I love tracking my TBR and trying to see what else there is to accomplish by halfway through the year. I always hope it shocks me into saying HOLY SHIT get going on those challenges… but this year, I’m in pretty good shape for all of them! It looks like I’ll definitely meet my goals. Check out last year’s post if you’re curious!
As you see in my monthly wrap-ups, I keep my stats updated each time. The spreadsheet I use is definitely the reason for my organization. I use this time of year (in addition to the end of the year) to REALLY go all-out with my stats. It also helps me create new goals or update existing ones. I may decide I really should read more fantasy or more books from my own shelves. I’ll highlight all of the books I’ve read so far in general too.
All of the Books Read So Far
Totals
Books completed: 77
Books read: 73
Books reread: 4
Books DNF’ed: 5
Pages read: 27,580
Number of different authors: 69
Number of new “favorite” books: 8
Dual/multi POV: 5
Male narrators: 1
Averages
Average rating: 3.3
Average pgs/mins per day: 328 / 565
Average pgs/mins per month: 3940 / 1614
Average spending per month: $26.21
Age Targets
Young Adult: 68
New Adult: 1
Adult: 14
Middle Grade: 1
Series vs. Standalones
Number of standalones: 47
Number of books in a series: 37
First in a series: 14
Last in a series: 9
Number of different series: 25
Formats
Hardcover: 15
Paperback: 2
ARC: 22
eARC: 12
eBook: 14
Audiobook: 11
Audio Mix: 8
Genres
Contemporary: 55
Fantasy: 15
Historical Fiction: 6
Mystery/Thriller: 5
Retelling: 4
Science Fiction: 4
Paranormal: 3
Dystopia: 3
Graphic Novel: 2
Classic: 1
Authors
Female: 82
Male: 2
Both/combo: 0
Ratings
7
15
27
10
9
6
1
Best average rating: 3.91 in January
Worst average rating: 3.79 in March
Sources & Spending
Books read that I own: 42
Books read from the library: 26
Books I borrowed: 16
Highest spending month: $55.33 in June
Lowest spending month: $12.26 in Feb
Random Fun
Smallest book read: Mischief & Magnolias (70 pages)
Largest book read: The Sweet Far Thing (819 pages)
Most read author: Beth Kendrick (4)
Books read 300 pages or under: 24%
Books read over 300 pages: 76%
Most pages / books in a month:
5,869 pages in February / 16 books in January
Least pages / books in a month:
3,406 pages in June / 8 books in May
As you know, I love challenges and tend to participate in them quite a bit. I always sum them up in my wrap-ups, but this time of year is great to kick my ass into reading more for them. Some are complete already (go me!) and some have a ways to go. I think I can reasonably finish them all!!
Completed
Contemporary Romance Challenge
Goal: 21+ books ||| Read so far: 44
Geekerella – Potson
The Secret of a Heart Note – Lee
Alex, Approximately – Bennett
The Names They Gave – Lord
Hope Was Here – Bauer
When Dimple Met Rishi – Menon
Fireworks – Cotugno
PS I Like You – West
Letters to the Lost – Kemmerer
Reunion – Pittard
Kiss Cam – London
The Young Wives Club – Pennell
Confessions of a HS Disaster – Chastain
A Little Something Diff – Hall
What to Say Next – Buxbaum
Bounce – August
Done Dirt Cheap – Lemon
My Not So Perfect Life – Kinsella
Cure for the Common Breakup – Kendrick
New Uses for Old Boyfriends – Kendrick
Zenn Diagram – Brant
Secrets of a Reluctant Princess – Griffin
Put a Ring on It – Kendrick
Once Upon a Wine – Kendrick
At First Blush – Summer
Windfall – Smith
Along for the Ride – Dessen
The Best Man – Higgins
Trusting You & Other Lies – Williams
The Perfect Match – Higgins
Hello, Sunshine – Howland
Literally – Keating
Always and Forever, LJ – Han
The Unlikelies – Firestone
Changes in Latitudes – Malone
Waiting on You – Higgins
Someone Like You – Dessen
Juniper Lemon – Israel
Heat of the Moment – Barnholdt
Lucky in Love – West
Once and for All – Dessen
Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour – Matson
Coming Up for Air – Kenneally
The Awkward Path to Getting Lucky – Heacock
In Progress
Rock My TBR Challenge
Goal: 15 books ||| Read so far: 14
