#currently I have a physical list and I also use the storygraph

[violetclarity]

happy new year, friends! NYE has been a tough one for me in recent years - it always brings to mind the things I didn’t accomplish, and the things that haven’t changed, over the past year. Plus it comes at the end of the christmas season, and while I love the festivity, that is also a hard time of year for me - especially this year - because it kind of sucks to be alone for christmas!

I don’t have any grand lists or 2022 recaps to share. I only wrote one fic this year - co-wrote, with the incomprable @yrfrndfrnkly - and though I finished my novel draft back in april, I’ve been struggling hard to make any further progress on it. I only picked it up to edit this fall, and I’ve gotten less than 1/4 of the way through. It’s definitely my goal in 2023 to crank out those edits, but other than that, who knows what the new year holds in terms of writing.

My main hope, going into 2023, is to take care of myself, to check some things off my to-do list that I’ve been meaning to do, to continue to make my home & my life more suitable. I started off strong on my apartment updates (by which I mean, finally organizing and doing a lot of things I’ve meant to do since I moved in) in november, and I want to keep that momentum going and hopefully have everything well settled by the time I’ve been in this apartment for a year.

For january though, I mostly want to hibernate, and drink a lot of hot chocolate, and read good books (one highlight of 2022 - I read many good books). I’m feeling rather frustrated, and also fragile, and I’m not sure if the perfect solution is to insulate myself for a few weeks, but I think I’m going to test it out and see if it helps.

I’m not sure quite why I’m sharing this - half accountability, more than half as some kind of antidote to all of the 2022 recaps and lists of awesome things that happened last year I’ve seen floating around on all platforms, but tumblr is the only place I feel comfortable being this honest? or something? no disrespect meant to anyone posting best-of lists etc, of course - I’m so happy for everyone’s successes this past year! - but I wanted to make room also for those for whom, like me, the new year is sort of meh, or complicated, or they don’t have a ton of solid things they can point to like “look at my year!” - I see you <3

resolutions or no, I am hoping for a joyful, creative, and restful 2023 for each one of you!

[duckprintspress]

Become an Advance Reader for Duck Prints Press!

Reviews are essential for showing prospective readers that we’re publishing awesome books that they want to buy and read. We’re looking to recruit an active group of people who post reviews of our work, and to do that we need your help! For the first time, we’re offering Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of one of our projects: Aether Beyond the Binary, our most recent anthology, featuring 17 stories of characters outside the gender binary exploring modern-esque aetherpunk worlds.

How it works: You see this post. You think, oh, I love reading! I love leaving reviews! I want to join the Duck Prints Press Reviewer Program! Then, you go and read the rules for our Reviewer Program. And, if everything there sounds like something you can do, you fill out the form, and – we’ll be in touch! Even better: this program isn’t only for Aether Beyond the Binary, and isn’t only for “advance” titles. Our reviewers are encouraged to claim titles that are currently released, too, to help build up a robust collection of reviews of Duck Prints Press titles!

Requirements:

You must be over 18 years old.

You must be prepared to post reviews on Goodreads and/or Storygraph.

You must also post the review on the appropriate listing on the Duck Prints Press webstore (for advance titles, you’ll have to wait ’til we list them there).

Upon acceptance to the program, you must join the Duck Prints Press Book Lover’s Server.

Reviews must be at least 100 words long must and engage with the actual content of the work being reviewed.

Reviews must be left within 6 months of claiming a title, or you will be removed from the program.

What isn’t Required:

That the reviews be positive. Reviews are for readers. We require that reviews be honest to your own experience of the work, not that they be glowing.

That you post the reviews to social media. Doing so is definitely a bonus, but you don’t have to.

That you associate yourself publicly with the review-leaving (beyond using a valid Goodreads and/or Storygraph account). As in, you don’t have to say, “I, (your name here), reviewed this book” or link your book website accounts with your existing social media presence or anything like that, nor do we request any demographic information beyond confirmation of your age.

That you purchase anything. Absolutely no purchase necessary!

What You Get:

A e-book copy (ePub and/or PDF) of the work you’re reviewing. We do not provide physical ARCs.

