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.

You’ll have to forgive me, because it’s taken me the better part of January to get a handle on my reading goals for the year.

The reality of 2018 is that the first 4 months are going to be heavily dedicated to my wedding, but then… then I have the entire rest of my life to not be planning a wedding anymore, and thus, to read. Plus a Honeymoon. Which means many, many books on the plane.

So here are my goals. I tried to give myself a handful of specific and semi-ambitious goals, but most of the rest of them are casual, and even encourage stopping reading books when you’re not enjoying them, or skipping out on a particular challenge altogether.

Goals 1-5 I wrote myself, and goals 6-15 I borrowed from the 2018 reading goals set by my friend Katrina. Her goals are great, and I highly recommend checking out her full list.

1. Read at least 3 books that fall into the category of “you should have read this by now” whether it’s a classic or been on your shelf too long
2. Read at least 3 books about people who are very different from yourself
3. Read at least 8 actual physical books
4. Finish reading The Book Thief
5. Read The Name of the Wind
6. Read a book that’s over 500 pages
7. Quit a book before you’ve finished (or at least skim the rest)
8. Get rid of a book immediately after reading it
9. Read a book immediately after acquiring it or hearing about it (before it even makes it to the shelf or TBR)
10. Read a book you think might make you a better person
11. Read a book of short stories
12. Read a book with a cover that bothers you
13. Get rid of a book without reading it
14. Get at least 2 books behind or ahead of schedule at some point in the year
15. Decide not to do one of the challenges on this list

The best place to follow my progress is my Goodreads account, though I will try to remember to come back here and update when I’ve finished a particular challenge.

I’d love to hear what your reading goals are for the year, or what other things you hope to accomplish in 2018!

Hello, lovely blog readers!

Yet again I have sort of fallen off the face of the planet, but I’m here to make amends by doing another little roundup of my favorite videos I’ve posted in the past month or so. If you missed any of them… go ahead and catch up! I’ll wait here.

So, first of all.. this video I’m about to show you is probably my favorite video I’ve ever made. Half the views it has are probably from ME, rewatching it and laughing hysterically alone in my room. I have no shame about this. It’s that funny.

Joe and I did a slightly different take on the whisper challenge. Rather than asking each other inane questions sent in on twitter, we just said nerdy phrases at each other. It was amazing.

The next video I want to share is my wrap-up from the #xmasbooktubeathon. I love booktubeathon. In fact, I am really coming around to just loving ALL readathons, and I can’t wait to do so many more in 2015. But this was the weekend long readathon I did right before Christmas, complete with a lot of struggles:

This year I am, of course, doing the 50 book challenge, so there will be MANY more readathons to come. And, I can imagine, more book struggles.

As we get closer to the end of the year, I started getting reflective. About books, of course. I realized too late that the trendy thing to do was your top FOURTEEN books of 2014, so I look a n00b only listing five. Whatever!

Then I had to show off all my NEW books, of course. This is a very book heavy blog post, I’m finding. No regrets! Here is my most extreme book haul yet:

I posted many more videos over the last month or so, so scoot on over to my channel to catch ’em all! Like a Pokémon master. Or you can stay here and leave me a comment telling me what kinds of videos you’d like to see more of in 2015. Whatever you want.

Thanks, as always, for reading my blog! It makes me smile. I like you guys.