2018 Goals

I’ve got some basic goals for 2018. Will I accomplish them? I really hope so. My list is basically ‘be a better person and adult.’ I don’t want to call them resolutions since those almost always get blown before my birthday.

Exercise more regularly – Family stress plus wedding stuff and lack of time has lead to me basically not exercising at all. This is double plus ungood because I’m 30. That is the age when your metabolism starts saying “Screw you” so I need to get in better physical shape.

Eat less junk – Hubs is an enabler on this as well so we need to join forces to eat less sugary junk. We should at least phase some of the ice cream with lower calorie frozen yogurt.

Start an IRA – I haven’t done it and I’ve got a little bit of money from the wedding so I want to use some of that for retirement. I’d add a small sum every week to ensure some sort of growth no matter what.

Minimize – I need to spend less money and have less stuff. I want to minimize the amount of excess in my life and whittle down to what I love, what I need, and what serves me well.

Work on becoming a dog trainer – I want to read more books, watch more YouTube videos, rewatch Victoria Stilwell’s TV series, and possibly start classes.

Self-Improvement – 2017 suck on a lot of levels. I had to end several friendships because they weren’t adding anything but negativity to my life. I spent most of the year enduring emotional abuse from the only family member who has been there for me (thanks mom). In 2018, I want to spend more time healing from these wounds, fixing the flaws these situations created in myself, and being a better person and wife.

Casual Challenge Final Update

The final update. How did I do this year?

 

Pop Sugar Reading Challenge

• Got from a used book sale – Esther the Wonder Pig
• Food – Banquet for Hungry Ghosts
• Genre you don’t read – The Princess Saves Herself in This One
• Family Member Term – Rory the Dinosaur: Me and My Dad

Total for the 2017: 32/52

Banquet was a quick and fun read for Borrow-a-thon that retold Chinese myths involving food and the supernatural. Each story came with cultural context and a recipe. IDK if Princess is a bestseller but it’s far more visible and popular than most poetry collections. It wasn’t until November of this year I gave poetry any sort of attention but I’m glad I have.

 

Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge

• Collection of stories by a woman – Christmas Days
• Set in South America – The Quest for Z

Winterson’s collection was a stroke of luck since I wanted to read it last year but the wait list at my library was nuts. Quest was another bit of dumb luck. It was a kid’s book I saw that looked interesting and checked off a box on this one for me. I did not anticipate that.

I’d have had poetry except for the translation rule. Princess deals with love but also abuse, relationships, depression, personal strength, etc.

Total for 2017: 17/24

GoodReads 52 Books

• Based on a myth – Banquet for Hungry Ghosts
• One Word Title – Unbelievable 

Total for 2017: 38/52

Katy Tur’s experience on the Trump campaign, as well as everyone watching at home, can agree that ‘unbelievable’ is an apt term.

Diversity Bingo

• MC in a wheelchair – Intro to Alien Invasion

I’m reaching a little bit since it was more of an important side character

Total for 2017: 14/36

Next year’s challenge is going to have a lot going on but I wouldn’t miss out on doing this again. 2018 will probably have some big changes so I don’t know how often I’ll check in but I’ll be here for it.

Final Book Haul of 2017

I tried to be good. I was not.

General purchases

• Dogs of Instagram – My library wouldn’t carry it so I got it used on Amazon
• Mrs. Deadpool’s Howling Commandos – It was $4 and I want to read Posehn’s series.
• Essentialism – It helped me get free shipping for some wedding stuff and I’ve been wanting to read it.
• Everything that Remains by Joshua Fields Millburn
• Essential: Essays by The Minimalists by Joshua Fields Millburn
• Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life by Joshua Fields Millburn
• Mistress of All Evil by Serena Valentino
• Five Nights at Freddy’s: Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthorn
• So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson
• We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
• The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula Le Guin

My library refused to carry Dogs of Instagram so I got it used for cheap. I got The Minimalists books so I could mark them up as I need. Valentino’s book is for a matched set and I got the second book in the series as an ARC and picked up the first one for cheap. Nelson’s memoir through Le Guin’s book were $1 each at my local library.

I was very bad and imbibed in Book Outlet’s after Christmas sale. Since I bought these in 2017 but they won’t be delivered until 2018, I don’t think they should count toward my 2018 haul.

• Luke Skywalker Can’t Read: And Other Geeky Truths by Ryan Britt
• The Marriage Test: Our 40 Dates Before “I Do” by Jill Andres
• Christmas Magic edited by David G. Hartwell
• The Little Book of Life Hacks: How to Make Your Life Happier, Healthier, and More Beautiful by Yumi Sakugawa
• Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John-Mandel
• Lean Body, Fat Wallet by Ellie Kay
• The Dragon Behind the Glass: A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World’s Most Coveted Fish by Emily Voigt
• Once Upon Now edited by Danielle Banas
• The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips
• Dinosaurs The Grand Tour: Everything Worth Knowing About Dinosaurs From Aardonyx to Zuniceratops Keiron Pim

Most of these my library doesn’t have in physical form or was a really good deal. I was inspired by The Book Olive’s bird obsession to check out the book about rare fish. I’m nervous about the fairy tale retellings since it could be great or glorified chick lit. The final book is for Hubs.

