2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Hi, this year (2021) I did read (so far) twelve books when I include my required class reading. Happily, this is beyond my nine-book goal. Next year (2022) I plan to read 18 books with a reach goal of twenty-two. I would love to commit to reading at least two books a month, but my other hobbies, graduate school, and graduating from graduate school will likely prevent this achievement.

Note: I aim to not include any assigned textbooks this year.

Some of the books I am eyeballing (not in any specific order):
1. Love & Other Detours: Love & Gelato; Love & Luck
2. The Prison Healer
3. The Gilded Cage
4. Carry On
5. Wayward Son
6. Any Way the Wind Blows
7. Keeper of the Lost Cities
8. Exile... and the other books in this series
9. Try Skyward and if it is good, I will add the rest.
10. In Deeper Waters
11. Six Crimson Cranes
12. Hooky
13. Smoke in the Sun
14. Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 1 Volume 1
15. Get a Life, Chloe Brown
16. The Girls I've Been
17. Elatsoe
18. The Flames of Albiyon
19. A Winter's Promise
20. Spinning Silver
21. So This Is Ever After

Well, I wish everyone good luck in finishing their goal for 2021 and a happy year of reading ahead.

Feel free to comment with any book suggestions.

(13/22)

Reading Goals By Month
January - (7)
February - (1)
March - (1)
April - (1)
May - (3)
June - ()
July - ()
August - ()
September - ()
October - ()
November - ()
December - (0/1)

Participating in Penguins and Polar Bears for at least three months or six books.

- January: Reset
,

- February: Fandom
,

- March: Happiness
idea-> ,

- July: Red
or , OR

Best of luck with your reading challenge, Kimberly!

Question for Visitors: Should I prioritize series on my TBR or should I focus on stand alone books? How do you decide? I just know that I don't want to end up with fifteen series Started....

You could decide to finish an entire series before starting the next one, maybe reading some stand alone books in between. Personally, I have am halfway a lot of series, and waiting for new publications, so I might not be the right person to answer your question.

Books received/Ordered for Christmas

December 28th,

Started Love & Gelato, and it will likely be a four-star read (103 pages in). The writing is character-focused, and the characters feel like people you come across in real life. I like seeing bits of Addie before I start Love & Luck, where she stars as the MC. I am hoping that from now on, we will see more of Italy through the characters and Lina's mother's diary entries.

I wish I had waited another day or so to read this as I wanted this book to be my first book of the year... I am going to have to stop myself from finishing it all today (12/29). I might force myself to only read a small bit every day to make my wish come true, but we will see.

January 6th,

Well with family issues I met my goal. I completed Love & Gelato! I wished the book included more downtime between the scenes meant to move the plot forward. It could have used those moments to build the non-mc character's as they felt a little left out by the last quarter of the book. I wish there was a sequel following specifically these characters due to the outcome of the book. Four out of five stars.

Finished Love & Luck!

I feel like this book provided everything I could want based on my review of Love and Gelato. The pacing was better, Ireland played a bigger role, and no characters got left behind in the rush.

I do wish we could see how Ian and Rowan did after the trip. I felt satisfied with Addie but felt like I could have heard more about their results.

Four point seven-five out of five.

January 9th,

Started and finished An Enchantment of Ravens. This piece must be read as a fairytale or too many things will start to bug you as a reader.

Three almost four stars... or a low four.

Overall Update!

I am so excited that I am three books into my reach goal of 22 books for this year's challenge. I have decided to make 30 my reach goal as I am super confident I will reach my first stretch goal of 22.

I hope this doesn't come back to bite me....

That is great start of the year!

Started Tunnel of Bones by Victoria Schwab, the second book of the City of Ghosts trilogy. This is one of the books for the January Penguins and Polar Bear's challenge.

I am finished with Tunnel of Bones! It was a 3.75 star read. I think it could have been a four if I had been in a better mood for the book. I also do not feel (at this moment) it is at the same level as Love & Gelato, which I gave four stars. I may rate it higher later as it stews in my mind.

Cassidy goes to Paris, and the catacombs, this time with her ghost-bestie Jacob, encounter some ghosts that give them a hard time. As they learn to deal with a spirit, the book brings more ghost-hunting knowledge into Cassie's tool pocket. It is interesting to see her and Jacob's growth through this new knowledge, especially in the aftermath of Cassie's dreams. The ending and Lara's appeal to join a ------ bring about an urge to read the next book straight away.

Started Bridge of Souls!

Finished my book!



I am sad that this journey is over, I feel like this last book truly got the feel of the series settled. I am ready for another three to continue through the parent's show and to see how in the world Cassidy and Jacob will ever settle back into school after this wild summer.

Started Prepped by Bethany Mangle!

Well, I finished Prepped in one day.

