I’m going to be honest… I actually forgot that I set specific reading goals this year. It’s one of those things that was BW…. Before Wedding. Some of those things are a bit hazy these days, lol.

Anyhow, I was reminded of my goals, and so I have dug them up so that I can check in on my progress. There’s just a little over two months left in the year, so I think hitting most of them is still pretty reasonable at this point.

Below is my progress, with the bold ones being the ones that are incomplete.

1. Read at least 3 books in the category of “you should have read this by now” whether it’s a classic or been on your shelf too long
   • Vicious by V.E. Schwab
   • The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
2. Read at least 3 books about people who are very different from yourself
   • The Gentlemen’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee
   • Far From the Tree by Robin Benway
   • If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodsen
3. Read at least 8 actual physical books
   • My Boyfriend is a Bear
   • If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
   • The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
   • Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson
   • Midnight at the Electric
   • City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab
   • An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
   • The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
4. Finish reading The Book Thief
5. Read The Name of the Wind
6. Read a book that’s over 500 pages
   • Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman (504 pages)
7. Quit a book before you’ve finished (or at least skim the rest)
   • Black Beauty by Anna Sewell — this is the second time I have tried to read this book, and I just can’t do it. I can’t get past the fact that it’s from the POV of a horse. I know it’s a classic and was written in the 1800’s. I’m sorry.
8. Get rid of a book immediately after reading it
   • Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters (did not like this book at all)
9. Read a book immediately after acquiring it or hearing about it (before it even makes it to the shelf or TBR)
   • Midnight at the Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson (Bought this book at the Strand when I was in NYC and read it immediately, loved it)
10. Read a book you think might make you a better person
    • How to Stop Feeling Like Sh*t by Andrea Owen
11. Read a book of short stories
12. Read a book with a cover that bothers you
    • Save the Date by Morgan Matson
13. Get rid of a book without reading it
    • (I have definitely done this already this year, but I want it to be intentional, so I still need to pick one.)
14. Get at least 2 books behind or ahead of schedule at some point in the year
    • Definitely have been 2 books behind at multiple points. Only 1 book behind now, though!
15. Decide not to do one of the challenges on this list
    • The Name of the Wind might be waiting until 2019…

I’ve read 23/30 books I set out to read on Goodreads, putting me 77% of the way through that goal as well. November is a bit of a tough month for reading, sine so much of my time will be spent writing my NaNoWriMo novel and finding creative ways to procrastinate writing my NaNoWriMo novel… hey! Maybe I will do some reading that month!

Being unemployed for awhile has been an interesting journey and it’s definitely given me a bit more time for reading, as well as for other things I tend to have much less time for with a 9-5 job. I think I’ll be writing an entire blog post about this experience soon, so keep an eye out for that.

Wish me luck! If all else fails, I will consider the year a win if I at least finish reading The dang Book Thief.

This month I managed to read *9* books over the course of the month, including a number of brand new releases (like Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen, The Heir by Kiera Cass and An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir).

Watch this video to find out what I thought, and to see what I’m hoping to read in June!

2014 has been a great year so far not only for starting new projects, but also for picking up old projects and dusting them off. OneUpMakeup was of course one of these such projects – but the other is Answerly!

Answerly was and has been an advice channel I made weekly videos for, discussing the ins and outs of being a nerd. My co-hosts were Joseph Birdsong and Hayley Hoover, discussing love and college life, respectively. We made two straight years of videos before we decided it was time to give the channel a face lift.

As we rounded the corner to the new year, we relaunched the channel with all new branding as the Answerly Book Club, a place to read books together and talk about them and interact much more than you ever could before with Answerly. Joe’s reading comedy books, Hayley’s tackling books by women, and I will be finding out what’s new and hot in the Young Adult genre.

My first book is Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell and I’m immensely enjoying it. I hope you’ll join us with these first books of the year, and stick around to see what we’ll be reading next!

I am so glad we found a way to take our tired old channel and really breathe some life into it… as well as encouraging ourselves and others to make more time for reading! God knows we all could probably use a bit more reading time.