After you post your first review, you’ll get a coupon for 10% off a purchase from the Duck Prints Press webstore!

For every ten reviews you post, you can claim a freebie sticker from among our sticker offerings, if you want. (You’ll have to provide a snail mail address to get this, of course.)

A community of fun book-lovers to hang out with! (You can get that even without joining the ARC program, though – our Book Lover’s Discord is open to everyone.)

We’re accepting applicants for claiming Aether Beyond the Binary ARCs through April 10th, 2024. On the 11th, we’ll randomly select 25 of applicants to receive ARC copies of Aether Beyond the Binary. Everyone else will still be entirely welcome in the program and invited to start with a different, back-catalog book or story to review. We’ll make another pool of Aether Beyond the Binary ARCs available in May.

So… those are the basics. Interested? Go read the full rules, then apply to be a Duck Prints Press ARC reader TODAY!

[door]

for the book ask game: 29, 30, 31

HI RAY

29. How many books do you have on your 'to-be-read' list?

lololol ok well according to storygraph it's 70 books. i do actually go through and cull it, but haven't recently. i would say roughly 1.5 of my bookshelves are tbr, and those things are mostly not on any lists. i probably have a mental list of about a half a dozen books at any given time that i'm pulling from when i want to pick up a new book.

here is the section of my shelves which mostly houses new things i've brought home:

30. How many books do you have on your 'currently-reading' list?

two! it's usually a fiction and a nonfiction book, but right now it's two nonfiction books: gay lives by robert aldrich, and exquisite dreams: the art and life of dorothea tanning by amy lyford. gay lives i've mostly been reading at work/in waiting rooms/etc because it's comprised of short biography sections which lend well to that. exquisite dreams i am reviewing for work so it had to be read immediately. god willing i finish it tonight lol

31. Do you mostly read through e-reader; reading app on phone; on your laptop; a physical copy; or by audiobook?

physical or e-reader. robyn is using my kindle right now, so "e-reader" means phone screen (hoopla also requires you to read through their app). i have listened to audiobooks a lot in the past, but i'm mostly off them right now.

i read nonfiction in physical form most of the time, because a lot of what i read is art and architecture books, and high quality images are a big part of those. also my work library is physical only, so anything i borrow from there will be too. i like to read fiction digitally, in part because i read a lot of authors who primarily distribute that way, but also because i like to read in bed without my glasses on and being able to make the text as big as a house is invaluable lmao

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR ASKING ME THINGS ABOUT BOOKS THIS WEEK it made a bad time less bad. i gotta go finish the dorothea tanning book but my asks are always open for book talk. if i don't respond it might be because you asked me anonymously for a rec in which "the leader of a country has a big sexy gay love affair" and i simply had nothing which i could do for you. im sorry

[rwwinton]

Yesterday someone said something to me that has really stuck with me and I feel like I need to ramble about it a little bit here.

We were talking about books during a slow period at work and I was told by a coworker that it’s “weird” for me to call myself a “book nerd” if I “don’t want to read anything sad.” Which is just a very weird and condescending thing to say to someone, I think. 

Naturally, I have thoughts about this.

First of all, I can and do read some really heavy books. What matters to me is if things end well for the characters. By all means, put those characters through all seven levels of hell, but you had better fucking bring them back and make that torment worth it. I can send myself down the path of darkness if I know there is a light at the end. 

For example, I recently read TJ Klune’s Under the Whispering Door. There were multiple points at which I put that book down in the middle of a chapter and walked away. I also cried. Twice. But I also knew I could trust the author because I’d read a couple of his other books in the past (and his mastery of comic relief helps immensely). I may also have a really weird habit of skimming the end of a book after reading the first chapter. I had a teacher once who did that with the books she read out loud in class and I took to it I guess? It took me a month to finish reading, but I did, and rated it fairly highly.

Plus there’s the fact that I read a lot of non-fiction. In case you haven’t noticed, studying history isn’t all fun and joy. Especially when I focus on the everyday people impacted by historical happenings. Yeah, there are plenty of silly, funny, ridiculous things in history, but most of what I’m reading about isn’t.

