2018 End of Year Check-in

[Rosemarie, Obsessive Reader]

What a great year, Mary Anne!

[Gareth]

It's been my most successful year on Goodreads, beating last year's tally of 48 books. I'm currently on 57 books read. I may finish another one or two before the end of the year but either way I've comfortably beaten the target I set myself of 52.

I've found that not just reading one book at a time has been a big part of this, and having an audiobook on the go at the same time as a written book.
In addition to this, I find the regular speed of audiobooks to be far too slow so I've been listening to them at 1.5-2x the speed. So that's certainly helped as well.

Also, I've just enjoyed reading and listening on my commute. So that's good.

I'm going to try and do 52 again next year and take part in some more challenges along the way. Whatever they may be, certainly Bingos and probably other things too

[Glennis]

Bravo Feyzan!!
Way to GO, Sara!!!

On to 2019!!

[Rosemarie, Obsessive Reader]

Good luck on dealing with your TBR shelves at home, Sonia. I am in the same situation. I still can't see all the books on my shelves.
Congrats on a successful challenge.

[Rosemarie, Obsessive Reader]

Way to go, Gareth!

[Karen]

Well done folks!
I’m a bit short of my goal of 100 books. However, what stands out when I look back at the year is that I did a lot of “easy” reads because I was stressed by work and a lot of other things this year. Some of them were just a step up from drivel. A baby step to be honest. So my goal for 2019 is to read quality over quantity and to make a dent in my owned but unread books.

[Rosemarie, Obsessive Reader]

There are different times to read different books. I usually make a list of books I want to read, but usually by about June I know that some are not going to be read in that year.
Maybe I will be reading Oliver Twist in 2019. I have had some books on my shelf since the 1990s, or even longer.
I did read a few of those in 2018, a very few.

[[deleted user]]

I've hit 48 out of my goal of 50 books for this year and I'm most of the way through 49, so it's not impossible that I'll meet my goal -- for the first time in too many years!

For next year I hope to read and post more in the communities here.

[Rosemarie, Obsessive Reader]

That's good to hear, Elizabeth. I hope you reach your goal.

[Hali]

Completed my challenge! Read 95 books this year :)
My 2019 goal will be 100 books!

[Rosemarie, Obsessive Reader]

Congrats, Hali.

[Nancy]

Congrats to all who have completed their challenges.

I over-reached in my goal of 140 books (read about 103 books not including novellas and short stories), but have completed a few of the challenges I set for myself (Anti-alphabet, Cereal challenges, Pick-a-theme), but also fell short on others (A-Z challenges).

As for 2019, I hope to catch up on the books received as giveaways as well as make a dent on the other books sitting on my bookshelves. More than anything else, I intend to read what I want, not what others think I should. In other words, I am going to have fun reading.

[Rosemarie, Obsessive Reader]

I agree with your overall goal, Nancy.
Reading is supposed to be fun!

[Nancy]

Thanks Rosemarie. When reading is no longer fun, then life becomes less colorful, less exciting. Where else but in a book can you travel around the world?

[Susy]

Read almost everything I had planned (except for the Angel Maker) so I'm very happy:

The Way to Paradise
The Slap
The Corrections
Deception Point
The Angel Maker
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Turtles All the Way Down
A Christmas Carol
The Girl in the Ice
Handboek EMDR bij kinderen en jongeren

December was a bit of a stressful month though, so although I ended up reading 70 books in 2018 I will set a lower goal PLUS I don't want to plan to much ahead so I can join in on buddy and group reads without feeling guilty about not reading what I had planned.

[Allison, Quest Hound]

Well done for getting through all of those at the end, Susy!

I'm also trying to plan ahead less this year so I can be more spontaneous. It's really hard not to join all the challenges right now though.

[Susy]

Allison wrote: "Well done for getting through all of those at the end, Susy!

I'm also trying to plan ahead less this year so I can be more spontaneous. It's really hard not to join all the challenges right now th..."

Thank you Allison!

I know, right? Yet I'm really going to try, maybe only join in on the bingo's (something new)....

[Eileen]

I wasn't in this group last year, but I did join the reading challenge and figured I could read 2 books a month. But I also became obsessed with audiobooks and trying different things including many good children and middle school reads. Including part of my post from FB about the reading challenge. Prior to this year, most of my books were sci-fi, fantasy, or mystery, with very little non-fiction to speak of. I joined the 2018 reading challenge with a goal of 24 books and ended up reading 90 books. I definitely could NOT have done it without my audiobooks, which I got from Overdrive/BaltimoreCountyLibrary/Fairfax Library, and Audible.

There were three books that I recommended to a lot of people. The first was Far From the Tree by Robin Benway, which was a wonderful surprise! That book made me laugh, cry, and scream and when I was done, I wanted to listen to it all over again. It was that good. My girls ended up reading it as did other friends. It was a YA book, but it was very good. The other two books were Becoming by Michelle Obama (so worth listening to her tell her story!) and Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan, which was a Middle School book, but very much enhanced as an audiobook because of the music that was added.

I did not have a yearly theme, but once I read my first memoir, I was hooked and I ended up reading several of them (and have even more on my list).

Some other highlights:
Favorite surprise series: Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. I had not read anything by her before, but ended up loving it.

Favorite revisited series: Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books. I had previously read it, but this time listened to the whole series.

Favorite new author: Jason Reynolds. He writes mostly YA and Middle School books, but they are definitely worth reading

Favorite memoir: Becoming by Michelle Obama and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.

Favorite LGTBQ story: This is how it always is by Laurie Frankel. I fell in love with the characters and especially Claude/Poppy and Penn (the father).

This year I'm going to join the genre challenge and try some pretty long books, so my goal will be 60. We'll see how it goes.

[Rosemarie, Obsessive Reader]

It sounds like you had a really good year of reading, Eileen.

[Eileen]

Yes, Rosemarie! 2018 was the year I found a renewed love of reading and a way to do it!

[Rosemarie, Obsessive Reader]

Eileen wrote: "Yes, Rosemarie! 2018 was the year I found a renewed love of reading and a way to do it!"

🤗😁