A Month of Faves - My Year In Reading

So, my year in reading has been...not what I'd hoped for. If you're not a blogger, I'm sure that sounds odd. I certainly never went into a new year with an expectation as to what I would read.

To be honest, I kind of miss that. If I only read 20 books in a year, no problem. If I wanted to spend a month reading a 900 page book, no big deal. Or only read John Grisham for three months. Or go an entire year without reading a single classic (let's be honest, that NEVER happened - but it could have). There was a lot to be said for that. I never felt like I should  read a book or, worse yet, that I had to read one.

But...

Even though I was in bookstores regularly and could see there were thousands of books I could choose from, I had no feedback on most of them. Now, I literally could add dozens of books a week to the list of books I want to read. Now the number of books I want to read before I die is overwhelming. So, like anything that seems overwhelming to me, I have to make a plan to handle it.

And the plan for 2015? It was based on challenges. I signed up for seven, largely as an incentive to go to my own bookshelves to find books that would qualify. I've finished the Women Challenge, the Foodies Read Challenge, and War Through The Generations. I'm nearly finished with the Nonfiction Reading Challenge, the Chunkster Challenge, and the Finishing The Series challenge. Two will not get finished. More on that later this month.

I set my Goodreads goal this year at just 50 books to allow for time to read those chunksters. So far, I'm at 67 and will finish three more in the next week or so. Pretty pleased with that number. If no other books were ever published, it would only take me about 10 years to finish reading from my wish list at this rate! Nine of the books I've read this year I rated 5 stars, 23 more were rated 4 stars. Five books received only 2 stars.

I read the most in September (8), the least in February (4), more paperback than anything else but more ebooks than previous years. As always, literary fiction tops the list of the types of books I read. No graphic novels this year despite my intention to try more of them. I wish I would have read more nonfiction, as well. I Know This Much Is True was the longest book I read this year, Joy Street was the shortest.

I still sucked at giving up on books - only gave up on 2 all year and there were certainly some I had to push my way through. I accepted fewer review books, especially scheduled reviews. Still, it felt like too many. More than half of the audiobooks I "read," I also owned in print, making that a great way to free up room on my bookshelves. Space I'm trying really hard to leave empty. Unless, of course, someone wants to give me books for Christmas. I'm okay with that!