2018 has been gone for a while now, even though it feels like it was just yesterday when I was.. trying to get in a holiday-spirit? I honestly never succeeded – let’s blame the move! Now we’re half-way through January and life couldn’t be more hectic. With all the remodeling of our house and preparations for the baby, I barely know where my head’s at lately. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want some reading closure on 2018!
Which is what brings me to today’s post. Looking back at all the challenges I joined, goals I set myself and.. seeing how I did.. I’ve honestly been looking forward to this because I know I didn’t do bad at all!
MY GENERAL GOALS
Books to read: 150 – I ended up reading 185 books!
Pages to read: 55.000 – I ended up reading 60.293 pages! According to Goodreads, that is..
Getting my physical TBR down to 100 – HUGE FAIL!
I actually ended the year with a physical TBR of over 240 books? Which wasn’t meant to happen but it did anyway so.. yeah.. In any case I know I won’t be buying as many books this year as I did in 2018.
As for the number of pages I read.. I’m fairly certain I read more than what Goodreads is telling me, but since my computer – with my 2018 tracking file on it – is currently unavailable, I can’t check properly.
MY SERIES CHALLENGE
Reread Harry Potter – CHECK!
Reread The Raven Boys – FAIL!
Read A Song of Ice and Fire-books – FAIL!
I only wanted to reread The Raven Cycle if I felt in the mood for it, which didn’t happen. As for A Song of Ice and Fire.. Let’s just say I’ll try again this year? Hopefully?
MY GENRE CHALLENGE
Mystery – 3/3
Classics – 4/4
Humor & Comedy – 3/3
Non-fiction – 3/3
LGBTQIA+ – 5/5
Graphic novels – 1/5
Horror – 3/3
Paranormal – 5/5
Poetry – 2/2
Science fiction – 3/3
Thriller – 4/4
Total – 36/40
The only reason I didn’t reach my graphic novel-goal is because I didn’t have any left to read! And when I did, I had other books I really needed to read first so.. oops?
I actually read books for all 40 prompts! You can find the bingo sheet here. I also added the book I read for each prompt so if any of you are interested in that.. Y’know..
ALPHABET CHALLENGE ON AUTHOR NAME
For this one I.. feel like I succeeded? The only letters I didn’t have an author for are Q, X and Y – which aren’t the most common ones. Here are the books I read for this challenge. I did stick with authors’ last names only, which made it harder for me but.. I actually enjoyed the challenge!
How did you do on your 2018 reading goals? What goals are you setting this year?
If you have a post yourself, feel free to leave a link!
I love seeing reading challenges!
Books & Munches 
I know you didn’t get to ALL of your changes, but I think you made AMAZING progress! ❤
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Thank youuu! I think so as well, but my competitive side all “YOU SHOULD’VE DONE BETTER, BITCH.” as usual. xD
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YES for 185 books! I mean, if you’re reading that much, we can just sweep those extra physical TBR books under the rug real quick and silent. *ahem*
I love that met that genre challenge. I really tend to just pick up whatever and read it. I’m trying to be more oriented with my reads this year, though, so let’s see how that goes!
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Haha. I read that much last year. I doubt this year will come anywhere close to the same number but who knows. 😛 I do have book buying rules set up this time around so I’m *hoping* to do damage control on 2018’s book buying. xD
Right? I noticed how I kept reading the same genres and wanted to try some others as well. That challenge really helped me with it too! Now I automatically venture in some more “unusual” genres when browsing books, which is awesome.
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Well let’s see what happens. We always have such great goals at the beginning of the year and then end up both pleasantly surprised and a little disappointed when the year wraps. Which is.. okay? Expected. lol
That’s great though. I can only think of all the great books I’m missing out on in other genres … as I go and pick yet another fantasy book off my shelf hahaha.
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Exactly. And we should always focus on the positives though. Even if we fail at ALL our reading goals, at least we’ll [hopefully?!] be able to say we’ve added some favorites throughout the year.
Eh, nothing wrong with sticking to a certain genre either! 😛
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I’m going to be positive and say we definitely add a few favourites every year.
True true! I do want to branch out, but fantasy pulls me in every. time.
