A Year in the Library - Review

So how was 2014 in the Library? Better. Better since I managed to establish a somewhat regular rythm of posting although Real Life (mainly my son's health problems) stopped me from keeping to it all year round. Still, I had something posted every single month, which I had never managed to do before. As the stats show, I posted somewhere around 80 or 90 different articles over the past year and 54 separate reviews.

Looking back on my resolutions that I posted back in March:

Beat last years book reading challenge score of 284 books for the year. (Well on my way with 85 books read already in less than 3 months).

Achieved! I ended up with 315 for the year. However I doubt I will aim for anything near this high for the coming year - 315 turned reading into a chore sometimes so I'm going to aim for 200 and hope to get a little more.

Regularly update this blog. I’ve been remiss at doing that for the past few years so I really want to try and post reviews more often and not so sporadically.

 

Achieved in part. I am more regular but nowhere near what I would like to be. Hope to improve on this in the coming year.

Read more literary and non-fiction.

Achieved! About 20 more books in these two categories compared to 2013.

Participate more in the blogging community through memes (like this one, so yay! J ) and by leaving comments of favourite blogs.

Achieved in part. I've done more of this, especially memes, but I need to improve on that and even more so on the leaving of comments. Still, felt much more like a member of the community this year.

Reread Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders Trilogy and Tawny Man Trilogy in anticipation of this year’s release of Fool’s Assassin. Have already started on this one with Assassin’s Apprentice last month, so on track so far.

Failed completely! I only read Assassin's Apprentice and then jumped straight into Fool's Assassin cause I couldn't wait anymore and I had an Advanced copy from Netgalley! I ended up starting a reread of the Malazan Book of the Fallen instead (on book 3 at the moment) and am hoping to do a Shannara reread this year.

Continue with my President’s Biography Read. I have set myself a goal of reading a biography of every US President from Washington to Obama before the 2016 election. This year, I’ve already read about James Garfield, Chester A Arthur, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. I have some longer books to read over the rest of the year – including an entire trilogy about Teddy Roosevelt – so will probably only read about McKinley and Roosevelt for 2014.

Achieved! As predicted, only got through McKinley and Roosevelt, just started this month on Taft. Will be continuing this next year, hopefully with shorter books so hoping to get through Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and FDR.

Try and write a review of every book I read this year the day after I finish it (even if I just post it to Goodreads and not necessarily to the blog).

Failed completely! I've taken this as a resolution again for this year.

Read more new releases so as to have read as many books as possible before the Goodreads Awards at the end of the year!

Achieved! I didn't set an actual goal, but I definitely read more new releases last year than any other year. As with the total number of books, I will probably reduce the number this year.

Get at least one book request approved by a publisher on Netgalley. New to the whole netgalley thing, so I would feel that having at least one of my book requests approved would be a sign that I have managed to keep regular on the blog.

Achieved, hugely! I did not expect to receive so many of my requests, especially "big" books like Robin Hobb's Fool's Assassin and some of the new Star Wars books. So yay! This year, I need to try and be a bit more discerning in my requests since my Netgalley rate is pretty pathetic...

Gain a couple more followers. I only have 3, so a couple more for the year would be cool.

Achieved, partly. I got one more, but that is still great!

All in all, this has been a great first proper year running the blog and I'm looking forward to much more in 2015! So I hope you all have a great year!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Goals/Resolutions for 2015

From the Broke and Bookish

This week's theme: Top Ten Goals/Resolutions for 2015. According to the girls over at the Broke and Bookish these could be either book related or blog related - I've gone mainly with blog related goals since this will be only my second year of doing this seriously. Look forward to reading every body else's!

 

Goals I control

1. Only request Netgalley or Edelweiss books I know I'm going to read
I have an absolutely horrendous ratio (especially on Netgalley) so this year I'm only going to request books I know I am going to read, ie books I have already got on my absolutely to be read list (ATBR :) )

2. Write a review for every book I read
My ratio of books read to reviews written this year is pretty bad, so even if I only write a small one paragraph review I want to be able to look back and read some thoughts on every single book I read.

3. Post more reviews to Goodreads and Amazon
I haven't posted nearly enough of my reviews to both sites this year so I want to improve on that next year!

4. Read all of the Goodreads Choice Awards nominees I have on my list
I have about 100 so I would like to get through all of these along with some older books and obviously the new releases

5. Do a Shannara Reread
I would love to do something along the lines of the Tor.com rereads (Wheel of Time and Malazan to name but a few) and have a weekly post discussing the chapters I have read. Whether I'll manage that or just do a book by book reread I'm not sure but either way I want to read the books!

6. Add fewer books to my TBR list
Every month I ended up with fifty or so releases on my TBR list, impossible to keep up with. I'd prefer to stay around 15 per month but will try and stick to no more than one book per day of the month at the least!

7. Comment more frequently on my favourite blogs
I have done better at this this year but I need to improve still!

8. Post more regularly on my own blog
If possible once a day but I want to at least make sure I don't leave more than two or three days go by without posting something

Goals outside of my control

9. Get a higher read count and more comments
I've been so happy and amazed at the regular visitors here throughout the year but I would obviously like that to continue and to get a few more regular comments

10. Get a few more followers
Same as above, I have gained one this year, which is fantastic, but I would love to get a few more in 2015!

Look forward to reading your goals and resolutions in the comments (see goal 9! :) ) Thanks to all the visitors here for making this a great year and here's to a greater 2015!