Tuesday 29 December 2015

2015 Bookish Resolutions: The Results Are In


So about a year ago, I decided to post some bookish and blogging new year's resolutions for myself.  Some goals I achieved, and some I didn't.  Either way, I'm happy with how my reading life has gone this year, and I'm looking forward to what I can read next year!  Here are my goals and how I went with them.

"1.  Finish all my owned, unread books.
These include: Siege and Storm + Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo, A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray, The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, The Bane Chronicles, Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas, Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes and Infinite by Jodi Meadows."

Well.  I did read most of those books that I mentioned.  I didn't get to Ruin and Rising, Falling Kingdoms or Infinite.  But I did buy/receive a lot of books this year which I also read this year: Queen of Shadows, The Night Circus, Illuminae, Tiger's Promise, A Court of Thorns and Roses and End of Days.

"2.  Read these other specific books."




I read all four of these books this year!  You can see my (weird) Cinder review here, my Splintered review here, my Unspoken review here and my Every Move (last book in the Every trilogy) review here.

"3.  Read at least 2 classics this year."

Yeah, I didn't do this.  I did read The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, which people apparently call a classic, so I guess that's one down?

"4.  Read some adult fiction.
I'm thinking at least five.  For example: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell, Vicious by V.E. Schwab, and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn."

I read Attachments and Gone Girl, but not Vicious.  I also read The Night Circus.  So, that's 3/5.

"5.  Stop saying the word "really" so often."

I've actually been working on this.  Before I post, I usually do a quick control+F for words like really, very and definitely so that I can see how many times I've used them and change them if I used them more than once.  Yay!

"6.  Read at least 52 books - an average of one a week."


I managed to read over 70 books this year!  This is a huge deal for me, since it's the most I've ever read in one year.  I like to think that this made a nice dent in my (Goodreads) TBR pile too - but really, it just scratched the surface!  Also, the Goodreads challenge doesn't take into account my rereads, so I've made a shelf for that too (but it also keeps track of books I've DNFed, so that's not exactly an accurate number either).

"7.  Try and reread at least one of my favourite series/trilogies."
For example:




This is sadly a goal that I cheated on half accomplished.  I read the Infernal Devices in graphic novel form!

"8.  Try to write some more long reviews."

This is a weird goal to explain.  I'm still doing a lot more mini reviews than full reviews, but my mini reviews have gotten a lot longer and now are an average of about 400 words (as opposed to the 200 they used to be).

"9.  Don't neglect reading in favour of watching Youtube."

I pretty much quit watching Youtube altogether this year, so I achieved this easily!

"10.  No buying books unless I've got an income!"

Another complete fail.  I have bought (and received) a lot of books this year (see book hauls 1 and 2 plus one that I will be sharing in January which I'm sure will have 10 plus books in it) and I still do not have a job.

"11.  Finish/Continue some series that you've started.
It's confusing me as to why I haven't finished some of these.  For example, I gave Paranormalcy 5 stars, yet I never moved on to the next book."




I did read The Dream Thieves this year, as well as Blue Lily, Lily Blue, but I didn't read any of the other books pictured above.  I continued some other series though - Throne of Glass, The Selection, The Grisha, and Penryn and the End of Days.

"12.  Reread your posts before you post them."

*Deep sigh*  I don't know what it is but I just can't proofread properly.  I'll reread my post and think it's fine, then later on I realise I skipped over a mistake I made.

"13.  Post more of what I want, rather than what I think people will like."

I guess I've completed this?


I'm also proud of some other things I've accomplished, in terms of reading, this year.  I've read some New Adult and Middle Grade, a memoir, some graphic novels, audiobooks and ebooks.  I've been consciously looking out for more diverse books too.

If you want to check out my Year in Books on Goodreads, here's the link!  It shows the longest and shortest book I read, my top-rated books and more.

Did you have any goals this year?  Did you meet them?  Do you have any goals for next year?  Tell me everything!

4 comments:

  1. I'm glad you managed to complete so many of your goals, Sabrina! I definitely failed in reading more Adult Fiction with all the shiny YA releases this year. I should work on saying 'really' less often because it appeared way too many times in my posts and comments.
    I had it among my goals to read more classics, too - I managed to read 8 altogether, which is a lot less than I planned, but I can't even be disappointed about it anymore. I'm not sure what is up with me but I lost the ability to care about failed goals lol.
    Anyhow, anytime you want to read a classic, feel free to tweet me because I would LOVE to buddy read lots of classics.
    Oh yeah, I know how easy it is to abandon series even if you truly enjoyed the first novel(s). I'm glad you managed to continue Raven Cycle! CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL!
    Great post, and good luck for the new year!
    Veronika @ The Regal Critiques

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Veronika!
      YA had a fantastic year, that's for sure.
      8 is an amazing number of classics to have got through! I know what you mean about that - I'm not making any goals this year for that same reason.
      I am so glad to hear you say that and I will definitely take you up on it!
      Anticipation for The Raven King is keeping me up at night :P
      Thanks again Veronika! I hope you have a great 2016!

      Delete
  2. I really love the word "really"; I use it all the time but it's because I really don't know a good replacement for it ;P No, seriously, I use it a lot. Way to much. Anyways, congrats on achieving some of your goals!!! I had some goals in 2015 but I don't remember them. I should check out the post I wrote and see if some of them happened LOL
    And for 2016, I have a list of 24 books (12 adult ones + 12 classcis) that I wanna read. Besides that, I'm not setting any more goals. Maybe I should read more of my shelves and buy less but I know the best I can do is balance both things. I have no will power when it comes to buy books but I'm gonna try to go through my bookshelves and get my "veteran" titles because it is indeed getting ridiculous
    Gook luck to your 2016 reading year Sabrina!! :)

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    Replies
    1. Hahaha Noelia, what a perfect sentence.
      Thank you! Well I guess you mustn't mind so much if you didn't complete them then xD
      That sounds like a good plan. Maybe I should do something similar this year instead of these goals.
      You too Noelia!

      Delete

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