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Haha. I honestly can’t read fantasy without reading something else in between. Whenever I do, I tend to get confused in the world-building and rules each separate book has? Especially if it’s alike even in the smallest ways. :’)
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Wow, with me I can’t read too much contemporary. I start nitpicking like “okay but is it realistic that she buys this much coffee and doesn’t have a job??” XD
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Now THOSE are things I purposely ignore because I can’t even remember being able to buy coffee when I went to high school.. :’) Like. The money I had would go to going out in the weekend and even THEN I was limited. xD
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KATHYYYYYY. (this is the first reply I spotted from you so I’m celebrating) I am appreciating the hard work you went through, responding to those 180+ and probably being like, OMG here’s another from Sha. xD
Yeah, high school teens in books always have magical wealth and also cars and a lot of freedom (which as readers we must just accept).
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I seriously didn’t end up replying to all 180+ of them. That would’ve been.. torture? Especially since a lot of them were okay with an “Yay!” or “Awesome!” or “Thanks!” and I feel weird replying that a month after someone left a comment.. :’) But at least I read them all – that’s something! [Does that count as reading a book, because it totally should..]
The cars! Or scooters! OR ACTUAL MOTORCYCLES. I remember those books and televisions shows made me want a BF with a badass bike back in high school. Safe to say I never found that unicorn. :’)
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The only question left is, how do you log “reading very many comments” on to Goodreads.
Oohh, shows/books are great are sneakily telling you what you think you want. Perhaps… persuade the BF he *wants* a badass bike? Does a retroactive motorcycle passion count?
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Very many comments and.. all those blog posts we read?! Truly.. If you think about it, we’re missing some very important data on our Goodreads reading goals, haha.
He actually wants a bike, to be honest. Thing is that it isn’t really an option right now, haha. We have way too much remodeling to do. Maybe some day. Say, when he’s having his midlife crisis or something. xD
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185 books is incredible and I am so proud of you! You did well and should be proud of the goals you did finish.
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Thank you! Oh, I am proud, haha. Even more so that I succeeded at reading so many books in a year for the first – and probably last – time, haha.
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185 books?! You’re amazing! Let me know your secret powers, I’m ready lol. I hope you have a beautiful 2019 💕😄
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Hahaha. It helped that we lived in a small apartment, so not that much cleaning and.. I read pretty much every spare moment I had? Barely watched television or gamed anymore. 😛
Thank you! You too! ❤
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I tried reading ASOIAF last year to but I only got til book two ><
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Those books are HUGE though. >_<
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This is amazing! I too wanted to get my tbr to a more manageable level but failed miserably….I just think it’s not meant to be!!!!
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Dang this is impressive!! You crossed off so many of these that I’d round up and say you accomplished everything 😂
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Congrats on the goals you finished!! Your failure with the owned TBR amuses me because I’m in the same boat. I wanted to get my owned TBR (both physical and ebook) down below 200 and I ended the year with like… 380. Oops?
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Even though you didn’t achieve everything you set out to do, you still managed to do amazingly – you read so many books last year! I also really love the bingo and A-Z challenge that you did.
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I think you did pretty great on your goals, Kathy and wow, you’ve read SO many books last year, that’s amazing ❤ I … well I kind of can't believe the amount of books you've hauled, though, that IS quite a lot haha. I hope you'll be able to read a lot of them this year and will love them 😀
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Thank you! ❤ I definitely read a ridiculous amount of books. Pretty sure I'll never do that again though, haha.
Same! I have some rules for myself when it comes to buying books from now on, so.. let's hope it works out and I actually read books I already owned prior 2019. 😀
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Fingers crossed, you can do this! ❤
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I love the bingo and A-Z that you made for yourself! If I wasn’t already a bit overwhelmed right now I’d add it to this year. 😂 Maybe I’ll revisit mid-year on some things and go from there?! Congrats on completing your GR books and pages goals!!
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Haha, thanks!
Well, you can always just “add” it and see how far along you get with the books you’re reading anyway. 😛
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LOL so true!! I probably will just overlap all the challenges too 😂
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Whyyy not! 😛
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This is awesome, and you should be very happy with the goals that you were able to complete. And I didn’t know you had a bingo board!!
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Thank you!
Oh, I did, haha. Feel free to use it this year though! 😀
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