The Secret of a Heart Note – Lee
The Forgetting – Cameron
Kiss Cam – London
Dreamland Burning – Latham
Wires and Nerve – Meyer
Windfall – Smith
Along for the Ride – Dessen
Literally – Keating
ACOWAR – SJM
Always and Forever, LJ – Han
Juniper Lemon – Israel
Heat of the Moment – Barnholdt
Once and for All – Dessen
Loop – Akins
Flights of Fantasy Challenge
Goal: 30 books ||| Read so far: 18
Heroism, Hardship, and Dangerous Hobbies – Rowling
Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists – Rowling
Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide – Rowling
Ice Like Fire – Raasch
Sleeper and the Spindle – Gaiman
Alice In Wonderland – Carroll
The Forgetting – Sharon Cameron
Dark Breaks the Dawn – Larson
Dark Star – Frenette
A Great and Terrible Beauty – Bray
Frost Like Night – Raasch
The Best Kind of Magic – Cestari
Zenn Diagram – Brant
Rebel Angels – Bray
Roar – Carmack
ACOWAR – SJM
The Sweet Far Thing – Bray
Blood of Wonderland – Oakes
Series Enders Challenge
Goal: 5-10 series ||| Read so far: 9
Take the Key & Lock Her Up – Carter
Frost Like Night – Raash
Mischief & Magnolias – Cook
Bounce – August
Once Upon a Wine – Kendrick
Always and Forever, LJ – Han
ACOWAR – SJM
The Sweet Far Thing – Bray
Coming Up for Air – Kenneally
At the beginning of the year, there was a TTT for your 2016 resolutions – bookish or otherwise. I always use that topic to explain the reading, blogging, and personal (but somewhat bookish) goals for the year. I usually don’t revisit these too much but I hope this midpoint check-in is enough to make them top of mind again. I’ll talk about my “progress” on each of these goals/resolutions and let you know if I consider it a pass, fail, or ehhh attempt.
Read less…and give myself time to focus on other hobbies
PASS • Well I’ve definitely read less. I’m still ahead on my reading challenge for the year, but I don’t finish as many books each month. I’ve been able to watch a lot of Netflix and Total Divas this year. We also spent basically the entire month of June moving and living out of boxes and bags for a while, so I wasn’t doing much of anything. AND since we’ve been religiously watching wrestling, that takes up Monday and Tuesday nights (plus the frequent Sunday night PPV). So yes, I have successfully read less.
Reinvigorate The Nostalgia Project and reread more
SOMEWHAT PASS • I did reread the Gemma Doyle trilogy and counted it toward this project, since it was a series I was hoping would hold up for me. I do still want to reread plenty of the other series but I just haven’t gotten around to it. Rereading is always an issue for me because there are soooo many books to read!
Read. Books. From. My. Shelves
PASS • I’m VERY impressed with the amount of owned books I’ve read. I know that 15 books isn’t much, considering how many I have in my library, but it’s definitely a great pace for the entire year. My library is all over the place right now but I still have plans to read a lot of owned books. I’m going to cut way down on book buying too so hopefully I’ll read my existing books!
Expand beyond contemporary romance
NOT REALLY PASS • Mmm this could be much better. As usual, this is the largest portion of my reading. My goal is to get this number down below 50% for the year and right now it’s almost at 70% lol WHOOPS. I haven’t even made a conscious effort to cut down on this either. Hopefully I can fix my numbers by the end of the year. We’ll seeeee.
Crank out shows from my to-watch list
FAIL • I honestly have no idea what’s wrong with me here. After basically cancelling the Netflix and Books Challenge when Erica stopped blogging, I haven’t even tracked my TV show watching that much… or remembered which shows I put on my to-watch list. Whoops. I’ve been so addicted to wrestling-related shows that I don’t even know the last time I watched an episode of something else. The last show I was watching wasn’t even on my to-watch list before. OH WELL.
