2021 Reading Plans: Mid-Year Check-In

This year is half over, and it's time to check in once more on how my reading plans from January have panned out so far. There have been some definite changes in priorities in my reading life since the end of the first quarter of 2021, so this is the perfect time to regroup and change my trajectory if needed.

As of the end of June, in 2021 I have read 95 books: 60 written for an adult audience and 35 children's books. I read the most books in January and June (17), the least in February (13), an equal number (16) in March, April, and May. 

Here's a look at my goals: 

There are two I don't really need to discuss. Goal #1, to stop counting picture books and board books, has been a complete success because I just don't count them anymore. I had considered starting to put them on Goodreads again without including read dates, but I haven't, and it's honestly been fine. Goal #10, to write 1200 words per week, proved not to be feasible almost immediately and is no longer in the plans. 

That leaves 8 goals I am still theoretically working on. 

Goal #2 is to read exactly 200 books, and no more. I have consistently been behind my goal for months now, but not by a lot. Often I'll get to the point where I'm 7 or 8 books behind and then I'll finish a bunch of read-alouds and that will close the gap to 4 or 5 books instead. There is a part of me that really wants to lower the number from 200 to 185, but just as I don't want to be reading to meet a certain number, I also don't want to have to stop reading when I want to in order to avoid surpassing the number. So I've decided to stick with my original goal for another quarter. 

Goal #3 is to read 50 e-books. As of the end of June, I've read 24. That's pretty close to half of the goal amount. I have at least two underway at the moment, too, so I'll soon get past the halfway point. I think I can definitely meet this goal by the end of 2021.

Goal #4 is to cut back on audiobooks. In January, my reasoning for including this goal was that if I wasn't listening to audiobooks, I would have time to read more ebooks and physical books and more time to listen to other things. But it turns out that I don't listen to audiobooks at times when I could be reading physical books, and it also turns out that I have had no problem listening to podcasts when I've felt like it. Giving up audiobooks for Lent was a good sacrifice and I may do it again, but I don't have the need I thought I did to cut back on them all year long. So for the second half of the year, this goal is off the list.

Goal #5 is keep up with Goodreads reviews. I have been doing this, but mostly at the end of the month and not in real time as I finish reading. I do usually get them marked as read right away, but typing out my thoughts doesn't happen until days or weeks later. I wish the app was more reliable. I feel like I would type a lot more of my reviews on my phone if the app didn't do weird glitchy things to me all the time. 

Goal #6 is to write down more quotes from books. I like doing this in theory. I definitely liked doing it as a teen. But it's just not the priority in my reading life right now, and that's not likely to change. In the last few months, as my kids have been busier, I've had to start looking at the amount of time I actually have to devote to bookish things, and then really consider how I want to spend that time. Writing down quotes was fine to do during a pandemic winter when we couldn't go anywhere, but summer playdates are back, and I just don't have time now.

Goal #7 is to host a read-a-thon. I used to want to do this, but I don't think I do anymore. My natural inclination in the past has always been to join a community and then immediately want to become a leader within it. But #bookstagram has not wanted any of my reading challenges, and I just can't imagine they will want a read-a-thon hosted by me either. I may do a few little read-a-thons on my own, but I think hosting a public one is off the table now. 

Goal #8 is read the Bible in a year. I'm still going strong with the Bible in a Year podcast. I'm caught up, and I look forward to it every day.

Goal #9 is to fill in my Literary Listopia journal. In April, I said that sounded like a good summer project, but summer is so much busier than I anticipated! I'm considering taking it to the beach with me on the off-chance there is downtime, but otherwise it might turn out to be a fall project.

And then there are my challenges. I only committed to two this year: the Unread Shelf Project and Modern Mrs. Darcy's design your own challenge. 

The prompts for the Unread Shelf project haven't really worked for me the last couple of months, and it seems like the host of the project isn't really involved anymore, except on her membership site, so my motivation to participate is dwindling. I'm still keeping track of the books I read from own shelves, but for no real purpose. 

I have almost completed all the books I planned to read for my Modern Mrs. Darcy challenge. I chose 12 categories and planned to read 3 books for each. I only have 4 of 36 left to read! One of those is my current audiobook, The Summer Guests by Mary Alice Monroe, which will be my third one narrated by Cassandra Campbell. I also need to read one more book about books, one more book on writing, and one more re-read. If I finish those soon, I may add a few more categories to concentrate on during the rest of the year. 

So that sums up where things stand as I hit the thick of summer reading and look ahead to the end of the year. I'll be back after the holiday weekend with my June reading wrap-up! 

2021 Reading Plans

Goals 

Though I think the last couple of years have been really good for my reading life, I wanted to make some changes for this year that would introduce some balance and boundaries that might make it easier for me to occasionally do things in my free time besides read. I've also been more intentional about choosing my reading challenges for the year in the hopes of being able to slow down and appreciate the books that I read a bit more.

So, first, here are 10 goals I have set for myself for 2021. 

Goal #1: Stop tracking picture books and board books.
I started tracking every single book I read back in 2011 when I was a new children's librarian. Because I was doing a lot of story times and class visits each week, I needed to be able to keep track of which picture books I read, and to which audience, and how it went, and what themes I used, and things like that. I continued tracking these for my own kids after I left the library, and this was really doable until I had my third daughter, and still pretty manageable up until this past year. Now, with five kids, and two doing school, it has become burdensome and I haven't been able to keep up with it very well.  I've decided to stop tracking these on Goodreads, and to just blog about them and use my blog as my record, as I do with all of our school subjects. And this means that my Goodreads challenge number could be reduced, which leads me to the next goal... 

