#2020goalsupdate

[omgreading]

December 2020 Wrap-up

*I abandoned my blog for a bit and so I am trying to catch back up. It would bug me too much to not finish my wrap-up posts I did all last year, so I am doing them now. And will probably do it for the first six months of 2021 too.

The depression continued in December, but I went hard to finish all my goals. I did a 24 hour readathon on the 21st and read four books.

The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen #1) by Roshani Chokshi [★☆☆☆☆]

Persuasion by Jane Austen [★★★★☆]

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff [★★★★☆]

Normal People by Sally Rooney [★★★★★]

The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma [★★★★★]

A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard [★★★★☆]

Legend (Legend #1) by Marie Lu [★★★☆☆]

Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk [★★☆☆☆]

Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob [★★★★★]

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami [★★★★☆]

Books in bold are ones that I own(ed)

My favorite book of the month was Normal People

A Stolen Life went towards my 2020 Goal for the TBRBusterchallenge made by @bookbandit of reading one nonfiction book a month I’ve owned a year or longer.

Overall Goals 2020 Check-In:

Read 30 minutes a day [366/366]

Read 100 books [109/100]

Read 10 books that have been on my shelves for more than a year [12/10]

Become more active in the booklr community [not this month]

Read one book that is 1,000 pages or more (1Q84)

Complete one series I've already started (A Series of Unfortunate Events, The African Trilogy, The Heroes of Olympus, Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children)

Write in my journal every day even if it is only one sentence [366/366]

TBRBuster Check-In:

all books have to be owned for a year or longer at the time of reading

Read one nonfiction book a month, these do not count towards yearly goal [12/12]

Read one book I own by J. R. R. Tolkien

Read one book that is 800+ pages (1Q84)

Read one book that is more than 100 years old (Persuasion)

Read one book written in or before the 16th century (Macbeth)

Other than being more active in the booklr community and reading a book by J. R. R. Tolkien, I hit all my goals, and that is amazing!!

My check-in info is as of 12/31 so it only contains things for December

[omgreading]

October 2020 Wrap-up

October was a month of Spooky Reads! I didn’t only read spooky things, but that was my primary goal. I was doing a readalong with BookTokkers from TikTok, and so there was a theme for each week. I read 8 books in October, so my numbers are going up again! I also got in another bookclub read. 

I owned five of the books, with one of them being a Kindle Ebook. I checked out three from the library. 

The themes were Oct: 1-3 Freebie/TBR Prep Oct: 4-10 Thrillers Oct: 11-17 Witches/Ghosts Oct: 18-24 Horror Oct: 25-31 Cemetery Boys Readalong

I am on TikTok or BookTok, omgreading is my username there too, so follow if you want.

October Reads:

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu [★★★★☆]

Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston [★★★★★]

The Talented Mr. Ripley (Ripley #1) by Patricia Highsmith [★★★★★]

Macbeth by William Shakespeare [★★★★☆]

Teacher Man (Frank McCourt #3) by Frank McCourt [★★★★★]

The Dinner by Herman Koch [★★★★☆]

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia [★★★★☆]

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas [★★★★★]

Books in bold are ones that I own(ed)

I loved the books I read this month. I’ve never done a month of themed reading and so it was fun looking for books to fit the themes. 

My favorite book of the month was Cemetery Boys.

The Dinner by Herman Koch was the bookclub read for the month. It needed to be a book written in originally in Dutch.

Teacher Man went towards my 2020 Goal for the TBRBusterchallenge made by @bookbandit of reading one nonfiction book a month I’ve owned a year or longer.

Macbeth went towards another TBRBusterChallenge goal of reading a book written in or before the 16th Century.

Overall Goals of 2020 Check-in:

Read 30 minutes a day [305/366]

Read 100 books [91/100]

Read 10 books that have been on my shelves for more than a year [9/10]

Become more active in the booklr community [not this month]

Read one book that is 1,000 pages or more

Complete one series I’ve already started (A Series of Unfortunate Events, The African Trilogy, Heroes of Olympus, Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children)

Write in my journal every day, even if it is only one sentence [305/366]

TBRBuster Check-in:

all books have to be owned for a year or longer at the time of reading

Read one nonfiction book, these do not count towards yearly goal [10/12]

Read one book I own by J. R. R. Tolkien

Read one book that is 800+ pages

Read one book that is more than a 100 years old

Read one book written in or before the 16th century (Macbeth)

I loved all the books I read this month, and the themed reading was a lot of fun.