Be a bit more spontaneous, but also make more plans
PASS • I think finalizing plans to move out of my state and actually doing it definitely qualify for this one. On top of that, we have the ability to be super spontaneous with our plans (bike to the water? Sure! Lobster rolls for dinner instead? Yes.) because of where we live. AND we have friends who want to come visit. We’ve made plans for the first few months of being here so all of our friends can come hang out.
Figure out my career path and the possibility of going back to school
FAIL • This is on hold for now because I have no idea. I’ve been toying around with some new school-related ideas but I don’t think it’s the right time. Deferring my loans right now would be awesome of course, but I feel like taking classes and working remotely and trying to enjoy Portland would be a bit much for me at this moment in time. Someday, I will go back to school.
Save up a lot of money and pay down debt
KINDA PASS • I did a surprisingly good job of saving up money to move. I haven’t really paid any debt down so far this year but I have a couple of good placements coming to fruition that will help with that. I was able to buy my car and got a good rate on that too… so maybe that counts for something lol.
Stick to a blogging schedule with less posts
PASS • I’ve been running low on creative juices, which is the only reason I’ve been able to post less! I’ve been trying to brainstorm some new ideas but haven’t had a lot of luck. I’m not too worried about it because posting three times a week is definitely in line with what I was hoping for earlier this year. Pass!
Develop long-range blog-related and bookish goals
FAIL • I don’t even remember what this one was about and I’m too lazy to look into it. I feel like it had something to do with curating a library and figuring out where I want to go with the blog? This isn’t really a fail because I don’t care about long-term goals at the moment. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Link up with challenges each month
MOSTLY FAIL • I feel like I’ve done an okay job with linking up (toward the beginning of the year). Since then… I’ve only done it randomly when I remember. This is a good reminder of this plan because I think most of the time I don’t even remember this is something I should be doing. I love participating in challenges so I refuse to let any challenge host think no one cares after signing up!
I’ve done fairly well with my goals… It’s funny because most of them are related to blogging and reading less; that’s why I’ve been successful. LOL oh well. Here are some more really specific things I hope to continue with and/or start on for the next half of the year.
- Post more original topics or discussion posts
- Develop more recommendation lists
- Write another read-bait post about new topics
- Keep up with some of the memes or weekly posts I’ve created recently
- Comment more on other blogs
- Carve out time each week to blog and do it less when I shouldn’t
- Beat my Goodreads goal and pick up my reading a bit
- Get my contemporary romance numbers down around or below 50% of books read
- Read more Kindle books / backlist egalleys
- Read more for the Nostalgia Project
This made me want to make a collage of the books I’ve read this year. It’s interesting to see them all laid out like that!
I enjoyed reading this. You have done really well with your challenge and goals. It has inspired me to set some goals for myself!
Good luck with the second half of the year!
There’s a customizable Goodreads widget that does it! I always use that for my wrap-ups.
Thanks so much!
You kick butt at book challenges, I’m so impressed. 16 books in January! Amazing.
Thank you 😀
Lauren you make me so jealous!! I’ll be lucky to read what you’ve read in 6 months by the end of the year– and by that I mean I won’t read as much as you’ve read in 6 months by the end of the year 🙁
I don’t think I’ll read as much in the second half of the year, but we’ll see 🙂
Oh I LOVE this idea of doing a mid point check in for the year for reading goals! (I’m interested in doing one myself, if you don’t mind me copying from your idea!) Also I’m so excited to hear more about your adventures in Maine, I hope you keep posting about them!
Yes, please copy away! ? I’ll continue with my adventures later this week!!
Yes, please copy away! 🙂 I’ll continue with my adventures later this week!!
[…] I love tracking my TBR and trying to see what else there is to accomplish by halfway through the year. I always hope it shocks me into completing challenges and really focusing in on my bookish goals. I decided to split this year’s check-in into two posts so I could really hone in on some specifics. Today’s post is about about my challenges’ status and TBRs for the rest of the year. Monday’s post was about what I’ve read and my goal progress. Check out last year’s post if you’re curious! […]