So I had high hopes coming into this year. No moving. Trying to cut down on activities. Really just exhausted and wanted to spend as much time as possible curled up and vegging. I figured after spending the previous two years remodeling my old house for sale, buying a new house, packing and unpacking, and all that crazy stuff, I was due for a relaxing year.
It didn't happen.
Well, it sort of did. I spent a lot of the beginning of the year still unpacking and then trying to catch up all the stuff that needed to be done for the kids schooling. The summer ended up being spent with a lot of field trips (which were fabulous) but when not out, my brain kind of shut off. Personal tragedy hit in September and that put me down in a hole for the rest of the year. I also worked on reading the Game of Thrones series (yes, I know technically it's The Song of Fire and Ice but we also all know that thanks to the HBO series, it is now GoT) and that one slowed me down a bit.
Nevertheless, I hit many of my goals for 2013. I read over 120 books (yes, I know there were a lot of short stories on there but there were still about 120 actual "books" and since average page count was over 200p and it's my game, I met this one). I read 40 new authors without breaking a sweat (or having to read a bunch in the week leading up to the end of the year). I failed to make the 40,000 page goal but I gave it a good shot with over 36,000 pages read this year and I also failed in the other goal I keep trying for which is to have less on my to-read list at the end of the year than at the beginning. At the beginning of the year, I was at 1,285 on Goodreads and 1,290 on Shelfari. I'm now at 1,331 on Goodreads and 1,332 on Shelfari. So even after reading 140 books this year and going through a cleaning out a few things that I am not going to read, I'm still up over 40 books. *sigh* Yes, I'm a biblioholic and I admit it. I don't see a particular problem with it so long as I can store them all which so far I'm managing to do just fine. Just need more bookshelves.
Looking back over the year, there were a lot of really good books but I'm glad I finally convinced the youngest that I didn't need to read EVERYTHING he enjoyed. Love you kiddo but mommy can only take so many books aimed at the 9-12yr old set. Favorite new authors included GRRM, Hugh Howey, Ernest Callenbach, Stephen Chobosky, Ernst Cline, Michael "Tinker" Pearce, Stefon Mears, Diana Rowland, John Scalzi, Rebecca Skloot, D.E. Stevenson, Gillian Bradshaw, Christopher Moore, and Joanne Harris.
It was interesting being in a book club for myself for the first time ever as I got to read a lot of books that normally would not have been on my radar which is always a mixed blessing but I think long term it will be a net positive. I also think at looking back over everything I read this year, overall I was happier with what I read.
So now the goals for this year. I'm going to go with 120 books again knowing that there will be some short stories mixed in but I really have no idea how many and I'm hoping not to be reading so many of kids' books. I'm also going to go with 40 new authors and am going to try again for 40,000 pages. That last is kind of a tall order but one I think well worth-while (although yes, I know it's somewhat subjective since it depends on edition). And here's a new take on my to-read list goal, this time I'm just hoping that it is within 25 books of the current number. Lower would be great but yeah, that hasn't worked out so well for me so far so maybe if I could just keep it from exploding?
So what are your reading goals for this year?
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