Final 2018 Goal Updates

When I started the year I was feeling pretty positive and ambitious. For the past three years I had solidly read more than 80 books per year and I had a solid handful of new releases I was looking forward to. I was confident in my ability to reach all the goals, so I even added a reading challenge back into my life this year!

Well… you know what they say. Man plans, God Laughs.

This was the first time since setting a Goodreads challenge that I didn’t meet it. I know that this is mostly because of some life changes and difficulties, but it’s still a little bit of a bummer. I went from being ahead at the beginning of the year to pretty much coming to a halt the second half of the year. Now, I still read over 70 books and I know that’s not too shabby, but it’s easily the least I’ve read in the past 4 years or so.

One positive is that I did read 7 of the 8 books I shared as the ones I was most looking forward to in 2018. In regards to the eigth books, The Elizas, I think I got suckered in by the cover and the author. When I picked it up and re-read the description I just knew it wasn’t something I really wanted to read so I didn’t bother.

I’m still thinking about whether or not I want to do a most anticipated list for 2019. There are definitely books I’m looking forward to (hello Things You Save in a Fire and Famous in a Small Town) but I don’t know if I have a whole list full. We’ll see.

Lastly, I attempted the Uppercase Reading Challenge. I even intended on updating on this challenge quarterly, but only did so at the end of March. When I last updated you, I had completed 4 of the 10 challenges. As of the end of 2018, I have completed 6 of the 10 challenges. While this isn’t a complete failure as it’s more than 50% completed, I had ideas in mind for the remaining challenges that I didn’t get around to.

I think what I’ve learned is that I’m not a reading challenge kind of girl. I like challenging myself with what I read, but I’m not great at checking off challenges set by someone else. For example, I challenged myself last year to read more books by diverse authors and ended up finding one of my new favorite authors, Maureen Goo!

I don’t have a specific challenge for myself yet for 2019, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something!

Are you completing any reading challenges? Any goals you have for yourself for the upcoming year?