Goal #2: Read exactly 200 books, and no more.
I'm used to inflating my challenge number every year to make up for the fact that I included picture books and board books, so it took me a little bit to settle on this number. I will still count middle grade and YA books that I read for myself, as well as the chapter books I read aloud to my kids for fun (rather than for a specific school subject) so I decided to pad it a little bit more than I would if I were reading only adult books. Since my combined total of adult, middle grade and YA in 2020 was 247, and I wanted to cut back a little bit, 200 seemed like a good number. And there is a catch. 200 is both my goal and the maximum number of books I will permit myself to read this year. I want breathing room in my reading life setting a cap on my reading is the only way I'm going to get that. 

Goal #3: Read 50 e-books.
I have a Kindle Fire and a bunch of unread Kindle books as well as a ton of e-books I want to read on Hoopla and Scribd, so I knew that whatever number I chose for my reading goal, I wanted to make sure that 25% of those books would be e-books. Basically I'd like to knock out one ebook per week if I can.  

Goal #4: Cut back on audiobooks.
I became really dependent on audiobooks in 2019 and 2020, to the point where I started avoiding reading books for which I couldn't find an audio recording. I still want to listen to some books, such as the ones for book club, and some cozy mysteries, but I want to re-train myself to read with my eyes as well. 

Goal #5: Keep up with Goodreads reviews.
Last year, my biggest failure goals-wise was that I didn't post something on Goodreads for every book I read. I am attributing this in part to the fact that I was trying to review all of those picture books and homeschool books as well as my personal reading, and it was just too much. Hopefully reading less and tracking less will translate into more time to spend writing reviews.

Goal #6: Write down more quotes from books.
I made  a very brief effort to do this in 2020, but it was hard to do when I was reading so many audiobooks. This year, I'm planning to post pictures of my letter board to Instagram with quotes from the books I'm reading, so I have a practical reason to keep track of them, and I hope that will help. 

Goal #7: Host a read-a-thon.
I've hosted reading challenges, and I hosted a read-along, and neither one was that successful, but I love read-a-thons and I can't resist giving one a try. This will most likely happen in the second half of the year. 

Goal #8: Read the Bible in a year.
Father Mike Schmitz of Ascension Presents is hosting a podcast to guide Catholics through reading the Bible in 365 days. This is another reason I wanted to cut back on audiobooks. I want to prioritize actually sticking with this and finishing the Bible.   

Goal #9: Fill in Literary Listopia journal. 
My mom gave me this journal for my birthday which provides a variety of lists on bookish topics. I have a tendency to acquire things like this and then never use them, so this time I'm going to make myself jump  in and do it right away. 

Goal #10: Write 1200 words per week. 
After NaNoWriMo (about which I am still working on a blog post) I decided I wanted to keep writing in a small way throughout the year. I wanted it to be possible to reach a goal in as few or as many days per week as suited my mood, so I low-balled it at 1200 for each week, knowing that I could write that many words at once sometimes, but that I could also break it down into four 300-word days to make it less overwhelming. By the end of the year, I hope to have written 62, 400 words. 

Challenges

I am keeping things very simple with my reading challenges this year. I'm basically only doing two: The Unread Shelf Project and the Modern Mrs. Darcy challenge. I've decided that I will sign up for Craving for Cozies and continue to post in the Facebook group but that I won't keep track of it here on the blog since it's not really a goal I'm striving toward as much as a group I don't want to leave because I like seeing what books are out there. 

In any case, the Unread Shelf Project has prompts for each month, plus a set of bonus prompts for a total of 24. I'm not going to copy them all here, but they are on my 2021 Challenges page. 

The prompts I do want to share are the ones for the Modern Mrs. Darcy challenge because I chose them myself. This year, the challenge focuses on creating goals that will help improve our reading lives in the ways we need. The instructions said to choose 12 books, but I chose 12 categories, and I'm challenging myself to read 3 books in each one. Here is my list:

• Three Newbery Award winners
• Three books that are the last/most recent in a series
• Three books of more than 500 pages
• Three books by the same author
• Three audiobooks with the same narrator
• Three Catholic nonfiction books.
• Three general nonfiction books.
• Three books under 200 pages.
• Three books about books or reading.
• Three books about writing.
• Three books published in 2020.
• Three re-reads. 

I am expecting some of these to overlap with the Unread Shelf prompts and others to require borrowing library books and finding books on Scribd. 

And those are all my plans for now! What are you planning to read in 2021? 

2020 Reading Goals & Challenges

In the words of Anne Bogel, "Part of the fun of reading is planning the reading." Though I fully expect that the arrival of the twins in March is going to cause books to go on the back burner for a while, I can't start the new year without making some reading plans. These go a little bit against the grain, since most of them are designed to encourage less reading than I have done in past years, but I really want to make sure to set the tone early on for a slower pace and an emphasis on quality over quantity, since I have no idea what life will look like with two newborns.

First, I have my set of personal reading goals for 2020. These are just guidelines for me to make sure I leave a good amount of breathing room in my reading life for things like blogging and taking breaks every now and then, and to make sure I'm reading a good variety to prevent reading slumps and burnout.