Reading is my escape. This world is fucked up and heavy enough, and I have been dealing with depression and other mental health struggles for the last 15 years of my life. I read to go somewhere else, to live someone else’s life and adventures. I read to find some goddamn peace. 

There are currently 65 books on my virtual TBR (actually a “to be purchased” list because I can’t afford to buy everything I want to read the moment I learn about it, I just use StoryGraph’s TBR function to keep track of them all), and 17 in my physical TBR in my living room, plus 2 on pre-order being released in March. I barely have time to read my usual 50 books a year, and I add to my TBR at least a couple times a month.

Why would I make time to read things that don’t make me happy? Why should I subject my mental health to things that cause me pain? I’m not going to.

The same thing is true of my writing. Does my historical fiction take place during a really terrible point in history? You bet. But I’m not going to kill off love interests or close family and friends just because it is something that happened to a lot of people during the period (unless it happens really early on). Originally I was going to kill Nat’s brother in Let it Begin Here, but then I wanted that connection and closure that Nat gets in the end. I thought briefly about killing off Asher in Where Cannons Roar in a big heroic scene, but then I liked him too much. And in Book 3, Treasonable Practices, I was originally going to kill my main character’s father to move the plot forward, but then I couldn’t do that to either of them.

The point is, characters can go through hell, and take the reader with them, and still be okay. Why are we assigning literary merit to something just because it hurts us? 

It’s okay not to want to read books that don’t end happily. It’s okay if you want to read those kinds of books all the time. What’s not okay is judging each other for what we do and don’t read. 

As long as you aren’t giving money to really awful authors who do terrible things with their royalty checks, read whatever the fuck you want - and in whatever format you want, but that’s a whole other discussion.

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

2023 Goals

As with last year, most of my goals don’t have numbers attached to them, because I find that really stressful, and it turns my goals (and my reading) into a task to complete. Instead, I pick things I’d like to do more, to encourage me to consider them when putting things on hold at the library or buying something at a bookstore. With no further ado, my goals:

Read 100 books: I read almost twice this much last year, but I shall not count on anything during grad school.

Read more translated literature: Last year most of my translated works were manga, and while I really enjoyed them, I also want to make progress on my TBR of other kinds of translated literature!

Reduce my physical TBR: There’s still some stuff on my shelves I haven’t touched for years, and I’d like to get to them! This also includes books that were gifted to me or that I borrowed from people.

Read books at the top of my numbered TBR: A long time ago, I went through a couple of times and ordered my Goodreads TBR based on what I was really excited about! I may no longer be using Goodreads, but I still have 250 books that I dragged to the top of my list I haven’t gotten to, and I want to someday get through those - either remove them from my TBR because my tastes have changed or read them! Last year about 10% of the books I read were from this list - maybe I can beat that this year!

Read books in Spanish: I have put this damn goal on my list for two years running and read nothing. This year I vow to read at least one!!! Just one!!!

Read 40% Authors of Color: I’m still trying to get to this goal - I’m close, but not quite there, and I’m trying to pay attention to this to make sure that I’m not reading a narrow swath of literature!

Read more Discworld: I have 9 Discworld books left, and I’m getting really invested in some of these storylines so I’d like to read more soon. I’m currently reading Thief of Time, and then it’s time for Night Watch and Monstrous Regiment, two of the ones I’ve been really excited about for a while.

Finish series: I currently have 100 unfinished series on my TBR, 22 of which I’m caught up on. That still leaves 78 series I could be caught up on or finished with! I want to make progress! Hypothetically I liked these books and wanted to read their sequels! Realistically I think I’m going to have to re-read quite a few of these first installments to continue on in the series, and I may learn that I’m not as interested in them at this point in my life.

Read recommendations from the Storygraph: I’ve liked their recommendations in the past, and I’d like to continue using this as one of my discovery methods for interesting books!

Read indigenous authors: Still working on this, still not doing as well as I’d like. I need to be more proactive about putting them on hold at the library.

