2015 Resolutions Wrap Up

You ready to see my fail?

Minimum Goals

1. GoodReads Goal = 42 out of 20 Books Read = DONE! This marks my 4th year in a row completing (and extending) my goodreads challenge!! ^_^
2. #Project5Books = FAILED MISERABLY!
3. Read 5 Classics = I only read one this year= FAILED!
4. Read everyday  = FAILED but I did read a LOT more frequently this year =]
5. Keep up blog = I’d say I sorta did this. I was really good up until I moved to Japan and got a full time job = DONE!

2 out of 5 Completed!

Aim Goals

6. Read all Brandon Sanderson books pre-2015 = Hahahaha don’t ake me laugh. I haven’t read ONE book by his this year (Nearly finished Mistborn 2 though!) = EXCEEDINGLY FAILED!
   
7. Finish ALL ARCS! = Nope – FAILED!
8. Finish 4 Series/Trilogies = I finished three: Narnia, The Selection Trilogy and The Rain Duology = FAIL!
9. Terry Pratchett Read-a-Long = I only read Sourcery this year ='[ = FAILED!
   
10. Out way manga vs books = 138:132 = FAIL!
11. Complete a November NaNoWriMo (damn you 50k!) = FAILED!
12. Physical books down to at least 40 = According to my note book, I’m down the 42 physical books which I say is damn close! But still = FAILED!

0 out of 7 Completed!

Insane Goals

13. #0by16 (excluding those I get in 2015) = FAILED HOLY MACKEREL FAIL!
14. NPR’s 100 Best SF and Fantasy Books Challenge = FAILED!

 

So that is the train wreck I call my fail of 2015 resolutions…. How bad did you do? I am proud of how many books I read this year and I’m exceedingly proud that almost ALL the manga I read was in Japanese so that’s a huge accomplishment in my opinion but I only managed to complete 2 challenges and there were only 5 challenges that should’ve been possible! And not even being able to do those is just… embarrassing!

There’s always next year anyway ^_^

How did you do this year?

Summer Reading Goals – Wrap Up!

I made some goals back in May and now it time for the results! I think we ALL know where this is heading right? Anyway let’s enjoy my fail! My summer holidays finished July 27^th…

Goals:

1. Read 30 books = I read a total of 19 books which means I failed but also meant I surpassed my GR goal! =]
2. Read 3000 pages = I surpassed this easily thanks to reading lots of Manga! ^_^
3. Finish 2 Manga series = failed.
4. Finish as many already started series as possible = I finished The Selection trilogy but that’s all =/
5. Finish as many ARCs as possible (I have like 18) = I failed even though I read quite a few ARCs, I requested a bunch of new ones!! =/

Blog Goals:

Post consistently = I think I did pretty well on this one.

Comments on others more = this one too!

Re-Organising My Shelves:

Those shelves are gone and some have gone to family/friends, charity or locked in storage waiting for me to come and pick them up when I go back to England for a visit.

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Not too bad…right? xD

2015 Bookish Resolutions

First things first; HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

This will be split into three different stages (kinda got the idea from the NaNoWriMo writing daily goals forum):

Minimum Goals

1. GoodReads Goal = 20
2. #Project5Books = basically must read at least 5 physical/bought books before I can buy a new book. (ARCs/Freebies/Public Domains/Manga do not count towards my book of 5 for me!)
3. Read 5 Classics: 1984, Brave New World, The Jungle Book, Treasure Island and Alice in Wonderland.
4. Read everyday – usually at night.
5. Keep up blog.

Aim Goals

6. Read all Brandon Sanderson books pre-2015; 22 pieces of his work (including novellas) to go!
   
   
7. Finish ALL ARCS! I currently have 17 yet to read! =/
8. Finish 4 Series/Trilogies; Harry Potter, Mistborn, The Inheritance Cycle, The Chronicles of Narnia and catch up with: The Rain and The Millennium’s Rule (both have their second books coming out in 2015)
9. Terry Pratchett Read-a-Long; starting with book 5 ‘Sourcery’ me and Bitten by Radioactive Book are reading one Discworld novel per month during 2015!
   
   
10. Out way manga vs books: Currently ratio is 119 manga to 112 books (2014.12.30)
11. Complete a November NaNoWriMo (damn you 50k!)
12. Physical books down to at least 40 (current physical books: 74).

Insane Goals

13. #0by16 (excluding those I get in 2015) [Current TBR Pile = 17 ARCS + 73 physical books + 13 bought e-books = 103 books! (not including freebies but including ARCS)]
14. NPR’s 100 Best SF and Fantasy Books Challenge

What are your bookish goals for 2015?!

2014 Bookish Resolutions Check-Out

Let us review my year of book reading shall we?

2014 Bookish Goals That were made at the beginning of 2014.

1. GoodReads Goal of 48 Books
2. 12 Re-Reads
3. Finish 5 Manga Series
4. Read 2 Japanese Books
5. Finish 4 Series
6. Write a novel in 365 days = 365 pages
7. Start a booktube
8. Read more books compared to 2013 that aren’t manga.

2014 End-of-Year Check:

1. Throughout the year it jumped around; to 24 (in April), 48 (July) and finally to 38 (October) [see here]. I am now at 45 books which means I have surpassed the April and October adjusted goals and was only 3 off my original goal! =] I am very happy with that!

