Bookish Resolutions: 2015 Review, 2016 Plans

2015 is over! I can't believe we're into a new year already.

Here's a look back at how I did on my resolutions for last year and a quick look at what I want to do in 2016.

1. Read 200 books in 2015:

DONE WON

I read 230 books and hit about 52,000 words, which was a little less than last year (even though I read more books), but close enough to make me satisfied.

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015 (preferably 1 a month):

DONE WON

Topped this off at 19 for the year. Finished December strong with It's Too Late Now: The Autobiography of a Writer by A. A. Milne. Really pleased with myself for how well I did on this goal, since I have a tendency to stick with non-fiction. I have a couple of books slated already for next year that I'm really excited about.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:

DONE WON

4. Read at least 2 print books I already own each month (with an eye to weeding):

DONE WON

In December I read Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid, The Key to Midnight by Dean Koontz, and The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex. I'll be weeding the Koontz book - enjoyed it, but don't need to keep it - so a successful month. Overall this year I read 38 books from my shelves and weeded 13 of them. I consider this goal a rousing success.

5. Read at least 2 eBooks I own each month:

In December I read A. W. Hartoin's A Fairy's Guide to Disaster, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, The Green Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang, the first volume of Batman by Bill Finger, The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald, A Soul for Trouble by Crista McHugh, and Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey. I've eased into the B's in eBooks. Can't believe it took me an entire year to get through one letter of the alphabet. At that rate, I've got a good 25 years worth of books waiting for me just on my eReader. But, I read a lot of books I wouldn't have by doing it this way, many of which I thoroughly enjoyed! That means that over the course of 2015 I read 73 (though this did include a few short stories, novellas, and comic issues). I'm very pleased with the success of this goal as well.

For next year I've been thinking about what I would like to do and I've got the following goals in place:

• Read 200 books in 2016 (at least 52,000 pages) - I'm keeping this the same, but adding a page count goal as well.
• Read 12 non-fiction books (1 a month) - I think aiming for 12 works for me. I'd like to go above that, but I'm setting the goal at 1 a month.
• Read at least 2 print books I already own each month (with an eye to weeding) - There were a couple of months where I barely squeaked by with this, so I'm keeping it at 2/month.
• Read at least 2 eBooks I own each month - as I head into the B's maybe I can scoot through more than just one letter this year.
• Read at least 1 book off my GoodReads TBR list - since I cleared out my Currently Reading list, I thought it would be good to attack the TBR list. The thing about my GoodReads TBR list, is that it doesn't include any books I own. I keep it strictly for books I read or hear about that I don't own. But the list keeps getting longer and longer, so I'd like to take a stab at trying to whittle it down just a little bit.
• Read at least 2 academic articles each month (1 library related/1 literature related) - I read articles pretty regularly as part of my job, so I'm thinking of articles above and beyond those - things I've been curious about or that I just want to read more on. I figure if I add it as a goal, I'll have to force myself to go looking for things to read and will branch out a bit more.

So those are my goals. Any bookish plans you have for the next year? I'd love to hear about them!

2015 Book Resolutions

I'm not one to really make resolutions, but this is the 2nd year in a row I decided to make some book-ish ones.

Last year I challenged myself to read 200 books in the GoodReads challenge and made it with flying colors.

I also wanted to read one non-fiction book a month, which I pulled off, scraping by the skin of my teeth with finishing the 12th one yesterday.

And finally I wanted to read at least one book off my shelves a month. That one I didn't do so well on.

So here are my resolutions for 2015:

1. Once again I've set my GoodReads goal for 200 - it's a good number for the mix of books I read including a smattering of picture books and graphic novels.
2. Once again I would like to read 12 non-fiction books. I kind of want to up this number, but knowing myself, it's just not going to happen. I want to challenge myself but not make it undoable.
3. I want to clear out my "Currently Reading" shelf on GoodReads. Either I need to take the books off or I need to actually finish the book. By next December I want it to be down to only the books I'm actually actively reading.
4. I want to read at least 2 print books I own a month - with the goal of getting rid of any that I've just been holding onto.
5. And finally, I want to read at least 1 eBook I already own a month.

And that should do it! Any resolutions for you this year? Bookish or otherwise?

My Reading Year in Review

Yesterday I was reading Sarah Enni's review of her read books from 2013, and I thought that it would be interesting to do something like that for myself. I put together some different categories based on what I was personally interested in knowing about the books that I read, threw all the data into Excel and started playing with pie charts (so much fun)(yes I am a nerd).

And since I spent more time doing this than I would probably want to admit, I thought I would share my findings with all of you.