I also tried Page Habit for the first time. I got a discount code for a bonus book for a nominal fee. I picked my categories before I knew the books and I’m still pretty excited. Both came with author annotations and the box comes with a handful of bookish goodies. Mine were string lights, a key chain, and a bookmark.

• One of Us Will Be Dead By Morning by David Moody
• Immortal Life by Stanley Bing

For Christmas, I got the illustrated Fantastic Beasts and 100 Things Capitals Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. Raby was doing a signing at my favorite local indie and hubs bought it knowing it would be for Christmas.

All Holidays Matter: Quality Time

I did this not once, not twice, but three times.

Both Bonfire and Krampus picked up to the point where I sat on the couch and politely told my husband leave me alone to find out what happens. I also did it for the Twelve Doctors of Christmas last night to make some progress on my wild card before the year’s end.

Hubs got me the illustrated Fantastic Beasts so I’m hoping to at least start that before the 31st for my book that was a gift. Surprisingly, I only got two books for Christmas. I think my family knows I read so much that gifting me a book is a solid risk.

2017 TBR Final Check In

It’s the end of the year so how did I do for my 2017 reading list?

Fiction

The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
Check. It was interesting but didn’t live up to the hype.

Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
Nope. Maybe next year.

Underground Airlines by Ben Winters and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
I completed half of this with Whitehead’s compelling work. I can see why it’s an award winner. Airlines is on my 2018 long list TBR

The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer
Read it and thoroughly mocked it. Meyer has not improved as a writer or her continued refusal to do more than a perfunctory Google search.

Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein
How do I keep running out of time to read a book I think I’ll love. I can’t believe I TBRed it in 2016.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Nope but since I missed the hype train, it takes some of the pressure off.

Mash-Up edited by Gardender Dozois
Another nope.

Nonfiction

The Secret Language of Dogs by Victoria Stilwell
Nope.

Being a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz
Another nope.

A Matter of Breeding by Michael Brandow
Nope and I heard a middling review of it.

Secrets of a Dog Trainer by Victoria Schade
No but it is shortlisted for my 2018 TBR since it is highly relevant to my life.

Sleeping with Dogs by Lindsey Grant
Nope.

Extracts from The Second Sex and The Beauty Myth
No.

Negroland by Margo Jefferson
Yes and meh

A Thousand Naked Strangers
Nope.

The Big Tiny by Dee Williams
Yup. It was good, not great.

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
Again, no.

The Real Thing by Ellen McCarthy
Nein

Born with Teeth by Kate Mulgrew
Nyet

No Baggage by Clara Bensen
Yes. I enjoyed it.

YA

Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl
Nope.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Nope but I’ve got a secondary motivating factor for next year: the sequel on my shelf.

On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis
Yes and it was amazing!

Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined
Never!

Graphic Novels

Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales: Africa
Yes, and it was excellent.

Prison Island by Colleen Frakes
Yes, and it was disappointing.

Posehn’s Deadpool series starting with Dead Presidents
Nope.

Deadpool Classics Vol 1
Once more with feeling: nope.

I did not do great. This is why my 2018 TBR is going to be less ambitious and specific. TBR are more like suggestions than goals for me at this point.

All Holidays Matter: Kwanzaa

I will be the first to admit this is a bit reachy but my different cultures were Bonfire and Krampus. I’ve always grown up near the coast (1 hour to the bay and 3 to the ocean) and no more than 30 minutes from a major city. I was consistently exposed to different cultures and religions. The city I was closest to (yes, I lived near more than 1 major city) had a very accessible public transit system.

Both novels take place in a rural, small town with a good percentage of what many would call rednecks. I’ve never been to what many east coaster dub ‘fly over states.’ I have no idea what small town life is like or how it impacts local crime (relevant in both stories). I also grew up middle class and both stories grant insight into the desperation felt by rural poor or ‘poor white trash.’ I’m not a huge fan of the latter term but it works on some of the characters in the books.

It’s a bit of a cop out but I think it fits enough to qualify. I’d like to mostly finish my own read-a-thon after all.

All Holidays Matter: Krampus

For a dark Christmas story, I read Krampus by Brom. This has been on my radar since I saw it in a bookstore last year and I got it from my local library. I loved the use of Norse mythology to make sense of Santa and Krampus. Brom certainly did his homework.

While many of the characters felt typical, their actions and the events of the story took many unexpected twists. I loved the art that was in the middle of the story. It wasn’t until I was a third of a way through the book that I even realized there was character art. One trope I cannot stand is the person whose partner is in a new relationship but they refuse to move on. Jesse earns his redemption but it still bugged me.

The almost stock characters and personal trope hate lead me to hover at 4.5 stars but I leaned in to five since it was an incredibly interesting tale you got invested in very easily. If you want a dark and creepy Christmas story, I highly recommend it.