• Read 365 books for the Goodreads challenge.
  Given that I read almost exactly 200 picture books in both 2018 and 2019, this number is pretty low, and there is a part of me that really wants to increase it. I've decided not to make changes until the halfway point in the year, however. By then, the twins will be 3 months old and I should have a better idea of how our routine is going to look. So it's 365 for now, with the option to increase or decrease in June. 
• Post something on Goodreads for every book read.
  This was not one of my official goals last year, but I actually was posting something for every book right up until I started having morning sickness. I don't like that I left so many books un-reviewed at the end of 2019, so I'm aiming to do better in 2020. Hopefully reading fewer books will make that easier. 
• Take one day off from reading per week.
  One of my 2019 goals was to allow breathing room for activities besides reading. I did make some effort, but I think having a specific policy of not reading one day every week is a more concrete way of allowing that space. My original thought was to make the day Sunday, but I decided to leave it open-ended since again, who knows how things will look for us when the babies come!
• Read one book per format at a time.
  In the interest of trying to get to all the books I've been thinking about reading, I'm going to try to have one audiobook, one e-book, and one physical book (maybe two, if one is middle grade) going at a time. Since I have access to different books in different formats, hopefully I'll end up with a more well-rounded reading list.
• Blog more.
  This is a vague one because I don't want to set an unrealistic goal. My blog became neglected in 2019, however, and I would like to revitalize it a little, even if that ends up happening just before the end of 2020.
• Read 6 vintage middle grade novels from our shelves.
  I wanted this number to be 12, or even 24, but then decided to go easier on myself. I didn't read as much vintage middle grade in 2019 as I did in previous years, though, so I want to make sure that's something of a priority. 
• Read 6 adult books that are at least 20 years old. (Not counting classics.)
  Now that I actually regularly and willingly read books written for adults, I want to go back and read some of the titles that I missed. I haven't actually considered what these books will be, so this is probably the goal I am most likely to abandon, but I'd at least like to give it a shot. I suspect some of the titles I've jotted down while listening to What Should I Read Next will fit what I'm looking for. 
• No monthly TBRs.
  As much as I love to go on Instagram and post a photo of the books I plan to read each month, it's too restrictive for me, a mood reader at heart. This year is going to be about fitting reading in wherever I can, and I need to be free to read what I like when I like.
• No open-ended read-a-thons.
  In the past, I have done several read-a-thons throughout the year where the only goal is to read as much as possible. This usually results in me breezing through a bunch of books quickly and racking up a high total on Goodreads, but it often doesn't feel productive. This year, I'm sticking to read-a-thons with a specific page or time goal so that there is a point where I feel done and I can move on to other things.

The second set of my reading goals for 2020 are the reading challenges I'm planning to join. I tried to stick to challenges with an emphasis on specific categories, and to choose complementary ones so that one book can count for several challenges if needed. Here's what I've selected:

• A Year of Flannery O'Connor
  I'm hosting this one on Instagram with my friend Mary. We're reading The Complete Stories over the course of the year, and actually, quite a few people have said they want to join us. I'm terrible at hosting these things and will probably be worse with newborn twins, but I think I can probably at least keep up with the reading.
• 2020 Classics
  This challenge started in May 2019, and I'm currently two books ahead of where I need to be to have read 20 classics by the end of 2020. Hopefully this means I'll be able to skip a couple of months when the babies come without falling behind.
• The Unread Shelf Project
  I eyed this challenge all last year and finally counted up my books and jumped in. I'm not worrying about the buying and borrowing bans or anything like that because I'm not really worried about reducing my number of unread books. I just want to make sure some of the titles that have been hanging around for a while do get read. 
• The Modern Mrs. Darcy Challenge
  I like the categories for this one, and it's a short list so it feels really manageable. If necessary,  I should be able to use books from the Unread Shelf Project to fulfill these categories as well. 
• Scholé Sisters 2020 5x5 Challenge
  For this challenge, the goal is to select five different categories and then read 5 books per category. My categories are: Catholicism, Biography/Memoir, Books About Books, Concord, Massachusetts, and Linguistics.  I have a tentative list of books on my challenge page.
• Catholic Reading Challenge: A Year of Short Stories
  I probably won't do this one every month, but the list of authors to be covered was too good to pass up. If the stories they read end up being repeats for me, I might skip the re-reads and just listen to the podcast. 
• Craving for Cozies
  I have done this challenge for a few years now, and I'm not ready to give it up, so I just picked the lowest level, 1-25 books. A lot of my unread books for the Unread Shelf Project are cozy mysteries, so it shouldn't be hard to hit 25. 

I'm excited for a productive year of reading great books! 

My Top 25 Reads of 2018 (Plus 2019 Reading & Blogging Goals!)

As 2018 draws to a close, I'm wrapping up my reading for this year and looking ahead to my reading and blogging goals for 2019. This past year, I read just over 500 books, including over 100 books for adults, about 20 YA books, 100 middle grade books, 15 chapter books, 11 easy readers, over 200 picture books, and over 40 board books. (See more on these stats in my post from last week.) In today's post, I'll round up my top 25 reads of the year (listed in chronological order based on when I finished reading them), and then list my goals for the new year. 

