Met My 2017 Goodreads Goal!

My Goodreads journey in 2017 has been an interesting one. I started with a goal of 30 books, 5 more than my 2016 goal which I demolished. I wanted to set it higher since it was obviously possible to meet, but not too high because I knew I was starting a new job and didn’t know how much time I would have.

In May I started this blog. At the time I was well on pace to meeting my goal, and I was actually 3 or 4 books ahead of schedule. Just where I like to be. But because of this blog I started designating several hours of my day during summer vacation to reading and my pace exploded. I started averaging 2 books a week.

By early June I was already at 28 books.

Clearly it was time to bump up the goal. I was nervous to set a goal of 50, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep the pace up once school started. However, I also knew that at the rate I was going I would be well over 40 books by then. So I went for it.

Sure enough, by August I was comfortably at 41. Only 9 books to go! No problem, right?

Wrong. I stalled. In the entire month of August I finished one book. ONE. I panicked a little bit. I picked up the pace again, making sure I was reading at least a chapter before I went to bed each night. It didn’t help much. In September I finished TWO.

By then I was well and truly nervous. So much so that I was considering lowering my goal. But that is NOT something I am capable of doing. I resolved myself to the fact that I might not meet my goal. *cringe*

And then, somehow, as if by miracle, everything worked out. In October I finished three books and got a good way through the fourth. November included Thanksgiving Break, plenty of extra time for reading. I read another three in November. At the beginning of December I only had one book to go, and my Renegades library book was due back December 17. It was do or die, and leaving a book unfinished was not an option.

So meeting my Goodreads goal is a much bigger celebration this year than it has been in the past. I’m so proud of myself for making books so important again, and very proud of what all that reading has allowed me to do on my blog. On the braggy side, hearing the shock in my dad’s voice when I threw the number 50 out there was pretty awesome.

Summary, I read 50 books this year. I am awesome.