Half Year In Review


School is done, the weather is warm, we're already halfway through 2012.  I have to say this year is flying by.  No complaints though, it's been a wonderful year so far.  I thought I would take a look at my reading over the last few years and check in with how I'm doing on the challenges I set forth for this year.

Read 100 Books
Right now I'm at 39.  This time last year I had already 44, so I'm a little behind.  And considering I didn't make it to 100 last year (I think I was somewhere in the 80s) I need to stay focused.  I think I'll do it this year though, I have a good feeling about it.

Canadian Book Challenge
The goal is to read 13 books by Canadian authors or with Canadian themes.  This year I read 20 (the contest runs from Canada Day to the day before Canada Day - or July 1 to June 30.)  Last year I read 28.  I'm surprised to see I read less this year, I was hoping to improve on that.  But the CBC 6 starts tomorrow so this year I'll set myself the goal of 25.  If you'd like to check out the challenge head on over to Book Mine Set.

Mixing It Up Challenge
This one is all about trying out different genres and as someone who often finds herself stuck to a few, but wonderfully surprised when she tries out a new one, I thought I'd go full in and aim for 16 books read.  So far I have read 5.  Not too bad, I'm confident I can finish this one.  I've read a few books I hadn't originally planned on reading but as long as I get the boxes ticked off, it doesn't matter.

Back to Classics and Speculative Fiction Challenges
I am so shocked with myself to say that I have read 0 books for each of these challenges!


Classics - I have to read 9 books from different criteria.  I was hoping this would get me into the love of Classics and I'd breeze through my shelf of them but no such luck so far.  However, this summer I am participating in the Rebecca read-along and I plan to re-read 1984 so hopefully that will get me going.  I have quite a few books already downloaded to my Kindle app, it's just a matter of getting to them now.

Speculative Fiction - I was really excited for this one as this is a genre I typically stay away from.  I was (still am) hoping to use this challenge of reading 6 books to really explore the genre and all it offers.  I'm still confident I can do.  I've got The Parable of the Sower coming in to the library soon and I'll be looking for some Margaret Atwood which can overlap with the CBC challenge.  Plus 1984 should count towards this right?

Looking back at the half year I see that I'm not quite on my way to completing many of the challenges I've set out for myself.  However, I have read some great books this year and I'm confident that at my end of the year review I will be putting a big check mark beside all of my challenges.

Comments

  1. As the Crowe Flies and ReadsJune 30, 2012 at 6:44 AM

    Sounds to me like you've had a pretty good reading half-year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. PerogyoJune 30, 2012 at 7:45 AM

    Well done! Glad you'll be doing #6 too!

    What is the CBC 6?

    ReplyDelete
  3. VonnieJune 30, 2012 at 11:37 AM

    I've tried the 100 book challenge two years ago and nearly killed me. I remember I had read 70 books by November and needed 30 more to finish the challenge. Thanksgiving and Christmas was not too fun that year. I did finish the challenge with 101 books, but I'll never do it again. I want to enjoy my reading instead of hating it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JaeJuly 1, 2012 at 10:05 AM

    All in all it sounds like a pretty good year so far! I'm not participating in any challenges this year because I overdid it last year and got burnt out. I do want to read 100 but we'll see if I get there. I've never heard of the Canadian reading challenge but might be joining it since Canada is my second home this year now that my boyfriend is there. I'm going to visit him again soon so I guess I should read up on some Canadian authors while I'm there! :)

    ReplyDelete

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