Read-at-Home Mom's Top 25 Reads of 2018

Amahl and the Night Visitors (1952)

Chapter book adapted by Frances Frost from the opera by Gian Carlo Menotti
Illustrated by Roger Duvoisin
Finished reading 1/9/18
My blog review

Hooper (2018)

Young adult novel by Geoff Herbach
ARC from Edelweiss+
Finished reading 2/7/18
My blog review

I Know What You Bid Last Summer (2018)

Cozy mystery by Sherry Harris
ARC from NetGalley
Finished 3/2/18
My Goodreads review

The Little Oratory (2014)

Catholic guidebook by David Clayton and Leila Marie Lawler
Finished reading 3/9/18

The Wonderful Farm (1951)

Middle grade fantasy novel by Marcel Ayme
Illustrated by Maurice Sendak
Finished reading 3/9/18
My blog review

Until Tomorrow, Mr. Marsworth (2018)

Middle grade historical fiction novel by Sheila O'Connor
ARC from publisher
Finished reading 3/11/18
My blog review

The Perilous Gard (1974)

Young adult historical fantasy novel by Elizabeth Marie Pope
Newbery Honor 1975
Finished reading 3/18/18
My blog review

All Things Bright and Beautiful (1973)

Memoir by James Herriot
Finished 3/30/18

Dandelion Cottage (1904)

Middle grade novel by Carroll Watson Rankin
Finished reading 4/18/18
My blog review

Ender's Game (1985)

Science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card
Finished reading 5/6/18
My blog review

Wild Blues (2018)

Middle grade novel by Beth Kephart
ARC from Edelweiss+
Finished reading 5/15/18
My blog review

Front Desk (2018)

Middle grade novel by Kelly Yang
ARC from Edelweiss+
Finished reading 6/6/18
My blog review

Save the Date (2018)

Young adult novel by Morgan Matson
ARC from Edelweiss+
Finished reading 6/7/18
My blog review

One Beautiful Dream: The Rollicking Tale of Family Chaos, Personal Passions, and Saying Yes to Them Both (2018)

Catholic memoir by Jennifer Fulwiler
Finished reading 7/3/18
My Goodreads review

Big Stone Gap (2000)

Women's fiction novel by Adriana Trigiani
Finished reading 8/25/18

Reading Together: Everything You Need to Know to Raise a Child Who Loves to Read (2009)

Reading handbook by Diane W. Frankenstein
Finished reading 8/28/18
My blog review

Bury Your Dead (2010)

Mystery by Louise Penny
Finished reading 9/10/18
My Goodreads review

The Diva Runs out of Thyme (2008)

Cozy mystery by Krista Davis
Finished reading 9/21/18
My Goodreads review

Louisiana's Way Home (2018)

Middle grade novel by Kate DiCamillo
ARC from NetGalley
Finished reading 10/2/18
My blog review

My Name is Asher Lev (1972)

Novel by Chaim Potok
Finished reading 10/5/18
My Goodreads review

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (2018)

Science fiction novel by Hank Green
Finished reading 10/27/18
My Goodreads review

The Spying Heart: More Thoughts on Reading and Writing Books for Children (1989)

Essay collection by Katherine Paterson
Finished reading 11/10/18

Astrid the Unstoppable (2018)

by Maria Parr
ARC from NetGalley
Finished reading 11/18/18

The Winged Watchman (1962)

by Hilda van Stockum
Finished reading 11/28/18

Kersti and Saint Nicholas (1940)

by Hilda van Stockum
Finished reading 12/6/18

Reading and Blogging Goals for 2019

• Allow breathing room. The past couple of years, I have been reading a lot, trying to get as many books read each week as humanly possible. This meant that I never felt like I could take a night off to focus on something else, and that if something else came up, I felt guilty for all the reading I wasn't doing. This year, I want to slow the pace of my reading a little bit more, both by reading fewer books (my Goodreads goal will be 400, down from 500) and by only reporting what I've read at the end of each month, instead of every week. This means I'll be participating in It's Monday, What Are You Reading? only at the end of each month, and I also plan to join Feed My Fiction Addiction's Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up. 
• Devote more time to reviewing books and writing blog posts. To go along with my first goal, I also want to really focus more on writing book reviews and reflection posts this year. I fell way behind in reviewing books toward the end of 2018, partly because I was spending too much time reading, and partly because I was scrambling to post a weekly update about my reading. I hope that by reporting on my reading only once a month, I will free up time to work on writing other types of posts. 
• Re-read the Harry Potter series over the entire year. I have never re-read this series in its entirety, and I have only ever read the first three books one time each. I have made myself a schedule so that I will read a few chapters every week, and by the end of the year, I will have completed the series at a nice leisurely pace. I haven't decided yet whether I will blog about each week's chapters.
• Read books by Katherine Paterson. In 2018, I did an author challenge where I aimed to read 16 books by Betsy Byars. Though I've decided not to participate in that challenge again, I did like the idea of choosing an author to spend the year with. After enjoying her essay collections (Gates of Excellence and The Spying Heart) so much, I chose Katherine Paterson. We own a bunch of her books that I've never read, so I should be able to read about one per month. 
• Complete reading challenges. I was more intentional about selecting my challenges for this year. I'm repeating Alphabet Soup, Cloak and Dagger, Craving for Cozies, and Library Love, and adding in Alphabet Soup Author Edition, CathLit, Mount TBR, and the RMFAO Audiobook Challenge. Many of the books I read will count for multiple challenges. All the details about the challenges and my goals can be found here.
• Simplify challenge record-keeping. In 2018, I tried to keep track of my reading challenges in too many ways - on paper, here on the blog, and on Goodreads. In 2019, I'm sticking with just Goodreads shelves. My mom also gave me a cute reading log book for Christmas that I'll be using to track the novels that I read, but not to track individual challenges. 

I'll be sharing this post in the link-ups for It's Monday, What Are You Reading? at Unleashing Readers/Teach Mentor Texts and Book Date and Top Ten Tuesday at Artsy Reader Girl. 

What was the best book you read in 2018? What are your goals for the new year?

2018 Reading and Blogging in Review

I am not quite done reading for the year, but I've now officially surpassed my Goodreads challenge goal of 500, so it seems like a good time to look back over my reading and blogging for the year. 

