Wednesday, January 3, 2018

2018 Reading Goals

I love to read! I love audio books! I love using Goodreads to track my books because there have been times when I have gotten halfway through a book and realized that it was oddly familiar because I had already read it. This page has gotten me past that.

Goodreads has yearly challenges on their site. You enter how many books you would like to read in the year and the site will periodically give you updates and track the number of books read for you. Very handy!!

In 2017, I set my goal at 75 books and I finished 96 books. In 2016, I set my goal at 70 and I read 70. I think that I kept pushing my goal out so that I wouldn't go over my goal. I think that this year I am setting my goal at 85.

This shows some interesting stats about my reading choices. In 2017, my average rating was 3.7 and in 2016 it was 4.0.

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I am also in a book club group on Facebook and someone posted that they want to concentrate on series books this year and I think that sounds like a fantastic plan! I have enjoyed quite a few series, but I tend to start reading other books in between and then never make my way back to the series. This happens more with older series that have 10 or more books in the series.

My absolute favorite series is the Alphabet series by Sue Grafton. When I read on Facebook last week that Sue had passed away, I was devastated. Beyond words. Kinsey Milhone was who got me back into reading as an Adult and got me hooked onto audio books. When I was at the last company that I worked for, a co-worker showed me that she had checked out A is for Alibi and was listening as she did mindless data entry. It was life changing! I had listened to audio books before when on long drives on vacation, but for some reason, it never stuck with me the way that the Kinsey stories did. I have spent countless hours commuting for work and enjoying all sorts of books and characters and authors and narrators. 

For 2018, my plan is to re-listen to the entire Alphabet series - up to Y that is the conclusion, unfortunately. I will also catch up on the following series. It will be nice to "visit" with old friends!

Anna Pigeon by Nevada Barr
Agatha Raisin by MC Beaton
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Joe Pickett by CJ Box
Chocolate Covered Mysteries by Kathy Aarons
Max Tudor by GM Malliet
Lucy Stone by Leslie Meier

I also hope to make some progress on the books in my Audible account. It is positively overflowing!

Also, I would like to say to add your favorite authors in the comments, but then I will have to blame you when my To Be Read list gets even longer!

1 comment:

Jennifer said...

I was going to ask I for you’ve read Outlander, and there’s it is in your list! I am on book 6 (I think) of the series - I enjoy it but have to take a break between books because they are so long! A couple I recommend - The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, and I also like the writing style of Lian Moriarty (funny, but no relation to each other). I haven’t gotten into audiobooks at all, but I listen to podcasts like crazy!