In my 2015 goals post, I said I wanted to “read lots of great new releases, but I want things to be calmer and more thoughtful.” I put the goals below together with this over-arching theme in mind. So, how’d I do?
Better Planning
- Read New Releases Farther in Advance – Last year, I always waited too close to a book’s publication date to read the book and was late getting my reviews posted. This year, I’d like to have a more thoughtful approach, which means I need to…
PASS…I read new releases a week or two before publication on average. - Use a “New Release” Calendar – I’ve already put this together for 2015 (yay me, bonus points!) and have the first four months of the year pretty well mapped out. I’ve chosen a couple new releases per month that I’m interested in, leaving some time for spur of the moment picks.
PASS…used a calendar to map out new releases AND schedule posts.
More Reading, Less Writing
- Leave Time for More Free Range Reading – Some of my best reading in 2014 were books that weren’t planned reviews for me. I want more of this in 2015, which means…
FAIL…I probably read 1 free range book per month (and none some months).
- Participate in Less Blog Tours – These are books you commit to reviewing on a certain date and can’t really DNF if they’re not working for you. All of these things don’t really jive with how I want my 2015 to go.
PASS…I only participated in 1 blog tour. I’ll be eliminating them completely in 2016.
- Write More Mini Reviews – For books I don’t have as much to say about, a mini review will suffice.
PASS…43% of my 2015 reviews to date were minis.
- Make Better Use of Amazon Samples – I started doing this towards the end of 2014 and knocked a bunch of books off my TBR list. Bonus points…it saves me money!
PASS…I sampled every e-book I bought before I bought it.
- DNF (Do/Did Not Finish) More Books – I’m a “check things off the list” kind of girl, so DNFing is hard for me. But, life is just too short to waste time on books you don’t like, so I’m going to get better about this. I promise!
PASS…I’ve DNF’d 19 books to date this year (that’s probably 10 better than last year).
- Read More Backlist Books – I focused on new releases in 2014 (it’s so hard to resist when you’re reading a bunch of glowing reviews about the latest release!), but I read some excellent backlist books around the holidays and want to make time for more in 2015.
EPIC FAIL…you know how many backlist books I read this year? 10!!! That is atrocious. And, worse (or better, depending on how you look at it), half of them were 4.5 or 5 star reads. I need to take more advantage of this high percentage reading!
“To Do” Items
- Put Together “Great Books Under 300 Pages” List – I already have a list for chunksters, so I think the short ones deserve some love! Plus, didn’t someone important say that it’s much harder to be succinct than long-winded? I’m shooting to have this posted this winter.
PASS…check it out! And, it’s one of my better performing posts of the year.
- Participate in Armchair BEA – Believe it or not, I’ve never participated in BEA (Book Expo America) in any way. I’ll dip my toe in with the armchair version this year.
FAIL, BUT PASS…skipped Armchair BEA, but attended BEA in person instead!
I’d say the year was a resounding success for you!
Thanks for sharing your goal report card. It is such a thoughtful list. I wish I had a more organized approach to what I read, but I don’t read nearly as much as you. I sort of just take one month at a time. I signed up for a blog tour in Feb., but afterwards questioned myself Why?
Haha – I understand! That’s what I’d been asking myself lately so out the window they go!
Sounds good. Terrific list.
And….a very thorough list.
I like the idea about mini-reviews.
ENJOY the rest of your week, and Merry Christmas!!
Elizabeth
Silver’s Reviews
My A Month of Faves
Wow – way to rock your goals for the year! And I’d say attending BEA is definitely a pass – although Armchair BEA is fun too.
I’m really looking forward to Armchair this year! I think it will be more about interacting with other bloggers than getting ARCs (which is what I felt in person BEA boiled down to).
Love this recap! You did GREAT!
Thank you 🙂
Well, it’s good that you set out goals for the reading year, and that looking back you can say with certainty whether you accomplished those goals or not. I’m not that precise but I do keep score of what I read, genres, etc.
This was the first time I did this (thanks to A Month of Favorites), but I like and am going to keep doing it.
I need to get a whole lot better at DNF. (i think i only DNF’ed 5 books this year, and i read close to 100, yikes!) I’m like you and crave being about to check something “off my list”, i’ve suffered through so many books that were bad because i didn’t want to not finish them.
I was horrible at DNFing before I started blogging…I literally finished every book I started. But, now I realized life is too short and there are too many great books out there!
You’re a superhero!! Very impressed, good work! I need to get in on that “scheduling” thing. Sounds like a good time.
Ha – superhero?! I’ll take that!
You rocked 2015!!!!!! 🙂
You want to read more backlist books, I want to read more new releases — we should exchange our favorites! Great job with your goals, you’re making me think about mine for next year.
Well done- you nailed the important goals although is attending 2015 BEA means you’re skipping 2016 I’m going to have to count that as an epic fail bc I’m going next year. And it’s all about me. 😉
I am so bad about backlist- I pretty much ignore until Nov/Dec. I’m already front loading Jan/Feb with new releases so I’m not learning from my mistakes. I had not thought about the Amazon samples, though, that could winnow my reading list substantially! Thank you!
I don’t know that I set goals last year. Need to check my journal. For me it’s a balance between reading group books (I am in 5 reading groups because I love discussing books IRL), reading for reviews (I totally know about those pub deadlines!), reading for my writing projects, and then just reading what I want because it sounds good. Anyway, you have inspired me to think more clearly about my goals for 2016. I know I want to read more translated literature, concentrate on women writing about women and make more progress on what I call My Big Fat Reading Project (what you call the backlist.) Happy New Year!
That looks like a very productive and successful year for the most part! Let me know if you go to BEA in 2016 – it’s in my neck of the woods!