2015 Reading Resolutions: How I Did

Because I like to set lots and lots of goals for myself and because of this top ten tuesday post, I set a bunch (or 10 to be exact) reading resolutions for the year. Overall, I did a great job … which isn’t surprising since I’m in school and my job is partially to read lots and lots of books. One resolution did still allude me … my Moby Dick (although I have a feeling I will like this book way way way way more than I liked Moby Dick). Read on to see the results of my year of reading. Sorry (not sorry) it seems so braggy:

1. Read at least 100 books: I’ve read 133 books, many YA and a few middle grade, but still really proud of the amount of reading I accomplished this year!
2. Read at least 25 new-to-me authors: I read 80 new-to-me authors this year. Some favorites included Huntley Fitzpatrick, Leigh Bardugo, Kasie West, and Marie Rutkoski.
3. Read at least 10 debut novelists from either 2014 or 2015: I read 25 debut novels from the last two years. Hopefully I’ll be among their ranks soon!
4. Read at least 25 authors featuring a “diverse” author and/or main character. (I put the term diverse in quotes because it seems super vague/charged, but I will define that as outside of the “mainstream” i.e. featuring PoC, LGBT, mental illness, different abilities, different religions, etc.) I hit 28 this year.
5. Definitely need to up my game requesting ARC’s. I got 20 ARCs or review copies so far this year. This is way up from last year. Now I just need to work on not requesting too much!
6. Carefully read every book I’m assigned in my literature classes.Didn’t know I’d be taking a poetry class when I made this goal, but am really proud of consistently doing the reading for my lit classes (except for skimming The Dark is Rising … sorry Susan Cooper!).
7. YA books, to try to figure out how the authors crafted them.Wish that I’d done a bit more of this. I don’t know the exact formula for reading like a writer yet … but I’ll get there.
8. Read HOUSE OF MIRTH – this was on my resolution list last year and I didn’t get to it. This was the first kindle book I bought in 2008 and I still haven’t got to it. Hopefully 2015 is the year! Maybe I will get to it in 2016 … the one goal that I totally and completely failed.
9. Attend at least 20 author readings. I’ve lost track but I know I’ve been to at least 26.
10. Check more books out from the library and when I do buy books try to support local bookstores, likeBooks of Wonder where I spend at least 30% of my free time. Buying a lot of bookish gifts from Books of Wonder and Housing Works and consistently checking out way too many library books to ever actually read.

In case you were wondering about my main two resolutions last year. One was to write every day, which I did not do (AT ALL). The other involved being kinder, which I think I did accomplish … although it also became a year I tried to be more honest in hard situations, which often felt unkind to me, but ultimately seems like a good thing. (That sentence is so long and convoluted, there is no way I should be allowed to be a writer).