My check-in info is as of 10/31 so it only contains things for October

[omgreading]

August 2020 Wrap-up

I read 6 books in August. It burned me out powering through those two series in July. It was a lot of pages and a lot of reading in each day. I went much slower in August and had a lot of 30 minute reading days.

I read July’s bookclub pick this month and we didn’t have one for August. Two of my reads were ebooks, one from Scribd and the other from my library. 

August Reads: 

Stuart Little by E. B. White [★★★☆☆]

A Simple Favour by Darcey Bell [★★★☆☆]

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie [★★★★☆]

Midnight Sun (Twilight Saga #5) by Stephenie Meyer [★★★☆☆]

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote [★★★☆☆]

Waiting by Ha Jin [★★★★☆]

Books in bold are the ones I own(ed)

It wasn’t my best month for reading. This is my first month without a five-star read! 

Americanah was last month’s bookclub pick, and I finally read it!

Waiting was my favorite book this month. 

In Cold Blood went towards my 2020 Goal for the TBRBuster challenge made by @bookbandit of reading one nonfiction book a month I’ve owned a year or longer.

Waiting went towards one of my overall 2020 goals of reading at least 10 books that I’ve owned for a year or longer.

Overall Goals Check-in: 

Read 30 minutes a day [244/366]

Read 100 books [77/100]

Read 10 books that have been on my shelves for more than a year [8/10]

Become more active in the booklr community [not this month]

Read one book that is 1,000 pages or more

Complete one series I’ve already started (A Series of Unfortunate Events, The African Trilogy, Heroes of Olympus, Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children)

Write in my journal every day, even if it is only one sentence [244/366]

TBRBuster Check-in:

all books have to be owned a year or longer at the time of reading

Read one nonfiction book a month, these do not count towards yearly goal [8/12]

Read one book I own by J. R. R. Tolkien

Read one book that is 800+pages

Read one book is more than a 100 years old

Read one book written in or before the 16th century 

August has been my slowest month for reading, and I read the least amount of books so far this year. I swear it feels like it goes down each month!

Scribd has a lot of outstanding books available, both ebook and audiobook.

If you use this link to sign-up, you will get 60 days free. 

Scribd has perks that come with a premium account, regardless if the premium account is part of a free trial. If you sign-up you will also get these things for free, for as long as you have a premium membership:

Pandora Plus, a music service that offers personalized playlists based on songs, artists, or genres

TuneIn Premium, live sports, music, news, and podcasts

Peak Pro, an app with brain training games

MUBI, watch cult, classic, independent, and award-winning films from around the world.

Curiosity Stream, dive deep into your favorite science, technology, nature, and history documentaries 

CONtv + Comics, everything for your inner geek from cult classics, anime, and B movies to Transformers, Star Trek, comics, and graphic novels.

FarFaria, an app with unlimited read-to-me storybooks and bedtime stories for kids ages 1-9

I promise I am not a sponsor for Scribd or any of these other services, but I just found out about the perks part of the Scribd subscription this month. And like I said, you still get these during the trial because you are a subscriber. 

My check-in info is as of 8/31 so it only contains things for August.

[omgreading]

September 2020 Wrap-up

I read six books in September. I owned three, got two from the library, and read one from Scribd. This was a very slow month for me, I spent so many days just reading for 30 minutes. 

I didn’t read a book for my bookclub this month because they chose Frankenstein and I read that last August. 

September Reads:

City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare [

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier [★★★★★]

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates [★★★★★]

Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices #3) by Cassandra Clare [★★★★★]

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amar El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone [★★★★★]

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling [★★★★☆]

Books in bold are the ones I own(ed)

I read better books this month, but man did it take me a long time. I am torn between Rebecca and This Is How You Lose the Time War being my favorite for the month. The suspense for Rebecca was just so good, and then This Is How You Lose the Time War had just a unique and interesting story. 