Before you look, I do want to make a couple of qualifiers:

1. This is very subjective. I assigned the genres, etc. as I saw that they fit, so a book I listed as a fantasy someone else might stick in another genre. And with many of the graphic novels I decided whether they were 1st or 3rd person based on my perception if it wasn't really obvious.
2. The "special format" chart is just based on my curiosity of some of the different formats. Graphic Novels are all different genres and geared toward different ages, so I was curious to see how many I read, but didn't want to take away from listing them as fantasy or contemporary or whatever.
3. For the Focus Age chart I broke it down into Kids (picture books or board books), MG (middle grade, chapter books, kind of 6ish-12ish years old), YA (teen), NA (New Adult (college or early 20s - the book either self-identified as such or that I perceived as belonging in this category), and Adult (anything else). Again this is based on my personal perspectives. I listed the Buffy graphic novels as Adult, though they could be considered either YA or NA, etc.
4. If there were multiple authors all of the same gender (such as CLAMP) I just listed them as that gender. Same with main characters. If there was more than one author of different genders I listed it as multiple (same with MCs) and with some of the graphic novels if there were multiple authors but it was clear that one was the major creator sometimes I just listed it under that one. Like I said in 1 - very subjective.

So this year I read 190 books, so there was a lot of data to compile. I've decided to keep a chart like this going over the next year so I can do this again without it taking as long.

If you're still curious after all this rigmarole here come the pie charts!

I did learn some interesting things about my reading and confirmed other things that I already knew. Like I read mostly fiction - I am now determining to try to read a little bit more non-fiction this year to broaden my tastes a bit. For genres Fantasy definitely took 1st place, which wasn't a surprise. But I read a lot more contemporary fiction than I thought and not as much historical fiction as I thought. I would like to balance these out just a bit, but I love me some fantasy and dystopian so this probably won't change a whole lot this year, and I'm perfectly fine with that. The genders of authors and main characters was about what I expected. I thought I had a bit of a nice balance in both, though I think I'd like to read more books from male perspectives since I always struggle writing the male voice and another goal I have is to work on revising my WIP, which alternates between a male and a female.

Overall I found this an interesting exercise just to see what my reading habits are. I keep track of books on GoodReads (which is amazing and you should totally be on it if you aren't), but to see them broken down this way is quite intriguing.

Breaking the Rules

If you read my post yesterday you may remember that I said one of my goals for this year was to figure out what I wanted to do with this blog.

Well, last night I think I finally realised what the problem is. Then I read this post today by Jamie Harrington, and she's come to the same conclusion.

When I started blogging I had no idea what I was doing. I was following one blog (Nikki Stafford's fabulous Nik at Nite) and pretty much only talking about Lost. Then I started visiting the blogs of other Nik at Nite followers whose comments I enjoyed. And I discovered the world of author and writer blogs. I also found that people wrote about funny stuff from their lives. And food. And movies. And socks. And other random stuff. So I started writing random posts about whatever I wanted to write. Then I started reading more and more blogs and suddenly there were "rules" - There were things you were "supposed to do" to build readership and develop a platform.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

I felt like I was doing everything wrong. So I set up a schedule and failed miserably, so I started only doing one regular feature (Retail Wednesdays) and feeling guilty for not doing more. And I stopped having time to go to other people's blogs. My readership dropped off and I got frustrated.

Over the summer I established a schedule again. And actually kept up with it. But I had even less time to visit other blogs. Then school started and I stopped having time to do any blogging or reading and I felt guilty. Constantly.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

It stopped being fun. It started being a chore. An extension of all of my other responsibilities instead of a chance to be free and goofy and enjoyable.

So I've decided to do two things - actually three - actually four things this year:

1. Post what I want to post when I want to post it. I want to rediscover the fun of blogging. I want to remember why I loved coming here.
2. Stop feeling guilty for not posting regularly. Who wants to read my continually apologies for not posting? No one! That's who. So I'm not going to apologize. I'm just going to post.
3. I'm going to go back to visiting other people's blogs. Not to get more people to visit me (though I've noticed that's usually a side-affect), but because I miss reading what you guys have to say. I miss laughing and chatting and getting to know you all better.
4. Clean up the clutter on my blog. Maybe even mix up the background - though I do like this one. Get rid of old things I don't need. Make it a little fresher. You know. Before the end of the world and all :)

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

So that's my goal/plan. I'm breaking the blogging rules and doing what's right for me. I hope you'll stick around for the ride!

