January 2018
January was an interesting reading month for me. I created my 2018 Reading Plan so I had a few “to-dos” to accomplish this past month. Did I meet them? Yes for the most part! I did request more ARCs than I anticipated (and set for myself)…oops. I also had to squeeze in a few other books because my “big city” library card expires mid-February now that I no longer live there for school. I tried my best to take out the books I don’t have access to with my local library and read them.
Thanks to my excellent planning, I managed to read all the books on my set TBR list according to my Reading Challenges while simultaneously reading those “big city” books (ie I made sure the books for this month’s reading challenge were the titles from that library).
I’ve also changed this summary post as well! There are some thing I’m only going to do every quarter and I’ve introduced some new features like my participation in the Down the TBR Hole meme and introducing the titles I have set to read for the new month. Enjoy!
Total for January 2018: 24 Books Read + 2 Novellas Read
Last January: 21 Books Read + 2 Novellas Read
DNF’d: 3 Books
Standout Read (★★★★★)
I’ve been reviewing Jayne’s work since her first novel in the Sixth Bands Series and it is CRAZY how much her writing has evolved since that first book! This story was absolutely awesome and I felt every emotion reading it. Love!
Biggest Let Down (DNF)
JLA is in my Top 10 most read authors according to Goodreads but the last few of hers I’ve tried haven’t been overly successful. I didn’t love the first book in this series, Frigid, but I was really excited to read about the next set of leads in Scorched. Unfortunately, their immaturity really bothered me and I ended up DNFing the book.
Every quarter I take a look at my Kobo stats to see how I’m doing. My Kobo is my main reading device, used for personal and library books. My Kindle is used for ARCs but it lacks the statistic features of my Kobo.
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As of: |
January 31, 2018 |
January 31, 2017 |
| Total % of Library Complete |
23% |
20% |
| Total # of Books Finished |
270 |
531 |
| Total # of Reading Hours |
2511 |
2150 |
*Note: After an update midway through 2017, the statistics changed for my Kobo. It no longer counted library copies towards the Total # of Books Finished (though it still counts the hours). Hence, there is a decrease in my current numbers for that statistic!
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Most Viewed Post
My 2018 Reading Plan |
Most Viewed Review
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Previously posted series reviews that got updates:
You can always get the full details on all my challenges on my dedicated page but here is a quick update:
5 Year 5 Book Challenge: Royally Screwed & Loop | 2 of 25 Titles Read
Goodreads Challenge: 26 books added | 26/190 Books
52 Sequel Challenge: 6 titles added + 1 DNF | 6/52 Sequels
Tackling the TBR Challenge: 4 books added + 1 DNF| 4/36 Books
View my Challenge Progress Here!
In February 2017, I created a challenge for myself to bring my “Want to Read” Goodreads Shelf to 500 books. By the end of December 2017, I had brought the shelf down from 1205 to 511 books! The ultimate goal for 2018 is to get that number lower than 500 and also bring down my “sequel” shelf as well. I’ve decided that every quarter I will check my stats to see how I’m doing when it comes to cleaning up my TBR:
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Currently |
December 31, 2017 |
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Want to Read (New) |
510 |
511 |
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To Read (Sequels) |
312 |
301 |
Clearly, not a big improvement. I picked up a few freebie reads this past month, including some sequel novels. But, it’s only month one and I hope that my upcoming vacation in February will help decrease those numbers.
I’ve seen this meme floating around and thought it was a great idea to help me tackle my TBR list and reach that less than 500 goal. I usually do a big Goodreads Purge twice a year but I like the idea of doing a little bit at a time.
It works like this:
- Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.
- Order on ascending date added.
- Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course, if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.
- Read the synopses of the books
- Decide: keep it or should it go?
I will be going through 10 books each month (7 “new” books/series and 3 previously started series) to see if I am going to keep them or move them to my “pass” shelf. I’m going by the date I added them to Goodreads, starting with what I added in 2012 and working my way towards 2018. Here are this month’s contenders and what I have decided to do:
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Pass: 5 | Keep: 5
Did I make any mistakes? Let me know in the comments below!