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) went towards my 2020 Goal for the TBRBuster challenge made by @bookbandit of reading one nonfiction book a month I’ve owned a year or longer.

Rebecca went towards one of my overall 2020 goals of reading at least 10 books that I’ve owned for a year or longer.

Overall Goals of 2020 Check-in:

Read 30 minutes a day [274/366]

Read 100 books [83/100]

Read 10 books that have been on my shelves for more than a year [9/10]

Become more active in the booklr community [not this month]

Read one book that is 1,000 pages or more

Complete one series I’ve already started (A Series of Unfortunate Events, The African Trilogy, Heroes of Olympus, Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children)

Write in my journal every day, even if it is only one sentence [274/366]

TBRBuster Check-in:

all books have to be owned a year or longer at the time of reading

Read one nonfiction book, these do not count towards yearly goal [9/12]

Read one book I own by J. R. R. Tolkien

Read one book that is 800+ pages

Read one book that is more than a 100 years old

Read one book written in or before the 16th century

This month was slow again, but at least it made sense for how big some of the books were. 

My check-in info is as of 9/30 so it only contains things for September

[omgreading]

July 2020 Wrap-up

I read 14 books in July. I powered through Sarah J. Maas’s ACOTAR and KOA series, and that was the bulk of my reading. Again, I only read books I owned this month. 

I didn’t read the book club pick this month because I was so focused on the series. I just barely got in my non-fiction read. 

July Reads: 

Always and Forever, Lara Jean (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before #3) by Jenny Han [★★★★☆]

A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses #1) by Sarah J. Maas [★★★★★]

A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2) by Sarah J. Maas [★★★★★]

A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses #3) by Sarah J. Maas [★★★★★]

A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses #4) by Sarah J. Maas [★★★★★]

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas [★★★☆☆]

Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2) by Sarah J. Maas [★★★★☆]

Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) by Sarah J. Maas [★★★★★]

The Assassin’s Blade (Throne of Glass #0.1-#0.5) by Sarah J. Maas [★★★★★]

Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4) by Sarah J. Maas [★★★★★]

Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass #5) by Sarah J. Maas [★★★★★]

Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass #6) by Sarah J. Maas [★★★★★]

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin [★★★★★]

Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass #7) by Sarah J. Maas

I would say that out of the series, Kingdom of Ash was my favorite because it had some of the most poignant moments for me. I always love the feels.

However, I think Born Standing Up might have been my favorite of the month. I was surprised by how much I liked it. I just grabbed a super short non-fiction book off my shelf to get it in for the month, but I loved it.  I might have loved it so much and remember it so fondly because it was a big break from all that fantasy. 

A big reason I powered through the two series in July was because of the book club I am in, Bookclub of Mirth. They host it on Discord, and I absolutely love the group and the folks in it. They are all big SJM fans and almost all of them have read all of her books. So, when I started the series, I hopped into the chats of each series and live blogged my reading to them. It was so much fun having that interaction and being able to discuss my feelings while reading with others. I don’t know if I would have read the series as fast if I didn’t have the group to talk to. I am sure I wouldn’t have read the series at all if I hadn’t joined the group last year. 

Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life went towards my 2020 Goal for the TBRBuster challenge made by @bookbandit of reading one nonfiction book a month I’ve owned a year or longer.

Overall Goals Check-in

Read 30 minutes a day [213/366]

Read 100 books [71/100]

Read 10 books that have been on my shelves for more than a year [7/10]

Become more active in the booklr community (not this month)

Read one book that is a 1,000 pages or more

Complete one series I’ve already started (A Series of Unfortunate Events, The African Trilogy, Heroes of Olympus, Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children)

Write in my journal every day, even if it is only one sentence [213/366]

TBRBuster Check-in:

all books have to be owned for a year or longer at the time of reading

Read one nonfiction book a month, these do not count towards yearly goal [7/12]

Read one book I own by J. R. R. Tolkien

Read one book that is 800+pages

Read one book that is more than a 100 years old

Read one book written in or before the 16th century

July has been my biggest reading month this year. I read 15 books in January, but the amount of pages and hours spent reading were way beyond what I did in January. It was a lot of fun to get so wrapped up in fantasy and to experience the series that many people on booklr have, and all the fun I had in my bookclub. 