[v171]

2021, Year End Book Stat Dump

Because Mike and I share a Spotify account, I can’t ever share my Extra Special Boy™ music wrap up, so I like to do it for books instead because I read a lot. So strap in for a long post that only I care about.

I set a goal to read 60 books this year and tracked them using Goodreads, The Storygraph, and my own tracking I did in Excel. I just barely managed to get to the 60 books, having finished my last one yesterday. I'll probably cut it down next year so I don't feel so pressured to read while I'm in a reading slump.

Speaking of slumps, can you tell when I had my first one? I don't know what it was about May and June, but boy did I fall off with my reading, only reading one book each month. I need to get better at reading books of different genres at a given time. That's a good way to get me out of a slump.

I know I like science fiction, but even I was surprised I read so much of it this year. Though its not wholly surprising considering I read all of the Murderbot books, which are all very short. This graph only counts books, not pages.

Here you can see the book vs. page breakdown. You can see in January I read Words of Radiance which had a ton of pages, but only one book. On the other hand, in July I read most of the Murderbot books which are all very short.

My ratings have a slight skew, but this is because I tend to liberally discard books if I'm not enjoying them. Thus I don't usually have many 1 star ratings because I would have abandoned that book before finishing it. And I don't rate books that I don't finish. Additionally, I don't rate nonfiction books, which I believe I read 2 this past year. Hence the 'No rating' bar.

I love this graph because it really illustrates how much fucking science fiction I read. In fact, I read more 5 star science fiction than I did most other genres total. It also shows that I'm pretty critical of the fantasy I've been reading, which is interesting to me considering how much I like fantasy generally.

This was funny to see because it looks like a just really don't like ultra long books and I really like short books. In hindsight, this makes sense because one of my most tired complaints of books is when they are needlessly long or should have been edited down.

This is a funny little stat Goodreads gave me. I HATED The Midnight Library, the most popular book and I LOVED Peace, Pipe by Aliya Whiteley (the second book, which was so unpopular that it doesn't even have a cover). Note that Goodreads defines popularity by the number of people who have read/are currently reading the book. Not necessarily how highly that book was rated. But TML is garbage and I have decided I'm not going to read anymore Matt Haig after I read The Humans.

I was surprised at how evenly matched I was this year, I usually blow through audiobooks like crazy and take my time with physical books. But I all but stopped listening to audiobooks in the fall, so I guess that makes sense.

Lastly, here's the full list of books I read this year. Some hits and misses, but overall a pretty good reading year! Feel free to link up with me on Goodreads. Next year I'll be challenging myself to push through book series I have started but not finished. And of course, I always welcome recommendations!

[ashlyluvsyellow]

Bujo Tour So Far

I have been bullet journaling for years and I am going to do a simple photo dump and explanation for the pages that I have been using this year, as well as pages I have not finished.

My Future Log

I don't actually start with the index, that goes on the last page of my journal and I work my way inside so that all of my regular pages meets the index page when the journal is full.

My future log has never needed to be more then a page or two. I don't have many events and go to work at the same time daily.

Most events I know about and simply put in my phone.

It's setup with the months at the top and I go and color code based on the month. Each month gets a different color based on events but I don't color it in until I have at least two or more events.

My March calendar!

I obviously did not meet my goals for that month by posting reviews. I did however finish four books that month.

Again, I don't list out the calendar I simply do the numbers with the days of the week like a chart and write important dates in a list format.

Goals are at the bottom or on the next page.

This is why I use dotted instead of lined for my journal and I definitely don't do blank pages.

Habit and Health Tracker

My habit and health tracker is the most detailed page that I like doing but I fell off the wagon here. I go in usually once a week and color code the different habits.

I will upload some old pictures of my bujo and I will try to upload a colorful one as well in a separate post but the basic gist is that it motivates me to fill it out daily.

I track my dental health, period, journaling habit, headaches, and I am trying to get back into doing yoga three times a week but it's getting difficult.

This is also March so I am going to try and do better in April as well so stay tuned for the April update in May.

