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| Physical reads of January |
January has been quite a hectic month. I'm taking a practical course as a pedagogue until April 1st. and I think my future is headed in another direction. I've been quite behind on my blogging because of this course and while I'm sad about it, it's also been kind of freeing and quite the experience. It's nice with something to do after almost 2 months of not doing anything except singing in the church.
I got a head start on all of my challenges so I think this month is a win - just not blogging-wise.
blogging goals
In the beginning of the month I wrote about all
my goals and challenges throughout the year and January have definitely been a great month when it comes to reaching goals!
I made a blog planner! Although I'm not entirely satisfied and I actually stayed up late to finish another addition to the blog (monthly to do and summary pages). I'm really enjoying making my own blog planner, which is basically taking the pages from the free printables that I find useful and making the rest myself - nothing too fancy though. I'll probably write a post about it once I'm satisfied and maybe make some of my own available to download.
I made a 'for review'-spreadsheet! I actually made my own and started using one Carina from
All About Books have created. I quite love her spreadsheet since it's automatic. I only have to put in a couple of informations and then it's quite manageable from there on out. Also - a page with statistics, who doesn't love that?
I updated libib! So, I didn't think I was going to complete this one in January. I didn't even want to do it this month but I got quite into audiobooks, as you can see below, and I needed something useful to do while listening. I ended up scanning all of my books and removing the ones from my shelves I didn't want anymore. It is quite freeing to only have books you want to read and not the ones you're unsure about. I also realized how many unread books I have on my shelves, 177 to be exact.
Now the real challenge is to keep up with all these!
reading goals
I definitely have a fair amount of reading goals this year! I have no idea if I'll manage to complete all of these but I probably will if this month is a picture of how the year is going to go.
While I of course haven't reached my goal of 100 books yet I'm on my way there! I read a total of 10 books in January and I think that's a great amount! I also started tracking my reading habits with another spreadsheet by the lovely Carina from All About Books (yes, her again). I love how you can practically add anything and she taught me how to add another feature so I can see how many books I read for review a month or a year. I also love that you get to see how many pages you read - which I find more precise that goodreads' page count.
Nonetheless; I read 10 books in January and here they are;
- Us by David Nicholls ★★★★
- P.S. I Still Love You (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, #2) by Jenny Han ★★★★
- Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstrom ★★★★ (audiobook)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde ★★★
- The Heir (The Selection, #4) by Kiera Cass ★★★★★ (audiobook)
- The Sin Eater's Daughter (The Sin Eater's Daughter, #1) by Melinda Salisbury ★★★★ (audiobook)
- Moth Girls by Anne Cassidy ★★★ (review to come)
- Bookishly Ever After (Ever After, #1) by Isabel Bandeira ★★★.5
- Summer in the City (The Carrie Diaries, #2) by Candace Bushnell ★★★ (audiobook)
- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern ★★★★.5
I also managed to reread a children's book I'd received from Netgalley; Tales from Christmas Wood by Suzy Senior. A novella which was released in January; Never Never: part three by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher. And lastly I also read a just released comic - which I LOVED; Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death (Issue #1) by Amy Chu.
I began two books in January which I didn't manage to finish before the month was over; 1984 by George Orwell and Hidden Bodies (You, #2) by Caroline Kepnes
With all of these books I managed to finish a total of 3 series. I also continued reading
The Selection series and I began
The Sin Eater's Daughter and
Ever After - which I'm not sure I'll be continuing.
Carina, of course, has a great spreadsheet to help you keep track of your series!
I finished these 3 series;
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before
- The Carrie Diaries
- Never Never
While I didn't exactly read (much) less YA which is basically my main goal this year I'm going to cut myself some slack this month - especially because I like listening to YA as audiobooks since they're easy to follow, also because I managed to reach so many goals. I read 7 YA books this month, and that really is to much! I find it quite funny that I read 3 of my own books this month and none of those overlap (meaning all the YA books I've read this month have been for review, audiobooks and a library book).
When it comes to rereading I didn't manage much. I had to reread the childrens book since I needed to write a review and I've started reading The Happiness Project again - and I still love it!
Reading my shelf.. As I mentioned before I read 3 of my own books this month and I don't include review books in that count. I actually enjoyed taking books of my shelves and deciding which ones to read - and I stuck to my TBR for the first time! Back to topic: I didn't read as many books I already own as I would have liked, but at least I read some!
I feel like I'm doing quite well with my Netgalley goal since I read 2 titles, reread a third and began a fourth! I've definitely been enjoying not having to read a bunch of books from Netgalley all the time! I love reading books before they're released and forming my own opinion before the hype kicks in, but I also like reading physical books and I think I've found the way to go.
My goal of 10 classics a year is also going fine; I read The Picture of Dorian Gray which I definitely count as a classic and I began 1984 just before the month ended!
Since I've read 4 audiobooks towards my goal of 1 a month, I think I'll count that a win! I've definitely enjoyed my audiobooks this month but now that I've read all the ones on my immediate audiobook TBR, I'm quite unsure as to what to listen to next.
Lastly; my yearlong reading experiences. I've begun my rereading of The Happiness Project and I've started 365 stories although I'm a bit behind with that one.
All in all I count that a win - even though I didn't manage to read as many books from my shelves as I wanted and I didn't read (much) less YA.
personal goals
To be honest I didn't do that much towards to personal goals; I drank a bit more water yes and completing the blogging goals definitely helped towards me getting more organized. I'm not sure I'm going to learn French this year though but I'll give it a bit of room.
All in all I think January was a succesful month! What about you?
