2024
Host: Angel's Book Nook & Books of My Heart
Progress: 1/12 (8%)
1 January, 2024 — 3 January, 2025
In Progress
NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2024
Host: Socrates Book Reviews
Progress: 5/10 (50%)
1 January, 2024 — 3 January, 2025
In Progress
The Backlist Reader Challenge 2017
Host: The Bookwyrms Hoard
Progress: 0/24 (0%)
The Backlist Reader Challenge 2024
Host: Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Progress: 3/12 (25%)
1 January, 2024 — 5 January, 2025
In Progress
2016 Resolutions
Bookish Resolutions
- Read more of the books I really want to read. As you may have seen from my Sunday posts, I lost both an uncle and an aunt this month. Between sadness, traveling and spending time with my family, and trying to keep up with my freelance work with the rest of that going on, I basically took the pressure off myself and let myself read whatever I wanted to for most of January, including a lot of re-reading. So I did well on this goal! I read 24 books according to Goodreads, but 3 of them are really short stories. 7 books were from my to-read list; 9 were re-reads (something I do when stressed or sad); and 5 were ARCs. . . and I’ve already posted reviews for 4 of the 5 ARCs.
- Request fewer ARCs. I requested 8 arcs in January, and I’ve been approved for 6 of them. Of those, 3 or 4 are books I would definitely have read anyway. (And I’ve already posted one of the reviews – go me!) 8 requests is a little higher than I normally want to make in a month, but the publication dates are spread out into May.
- Catch up on some older ARCs and improve my NetGalley review percentage. Well, I totally bombed this one this month. I didn’t even keep up with the new releases, quite.
- Build and maintain a 3-week cushion of reviews and other posts. This fell apart completely, but I hope to get back to at least 2 weeks ahead by the end of February.
- Cross-post reviews on time. I set up a spreadsheet to keep track of this, and I try to cross-post within a week of the original post date. I did well for the first half of January, but I need to catch up on the stuff from the last few weeks, which was spotty. In early January, I also cross-posted about 15 reviews from 2015, that I had missed getting onto Goodreads, Amazon, or both.
- Stay on top of challenges. I’m doing OK at getting review links posted to the challenges, though again, I need to catch up on the last week-and-a-half or so.
Personal Resolutions
- Find time and the discipline to write. I bombed this one in January, for the same reasons I mentioned above.
- Clean and revamp my study. I didn’t make any progress on this one either, mostly because I was only home for 14 days this month, and most of that was spent trying to get or keep other things under control.
- Exercise more. Again, not much progress here, but tomorrow is another day!
- Be more consistently disciplined about my freelance work. My uncle’s death and my week-long trip to Utah for the funeral pretty much torpedoed this goal this month, but I’ll keep working on it in February.
- Make more time and space for the things I love to do: I did fit in a fair bit of reading, and I spent a lot time with my extended family, which are both important to me. I also managed at least a little knitting time. But I’m really missing my music.
All in all, considering everything I was dealing with and the fact that I was only home for 14 days in January, I didn’t do too badly, at least in some areas. As for writing, decluttering, and exercising. . . there’s always February!
Lianne @ eclectictales.com
My condolences to you and your family about your uncle and aunt 🙁 Best wishes on your personal and reading resolutions and that your February be much, much better 🙂
Lianne @ eclectictales.com recently posted…Top Ten Tuesdays
Lark_Bookwyrm
Thank you, Lianne. I hope it will be, too!
Bea @Bea's Book Nook
January was a rough month for you and your family. I hope February will be calmer for you all, and best of luck with your goals this month.
Bea @Bea’s Book Nook recently posted…EXCERPT & GIVEAWAY: Killer Pursuit By Jeff Gunhus
Lark_Bookwyrm
Thank you, Bea. Your winter hasn’t been much of a picnic, either. Here’s hoping February goes better for both of us!
Literary Feline
You did well in January with your goals and challenges considering everything else you’ve had to deal with. Hopefully February will be a better month for you.
Literary Feline recently posted…From the Archives: Favorites From 2006 (The Last Two Reviews From My Pre-Blogging Days)
Lark_Bookwyrm
Thank you, on both counts!