Headache Log

I track what causes my headaches. I don't follow up with this one as much but typically it is caused by hunger, like having low sugar and not eating when I am supposed to, or heat.

This has really helped me to avoid headaches as much as possible and now I typically only get them on Saturday or Sunday. Still trying to figure out that trigger but I'm working on it.

I think it's simply me not being as active on the weekends so I am starting to get out of bed at the same time during the week on the weekends as well and when it gets nicer I am going to try and go on morning walks to mitigate the headaches too.

Reading Log

This is my reading log. It's blurry but each column represents different things.

The first is the rating I am going to give the book, next is the title and author. After that each column goes over the date I started the book, finished it, genre, format, and what I did with it afterward.

I use overdrive and the library as much as I can so sometimes books get returned or sometimes I decide to buy a physical copy.

Again, I like to go in and color after gathering up some info and will try to upload some old pictures from my December to February bujo that has been mostly completed.

The last column is whether or not I uploaded a review to my storygraph profile or on the book sellers website, if I purchased it online.

Brain Dumps / Notes

These two pages are definitely what I consider my brain dump pages.

I was doing an A-Z program for stenography in March and I am currently doing another one from the Steno Project now in April to May.

I was taking notes in my bullet journal but decided to switch over to a completely separate notebook for that. Will take photos of that one for another post as well.

I also like to just list out all my ideas and to be honest this is my like third attempt at regularly blogging on the weekends.

I love reading and writing so I wanted to have a blog dedicated to both but I decided to simply have a blog and then publish my writing under a pen name instead.

This blog will be mainly about books, bujo, and lifestyle content so all my writing will go on my website and I self publish under that name.

Index

Last page of all my bullet journals now feature the index. I realized by putting it in front I would worry about running out of pages or having to have a second index.

To solve this I simply placed the index at the end and work it backwards so I never run out of pages and the content kind of meets in the middle.

It's easy to follow and I will be color coding this as well by next month.

[beautifulpaxielreads]

June Wrap Up

Books completed (ratings out of five stars)

Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe #2) by Neal Shusterman (★★★★)

The Toll (Arc of a Scythe #3) by Neal Shusterman (★★★1/2)

Green Valentine by Lili Wilkinson* (★★★★)

Harley in the Sky by Akemi Dawn Bowman (★★★1/2)

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (★★★★)

Books currently in progress

Saga Land by Richard Fidler* and Kári Gíslason*

Thorn by Intisar Khanani

*Australian author

Challenges, Games, and other Booklr interactions

Posted a photograph of Onyx & Ivory (Rime Chronicles #1) by Mindee Arnett for @myownlittlebookcorner’s monthly Shelf-Confidence Book Photography Challenge (June 10th)

Good Reads/Storygraph 2020 Reading Challenge: 31 books out of 70. I’m a bit behind!

Finished 1 book on my backlist, unofficially as part of @bookbandit​’s Beat the Backlist challenge

Original Posts on Tumblr

Posted photograph of my copy of The Priory of the Orange Tree to celebrate my completion of it (June 26th)

Posted quote by Samantha Shannon about libraries (June 26th)

Posted update of my initial experience using Storygraph (June 24th)

Posted a notice regarding the creation of my new user account on Storygraph (June 18th)

Posted a photograph of my then-current library haul (June 2nd)

Reflections on June’s Reading Goals

I finished The Priory of the Orange Tree! I know I said I was going to take my time over it, but the last 200 pages or so set such a cracking pace that I had no choice but to read it to the end. I’m proud of myself for finishing this one, more so than anything else I’ve read so far this year.

Finished Harley in the Sky and Green Valentine. I DNF’d Onyx & Ivory in the end because I felt the plot was too familiar and was riddled with cliched tropes. Or maybe the Throne of Glass series ruined me for books of this nature.

Still did not start any e-books, and to be honest, I’m not sure if I’m going to get to them anytime soon. I still prefer the feel of physical books. But the e-books aren’t going away so I will get to them. Eventually.