You can still join in on these discussions:
- Trope Thursdays: Fake Relationships <–A NEW feature looking at book tropes!
- Movie Mondays: Everything, Everything
- Reading Plan for 2018
Here are some of my favourite posts that I’ve come across the past month:
- Sarah @ Written Word Worlds tells us the Signs You’re in a Book Slump
- Briana @ Pages Unbound explains how to Follow the FTC Disclosure Guidelines
- Alice @ Arctic Books lists the Pros and Cons of the Goodreads Challenge
- Jo @ BookLoversBlog reminds us of some Author/Blogger Etiquette
- The Candid Cover shares some upcoming Book to Movie Adaptions in 2018
Each month I have a list of 11 books I’ve selected to read for that particular month as per my 2018 Reading Plan. These books include review copies and reading challenge picks. Here are some of the books I have ready to go for February:
What were your biggest reading or personal accomplishments of the past month?
Leave a comment below!
Congratulations on sticking to your TBR this month and wow, 23 books?? That’s such an incredible amount of books to read in one month, haha 🙂 I hope you’ll have a fantastic February! 🙂
Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks recently posted…Monthly wrap-up – January 2018
Thank you! It was looking a little scary for a bit there in terms of getting all the books I wanted to in 😛 But I had a few days off from work and with the crappy snow weather we had, I spent a few snow days in bed reading haha
I continue to me SO impressed by what an organised reader you are.
However.
You should really read The Diviners. It is SO GOOD. It looks at how teens living in the 1920s feel totally betrayed by the war that destroyed so many of their families. It looks at racism and how the Chinese Exclusion Act ruined a lot of people’s lives for a while. It’s also has a couple of my FAVOURITE ships in ever, AND it’s supernatural. What more could you need?
haha thanks! I try my best. I’m awful at decisions so I need to be organized and have some directions.
You know, the Diviners was the one I really hummed and hawed about! I love reading books set in the 1920s so that’s what drew me in. But it’s the page length that scared me! I read Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty years ago and loved the first 2 books but could not get through the third.
It’s funny though, when I went to check The Diviners on Goodreads, I see I still have it marked as to read so maybe my subconscious is making the decision for me 😛
Haha!
I totally get what you mean about the length, but her writing style is very readable, so they don’t feel like a mammoth to get through. I know what it’s like when you’re a blogger though – there are SO MANY books to get through, picking something up that is going to take some serious time is stressful. I’ve had The Secret History by Donna Tartt on my shelf for a while now, and though I am DYING to read it, I haven’t picked it up yet because it’s 600 pages long and I need to get seriously ahead on my reviews before I can start!
See I can get through a massive Cassandra Clare book like its 100 pages but other ones scare me!
I promise I will look into The Diviners again later this year and try to pick up to give it a shot 🙂 You’ve got me convinced it’s worth a try.
I love the Down the TBR hole feature. I totally need to do that with my own Goodreads TBR shelf. The first ten books never seem to change, but they are mostly Jodi Picoult books so I do think I will read them someday.
Rachael Turns Pages recently posted…2018 Spreads to Track Books in My Bullet Journal
It’s a great idea isn’t it? Last year I did two big purges and that removed a lot of books from my TBR. After those, there were a lot of books I was on the fence about so I just left them but I like that this feature forces me to really think about it. I read more reviews, read the synopsis and look at the page length and I feel like I make a more informed decision.
Thank you so much for the shoutout! 🙂
I am envious of the number of books that you have read in January! That is such an impressive start to the year. I hope that your challenges go as planned and that you get your GR TBR to where you want it to be.
Anytime! I loved that post! I’m always the last to know about book to movie adaptions 😛
Thank you! It definitely helped that I got a few snow days where I didn’t feel guilty staying in and reading all day haha