As I have done since 2012, I counted every book I read this year, including board books and picture books I read with the girls. I always inflate my Goodreads goal to make room for all those short children's titles, and at the end of the year, I count everything up by category. Here are my 2018 stats: 

• Adult: 107 (21%)
• 52 mystery
• 30 nonfiction
• 12 romance
• 5 chick lit 
• 5 literary fiction 
• 2 science fiction
• 1 fantasy
• Young Adult: 21 (4%)
• 10 romance
• 10 contemporary realistic fiction 
• 1 literary fiction (Little Women)
• Middle Grade 100 (20%)
• 53 realistic fiction 
• 15 mystery 
• 14 fantasy
• 13 historical fiction
• 2 horror
• 2 nonfiction 
• 2 science fiction
• Chapter Books: 15 (3%)
• Easy Readers: 11 (3%)
• Picture Books: 205 (41%)
• Board Books: 41 (8%)

The most interesting number here is the one for adult books. Back in 2013, the last year I worked in the library, I read only 18 adult books. That number was even lower during 2014 (7) and 2015 (12). In 2016, I read 37 and last year, I almost doubled that number and read 71. But I have never, in all the years I've been keeping track of my reading, read more than 100 adult books, so this was a surprising milestone. 

Besides this overarching reading goal, I had some other more specific goals I was working on this year. Here is how things turned out with those:

• Read fewer books. This was definitely a success. I made an effort not to read books just for the sake of increasing my number of books read, and I was also much more selective about ARCs and more willing to mark books as "did not finish."
  
• Review more books overall, but fewer books on the blog. I posted 72 reviews on the blog this year, down from 87 last year. I also posted at least 50 additional reviews to Goodreads, so I think I did fairly well.
  
• Review books in a more timely manner. I did well with this in the first half of the year, but not as well in the second half. I need to establish designated times for writing blog posts because otherwise I'll spend all my free time just reading.
  
• Branch out from book reviews. This happened a little bit, but not enough. I abandoned the Blog All About It and Book Blog Discussion challenges halfway through the year, and I wish I hadn't. Again, this problem ties into the need for designated times for blogging and not just reading.
  
• Post blog posts to Facebook regularly. Shortly after I set this goal, I changed my mind and decided that Facebook, with its ever-changing algorithm, just isn't worth all the time and effort it takes to keep it updated all the time. I spent all my social media energy on Instagram instead and enjoyed it much more.
  
• Host a #bookstagram challenge. I hosted a picture book challenge in July and another month-long Christmas challenge. Neither was wildly successful, but I have decided to move my Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge to Instagram for the coming year. I have a few followers who said they would participate, and that's more than ever linked up when then challenge was on the blog.
  
• Complete reading and blogging challenges.I signed up for 12 challenges. Here is the final status for each one:
• A to Z Challenge - Complete
• Alphabet Soup - Completed 
• Author Love - Completed
• Blog All About It - Did not complete
• Book Blog Discussion - Did not complete
• Cloak and Dagger - Completed, but fell behind in linking up
• Craving for Cozies - Completed
• Family Tree - Completed
• Library Love - Completed
• Linz the Bookworm - Did not complete
• Old School Kidlit - Completed
• Writing Reviews - Completed
  
• Keep a bullet journal. .I did this really well during the winter, but slowly lost interest in the nicer weather. It became clear that what I really want is a reading journal. My mom got me a little pocket-sized one for Christmas so I'll be trying that this year.
  
• Stop getting the news from social media. I unfollowed all news outlets at the start of the year (except the newspaper of the town where I grew up and the local weather) and never looked back. I had far fewer "someone's wrong on the Internet" moments and still stayed decently informed of current events. 

Overall, I'm pleased with how things went this year, though I think there is room for improvement, and I'll be setting some new goals to help with that which I'll share in a post sometime next week. Also look for my list of my top 25 reads of the year, which will be posted on New Year's Day. 

Mid-Year Goals and Challenge Check-In

This year is already half over! Here's how things are going with my reading and blogging goals and the challenges I'm participating in.

GOALS

Read fewer books. So far, so good. I'm mostly keeping up with my goal to read 500 books.  I am generally between 15 and 20 books behind, but nothing so terrible that I can't catch up. I am definitely glad I didn't set a goal of 800 again this year.

Review more books overall, but fewer books on the blog. I have definitely reviewed fewer books on the blog so far this year, and will in fact not be posting any blog reviews in July just to give myself time to catch up. I haven't tallied it up, but it does feel like I have posted more Goodreads reviews this year than in the past.

Review books in a more timely manner. I still have some room for improvement here, but it's gotten much better. I have really been making an effort to review ARCs as I read them and to decide right away if  I'm not going to review a given book. .

Branch out from book reviews. I'm still working on this. The Blog All About It challenge has been helping.

Post blog posts to Facebook regularly. Right after I set this goal, Facebook changed its algorithm and I pretty much abandoned my page. I post here and there, but there is nothing regular about the schedule. They just make it too hard to build up a meaningful following.

Host a #bookstagram challenge.  I'm doing this in July! Check out #picturebookpicnic, which will run from July 1-31 on my Instagram @mrskatiefitz.

Keep a bullet journal. This hasn't been successful in the way I intended, but I have enjoyed having one book to keep track of reading, tasks, packing lists, moving stuff, etc. I may start using it more after we move and start homeschooling.

Stop getting the news from social media.  I don't follow any news sources on social media anymore and it has been great. I get the major headlines here and there and occasionally look up more information if I feel the need. But otherwise, not knowing what the Internet at large thinks of every news story has been a huge relief and I waste much less time in "someone's wrong on the Internet" mode.

