Bookish Resolutions update #1

Hello everyone,

I thought it'd be fun to do a little update on my bookish resolutions every 3 months or so. Since March is almost coming to an end, I thought it'd be the perfect time to take a look at how I'm doing when it comes to my reading goal, my resolutions and the challenge books I want to read this year.

 Let's take a look at what I wrote back in January!

 My 2016 reading goal:

Last year, I read 38 books and 'crushed' my goal of 30 books. This year, I want to read 40 books, but here's the thing: I am already halfway done with that goal. What?!! I know right! Turns out I'm underestimating myself. Who knew? While I'm writing this, I am on my 21st book of 2016 (it's Gathering Darkness) which I may or may not have finished by the time this blogpost goes up. But holy moly right?! I'm doing so well in this department, let's see how the rest is going!

 My Bookish Resolutions:
 In January, I came up with 5 bookish resolutions. They are supposed to help me focus and reach my goal of 40 books. It helps that one of them is 'read 40 books', and you've just read how I'm doing on that one. But let's look at the others.

1. Read whatever I feel like reading.
2. Try to read as many books that are currently on my TBR shelf.
3.  Read 40 books.
4. DNF a book when I really don't want to continue reading it.
5. Finish,  or catch up on, 10 series/trilogies. 

Number 1 is 'Read whatever I feel like reading', and I chose this because starting a book can give you the feeling that you have to finish it, or creating a monthly TBR may 'pressure' you into reading just those books, whether you really want to or not. So this year, even when I give myself a set TBR or if I start a book, I keep telling myself to just read whatever I feel like. That way, I'll mainly read books I'm really interested in at that time, and I'm hoping that will make me enjoy and appreciate them more.

I created resolution number 2 because I own a lot of unread books. And that's a little bit ridiculous. So I am trying to buy less, and read more of what I already have. So far I've read 17 books I previously owned or received from someone else, 18 if you count my current read. This means I read 3 of the books I've bought this year, which isn't a lot when you look at the books I've acquired but still, I'm trying and that's something.

Since we've just discussed number 3, I'll move onto number 4 'DNF a book if you don't like it'. Trust me, this is a tough one. Unlike "reading whatever you want", this one means I give up on a book entirely. There's no "I might pick it up later, I'm just not feeling it right now". This actually means "please make it stop, I hate this book, help me". This happened once this year, and the book was Magonia. I really wanted to like this because the story does sound interesting and the cover is so beautiful. But sadly, I hated it so much I had to DNF it. It doesn't mean that it's a bad book, it just means it isn't for me, and I am pretty sad about that, but we can't always like everything.

The last one was 'finish, or catch up on, 10 series/trilogies. I picked this resolution because starting series is easy and fun, but actually finishing them isn't! At all! I really want to try and finish more series, and this will help me focus on that. So far I've managed to finish the Lunar Chronicles, The Mortal Instruments, and the Grisha trilogy! I'm so happy about this. I'm also going to read End of Days and Glass Sword soon, and I am currently reading Gathering Darkness, of course. This is going really well if you ask me! I think I might actually be able to do this.

And then lastly, we have the challenges. I picked 12, so in a way that's one for each month, but I am now restricting myself because I can 'read whatever I want' ;) . When I first posted my resolutions and this challenge, I hadn't picked a book for every challenge yet, but I have updated the challenges below.
The 12 challenges are:
1. A book you meant to read in 2015, but didn't.: Rebel Spring.
2. A book from the GoodReads Choice Awards (Winner or Nominated).: A Darker Shade of Magic.
3. A book by an author you discovered in 2015.: Daughter of Smoke and Bone.
4. A book with a title beginning with the first letter of your name.: Snow like Ashes.
5. A classic with less than 300 pages.: Northanger Abbey.
6. A book that was mentioned in another book.: Carry On.
7. A book by an author you feel you should have read by now.: The Final Empire.
8. A book with a beautiful cover.: Passenger
9. First book in a new series.: Six of Crows.
10. The next book in a series you are reading.: Shadow Kiss, Siege and Storm, World After 
11. A book everyone is talking about.: Me Before You, Truthwitch
12. A book with a beautiful title (in your own opinion).: A Torch against the Night

 So far I've only managed to complete 3 of the 12 challenges, but for 2 of them I could read multiple books and I did. I've put the titles I've read so far in bold, and crossed out the challenges that go with them.

I think it's safe to say that my reading year is going pretty well so far, and I am really happy about that. I must say that I don't force my reading, I have had periods of one or two weeks where I didn't read a single book, and that's fine. Of course, I'd rather be reading, but a slump's a slump right?

Did you set yourself some goals for this year? If you did, how are you doing?

Thank you for reading, and I'll be back again soon with a new blogpost!

Love,

Sharon