bookish goals

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Book Tag – New Year, New Books

Published January 23, 2018 by bibliobeth

Hello everyone and welcome to a new book tag I couldn’t resist participating in. It was originally done by Lucy The Reader for Penguin Platform HERE but I originally came across it at one of my favourite book tubers channels, Simon from Savidge Reads HERE.

It might be a little late, we’re over halfway through January but the questions looked a lot of fun so here we go!:

1.) What was your first read of 2018?

I was on the blog tour for The Missing Girl by Jenny Quintana and I really enjoyed it, giving it four stars. I finished this book on the 5th January according to Goodreads, making it my first finished read of 2018!

2.) Which books you read in 2017 do you want to share with everyone this year?

Well, where to start? I’m going to choose three (but I could choose many more!)

The Unseen World by Liz Moore was one of my top reads for 2017 (review coming very soon) that I absolutely adored and have already started pushing into the hands of other people.

I also adored Milk And Honey by Rupi Kaur, my first poetry collection for a long while. I know this type of poetry has had a bit of stick but I loved it and some parts of it really spoke to me personally.

Finally, I’d like to recommend The Watchmaker Of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley which absolutely blew me away. I’m reading her second novel, The Bedlam Stacks very soon and am very excited, anticipating great things!

3.) What is your reading goal for the year?

I’ve written an entire post about my Bookish Resolutions/Goals for the year but generally, I’d just like to really enjoy my reading this year and try not to put much pressure on myself. I have set my Goodreads goal for 200 books (perhaps stupidly) but I might revise this later on in the year when I see how I’m doing. I’m planning to read a lot of books from my current collection by participating in the Mount TBR Challenge, I’m on a book buying ban (other half and I are saving to buy a house and I have FAR too many books anyway). This of course doesn’t count any pre-orders I’ve already made, any vouchers I get for my birthday/Christmas or the books that I have to buy for my Kid Lit or Banned Books challenge with my sister, Chrissi Reads!

4.) Which new author, book or genre would you like to try this year?

There are two authors I’m particularly keen to try:

Can’t believe I haven’t read The Vegetarian by Han Kang yet. This year. THIS YEAR!

I’ve also heard so many good things about The Housekeeper And The Professor by Yoko Ogawa and as both this book and Han Kang’s are fairly short, there isn’t any reason why I can’t get to them both this year, right?

5.) Which reading habits would you like to change?

I’d like to stop feeling so guilty when I have to reject an author’s request for me to read their book. I’ve got so many books on my TBR and ones that I’m excited to read and when I first started blogging I got myself into a situation where I didn’t enjoy reading so much as I was only reading author requests and not books that I really wanted to read for myself!

6.) What’s your most anticipated release for this year?

I have a couple I’m really looking forward to:

(synopsis from Goodreads)

One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid.

As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours and brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock’s marvel. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence and through the doors of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on… and a courtesan of great accomplishment. This meeting will steer both their lives onto a dangerous new course, on which they will learn that priceless things come at the greatest cost.

Where will their ambitions lead? And will they be able to escape the destructive power mermaids are said to possess?

In this spell-binding story of curiosity and obsession, Imogen Hermes Gowar has created an unforgettable jewel of a novel, filled to the brim with intelligence, heart and wit.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.

As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.

 

And that’s it for the New Years, New Books tag! I’d like to tag anyone who would like to do this and hasn’t done so far or if you have, leave me your post linked in the comments, I’d love to take a look.

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Mount TBR Challenge 2018

Published January 9, 2018 by bibliobeth

Hello everyone, hope you’re having a good New Year so far? In my Bookish Goals/Resolutions for 2018 I mentioned that I had seen the Mount TBR Reading Challenge on Jo’s Book Blog. Well, I’ve decided to go for it and participate in this challenge! This challenge is in it’s seventh year and was designed by My Reader’s Block (check out the sign up post and full rules HERE).

The reason I’d like to participate is that I have four full bookshelves of mostly unread books just begging to be read and I would really like to get on top of them/reduce the numbers slightly this year! I’ll just go through some of the basic rules here so that you can have an idea of what the challenge entails if you’re interested:

There are a number of levels or mountains to conquer that you can choose to fit in with the number of books that you’d like to read. For example:

Pike’s Peak: Read 12 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Blanc: Read 24 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Vancouver: Read 36 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Ararat: Read 48 books from your TBR piles/s
Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 60 books from your TBR pile/s
El Toro: Read 75 books from your TBR pile/s
Mt. Everest: Read 100 books from your TBR pile/s
Mount Olympus (Mars): Read 150+ books from your TBR pile/s

Now, I don’t know if this is just crazy talk and I might live to regret this but I’m going to go for Mount Everest – 100 books from my TBR. Aaaagh!

The Rules (from My Reader’s Block site):

*Once you choose your challenge level, you are locked in for at least that many books. If you find that you’re on a mountain-climbing roll and want to tackle a taller mountain, then you are certainly welcome to upgrade.  All books counted for lower mountains carry over towards the new peak.

*Challenge runs from January 1 to December 31, 2018.

*You may sign up anytime from now until November 1st, 2018.

*Books must be owned by you prior to January 1, 2018. No library books. If you’re looking for a library book challenge or one that counts books on your non-owned TBR list, then there may be challenges out there that do that. This one does not.