Finished The Toll. Overall I enjoyed it, although I felt like it was a bit long, and the ending felt rushed. I also feel like the villain of the story did not get a satisfying comeuppance for all his acts of evil. I think Shusterman perhaps tried to cram too many ideas into this one, and it confirmed what I’d initially thought about these books – the romance did not need to be there!

Didn’t reread The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but TBH I pretty much expected that. My heart isn’t ready yet!

Not as much Booklr interaction this month – but I think it’s always going to be a bit up and down, so I’m not TOO worried. Yet.

Still behind on my reading goal for 2020. I’m getting there though!

Started Saga Land (see above). I’m finding it a little difficult to get into fully, but I’m going to persevere with it for now. I suspect it’s one of those books that works well if you read it slowly, so that’s what I plan to do.

No more moodboards for now. I’m not so motivated to do them, especially as the first one I did received literally no attention.

As for reading authors of colour, see my notes under “Interesting observations” and “reading goals for July”.

New followers

66 FOLLOWERS! HOLY -! I have no words. Seriously, you are all amazing.

On a side note, I’m now less than 70 followers away from reaching that big old 1K mark. Think I can get there?

Interesting observations

I signed up for Storygraph this month. I read raves on Tumblr about how good it was (especially as compared with Good Reads), so I decided to give it a go. It’s got some neat features and I’m looking forward to seeing what the developers bring to it in the future. I’m keeping my Good Reads account for now, mainly because it lets me update my progress which Storygraph doesn’t yet (although here’s hoping they’ll do it in future).

The Black Lives Matter movement had a definite (and positive impact) on my reading and book blogging this month. For the time being, I’ve decided to focus on reading books specifically by Indigenous Australian authors because I want to relate to the BLM movement as it exists here. I plan to read more books by non-Australian authors of colour in the future for sure though!

Reading (and reading-related) Goals for July

Read more books by authors of colour, particularly those by Indigenous Australians. I just finished (as of July 1st) Catching Teller Crow but I also have Growing Up Aboriginal (edited by Anita Heiss), The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (The Tribe #1) by Ambelin Kwaymullina, and Grace Beside Me by Sue McPherson on my TBR shelf.

Finish my current reads, Saga Land and Thorn.

Make a start on the other books on my TBR shelf (besides  the ones I mentioned in my first point on this list): The Midnight Lie (The Midnight Lie #1) by Marie Rutkoski, Dark of the West (Glass Alliance #1) by Joanna Hathaway, Caesar’s Women (Masters of Rome #4) by Colleen McCullough, and Please Don’t Hug Me by Kay Kerr.

Participate in more book photography challenges – I felt this month was a bit lacking.

Catch up with my goal of reading 70 books in 2020 – I’m up to 32, so I want to reach at least the halfway point this month (I’ve been a bit behind lately).

I think I have a habit of setting myself too many goals with my reading and end up falling short, so this is where I’ll leave things for now. Hopefully, these July goals will be a bit more manageable.

See you all in August for my July wrap-up!

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

It is finally the end of 2020, so it’s time to look at my reading stats for the year!

Overall, I’m happy with how much I read this year, since I exceeded my goal of 100 by a good margin, but I didn’t actually like what I read this year as much. Including my ratings for the books I DNF’d this year, my average rating was 3.82/5, which is much lower than last year’s total (4.13/5). Overall, I think this happened for a couple of reasons: the pandemic meant that I wasn’t checking things out from the library for like three months so I wasn’t getting as many things I was excited about, I was more focused on my goals this year (more on that later), and I read more things outside of my comfort zone. I did read some really awesome stuff though, and I’ll have my favorites for this year up soon, but I also read a lot of stuff I didn’t like as much.

Other stats:

I DNF’d 15 books this year

I re-read 14 books this year

74% of the books I read were by female authors

I read 6 books by nonbinary and genderqueer authors

25% of the books I read were by authors of color

42% of the books I read had LGBTQIA+ representation in them

I read 9 nonfiction books

My top 3 genres were fantasy (49 books), romance (36 books), and science fiction (28 books)

It is now time for the aforementioned check-in with my goals! I have a separate post that I’ve previously used to track my goals here but I’m going to talk about the final results down below (spoiler alert I didn’t do them haha)

I definitely didn’t do very well on the goals I set for myself this year. Part of that is that each individual goal is reasonable but without doubling anything, I wanted myself to read at least 115 books to meet my goals. Given the number of books I read this year, it was doable, but it would have required me to be on top of my goals from the beginning of the year and read like no mood books, which is pretty unreasonable I think. Next year I will be setting up my goals very differently! (A separate post will be going up soon about that.)

