BLOG ENTRY: 2016 Reading Challenge Review/2017 Reading Challenge Look Ahead

Well, this posting is a little late; yet, I always say better late than never! Figure I’d do an analysis posting for my reading challenges this year and a look ahead to next. Since I flubbed so bad this year on this topic, this coming one will be mighty interesting. :D

I started out 2016 with very good intentions. Three reading challenges started and by February or so, I had made good headway. Yet about March-May, I actually left reading books to concentrate on fanfiction. So let's just say that departure put a hole in my reading challenge boat. By the time I dove into books again, we were almost halfway through the year, and I just didn't feel like trying to cram in three reading challenges and feel the pressure. After all, reading is my hobby, not my job.

So about midway through the year, I decided to just concentrate on one reading challenge, and that was my favorite historical fiction challenge. My special challenge to myself for that one was to concentrate on historical fiction works about people, locations, or historical events that were new to me, as that's where my heart really lay that year. And I succeeded with that challenge, diving into some good titles and overshooting my number for that particular challenge.

So safe to say, 2017 I'll be taking a lot lighter. I'll only be concentrating on the historical fiction challenge again; I think I set myself about the prehistoric level at 25 books. I vaguely set myself a personal challenge to concentrate on books set in American history (as I don't tend to read that as much) and historical fantasy, a personal subgenre favorite of mine. But you know what? I'm just going to count every historical fiction book I read this year towards the overall goal and just use those personal challenges aspect for myself as vague guidelines and not an absolute challenge.

I plan on starting a second job this year so my time will be even more limited than in previous years. So the overall total I set for myself on GR of 50 will be hard enough. The prehistoric level of 25 for the historical fiction calendar will also be more of a challenge. Will have to see as the year plays out what happens and how successful I am with the historical fiction challenge and the overall book total on Goodreads this year.

So there you go, a little analysis on how not well I did on reading challenges for 2016 and maybe a glimmer of hope for 2017, depending on how much time Sarah actually has to read. We’ll see where my sanity lies in December. XD