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Looking Back:

This has been an interesting year for me, and I thought it would be good to do a little reflecting on the highs and lows:

• Survived a full year of grad school, which I loved/hated/loved depending on the day.
• Survived a full year of teaching freshman English, which I pretty much loved/loved/loved - except for that whole grading papers part :)
• I started a tumblr. Best time sucker EVER.
• I won NaNo for the second time and ended up with an actual workable, revisable manuscript that I love.
• I managed to keep up with all my favorite TV shows and still do all the work I was supposed to.
• I read 140 books - only 10 shy of my goal.
• Experienced the heart-rending closure of Borders. Saying good-bye to my co-workers, customers, and the store itself was one of the saddest things I've gone through and brings tears to my eyes even now.

• Started a book club and then a book blog with a bunch of my coworkers who just couldn't bear saying good-bye to each other forever.
• Became an aunt to the CUTEST little ladybug girl in the entire world.

Proof that she is in fact the cutest ladybug girl. ever.

• Cut my hair. (hey, that's a big deal for me!)
• Managed to post on my blog pretty regularly over the summer.
• Lost track of my bloggy buddies. Didn't carve out the time to visit around and keep up with everybody. I really, really miss it.
• Experienced the premier of the final Harry Potter movie with an amazing group of movie-goers in Toronto.

• Went to Italy! With good friends and professors from school.
• Was a panelist in three panels at Polaris (including moderating 2 of them) - WAY outside my comfort zome, but SO loved every minute of it!
• Started going to the gym again!
• Decided not to go straight on for my doctorate, which is a decision I'm happy with.
• Laughed a lot, made good friends, cried some.

Looking forward:

This year is going to bring a lot of changes and, while I don't really make "resolutions" I think it would be good to make some goals or articulate some hopes.

• Finish grad school on a high note! I graduate in May and I want this semester to be more positive than this past semester was.
• Get at least one adjuncting job. I love teaching freshman English and I would love to be able to do this while I figure out what my next step is.
• Figure out what I want to do with this blog. The every day thing is most definitely not working. Also, I feel like it gets stale when I put myself in too much of a schedule. But I need some sort of regularity to keep myself motivated. So I need to figure that out.
• Get back to visiting all y'all's blogs. I miss it. I miss it so much and that made me realise that I don't want to do without it. So I need to carve out some time to do it.
• Rewrite Solo, my NaNo novel. I love this book, but it needs some serious work. I will buckle down and do this. I don't want another crummy rough draft sitting around moping at me.

• Win NaNo for the third time. Yes.
• Read 150 books. I want to make this goal this year.
• Step out of my comfort zone more. I'm not sure what form this should take, but I'm getting claustrophobic and if I'm not moving away from home yet I need to do more things to get me out and meeting people with like interests.
• Help build our group book blog into a great place for readers to gather and share book love.
• Waste less time on the interwebs. Twitter is fantastically fun and Tumblr is a great place to share fandom love, but honestly? I need to set a timer or something and get out more.
• Go to the gym regularly. Even when I'm busy. I know I feel better when I do this, so why is it so hard?!
• Laugh hard, cry sometimes, make more friends.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

What are your highlights from last year? Things you're looking forward to this year?

Top Blogging Moments of the Past Year

I can't believe a whole year has come and gone!

Last year at this time I barely had a blog and there are so many of you that I hadn't met and didn't know! That's the most unbelievable part of all! I can't imagine my life without all of my blogger friends. And even though life has gotten really hectic for me and I haven't spent as much time with you all in the second half of the year as I would have wanted to, you guys are often on my mind. For reals (as Naomi would say :)

And what is a new year for, but to give us a moment to reflect on the old?
So here are some of my top favorite moments - top hits, I guess you could say - of the past year in regards to my blogging life :) - In no particular order. At all.

1) January was my real foray into the world of Twitter. I tweeted fairly regularly, but it wasn't until May that Twitter became a real distraction for me ;) That was when I met Mia Hayson and Simon C. Larter who really dragged me into the full world of all the fun that Twitter can be. I have loved every minute of it since then and there are so many things that I could not have done without my Tweoples. Like taking procrastination to an art form.

2) Debuting Retail Wednesdays! February was my first post in which I made fun of the crazy customers that shop at the bookstore where I work. I intended to keep it going, and I'm kind of hoping that I can work out a schedule and be more regular at posting this semester, but for now it's taken a hiatus. But I had WAY too much fun with it while it was going on. This was one of the things that started to build a little bit of a following over here at Sonshine Thoughts and I love every single one of you, especially those of you that have hung around through all the sporadic-ness of the past few months.