On to the actual goals now!

finish the books that have been sitting on my Goodreads currently reading list for years - the only one left is Clariel, which is one I was re-reading as an audiobook with my husband, so since he hasn’t been in the mood for it it didn’t happen. Otherwise I was successful! I’m actually really pleased that I managed to finish the rest of them. (6/7, success)

get my physical TBR bookshelf down to one shelf of books - this one didn’t quite happen. My physical TBR is now primarily on one shelf, with the second shelf being devoted to my library TBR and a few of the physical TBR books I’d really like to get to soon. (fail)

read more romance novels - in 2019 I read 33 romance novels, and this year I read 36! By percentages it’s a failure because I read a lot more books this year, but by flat number it’s a success so I’m taking that one haha. (36/34, success)

read through the first twenty-two books on my Goodreads TBR (up through The Collapsing Empire) - I got so close on this one, but didn’t end up finishing The Collapsing Empire before the end of the year sigh. (21/22, fail)

review every book I read - I didn’t quite make it to this one, although I am planning to catch up soon. There are probably 7 books that I read for the first time this year that I haven’t writtten any kind of review for. Weirdly, almost all of them are books that I loved. (120/127, fail)

read Harrow the Ninth - success! I loved it too. (1/1, success)

read Network Effect - success! I also loved this one. (1/1, success)

read more fantasy and sci-fi romance novels - last year, I read 4 fantasy and sci-fi romance novels, and this year I read 8, so I win! (8/4, success)

read more books by non-binary authors - I read 5 books by nonbinary authors this year and one by a genderqueer author, which is much better than I have been doing. (6/3, success)

read at least 5 books in translation - I only read 3: Daughter of Fortune, Persepolis 2, and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. (3/5, fail)

read 2 books in Spanish - I DNF’d Cien años de soledad, does that count? (.5/2, fail)

read The Laird of Duncairn - I just didn’t do this (0/1, fail)

read Zeus Grants Terrible Wishes - I also didn’t do this (0/1, fail)

find a book club I like - I started one with my friends, which was a great way to get around my problem of not liking the selections in the book clubs I was looking at. (1/1, success)

read 4 more Discworld books, up through Maskerade - I am currently listening to Maskerade, but we’re not done with it yet. (3.5/4, fail)

read 8 nonfiction books - I read 9, although I did DNF one. I did really enjoy some of the ones I read, although there were some definite misses as well. I read The Curve of Time, Because Internet, The Lost Kingdom of the Monkey God, Organizing Success, Wait Till Next Year, Storm in a Teacup, Knitting in the Old Way, Strangers in Their Own Land, and Persepolis 2. (8.5/8, success)

read 3 volumes of poetry - I only read 2 - Felicity and the princess will save herself in this one, neither of which I liked. (2/3, fail)

read Full Fathom Five - this book was really excellent! (1/1, success)

read another book by Guy Gavriel Kay - nope (0/1, fail)

catch-up on at least 3 series - I caught up on 5 and finished 4, although I did start 3 of those in 2020. I also started 15 series, so like...not ideal. However I technically did it haha (9/3, success)

Overall, that’s 10/20, which is not great. One of the things that I really noticed by the end of the year when I was really trying to catch up on the goals was that I had really made reading into a chore. I would catch myself thinking, “No I can’t read Take a Hint, Dani Brown, I have to read Daughter of Fortune next, because it’s on the list.” and that kind of thinking really saps the fun out of reading for me. So next year, I’m not setting concrete goals like read 3 ___ books or read more ____ books, although I am going to encourage myself to read certain categories of books. More on that in the goals post!