December 2015

What a year! December was a great month for reading (I had SIX, yes SIX 5-star reads!) but this year was phenomenal! I read wayyyy more books than I expected (my Goodreads Challenge can attest to that!); started taking review requests and joined NetGalley; focused more on my TBR books; visited so many great blogs and felt more apart of this fabulous community than ever before! I think 2015 was my favourite blogging year yet, and I hope 2016 can live up to those expectations!

This feature is also going to become a Quarterly Feature in 2016 as well. It is very time consuming to format everything and I doubt very many people enjoy reading it 😛 It’s mostly for me anyways and since most of my new challenges don’t require constant updating (like last year’s), a recap every 3 months is just as fine as monthly 😉

• 18 Books Read + 2 novellas
  • 0 nonfiction novels
  • 3 standalones (including 0 ARCs)
  • 2 books from TBR Jar
  • Started 5 new series (including 2 ARC)
  • Finished 0 series from start to end
  • Finished 3 previously started series
  • Read sequels for 5 previously started series

Favourite Read	Least Favourite Read
★★★★★	★★★

*Note: If the review is available, click on the cover! However, due to the nature of my blog (ie I review whole series) it often takes me a few weeks to publish a full review (pending book availability) so look forward to seeing some of these reviews in the upcoming weeks/months if there is no link available!

    

Having a Kindle AND a Kobo is a dangerous thing…especially when Kindle has so many books on sale on a regular basis (and boxing day comes)!

Most Viewed Post New to Me Authors (2015)	Most Viewed Review Single Sunday: Forbidden
View this month’s archives for more posts and reviews!

Previously posted reviews I updated this past month:

 

I had a great year participating in various book challenges. This was the first year I did something besides the GoodReads Challenge and I had a BLAST! I’ve signed up for some different challenges this year and you can read about those here.

• Book Bingo–Canadian: 1 books added
  • OVERALL: I only got 5 books in total (but no line); however, I read a lot of books that didn’t exactly qualify so I still feel pretty successful overall
• Everything YA Challenge: ✔ 2 YA reads
  • OVERALL: I definitely read at least 2 YA books a month but only managed 4 of 9 mini challenges (I had hoped to complete them all)
• Goodreads Challenge: 12 books added
  • OVERALL:  I surpassed my goal of 150 by reading 233
• Monthly Key Word Challenge: ✖
  • OVERALL: I read key words for 9 of the 12 months this year!
• Prequel & Sequel Challenge: +50 points added
  • OVERALL: I was just shy of my 3rd goal of 500 points, totalling 472!
• SERIESous’ Personal Classics Challenge: 0 books added
  • OVERALL: I completely bombed on this one! I read ZERO classics this year 🙁
• SERIESous’ Personal Nonfiction Challenge: 0 books added
  • OVERALL: I actually managed to read 6 books (my goal was 5)!

View my Progress Here!

In this previously monthly feature I pit two books or themes against each other to see who will be triumphant. I give my subjective opinion in the post, but I want to see who would win in your eyes via a poll. Thanks to those who participated!

This month’s final poll results:

BOOK SERIES VS STANDALONES

Book Series 5  |  Standalones 1  |  Depends on Genre 3

Next Battle: Science Fiction vs Dystopian

My Goals for December were the same as my TBR Goals for November thanks to exams and holidays. I wasn’t too hard on myself but it definitely could have been a more productive Winter break!

1. No requests/ARCs in December
   • Again, I didn’t do so well with this. But of the ones that were do in December, a lot of them I had previously committed to. I only requested one book on NetGalley but my Read-it-Review-It group had 3 great reads I couldn’t pass up and so I took a chance.
2. No putting books on hold at the library in December
   • Besides the newest Ally Carter and Rosemary Beach novel, I didn’t put anything else on hold. Well, I did put Winner’s Kiss and Lady Midnight on Hold but they don’t come out until March so no harm no foul. I only have a total of  5 books on hold which was my TBR goal when I started this whole process.
3. Read 5 TBR books in December
   • HAH! Lofty goals! But I did manage to start the Lunar Chronicles so I knocked off 2 TBR items.
4. Generally: Not starting a new series by an author I already have an unfinished series/sequels for
   • One of my NetGalley invitations was for an author I have sitting on my Kobo but I couldn’t pass up the chance to read Laurelin Paige’s First Touch!

One of my new 2016 Challenges is Rock my TBR. I will still be doing my TBR updates but only for the challenge as I hope the challenge will naturally integrate my TBR books into my monthly reads.

• Throwdown Thursdays will now become a seasonal feature
• Signed up for new Challenges for 2016
• Monthly Inventory will become Quarter Inventory (once every 3 months)

• Trilogy Termination Blitz
• Blogging & Reading Resolutions for 2016
• Update the following:
  • review directories
  • Series Recaps for all pages

I somehow managed to score Adele Tickets for next October so I am SUPER excited!

What were your biggest reading or personal accomplishments of the past year?
Leave a comment below!