Time To Wrap Up 2018

With the end of the year drawing near, it is time to make the balance. I told myself at the beginning of the year I wouldn’t really set myself some reading goals I would have to struggle to fulfill, but it being me, of course I couldn’t sit back and relax and have been reading like crazy for the last week and a half to get in some more books (in the end finishing 31 books this month, totaling over 8000 pages). Now I’m left with three more books, that I’m reading but won’t finish this year, not in the least since they are all tomes in their own rights (Fire and Blood / Death’s End / Iron Gold by George RR Martin, Cixin Liu and Pierce Brown, respective and all around 600-700 pages each). I do feel though that each of the three has the potential to have been my first and only five star read of the year.

The only reading goal I set myself at the beginning of 2018 was to read at least 50% books I owned from before the start of 2018 (For 2017 this was only around 20%). Since I’ve been said to hoard books like there is an apocalypse approaching, I wanted to prevent the Mt. TBR to reach heights I would not be able to scale in this lifetime. (Or end up being 30 with a house filled with unread books). I also have accumulated ARCs over the years, being the child in the proverbial candy story, so that was something that I also wanted to battle. Now, I hear you think, it can not be that hard to read just the older books, can it? I set myself to it and reach 61% this year. While more than reaching my goal, I was still surprised the number wasn’t higher, considering I was thinking I was reading only ROOTs this year. Either way, I plan to continue on this road and keep giving priority to older books, while keeping in mind I will end up reading a lot of the new books also. But then, reading should be fun, and there are some books you just don’t want to keep waiting.

Book wise, I finished 207 books, which is equal + 1 to what I read in 2014, but I’m happy with the number. I’m now a PhD student, and I’ve had the first real reading slump in years, so in the end it is not too bad, I assume. Besides, this years’ books were on average over 20 pages longer than last years’, were on average 245 pages, so I read almost 51.000 pages. Next year, I would like to try to read 208 books (# of this year +1) and preferably with more pages, but I will see how it goes and if necessary adjust on the way. My books scored on average 3 stars out of 5, and while many were very enjoyable, I was missing anything that really stood out. I think it is probably the first year I lack a five star read. I don’t know whether it is me being more critical than I used to be or that is was the books I read, but I hope to score at least one in 2019.

One thing I am lagging behind with at the moment is writing the reviews, I would really like to get this right in 2019. Since it is quite some work, I’ve been putting this off, but the only way to get it done is to actually do it… It’s also been a while since I’ve had the time to keep the blog updated, but a new year is as good a chance as any to give it another try.

So, in conclusion I would like to do a little bit better in 2019, but in general I’m glad at the results of this year. As December 31 creeps in here, I will enjoy myself thinking some more about this year before it is gone.

I hope you will all enjoy this last day in 2018, and may you all have a grand year waiting for you around the corner!