CHALLENGES

 

A to Z Challenge hosted by Ginger Mom and the Kindle Quest.  I've read children's books for 20 letters. I have J, N, O, Q, V, and X left. I wish I could participate more in some of the mini-challenges and things, but there's just so much going on all the time that it's hard to keep track of.

Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge hosted by Escape with Dollycas into a Good Book. For this one, I'm focusing on adult books. So far, I've crossed off 17 letters, but still need to read books for K, N, Q, R, U, V, W, X, and Y.

Author Love Challenge hosted by Berls @ Fantasy is More Fun and Michelle @ Because Reading. I've read 10 of the required 15 books, but if I'm truly going to complete the entire list of this author's books, I have 22 to go.

Blog All About It hosted by Herding Cats & Burning Soup. I've blogged about all six topics so far. It's been nice to have some prompts to help me brainstorm new post ideas.

Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight. I feel like I can't break into this community. I comment on posts at different times during the month, but I don't seem to get a lot of visits to my posts in return. I'm going to keep working at it over the summer.

Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge hosted by Stormi @ Books, Movies, Reviews! Oh my! and Barb @ Booker T's Farm. My goal is to reach the Inspector level, which is 26-35 books. As of today, I've just hit 26, so I could technically be finished, but I plan to keep counting.

Craving for Cozies hosted by Escape with Dollycas into a Good Book. I've read 20 cozies. I'm shooting for at least 28, so I have several more to go.

Family Tree Reading Challenge hosted by Becky's Book Reviews. I've read books for the years 1933, 1982, 1985, 2015, and 2017. I'm still looking for books published in 1946, 1959, and 2013.

Library Love Challenge hosted by Angel's Guilty Pleasures and Brooke Blogs. I've been making decent progress on this thanks to ebooks and audiobooks downloaded through Hoopla and Overdrive. I need to read 16 more library books to meet my goal.

Linz the Bookworm hosted by Linz the Bookworm. My goal is just to finish level 1, but it sure is taking a long time. I have these categories left: A comedy or a satire book ; Read a book by Nora Roberts; A book on a best seller list

Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge hosted here at Read-at-Home Mom. I've read 40 of the 52 "old school" books  I pledged to read, but I haven't reviewed them all as I had originally planned. There just is not enough time to review everything!

Writing Reviews Challenge hosted by Delighted Reader. I wanted to write 100 reviews this year, and I'm already up to 83.

2018 Reading and Blogging Goals

A few weeks ago, I took a look back at all the reading and blogging goals I aimed to complete in 2017. Today, to go along with Top Ten Tuesday's theme for this week (Bookish Resolutions/Goals), I'm sharing the goals and challenges I am focusing on in 2018. (All but the last two are reading and blogging related.)

Read fewer books.

I didn't find it all that difficult to read 800 books this past year, but there were a few instances where I read through a stack of easy readers or picture books just for the sake of staying on track. In general, I also tend to read quickly and often not very deeply. This year, in the interest of going deeper into what I'm reading, and of having the time to do other things (like writing blog posts and homeschooling my four-year-old), I'm only shooting for 500 books, and I expect a large number of them to be picture books. 

Review more books overall, but fewer books on the blog.

I was originally thinking I would try to post two book reviews per week to the blog in 2018, but then I realized this would put me back on the path to blogging every single day, and I'm trying to avoid going back to that kind of schedule. So instead I am setting a goal to review at least 100 books this year, but to make the majority of those briefer Goodreads reviews and only post here about the ones I feel really deserve a more detailed assessment. I'd like to post four blog reviews per month, give or take. 

Review books in a more timely manner.

I have a habit of reading a ton of books and then not reviewing them for months after the fact. By the time I get around to reviewing them I've often forgotten the details and my reviews are not as strong as a result. This year, I want to get better about reviewing one book before finishing the next. 

Branch out from book reviews.

Last year, I set a goal to write more reflection posts, but I didn't really accomplish it. This year, though, I want to think of some ways to post something other than book reviews and reports about my reading to this blog. I'm hoping reading fewer books will free me up to concentrate a bit more on the blogging side of book blogging.

Post blog posts to Facebook regularly.

Now that I have consolidated my two Facebook pages into one, it should be easier to post regularly, but I haven't been making the time to do it. At the very least, I'd like to post twice a week this year and try to maintain something of a following on Facebook. 

Host a #bookstagram challenge. 

I have wanted to do this for over a year now, but haven't been bold enough to put the challenge together and get it out into the world. I'm not sure yet what the focus will be (other than children's books of some kind), or when it will happen, but I really want to try it at least once. I am not the greatest photographer, but I do enjoy finding books to match different daily prompts, and it doesn't seem like there is always a kidlit-focused challenge each month. 

Complete reading and blogging challenges.

I'm doing more reading challenges this year than I ever have, but I tried to choose challenges that would help me achieve some of my goals, and that I have a reasonable chance of actually finishing. Here's what I picked. (Links are to the challenge sign-up pages. There is a list in the sidebar which links to my landing pages for my progress in each challenge.)

• Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge
  I'm hosting this one for the second year in a row. This year, there are no monthly categories; just set a goal and read old school books! My goal is to read 52, but in light of my goals above I probably won't review every single one.
• Craving for Cozies
  This is the only other challenge I did last year that I'm doing again in 2018. I like that there is a Facebook group for updating progress and that I can easily just send in my Goodreads shelf as proof that I completed the challenge at the end of the year. I also discovered a lot of cozy series last year that I hope to finish for this challenge.
• Cloak and Dagger Challenge 
  Last year, I read a few mysteries (mostly by Sue Grafton and Kathy Reichs) that were not cozy. I wanted to be able to count them for something, so I signed up for this challenge which counts everything in the mystery/thriller genre. 
• Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge
  Because I liked Craving for Cozies so much, I'm joining a second challenge hosted by the same blog. For this one, I'll be trying to read 26 adult books - one for each letter of the alphabet. (This makes me glad I haven't read X by Sue Grafton - that would be a tricky letter for me otherwise!)
• A to Z Reading Challenge
  I had trouble deciding between the two alphabet challenges I came across. Thankfully, this one has an option to focus on children's books so I decided to just join both and focus on kidlit for this one. 
• Family Tree Reading Challenge
  Becky's Book Reviews hosts so many interesting challenges. I didn't want to do another challenge with a very long checklist this time around, so I opted for this one, where the goal is to read books published in the years of family members' births. I chose the birth years of my grandmother, my parents, my sister, my husband, and my three girls, giving me a good mix of new and old options.
• Author Love Challenge
  For this one, I'm planning to read as many Betsy Byars books as I can. I'm excited to finally get to them, as reading her books has been a goal in the back of my mind for a couple of years now. 
• Linz the Bookworm Reading Challenge
  I'm only aiming for level 1 of this challenge, which should give me a nice well-rounded checklist of titles. 
• Library Love Challenge
  I borrow a lot of picture books from the library, but not as many longer works. I'm hoping my goal of reading 36 books borrowed from the library this year will help. (I'm only counting middle grade, YA, and adult novels toward this one.)
• Reading Challenge Addicts
  This is a challenge for people doing multiple challenges. I figured it was worth joining given that I have signed up for so many! 
• Writing Reviews Challenge
  For this one, I'm aiming to write 100 reviews, some to post here and some to post to Goodreads. 
• Blog All About It
  I thought the prompts for this challenge would help me focus a little less on book reviews and more on developing other kinds of content.  
• Book Blog Discussion Challenge
  I've eyed this challenge in the past and felt a little nervous about jumping in, but I'm going to start small and try to post six discussion posts this year, hopefully in the even-numbered months. 

Keep a bullet journal.

From ages 14 to 20, I kept a daily journal. I have always meant to get back into the habit, but there just isn't time in the day to write pages and pages about what goes on. I'm hoping that having a book set up to record daily happenings will give me a way to quickly jot down important events, ideas, memories, etc. so I can look back on them. A bullet journal is also a great place to keep track of reading challenges, blogging ideas, and other important things all in one place.

Stop getting the news from social media. 

Following news outlets on Facebook seemed really convenient when I first started doing it, but I've grown weary of seeing everyone's comments and reactions to the news, especially since they typically involve a lot of name-calling and overall nastiness. This year, I'm going back to reading the news either on Feedly or directly on news sources' websites, so I can find out what is happening in the world without having to read what 100 strangers think about what is happening in the world.      

2017 Reading and Blogging in Review

I have officially read over 800 books this year, which completes my Goodreads challenge. (I'm technically still reading, but I probably won't read too many more over the holidays, and I wanted to get this up before Christmas.) This pie chart shows the break-down of the different types of books included in that number:

I'm most surprised by how many adult books I wound up reading and how few middle grade compared to past years. I also posted 87 reviews to this blog, some of which were reviews of multiple books, as well as dozens more reviews on Goodreads.

In addition to my Goodreads challenge goal of reading 800 books, I also set out to complete five reading and blogging goals this year. Here's a look at how I did:

1. Host a successful reading challenge.Considering how few people participated in the Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge after the first couple of months, I'm not certain I feel that this was a success. Still, I think it's a good idea for a challenge and it's not available anywhere else, so I'm offering it again in 2018. I'm hoping that the elimination of monthly categories will make it easier for people to participate.
2. Connect more with the book blogging community.I didn't do as much networking with other book bloggers as I wanted this year. Participating in It's Monday! What Are You Reading? has helped, but I think I was actually more involved in the #bookstagram community and on Goodreads than I was with other bloggers. This is still something I want to get better at, and I have some things planned for 2018 that will hopefully help.
3. Write more reflection posts.When I wrote this goal I envisioned myself posting one or two little essays or articles each month. It didn't quite turn out that way. Part of that was a time issue- I was writing a book this year and then I had a baby - but it was just as much a problem of not knowing what to write about. Still, I was really pleased with my post about seeking authentic value in children's books and my post about writing critical reviews and I really do want to write more like these.
4. Complete my reading challenges.I participated in six challenges and did fairly well. Here is a quick summary of my overall progress for each one: 
• Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge, hosted by Andi's ABCs
  I read 13 books but never linked up my titles. I got discouraged early on by all the explicit sex in so many books in this genre and wasn't sure I would actually find any I would willingly read, and by the time I did start reading them, I had fallen way behind in the link-ups. So I did the reading, but did not formally finish the challenge.
• Craving for Cozies 2017, hosted by Escape with Dollycas into a Good Book
  I really enjoyed this challenge and kept up with it all year in the Facebook group. I read more than twice as many books as I had planned (more than 25 in all!) and enjoyed discovering new authors and series outside of the kidlit world. I plan to participate again in 2018.
• Newbery Through the Decades, hosted by Hope is the Word
  I would have stuck with this one, but a few months in, the host apparently decided not to continue with it, and I wasn't as motivated to keep up with it without a monthly link-up to join. 
• Newbery Reading Challenge 2017, hosted by Smiling Shelves
  There were no monthly link-ups with this challenge so I lost track of it during the year, especially once Newbery Through the Decades came to a sudden halt. Still, I read four Newbery Medal winners and four Newbery Honor books, which adds up to 20 points. I was aiming for 30, so I didn't quite make it, but that's pretty good for not really trying to complete the challenge. I'm not doing this one next year, though - I've read a ton of Newbery books already and don't want to be tied down to that list.
• 2017 Picture Book Reading Challenge, hosted by Becky's Book Reviews
  My goal with this challenge was to finish as much of the checklist as possible, and I did pretty well. There were 102 categories on the list, and there were only 10 that I didn't cross off. 
• Deal Me In Short Story Challenge hosted by Bibliophilica
  I started this a little late (February) and by June, I was so far behind I realized I could never catch up. Because it was so hard for me to keep up, I have decided not to do this one in 2018, even though I think it's a great idea for a challenge.
• Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge, hosted by me
  I read the most books for my own challenge - over 50 in all. 


