Goodbye 2013; Hello 2014

Seriously? 2013 is over? Well, then I suppose it's time to think over the year that has been and start looking forward to the coming year.

2013 was a strange reading year for me filled with a lot of great books but also several spells of reading malaise. I met my Goodreads goal of 75 books for the year but that was a number I adjusted earlier this year when 80 started to look unreachable. I put a dent in my reading time when I started, for the first time in my life, working out regularly. So far I haven't been able to read and walk at the same time.

I did better on challenges this year than I have in the past. I completed the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge and Audio Books Reading Challenge months ago. I finished the Foodies Read 2013 Challenge, the Books-To-Movie Challenge and the War Through The Generations Challenge. I was one book short of completing the What's In A Name Challenge and probably could have raced to read that last book but opted not to do that. On the other hand, I fell far short of my goal in the Mount TBR Challenge (25 of 36 books) and bombed the Telling Tale Challenge (1 of 10) when I all but stopped reading fairy tales this year.


So, 2014, here you are right around the corner and, as usual, goals must be set and challenges issued.

For challenges, I'll once again be joining the Historical Fiction, Audio Books, Foodies Read, What's In A Name and War Through The Generations Challenges. I'm also adding the Women Challenge #2 and the Chunkster Challenge. You'll notice I've not signed up for any of the TBR challenges; not because I'm not planning on trying to read more books from my own shelves but because I'm going to try to go at that a different way this year. The Chunkster Challenge will take care of some of the TBR issue - I have a lot of big books I already own ready for this one. I also need to concentrate on the five-year Classics Challenge and all of the books on that list are books I already own.

My reading goals for 2014 are:

1. Limit the number of books I accept for review. This one's going to be hard; every day there are interesting books coming to my attention. But I'd like my reading to consist of no more than two books for review every month and I've already got quite a backlog to work through as it is.

2. Read at least 12 non-fiction books in 2014.

3. Read at least 15 books for the Classics Challenge.

4. Read at least 20 books written by authors from or set in countries other than the U.S.

5. Get back to my beloved fairy tales - Fairy Tale Fridays will return at least once a month.

6. Give myself permission to give up on books that aren't working for me.

The thing I'm most looking forward to in 2014 is making reading fun - after all, that's what made me a reader in the first place!