I had taken some time off so that I could squeeze in some review reads and so I focused on those instead of personal library reads, and that means I utterly failed at this year's TBR Challenge. I did well at the pace I was on until I took a new job in June and health issues and so I only read seven out of twelve selections. I think I may have done better if I had been able to predict my reading habits after the summer, and what type of books I would then be interested in. I had listed some books that had been sitting on my shelf for years and felt I should get to them out of respect for them, but I just was never in the mood.
Titles that I wonder if I'll EVER get to are Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold and Legacy: The Acclaimed Novel of Elizabeth the Most Passionate Queen and the Three Men Who Loved Her by Susan Kay. I am so bored of the Tudors and Elizabethans at this point (I still have two recent releases that I haven't finished and don't care if I ever will) and I really find myself wishing more for American History at this point. I even find myself not wanting any European history either so who knows what I'll be reading in 2014?! Biblical fiction and non-fiction, and American history/Civil War is my guess, with inspirational romance reads still being a favorite.
The most important thing to remember as bloggers is how we are eager to salivate over upcoming reads and find ourselves requesting/accepting ARCs but we end up bogging ourselves down. I find that is what happened with me in the past: counting on Time being my friend and feeling like a review to be posted at a later date shouldn't be a problem. But then real life gets in the way and there are days you just can't find the time to pick up a book to even read a sentence. I allowed myself the current review pile only because I knew I would be on vacation, and now I have to remind myself that once Christmas is over it'll all be over and it's time to get back to focusing on the career. Thankfully I have only one or two for January and February dates, which means I am able to start another Group Read of a Jean Plaidy/Victoria Holt novel.
It's time to sign up for the 2014 TBR Challenge.. but experience shows me I may as well save myself the time. It's enough of a chore to compose the scheduled reviews with the links, photos, etc.. when I'd rather just open up a book instead of staring at the computer screen. Kudos to all those bloggers out there who have the strength to keep up with the blogging pace that some of you have set!
Congrats! You have completed your goal of reading 50 books for the 2013 Reading Challenge!
(23,235 pages as of 12/12/13)I was able to surpass my reading goal for number of titles for the Goodreads challenge, as well as completing the study bible this year. So even though I haven't completed the TBR Challenge, I still feel like I did well. I didn't totally shut down the blog even though it crossed my mind!
I do have two brand new books on my shelf that I wanted to conduct a giveaway for.. but it'll have to wait till I feel the urge. One of them is a new and signed book by local author, Anne Mateer.. and I wanted to be able to read my own copy so that I could GUSH about it during the giveaway.. so stay tuned for that at some future point!
I'll create another post to update upcoming reads and also I'll need to do a Best of 2013 post as well! Till then, enjoy the Christmas season!
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