My check-in info is as of 7/31 so it only contains things for July

[omgreading]

March 2020 Wrap-Up

I read ten books in March! I took part in two book club reads and finished a series.

I wasn’t sick this month, but I still spent a lot of time in bed and so some days I was only getting in my 30 minutes of reading.

Six of the ten books were from the library, one was an ebook form Kindle Unlimited, and I own the other three.

March Reads:

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand [★★★★☆]

House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1) (bookclub pick) by Sarah J. Maas [ ★★★★★]

Bird Box (Bird Box #1) by Josh Malerman [★★★★★]

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller [★★★★★]

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton [★★★★★]

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens [★★★★★]

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania (bookclub pick) by Erik Larson [★★★★★]

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio [★★★★★]

The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck [★★★★★]

The Blood of Olympus (Heroes of Olympus #5) by Rick Riordan [★★★★★]

Books in bold are the ones I own(ed)

Where the Crawdads Sing was my favorite book of the month.

Dead Wake went towards my 2020 Goal for the TBRBuster challenge made by @bookbandit of reading one nonfiction book a month I’ve owned a year or longer and it was a book club read.

The Moon is Down went towards one of my overall 2020 goals of reading at least 10 books that I’ve owned for a year or longer. 

Overall Goals Check-in:

Read 30 minutes a day [91/366]

Read 100 books [34/100]

Read 10 books that have been on my shelves for more than a year [4/10]

Become more active in the booklr community (I feel I am doing this)

Read a book that is 1,000 pages or more

Complete one series I’ve already started (A Series of Unfortunate Events, The African Trilogy, The Heroes of Olympus)

Write in my journal every day, even if it is only a sentence [91/366]

TBRBuster Check-in:

all books have to be owned for a year or longer at the time of reading

Read one nonfiction book a month, these do not count towards yearly goal [3/12]

Read one book I own by J. R. R. Tolkien

Read one book that is 800+ pages

Read one book that is more than a 100 years old

Read one book that was written in or before the 16th century

I still have 24 library books to read. My library has closed because of COVID-19 precautions and will not open in the foreseeable future. They have extended the due dates for the books I have out until May. The good news is I can’t add any more library books over the next month, so all I can do is winnow them down.

I am sure I will read library books in April, I would like to make it even stevens this time around and maybe read one book I own for every library book. We will see how that goes.

*My check-in info is as of 3/31 so it only contains things for March

[omgreading]

June 2020 Wrap-up

I read 7 books in June. Only one of my book clubs is active, so I read one book for my book club. 

I had a bunch of 30 minute days again, so I didn’t read as much as I wanted to. I owned all the books I read. 

After starting the book club pick, which was chosen for the month because we wanted to read Asian authors, I decided the rest of the books I read in June would be by Asian authors. 

June Reads:

Elevation by Stephen King [★★★★★]

The Kingdom of Back (bookclub pick) by Marie Lu [★★★★★]

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro [★★★★★]

The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang [★★★★★]

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro [★★★★★]

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before #1) by Jenny Han [★★★★☆]

P.S. I Still Love You (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before #2) by Jenny Han [★★★★☆]

Books in bold are the ones I own(ed)

The Remains of the Day was my favorite book this month. 

I started the third book in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy, but didn’t finish it before the month ended. 

The Rape of Nanking went towards my 2020 Goal for the TBRBuster challenge made by @bookbandit of reading one nonfiction book a month I’ve owned a year or longer.

The Remains of the Day and The Buried Giant went towards one of my overall 2020 goals of reading at least 10 books that I’ve owned for a year or longer.