2018 Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge

Apparently the middle of December is the time to drop next year’s reading challenges. Modern Mrs. Darcy prides herself on challenges that broaden your reading life as opposed to something arbitrary. I know a little about her and some BookTubers I enjoy adore her so I thought I’d spend a little more time with her blog and podcast in 2018.

MMD points out that the average person will read less than 12 books in a year. Secure in our little bookish bubble, we forget how rarely the average person reads anything these days. Her categories are broader than I’d recommend but it leaves her readers a lot of room to decide what works for them. Rather than something fun or marketable in the age of social media, MMD creating something with the focus on enriching readers’ lives. I can respect that.

Give the ample amount of wiggle room and overlap with other, larger challenges, this should fit in nicely with my Casual Reading Challenge.

2018 Twofer Challenge

I have created my reading challenge for next year. I have a habit of assigning myself oddly specific reading challenges following it with some lax challenges. This is going to be a more lax year. I wanted to give myself a somewhat lofty goal without boxing myself in too much.

Part 1: The Alphabet

I’ve tried this before but I’m not doing authors names or titles. I’ll pick an aspect of the book (which can include the title or author) to assign to the letter. For example, Z could be for zombie, zoo, zebra, or Zusak. This keeps me from killing myself to find X, Y, Q, or Z and doesn’t force books onto my TBR I don’t especially want there.

Part 2: TBR Jar

This is inspired by the TBR jar I didn’t do last year. Most folks do book titles but I wanted to go in another direction. I’m doing categories you often see on book challenges. I broke them down into categories.

I must pull one randomly at least once each month. I can do more than one but I can’t do less. If I’m not feeling the first one I draw or the type of read it will entail, I get 1 redraw and must choose between the two.

Diversity checklist
By a POC
By a woman
By or about a LGBT+ person
Translation
Poetry collection
About mental illness
Indie publisher
Country I’ve never visited
Bechdel/Mako Mori test

Ensures diverse reading without overwhelming my TBR.

Outside sources
MASH: Book edition
Ultimate flowchart
What should I read next?
Whichbook
Good Minds Suggest
Random Number Generator

Lots of challenges require you use an outside source so, why not see if they work? For the last one, I’ll go to my GoodReads to-read list, randomly generate 3 numbers, and decide from there. I got this idea from A Book Olive

Bookish
Great opening line
3 books with the same word in the title
Favorite color cover
Body part in the title
Anthology
ebook
Clue weapon in the title or on the cover (candlestick, knife, rope, lead pipe, revolver, wrench)

These deal with things about the book itself. The clue weapons I’m pulling from are from the movie. I saw that long before I ever played the game so that’s my association.

MISC
Reread
Hype
Dust
Creature feature
Inspired by real events
Adapted to the stage
Wedding/marriage
Mythology or fairy tale

Fun and random things like a book that has been collecting dust on my shelf or some sort of monster.

Activities

I thought activities were an important part of what I did last year so I want to keep that going but not on quite the same scale. Having 30 activities made me realize what I enjoy and what I don’t so I’m shifting my focus to make my reading life better and easier

Participate in a read-a-thon
Finish a series
Try a story tag
Book Scavenger hunt tag
Reread a favorite book
Read 6 of the indies I have collecting dust
Kickstart a book
Buy a book at an indie bookstore
Attend a bookish event
Attend an event at the library
Don’t buy books for a month
Get the number of books I own down to 500
Purchase 50 or fewer books for the year

I always buy books from small and/or indie presses at conventions but how often do I read them? Not often enough. This is how I have an entire shelf of these bad boys and several anthologies. Hence the story tag and the goal of reading 6 of those indies. I also want to minimize what I own since it’s kind of taking over the apartment. My library is amazing so I really don’t need to buy that many books any more. Because my library is amazing, it’s why I want to try the Book Scavenger Hunt tag, just for funsies.

 

2018 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge

Book Riot has announced their Read Harder Challenge for 2018. It was very heavily sponsored by Libby the library app. BR says you can double up but they encourage you to challenge yourself. Props for saying this isn’t a contest and no one is keeping score. With BookTube and lots of other online book communities, it can be easy to forget that.

BR is definitely encouraging diversity with romance, western, children’s, colonial literature, celebrity memoir, graphic novel, and sci-fi all being mandatory to finish the challenge. I guess enough people complained romance isn’t getting adequate representation. It’s not really my jam so there’s a good chance I won’t be checking that box at all.

I can knock out a lot of the graphic novel challenges pretty easily. I have Kickstarted several graphic anthologies, Lucy Knisley is releasing a graphic memoir about her pregnancy next year, and I know the new Spiderman comic is supposed to be pretty excellent. I am solidly saying no to reading an assigned book I hated. The only book I genuinely hated was Catcher in the Rye and I want no part of reading that again.

BR seems to be heavily favoring graphic novels and lesser heard genre fiction this year. I think that’s great. I probably won’t be completing the 2018 challenge but I think I can make a respectable dent in it.