*Rereads may count only in the following circumstances: If you did not own the book when you read it long ago and far away [based on your age, you can decide what that might mean] and you bought the book pre-January 1, 2018 intending to reread it now that it’s your very own.  [To clarify–the intention is to reduce the stack of books that you have bought for yourself or received as presents {birthday, Christmas, “just because,” etc.}. Audiobooks and E-books may count if they are yours and they are one of your primary sources of backlogged books.]

*You may count any “currently reading” book that you begin prior to January 1–provided that you had 50% or more of the book left to finish when January 1 rolled around.  I will trust you all on that.

*You may count “Did Not Finish” books provided they meet your own standard for such things, you do not plan to ever finish it, and you move it off your mountain [give it away, sell it, etc. OR remove it from your e-resources]. For example, my personal rule (unless it’s a very short book) is to give a book at least 100 pages. If I decide I just can’t finish it and won’t ever, then off the mountain it goes and I count it as a victory–the stack is smaller!

*Books may be used to count for other challenges as well.

*Feel free to submit your list in advance (as incentive to really get those books taken care of) or to tally them as you climb.

*There will be quarterly check-ins and prize drawings!

I’m really looking forward to reducing my TBR and reading some of the books that I’ve had on my shelves for the longest time. Hoping to conquer that pesky Mount Everest so….

Bookish Resolutions And Goals For 2018

Published January 8, 2018 by bibliobeth

Image from: http://msbookish.com/2015-goals-bookish-goals-for-the-new-year/

Hello everyone and welcome to a post that I don’t normally do but for some reason, I thought it might be nice to do for 2018. I don’t normally like to make too many rules and regulations for my blog but due to the sheer volume of the books that I own, the back-list of reviews I still have to write etc. I thought it might be time to set some things down, just to give me some sort of direction for the year ahead. I’ve written down TEN major resolutions and then I’ve slotted in another FIVE general ones (just because once I started I found it quite difficult to stop…oops!) So, here we go!

1.)  Put less pressure on myself to blog every day.

I came a little way to doing this last year when I was ill. I did get to the stage where I just thought: “Oh *%$* it!” but there was still that residual guilt when I didn’t get a post done every day. 😦

2.) Gradually reduce review back-list by continuing to do mini-pin it reviews.

I came a long way doing this last year – to date I’ve done 16 mini-pin it reviews which means sixty-four books that were originally on my review back-list are GONE! Definitely will continue this.

3.) Use notebook to make notes on titles “currently reading” so when I come to review them, things are fresher in my memory.

I recently bought a lovely notebook from Faye at Daydreaming Designs and used it to compile this list and a few other things already this year in the attempt to make me a little more organised!

4.) Be honest with myself if I’m unable to take on a review title especially those requested by authors directly that are not really my cup of tea.

When I first started blogging, I used to love that authors requested me to read their books and used to accept EVERYTHING. Then I realised how stupid this was and that I couldn’t possibly do this and read the things I WANTED to read as well. I have got better at refusing review requests but need to stop feeling bad about it too.

5.) Be better about commenting on other bloggers reviews.

Again something I have got a little better with last year but I still perhaps don’t comment as much as I should. Sometimes I think I’ve got nothing else to say except “Great review!” but even if I just say that it’s letting the blogger know I enjoyed their post.

6.) Attend more bookish events/author talks.

I love doing this and unfortunately chronic illness slows me down in this A LOT. I work in London and there is the potential to attend events after work however if I do that and get home late I’m likely to knacker myself for work the next morning. However, once in a while wouldn’t hurt!

7.) Continue with “Shelfie by Shelfie” meme and hopefully encourage others to participate.

I’ve really enjoyed developing my little meme last year, something I thought I could never do. I have a lot of shelves so there are many, many more shelfies to come and hopefully I can inspire someone else to join in too.

8.) Experiment with making reviews a little “fresher” i.e. use of images relevant to post.

I love bloggers that use images/GIF’s which highlight their content and break up the text a little bit. I’ve been thinking of doing something like this myself but we’ll see how it goes…

9.) Read some of those books I’ve been meaning to get to for years.

For example, A Song Of Fire And Ice by George R.R. Martin, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty and Tipping The Velvet by Sarah Waters. Some of these books have been on my shelves/Kindle for FAR too long!

10.) Start doing some buddy reads/join an online bookclub.

I’ve never done a buddy read before and it looks like such fun! I already have tentative plans with the lovely Janel from Keeper Of Pages to read The Fireman by Joe Hill this year so I’m really hoping that takes off. Just saying it right here, right now, if I mention a book and you’re open to a buddy read with me – let’s do it!

OTHER CHALLENGES:

  • Increase NetGalley ratio to a more acceptable level. – you don’t want to know my ratio…it’s shameful.
  • Participate in Mount TBR challenge. – I saw this on Jo’s Book Blog and it looks like a lot of fun!
  • Continue to enjoy Banned Books and Kid-Lit with Chrissi. – this should be easy, I’ve done this every year since I started blogging.
  • Read and review Richard And Judy book club picks. – also something I’ve done every year since I started blogging.
  • Read and review Daunt Books from annual subscription each month. – my wonderful boyfriend got me a Daunt Books Annual Subscription for Christmas so I get one new paperback each month. I’m determined to read and review them each month they come in. Let’s see how I do.

So everyone….

Image from: https://www.appbrain.com/app/wish-me-luck/com.Starlab.WML