2015 Blogging Year in Review + 2016 Goals
2015 Review:
This is the first year I’ve made blogging goals and actually stuck to most of them! Go me!
First, I was much better about tracking my YA reading (Goal 2). I’m sure I missed recording one or two. I’m still terrible about marking down the non-YA books I read. Also, I would like to get better at keeping track on goodreads.
Second, I re-read all Sarah Dessen’s books before Saint Anything came out (Goal 8). I even re-read Saint Anything! I also reviewed each of her books I haden’t previously reviewed. Man, I love that ladies books!
Goals three though seven all worked together. I made a TBR pile for each month this year (January’s here.)
Every month I included a series I wanted to finish, a nonfiction book, a book on my physical shelf, and a netgalley/edelweiss book I missed. I also included any books I had for review that month and audiobooks. This was my favorite thing that I did. It really helped me focus my reading. I didn’t read every book every month but I did pretty good. Here are some quick stats:
- 57 series or companion books (not including starting new series)
- Finished 32 series/sets
- Made progress on 3 series
- Caught up on 7 series that are still in progress
- 15 nonfiction books
- 50 books that have been sitting on my shelf/e-reader that I’ve been meaning to get to.
My number one goal was organization. I used wunderlist for tracking monthly releases at the beginning of the year and into summer. I liked it but now that I’ve been using a paper planner I’ve stopped. I’ve gone through each week in my planner and written down the books I have for review or that I’m anticipating thare are releasing that week.
I also put a sticky note at the beginning of the month with all the review books I have releasing that month and their release date. If I’m on a blog tour for the book, I note that so I know it’s a priority.
Finally, once I have my TBR set for the month, I write it on a note card. I then place it, along with my to be reviewed list, in my monthly calendar view. As I read or review the books I cross them off.
I plan to continue with this method as it’s been working pretty well for me. Again, I don’t necessarily read all the books. I just want to have an idea of what I should be working on.
Goals nine and ten could use some work. I still need to learn more about wordpress. I have the basics, but that’s it. For novel food, we just had our annual luncheon and Liza and I were scrambling for ideas… again! This year we think we have a system that will work for us to note food in books throughout the year 🙂
A few more general stats:
- Read 18 of the 20 books I listed as my most anticipated of 2015. I plan to read at least one more before the end of the year
- Started 19 new series that I’m interested enough in to continue
- Re-read 15 YA books (12 of which were Sarah Dessen books!)
- Listened to 15 audiobooks
- Read 55 new-to-me authors
2016 Goals:
I basically just plan to keep on keeping on! I like this organization method. We have a plan for keeping track of food we see in books. And I already have ideas for my TBR lists! I’m changing it a bit. Here are the categories I want to include in my monthly TBR piles this year:
- Series to Finish
- Nonfiction
- Graphic Novel/Comic/Manga
- Middle Grade
- Book for Review I Missed
- Book on my Shelf
And I also want to add a non-book goal each month:
- Visit a new-to-me book blog
- Comment on at least 5 blogs
When you add in books for review, that’s a lot of books. Instead of trying to do all categories each month I hope to complete at least four.
Hopefully this will be attainable! What about you? Do you have any goals? Suggestions for me? I’m always looking for new blogs to check out and I especially need help with nonfiction and graphic novel/comic/manga recommendations 🙂
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
You did great on your 2015 goals! And it sounds like you have a good plan for 2016 as well. Hope it goes well for you! As far as Manga (and MG) – my daughter LOVES the Warriors books, and I know those have Manga versions – not sure if that’s what you’re looking for, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to mention!
looloolooweez
You started 19 new series?! Wow, how do you not go bonkers waiting on all those sequels, haha.
looloolooweez
Oops, hit “post” before I was done with the comment, sorry.
I like that you do your TBR list based on categories rather than just a big list of assigned titles. What a smart way of making sure you get a healthy variety in your reading material!