An interesting look at a young woman trying to break free of her family/prepper community's abuse while having complicated emotions. I read it in one day. Unlike some, I did not mind Roy.

Four stars.

Participating in the color challenge and the penguins and polar bears challenge.

P&Pb (2/6)
January- Reset (New/Old series)
and

Color (7/8)
1. Read a book with "White" or any shade of white on the cover (ivory, cream, bone, etc...).
DONE!

3. Read a book with "Red" or any shade of red on the cover (maroon, brick, scarlet, etc...).
DONE!

4. Read a book with "Orange" or any shade of orange in the cover (apricot, ginger, carrot, etc...).
DONE!
I was originally going to use pink.

5. Read a book with "Yellow" or any shade of yellow on the cover (blond, chartreuse, canary, etc...).
DONE!

7. Read a book with "Light Blue" or any shade of light blue on the cover (teal, sky, cerulean, etc...).
DONE!

9. Read a book with "Purple" or any shade of purple on the cover (lavender, plum, orchid, etc...).


11. Read a book with "Black" or any shade of black in the cover (grey, slate, coal, etc...).
Done!

13. Read a book with at least 5 colors on the cover.
May's TBR Done!

Started 1/22/22
Finished 1/23/22



3.5 stars

Well, somehow I missed that this book focuses on and deals with a lot of content that needs trigger warnings before reading. I do appreciate that this book has a chapter on resources for those needing hotlines for abuse, but I would have liked to see that before the book started and not at the end of the book. Thankfully, I am good, but a couple of people I know avoid this type of content for various reasons.

I liked the book, but it was not my favorite. I am more of a light topic reader who doesn't mind a dash or two of dark emotions here and there to keep things balanced... however this book was a bit more out of my normally desired book mood than I was prepared.

Also, I found the book a tad too convenient for Nora at times although the author did try to balance that out. It would have been cool to see Wes or Iris's point of view, but I won't take off points for that choice.

I am working at reading We Hunt the Flame and I have the intention of starting Carry On as well. Both very long books. I may sandwich a short book in-between... I would like to read three books this month but I am not going at a good pace. I need to make myself a schedule or use a planner.

I decided to focus primarily on We Hunt the Flame leaning at a 3.75-4.25 star rating (307 pages in). I am aiming to read two more books... Carry On and The Reading List but I honestly may not get there.

P.S. The planner has not worked and graduate school is trying to chew me up like a piece of gum.

Finished


My review:
For a book so long there are plenty of moments where the action and plot play out too quickly to enjoy. In most, I can look back and see some hints but not enough to ward off the thought that that author choose the plot decision at the spur of the moment while writing.

I am not sure if I will read the sequel despite where the first ended. I am still thinking about it...

I do want to say that I enjoyed the overall book, its setting, and I appreciated the grayness of the characters in the face of the almost fairy tale quality the book at times adopts.

Oh, if I could I would rate it as a 3.75. I appreciated it too much for a 3.5, but I couldn't go all the way to a four.

Started reading


I hope to finish it in time to have completed two books this month. Graduate school and work has gotten the best of me... like I kinda expected.

I will aim for three books next month.

I may just squeeze out the Hobbit this month. I think this goes to show that my reading will be slow until things settle after I graduate.

I finished The Hobbit, or There and Back Again last night! I am so happy I at least got one book done, it is not what I originally wanted but I am still progressing.

and
These were my April books, I sadly only finished the first.

I gave it a 3.75 score. It is a good, quick read, with a lot of humorous moments throughout. Read it if you want an overview of Canada.

1st Quarter: Admiring the Natural World
2nd Quarter: Examining the Mysteries of History
3rd Quarter: Pondering the Paranormal
4th Quarter: Exploring the Unknown
January: Reset
,
(new series, old series)
February: Fandom
March: Happiness
April: Creativity
May: Media
May TBR
&
(fanfiction obsessed mc, no direct ties to media)
June: Paris
July: Red
August: Travels
September: Trust
October: Moon
November: Glass
December: Harmony

Finished:

5 stars

1.75 stars (so 2)

3 stars, solid but nothing special.

Read

four stars

four stars (reread)

five ++ stars

July

August

September

October

November

December

I was going to try to read a book a week... However, enrolling into a course about data analytics stole my free time away. So now these are the books I am choosing from each month.

It is December 16th and I am four books away from my goal. At one point I was dreaming of thirty books but my reading tanked. I still read more than last year, blew it out of the water really, but I am a bit sad I may not hit 22.

Next year I will aim for 22 books again, but with more consistency.

Correction - I am three books away. I just finished In Deeper Waters by FT Lukens.

Looking back at this log I can see that I am very much a mood reader and not a TBR follower. I will likely still make some in 23 but they shouldn't be believed.