5. Read only the books I want to readFor years, I read to keep up professionally and therefore felt obligated to read as many new children's books as I possibly could even if I would have liked to read other things. This year, I stopped requesting so many ARCs and borrowing so many new library books and just read whatever interested me. The result was a much more well-rounded reading experience and a lot less reading-related stress. 

I don't feel quite as accomplished blogging-wise at the end of this year as I have in the past, but now that I'm done writing librarian textbooks for the time being, I should hopefully have more creative energy to put toward blogging in the new year.  I'll have my new list of goals and challenges for 2018 ready to share next week.

2017 Reading Challenges and Bout of Books 18

This year, in addition to hosting my own challenge (The Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge, details here!), I'm also going to participate in a few different challenges to help me organize and focus my reading throughout the year.

The first two are challenges for adult books. I have always been a children's book blogger, and that's not going to change, but after I stopped reviewing new children's books this fall, I realized how much I missed reading the occasional book about characters closer to my own age. I started reading cozy mysteries over the summer, and wound up buying a bunch of paperbacks that have taken over my nightstand. Then I discovered a couple of contemporary romance authors, and now my to-read list is ten miles long for those, too. I know there is no way I will get around to reading all of them unless I intentionally carve out the time, so I tracked down a couple of challenges that I think will be manageable.

Contemporary Romance Reading Challenge

 

Hosted by Andi's ABCs.
Goal: 3rd Base: read 11 – 15 books (I'm hoping to read one per month.)
Social Media: #ContRom2017

Craving for Cozies 2017

Hosted by Escape with Dollycas into a Good Book

Goal: Famished – 11 – 20 Cozy Mysteries (Again, I'm shooting for one per month.)

Social Media: Facebook group

In terms of kidlit, I'm trying to focus mainly on older books, so I have a couple of challenges in mind  to help me do that. I expect the two Newbery challenges to overlap quite a bit with each other and with my Old School Kidlit challenge, but I'm also hoping the goals for each will get me to read more overall. The Picture Book challenge is really just to help me keep better track of the books I'm reading with the girls. My record-keeping got a little iffy this past year. It's also fun to have categories in mind when I'm browsing the library shelves and/or searching the catalog to place holds. And there are a ton of picture books in my house that I also have not read.

Newbery Through the Decades 

Hosted by Hope is the Word (challenge is not up yet, but I'm told it's happening!)

Goal: From January to October, this challenge assigns a different decade to each month. Goal is to read Newbery winners and honors from that decade and link up at the end of the month. 

Newbery Reading Challenge 2017 

Hosted by Smiling Shelves
Goal: Spinelli: 30 - 44 points (I am hoping I can make it to 30 points.)

2017 Picture Book Reading Challenge

Hosted by Becky's Book Reviews

Goal: Minimum of six books. I'm going to try to complete the entire checklist.

Bout of Books 18 

Bout of Books is my favorite read-a-thon. It happens three times a year, and the first one of 2017 is the week of January 2-8. I hope it will give me a good solid start to all of these challenges! Here is the official blurb:

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 2nd and runs through Sunday, January 8th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 18 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge 2017

Announcing the Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge!

About the Challenge

I am hosting the Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge to encourage bloggers and other kidlit enthusiasts (including myself) to read and review more children's books of the past. In general, a book will be considered "old school"  if it was published in the decade of your birth or before. 

How to Participate

Each month, the challenge will focus on a different category. Choose a book that fits the category, read it, and then post a review on your blog or wherever you review books (Goodreads, LibraryThing, Instagram, etc.). At the end of each month, link up your reviews here at Read-at-Home Mom. (Link-up posts will be published on the last weekday of the month.) 

The monthly categories are as follows:
(Links are to monthly link-up posts.) 

• January: Award winners 
• February: Books you loved in childhood 
• March: Published prior to 1945
• April: Fantasy stories 
• May: Animal stories 
• June: Required reading 
• July:  Family stories 
• August: Nonfiction  
• September: School stories 
• October:  Mysteries 
• November: Published in the year (or decade) of your birth 
• December: Winter stories 

How to Sign Up 

To help me gauge the level of interest in this challenge, please sign up by commenting below with your name and a link to your blog or other review site. Signing up does not commit you to any particular level of participation. You are free to post every month, or to jump in and out as suits your schedule and reading interests.

Social Media

If you post about the challenge on Twitter or Instagram, use the hashtag #oldschoolkidlit2017. As I read your posts each month, I may also share them on my Facebook page or on Twitter @mrskatiefitz.