Overall Goals Check-in: 

Read 30 minutes a day [182/366]

Read 100 books [57/100]

Read 10 books that have been on my shelves for more than a year [7/10]

Become more active in the booklr community (not as much as I should have)

Read one book that is a 1,000 pages or more

Complete one series I’ve already started (A Series of Unfortunate Events, The African Trilogy, Heroes of Olympus, Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children)

Write in my journal every day, even if it’s only one sentence [182/366]

TBRBuster Check-in: 

all books have to be owned for a year or longer at the time of reading

Read one nonfiction book a month, these do not count towards yearly goal [6/12]

Read one book I own by J. R. R. Tolkien

Read one book that is 800+ pages

Read one book that is more than a 100 years old

Read one book that was written in or before the 16th century

I loved the books I read in June. Most of them were melancholy and deeply reflective, and I enjoyed that.  I ended up only reading books that I owned because I wanted to make sure I was paying attention to my shelves a little more. I said at the end of May I wanted to focus on The Shadowhunter Chronicles, that didn’t happen. As soon as I decided to read Asian authors, I just moved on from that. I will get back to them one day.  I also wanted to read a book from Scribd and I probably could have, but again, I focused on what I owned instead.

My check-in info is as of 6/30 so it only contains things for June

[omgreading]

January 2020 Wrap-up

I read 15 books in January! I finished one series, got caught up on another, and took part in a bookclub read.

On New Year’s Eve we paid down my mom’s library fine and that allowed me to check out and put on hold a ridiculous amount of books. Out of the 15 books read, 11 were library books.

January Reads:

Ninth House (Alex Stern #1) by Leigh Bardugo [★★★★★]

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education and was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai (bookclub pick) [★★★★★]

The Vegetarian by Han Kang [★★★★★]

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern [★★★★★]

Stargirl (Stargirl #1) by Jerry Spinelli [★★★★★]

Tales of the Peculiar (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #0.5) by Ransom Riggs [★★★★★]

Library of Souls (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #3) by Ransom Riggs [★★★★★]

The Penultimate Peril (A Series of Unfortunate Events #12) by Lemony Snicket [★★★★☆]

The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events #13) by Lemony Snicket [★★★★☆]

A Map of Days (Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #4) by Ransom Riggs [★★★★★]

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay (bookclub pick) [★★★★☆]

The New Hunger (Warm Bodies #1.5) by Isaac Marion [★★★★★]

My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite [★★★★☆]

Six of Crows (The Six of Crows Duology #1) by Leigh Bardugo [★★★★★]

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman [★★★★☆]

Books in bold are the ones I own(ed)

Ninth House has been my favorite book so far. I’m sure the book isn’t perfect, but I can’t find fault with it. I loved the characters and the flow of the story and it was a fantastic read. 

I Am Malala also ended up going towards my 2020 Goal for the TBRBuster challenge made by @bookbandit of reading one nonfiction book a month I’ve owned a year or longer.

Library of Souls and The End went towards one of my overall 2020 goals of reading at least 10 books that I’ve owned for a year or longer. 

Overall Goals Check-in:

Read 30 minutes a day  [31/366]

Read 24 books, two a month [15/24]

Read 10 books that have been on my shelves for more than a year [2/10]

Become more active in the booklr community (I feel I am doing this)

Read one book that is 1,000 pages or more

Complete one series I’ve already started (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

Write in my journal every day, even if it is only one sentence [31/366]

TBRBuster Check-in:

all books have to be owned for a year or longer at time of reading

Read one nonfiction book a month, these do not count towards yearly goal of 10 books [1/12]

Read one book I own by J. R. R. Tolkien

Read one book that is 800+ pages

Read one book that is more than a 100 years old

Read one book that was written in or before the 16th Century

February will probably be another big library book month for me as I still have a lot checked out and waiting on hold. March will likely be the last month of overwhelming library books. I don’t regret it because I know that I wouldn’t have read as much as I did if it weren’t for the library. It kind of makes me wonder if I need to do a serious unhaul this year and use the library most of the time instead. We’ll see how the year goes. I will not be adding anymore books to the list or picking up anything other than what is on my hold list from the library to stop this madness.

*My check-in info is as of 1/31, so it only contains things for January