3) The A-Z Challenge in April. This kind of just fell into my lap when Lee popped randomly onto my blog and suggested I check it out. The goal was to post every day (except Sundays) in April, starting with the letter A and going all the way through the letter Z. I had SO much fun with this. Some days the letter was only a springboard to make me think of something completely random, but it helped me to meet some REALLY cool people and made me realize that I could write a blog about pretty much ANYthing in the world.

4) My first OWL contest! In March I hit 100 posts and decided to do a quick and little contest. So I made an amigurumi owl and offered it up. The owl mania swept my blog and I think I've given away 8 happy little owls since then. I love that you guys have gotten so excited about these little crochet critters and I plan on giving away more of them for random reasons in the future!

5) The SUPER SISTER CELEBRATION! Naomi and I had SO much fun reading all of your stories and judging them (not like, I judge you for writing this, but like, I totally love this part of the story you wrote, but I have to pick a favorite, so I guess I will go with this one, but they're all TOTES cool!) and then sending you guys prizes!

6) Dipping my toes in the world of flash fiction. Yup, yup, yup. Did I tell you that my Zombie Luv flash fiction got published in my school literary magazine?! That totally made my day. Flash fiction and blogfests stretched me so much this year and really have helped me to hone my skills as a writer. From the creepy story I wrote for Palindrome's Halloween contest to the strange western Rumplestiltskin to the Invasion of the Bloggy Snatchers 'fest that I hosted, I've learned a lot about pacing and character development and trimming words until you want to gouge your eyes out. It has been really good for me (not the eye gouging, but the writer's growth).

7) Vlogs. Or, well, videos I made for the blog. Naomi and I had a little too much fun with those this year. Only a couple, but enough to show how truly demented we are. There was the epic battle of HumaneBean Vs. BatCabbage and our foray into the "Zombiest Things" wherein we dragged a friend on our journey of insanity.

And that's about all I've got. I know I'll think of something else the instant I post this, but these are the first things that come to mind, so I'll go with it :)

How about you? Any particularly special memories of your bloggering life this year? Do tell!

Thank you all for being an awesomesauce part of this past year and I look forward to all the craziness to come in 2011.

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What I Read This Year - Post 1

Last year a friend of mine from another blogosphere posted her list of books she had read over the past year. I loved the idea of actually keeping track, so I started. It was the beginning of February before I began, so I'm sure I missed a few from January or listed some that I actually read in December, but other then that I was actually very faithful at writing down each book as I read it.

The list looks really long, but I realized when looking over it that a LOT of it was what my boss calls "Brain Candy". It has no real substance, but it's still enjoyable to read. I was kind of disappointed with myself, but then I realized that I will be going to grad school and have no time for "Brain Candy" books, so this was like my year off.Since the list is so long I'm going to break it up into a couple of posts so people don't get bored and I don't get bored. So here goes....

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (One of the best books I have read in a long time. Her characters are so vivid. It's written in first person, so you become emotional attached very quickly. The premise is interesting and it is the first book that I can ever remember wanting to read again the moment I finished it. Excellent, excellent book. I cannot recommend it strongly enough. Every person who has read it, that I've talked to, has loved it.)

2. Paradise Lost by Kate Brian (One of my coworkers hooked me on this series. Not at all my usual book fare, but once you read the first one, each book ends with a cliffhanger and you feel oddly compelled to keep reading, even when you are getting annoyed with the ridiculousness of the main character.)

3. Tru Confessions by Janet Tashjian (I read this because I loved the movie that was made by Disney. One of the few cases where I actually liked the movie better. The book was all right, but the movie is amazing. If you can get your hands on the movie please watch it. It's about a girl struggling with the impact of having a twin that is developmentally disabled. Shia Labeouf plays her twin brother and is absolutely brilliant. Some of his best acting ever.)

4. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan (My sister hooked me on these books and they are amazing and fun and you need to go read them all now. The movie is coming out based on the first one. I want to see it, but do yourself a favor and read it first. Riordan has already said they've made some significant changes so I'm a bit worried, but the books are just great.)

5. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan (ditto)

6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney (We could not keep these in stock, so I decided to read it for "research" to answer parent's questions about them. Pretty funny, but I don't know if I'd let my eight year old read it. The main character's not exactly a role model.)

7. Cinderella (As if You Don't Already Know the Story) by Barbara Ensor (I was really disappointed with this book. I love retellings of fairy tales and the back was pretty funny, but the story was drab and didn't vary much at all from the standard Cinderella story.)