Book Breakdown:

• Physical Books: 6
• E-Books: 18
• ARCS: 8
• Manga/Comics: 13
• Japanese: 0

2. I failed at this and only managed 3 re-reads:
   Pride and Prejudice
   The Hobbit
   MockingJay
3. This was one I really thought I could do but I kinda stopped reading manga for a while and only really marathoned it in one/two days obsessive bursts so couldn’t get any series finished. But I am still up-to-date on two manga so technically 2 completed?
   Kuroshitsuji
   Shingeki no Kyojin
4. Another I thought I could honestly do; take 6 months to read one book each but uni got crazy and it’ll take 100s of hours for me to read one Japanese book so I didn’t even attempt to try =/
5. Another I thought doable but alas was not. Finished 0 series.
6. I did two NaNoWriMo’s (one lost, one won) and got a total of around 142 pages written which I think is pretty damn impressive and I’m happy with that regardless of not writing everyday and not reaching 365 pages xD
   Camp NaNoWriMo 2014; Swelting Hot – 25300 out of 25000 words = WON!
   NaNoWriMo 2014; Of Pork and Storms – 31947 out of 50000 words = LOST.
   Total of 57247 (so technically I won NaNoWriMo, no?)
7. I did start one but it takes a lot of time and I’ve found I’m a better writer and ‘behind the scenes/keyboard’ sort of person rather than being the star in front of the camera so even though the booktube channel was not successful, I think we can all agree that this blog has been rather successful – agree?
8. In 2013 I read 21 books that weren’t manga volumes or comic issues etc. And this year I have managed to read 32 books, which means I read more books this year than last!

Total number of resolutions completed: 2.5/8?

Now onto the two most exciting things! Best and Worst Books of 2014!

And my winners are:

And my loser is:

Happy New Year’s Eve!

2012/2013 Reading RoundUps

This blog wasn’t around when I began doing the GoodReads challenges so I thought I’d take this time to tell and show you what I read and how I did in those years prior to my blog’s birth! =]

2012 Resolutions:

1. GoodReads Goal = 12

2012 Results:

1. GoodReads Goal reached; read 13 books (108%)

Breakdown:

• Physical Books: 13
• E-Books: 0 (didn’t own an e-reader until August 2013)
• ARCS: 0 (wasn’t a part of NetGalley until April 2014)
• Manga/Comics: 0
• Japanese: 0

            

Book of 2012:

ENDERS GAME!

2013

2013 Resolutions:

1. GoodReads Goal = 24

2013 Results:

1. GoodReads Goal reached; read 50 books (208%)

Breakdown:

• Physical Books: 15
• E-Books: 6
• ARCS: 0 (wasn’t a part of NetGalley until April 2014)
• Manga/Comics: 29
• Japanese: 0

Book of 2013:

MISTBORN!

And there we go! I hope it was insightful for you and gives you an greater idea of what I read and like and such – although I think it was obvious what books I’m into xD

Knocking Down my Goodreads Challenge [Again!]

First we had this.

Then we had this.

And now, we once again, have this!

Basically, my reasons are;

1. It’s my final year of uni so every minute is precious (having said that…)
2. I have early morning lectures so which finish at lunch, so because I have to get up early; I (if I had motivation) want to get my ‘homework’ done asap and then nap and chill or I just don’t wanna do anything for the rest of the day.
3. My days off are spent either doing hours of extra work on top of my ‘homework’ or writing my dissertation/thesis or spending what precious time I have left together with the friends around me.
4. I walk everywhere on campus so I don’t have travel or waiting time where I’m able to take out a book and read.
5. At night I either get like 10minutes of reading done before I fall asleep or I’m asleep before I can even pick me book up – which is why Warm Bodies and Game of Thrones haven’t been read and finish yet!
6. It’s just so much easier (and a way of learning) for me to just spend hours watch Japanese and Korean TV than it is picking a book up.

I feel like I’ve kinda let you all, and myself down, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to meet last years goal due to going into my final year this year, although I am surprised at how little I am reading. But with all the stress I have from my work; I’d rather just lazy and watch TV than have to concentrate and read – no matter how hard I want to be able to read my books! =[

It might go up again! December is the manga/comic book read-a-thon so maybe I’ll knock out my original reading goal in that time – but as of right now, I am far from my original reading goal of 48 books =/

Knocking Up my Goodreads Challenge

Back in April I knocked down my challenge from 48 books to 24 books as I thought I would not get many done this year. See post. Well… it’s back up to 48 books!!

 

Wish me luck!!

Knocking Down my Goodreads Challenge

I have just decided to change my 2014 Goodreads reading challenge from 48 books to 24 books.

And, here are my reasons why (if you’re interested of course xD):

1. I don’t have a long summer holiday this year (which is when I normally power through a lot of books) therefore the chance of me getting through a decent amount of books this year is very slim.

2. I read SO much slower on my Kindle (and rather dislike it) and as that’s the only way I can read books during my year abroad.

3. Up until August, I have three major exams that will need at least 2 plus weeks of prep. and revision therefore, in these last 4 months I have on my year abroad, over 1 and a half of those months will be dedicated to exams alone and that’s not including reports, essays, homework, actually other studying and lessons. So my free time is going to be exceedingly reduced.

4. I go into my final year of university in September and I imagine that it’s all gunna get more crazy (if that is even possible!) as well as having to write like a 12,000 words dissertation so that also reduces my reading (and even leisure) time.

Kinda sucks but I will try and hit 48 books on the low-down but it will not be the official goal.