Happy Tuesday everyone!
I cannot believe it is officially the last day of the year!! 2024 was an interesting journey for me. The beginning of the year brought a lot of adjustments for me after graduating from grad school. Grad school was actually an extremely difficult two years for me, and with being a high school teacher, the burn out basically carried over into the summer. My first month of summer was spent reading and working part time at a local bar because that was all I could handle (unsurprisingly, June was my biggest reading month of the year).
In August, I also got engaged! My fiancé and I have been together for six years, meaning I was not surprised at all by the proposal. We had already started planning our wedding ahead of time since we knew we wanted to elope. Literally the week before we got engaged, I booked our photographer for our wedding next summer in Ireland!
When school started back up in August, I decided to add some more tasks to my never ending to do list. I become the HS Yearbook advisor and the NHS advisor. This was on top of already being the senior class advisor. I am not sure what I was thinking, but man, I am so grateful for my students. They have made the transition so much easier.
Did I mention I am also a photographer? It is a wonder I didn’t erupt into flames during grad school. I honestly don’t know why I do this stuff to myself, but what can I say, I like to stay busy.
The second half of the year also brought on a major reading slump. I went from reading 8-12 books a month to struggling to read six. Part of this was because of my in-person book club I have with my coworkers that started in July. I have read some of my worst books of the year through this book club, and we are really struggling to find a good pick 😂 I guess that’s what we get when six people with completely different reading tastes attempt to start a book club.
Thankfully, even with the terrible reading slump, the last six months have been a blast. I went in on season tickets for my old university’s football team (there was six Saturdays filled with tailgating and laughs), my best friend visited from across the country for a wedding, and I spend almost every week with my friends, whether it be for Game of Thrones night or book club.
Because the end of the year is here, I decided to look at my 2024 reading goals, which I posted back in January (the original post is HERE).
Let’s get into the goals!
1. Read 100 books
Every year, I make my Goodreads goal 80 books. But, even with that goal, I had an inner goal of making this the year I hit 100 books. I was on track in June with 55 books read, but the reading slump in the second half of the year really slowed me down. Today, I finished my 96th book of the year. While I didn’t reach 100, I am still incredibly proud of how many books I did read.
FAILED…kind of. I reached my Goodreads goal of 80, but fell four books short of 100.
2. Read 10 books from my Book of the Month backlist
At the beginning of 2024, I had 28 books on my Book of the Month backlist. In June, during my Mid-Year Check-In, I had only read two books — First Lie Wins and Butcher & Blackbird. Since then, I have also read Dinner for Vampires…. Whoops.
I currently have 23 books left on my backlist (I received a few more books and unhauled some as well). I think that I might make it so that books from 2+ years will get unhauled by the end of 2025 if I still haven’t read them. Most of them are books I was only slightly interested in because of the subscription, but I have never felt the urge to pick them up again. Maybe I could do a Read It or Unhaul It challenge on my bookstagram…
FAILED – Read 3/10
3. Get my unread tbr percentage down to 40%.
Lol. So, during my Mid-Year Check-In, I decided to adjust this goal to 50%. I realized I had so much more left than I thought after logging all of my books into a spreadsheet.
After the Mid-Year Check-In, I found MORE books of mine in my car’s trunk (from a shopping spree I went on earlier in the year). While I did manage to read 46 books off of my physical TBR, there are still 54% of my books that I have not read.
FAILED – 4% short
4. Get Netgalley ratio to 90%.
I really had high expectations for myself this year…
When I did check in in June, I had read 28 books from Netgalley. I started 2024 with a 63% ratio (that’s actually crazy to think about). By the end of the year, I had read 35 total books from Netgalley. I have requested and been approved for new books throughout the year, so again, I did not reach this goal, but I am impressed with how much of a dent I made! I ended the year with a ratio of 82%.
FAILED…but I did make it to 80%, which is the recommended ratio!
5. Read from more indie authors
The books I had read from indie authors at the time of the mid-year check in:
- Bourbon Breakaway by Sierra Judd (review HERE)
- A Song of Sin and Salvation by L.H. Blake
- Homerun Proposal by Maren Moore
- Behind the Net by Stephanie Archer
- Catching Feelings by Maren Moore (review HERE)
Since then, I have added two more self-published books:
- Tastes Like Candy by Ivy Tholen
- Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell
Seven of the books I read were independently published! In previous years, I had only read one or two, so I few this as a win!
SUCCESS
6. Build my Classroom library with more diverse books
I had met this goal in June! In the first half of the year, I used grant money from my school to purchase 218 books for my classroom library! It took a lot of work to request all of those books, but I am so excited to have more options available for my high schoolers. I have added an entire bookshelf to my classroom and have been working hard to get students excited about reading.
7. Post on my blog at least 5 times a month
When I posted in June, I was on top of the world with my blog. The only month I hadn’t reached this goal was February.
- January: 5 posts
- February: 3 posts
- March: 10 posts
- April: 16 posts
- May: 10 posts
- June: 12 posts
Since then, life got a little chaotic and busy, and I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time to my blog and bookstagram. I am cutting down the amount of photography clients I am taking on next year, so I am hoping I’ll get more free time to do things like this
- July: 4 posts
- August: 1 post
- September: 2 posts
- October: 0 posts
- November: 2 posts
- December: 4 posts (including this one)
FAILED
8. Document all my books into a spreadsheet
From my mid-year check in:
I have FINISHED!! It took a lot of my time, but I managed to complete it in one week this summer. I am excited to finally have all of my books on a list because recounting every few months gets a little annoying (and unreliable).
SUCCESS
9. Read 10 Books Recommended by Students
I did not think I was going to reach this one since I had only read one book in June. But, with the new classroom library, this school year has really ramped up the amount of young adult books I’ve read. Here are the books I read that were recommended to me by my students:
- A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
- The Naturals Series (I read all four books)
- Scythe
- Perks of Being a Wallflower
- The Ivies
- The Grace Year
- A Curse So Dark and Lonely (I read all three books)
SUCCESS
10. Read From at Least 30 New-To-Me Authors
I ended the year by reading sixty authors that I had never read from before. I am not surprised that I reached this goal since I am always on the look out for new books. I think I might raise this goal next year to fifty!
SUCCESS
I learned that I definitely thought highly of myself at the beginning of the year, but honestly, I am quite satisfied with my reading year. Even with the reading slumps, I managed to read 96 books!! I can be excited about that!!
I plan to do my 2025 Reading Goals on January 14th for Top 10 Tuesday. I think that I will need to be a little nicer to myself next year, especially since I will be planning my wedding for the next six months.
If you are still with me, be sure to answer the question of the day in the comments below!
QOTD: How did you do with your 2024 Reading Goals?
Until next time, xx