8. The Little Prince by Antoine de saint Exupery (I read this because Lost 5.04 was titled "The Little Prince" and we had a copy in the house. It blew my mind with Lost parallels and started me on a little bit of a personal project to uncover and read books that are referenced by the show. Besides, it was a really fun book.)

9. Running From the Law by Lisa Scottoline (Listened to this one on CD during my commute. Back before my car got robbed and I actually had a CD player :( Ah well. A good mystery. Enjoyed it.)

10. Yes Man by Danny Wallace (I picked up this because the Jim Carrey movie looked funny with an interesting premise. The introduction was hysterical, but it went down hill fast. I wouldn't recommend it. I found it boring and really wish I had not forced my way through the end of it. The book could have been 1/3 as long and made the same point.)

11. Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz (With the Twilight craze, lots of people are looking for books to turn to once they've finished the Saga. I started reading through some of the various vampire series because I liked Twilight and I wanted to be able to give people knowledgeable recommendations. All my coworkers know I am the one to come to for recommendations for anyone from 8-18. This series was one of the better vampire ones. I found the first book a little hard to get into, but once she really started revealing the mythology I was fascinated. She ties in biblical, historical and mythical references to create something completely different than any other vampire story I've read.)

12. Masquerade by Melissa De La Cruz

13. Revelation by Melissa De La Cruz

14. Hood by Stephen Lawhead (I had been eyeing this book for a long time and finally picked it up. It wasn't at all what I was expecting, but I've never read the original Robin Hood stories, so maybe it's closer to that than to the Disney version [haha]. It was weightier than I was expecting, but enjoyable. I've been wanting to read the second one, Scarlet, but haven't had a chance yet.

15. Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta (Picked this out of the bargain bin. Fun vampire romp. More adult than the YA books, but without getting into "adult" heavy scenes. I liked it and was excited to see there are a couple sequels. Got my hands on the third, but don't want to read it until I find the second.)

16. Hunted by P.C. and Kristin Cast (Another YA vampire series. It's pretty good, but a few things about it bother me. One is the godde

ss worship that is a major part of the mythos and the other was the "adult" content [though that was mainly in the first book, if I remember correctly]. I've kept up with it because I'm interested to see how the authors play everything out, but if I had to do it over I probably wouldn't read them.)

17. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (So many people were coming in for this book, from teenagers to book clubbers, that I decided to read it. Fascinating, gripping, wonderfully painful book. If you like WWII books or historical fiction you should read it. It's from the common people's perspective on the other side. Not Jewish, as has been done so many times, but the German people as they struggled to survive the war just like everyone else. The narrator is "death" literally, which is fascinating and bizarre. Good book. I cried a lot.)

18. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Demigod Files by Rick Riordan (

Tie in stories that go along with the Percy Jackson series. A lot of fun.)

19. Carrie by Stephen King (Another book I read because of Lost. My first ever

Stephen King. I didn't find it scary, but extremely sad.)

20. Finding Lost: Season 3 by Nikki Stafford (It seems fitting to end this first post of books I've read with one of Nikki's. She is the reason I started blogging in the first place. I picked up this book at work since I was beginning to really get into the show. It had her blog address on the back and the rest, as they say, is history. If you like Lost you HAVE to read her books. They are insightful and witty and amazingly perceptive. I cannot recommend them, or her, highly enough. She's literally changed my life over the past year in a lot of crazy, but good ways.)

There. Now you see why I'm breaking this into multiple entries. I haven't even hit the half way mark yet. Wasn't planning on writing mini reviews for each one, but there you go. More to come hopefully in the next couple of days.

Have you read any good books this past year? I'd love to hear some of your favorites!

New Year's Ponderings

It seems so strange to be in 2010 already.

I have a strange feeling that it will be a momentous year for me. By the fall, God-willing, I will be in grad school, taking the next steps toward my future. In August I turn 30 (a rather scary thought) and I don't know what all else will come along this year.

It's so strange to sit with an entire year waiting in front of me. Each day empty, waiting for the words I will put into them.

Some will be good, some bad, some boring, some thrilling. On some of those days I will feel joy and delight. On some I will experience sorrow. On others I will feel despondent, but those will be balanced by the hopeful.

No matter what each day brings I know it will have been given by God to live out to the best of my ability. I will succeed and I will fail miserably, but His love for me will never falter or change. that is so refreshing to know.

It is calming to my soul and peaceful for my heart.

May I embrace each day as the blessing He has meant it to be and live it for His glory.

May each one of you have a Blessed New Year and may God draw you closer to Himself with every exciting new day He provides.

God bless