Hi everyone! Welcome back. I'm Di and
today we're going to talk about how I
did on my 2016 goals. I think what I want
to start off with is a few stats, so
these stats are from Goodreads. As of today,
which is December 29, I have read
160 books. 59 of those were
novels, 3 of them were novellas, and
the remaining 98 were manga volumes. I do
count manga. Manga are books too!
So that is definitely more than I
read in 2015. Total number of pages
read was 38,394. The shortest book I
read was The Great Turkey Caper, which is
the first book and the Agnes Barton
Holiday Mystery Novella series by
Madison Johns. This came in at a hundred
and twenty pages. The longest book I read
was Fire & Ash, which was the fourth
and final book in the Benny Imura series
or the Rot & Ruin series by Jonathan
Maberry, and that came in at 544 pages.
The most popular book on Goodreads that
I read in 2016 was Harry Potter and the
Prisoner of Azkaban, and I think that has
somewhere around two million eight
hundred something thousand reads. The
book that I read that was the least
popular on Goodreads was Hayate X
Blade Vol.6 which had 47 reads. My
average rating for 2016 was 3.8 and the
book that I read that had the highest
rating on Goodreads was Noragami Vol.5.
Now at the end of 2015
I said that I had wanted to
read 52 books. Obviously I did bypass
that number by quite a bit, which was
another one of my goals destroyed.
I was supposed to read less and 2016 and I
obviously did not do that. But as I said,
of the hundred and sixty books that I
read, 59 of those were novels. I think
that's really great for me. I have never
ever hit the 52 books in a year number
without including manga, so somewhere in
July I think, I decided that I wanted to
make sure that I hit 52 novels no matter
how many volumes of manga I read. I
wanted to read fifty two novels in the
year and so I did accomplish that. I also
participated in a couple reading
challenges. The first of which was Rock
My TBR. This was a challenge where you
were supposed to read at least one book
off your physical shelf every month. I
upped that to include one book off my
Kindle Unlimited or Scribd subscription.
So I did complete this challenge. Of
the 59 novels that I read this year, 33
of them were from my personal library, so
that was really good. And then, as far as
Scribd or Kindle Unlimited reads, I did
read 12 of those between those two
subscriptions so I did accomplish that
goal. I did not renew my Scribd
subscription this summer. They made
several changes to their program that I
didn't like. Because I used their program
a lot more for audio books
and though they were still allowing us
to use credits on audio books, I didn't
like the fact that they were telling us
how we could use our credits and I said
as much and my closing comment to them.
If we paid per month to get a certain
number of credits to use however we
wanted to, even if 1 credit was for an e-book
and two credits per audiobook, as long as
we could use them the way we wanted to
on the service then that would have been
fine for me, but they were only allowing
us to use one credit for an audio book or we
could only borrow one audiobook a month and
we got three our ebook rentals and that
just wasn't working for me. It didn't
make any sense for me to keep paying for
that subscription especially when I
could just borrow the audiobooks from my
library. I had gotten the subscription
because I liked the fact that they paid
royalties to the authors, you know, with each
borrow, but I was wasting credits every
month and it just didn't make sense for
me to keep it so I did let it go. But if
they do change their program to
something where I could use my credits
how I wanted to on their program i would
definitely re-join the subscription
because i did enjoy it. They did have a
good selection of books and audiobooks
and other than the changes that they made,
I had no problems with that program.
The Kindle Unlimited subscription, I'm
trying to use more.
It's one of those things where I just
kind of forget to use it and then at the
end of the month and it's like ugh, I
didn't you read anything from Kindle
Unlimited! So I'm trying to be a little
bit more conscious about reading from
that service. I think my two year
subscription ends in July as of right now
I am considering keeping that
subscription. There are books on there
that I am still interested in reading
and the series that I mentioned back in
my 2016 goals video as the one that made
me want to get the subscription, I
haven't actually started yet so I really
need to get into that before my
subscription ends...hopefully. As for 2017,
I'm going to still do a challenge like
this in regards to my physical TBR. I
really need to start reading from my own
personal library more. I had mentioned in
my 2016 goals video that I thought I
would be going to the library less and
that didn't happen, but I did keep
accumulating books. So I've been looking
around for a different challenge for the
TBR issue that I have and I came across
the Beat the Backlist challenge just the
other day, so I think I'm going to do
that one. It does offer some mini
challenges that'll help keep me
motivated to pick up books my TBR and
since it's a backlist type of TBR it's
perfect for me because I don't really
read new releases. So all the books
that I have are old releases and even if
I picked it up new, which I'm not one to
pick up brand-new books usually, it's
probably old by now so I am going to
join that challenge. I just need to
create my blog post and my tentative TBR
for that and you'll be able to see the
books that I am hoping to read off my
personal library.
So Beat the Backlist challenge is
going to be the TBR challenge that I
will be participating in 2017. They're
also doing some fun Hogwarts geared mini
challenges and so I am going to be
joining Ravenclaw House and trying to
accumulate some points for that.
So it does look like it's going to be
really interesting and keep me motivated
to read my own personal library. I'm
really looking forward to getting into
that one.
The other challenge that I participated
in was Finishing the Series. For
this one I challenged myself to finish
or become current on between three to
six series in 2016 and I did accomplish
that as well. I will let you know which
series those are but I will probably
only put the first book in each series
up here so that you get some kind of
visual for that.
So the first series that I completed was
The Ghost Hunter Mystery series by
Victoria Laurie. You know that I gush about
this series all the time. It has been one
of my favorites over the last few years
and it did and in early 2016. It will
definitely be one that I will revisit
sometime in my lifetime and I will
probably also collect it to own for my
personal library. Really sad that this
one ended but I hear she's working on
one that fans of that series will enjoy so
I'm looking forward to that one when
it does come out. The next series that I
finished was the Rot & Ruin or Benny Imura
series by Jonathan Maberry. That one, I buddy
read with my good friend Raul over at
Latin Lector. This series was also
amazing.
I didn't think I was gonna like it
because it was about zombies, but it
turned out to be a series that was about
more than just the zombies and fighting
zombies and trying to stay alive so i
really appreciated that series. It was
very engaging
and exciting and I'm glad that I had
somebody to read it with because I
needed that outlet to gush about things
or talk about certain points. And again,
just another really great series. I plan
on getting into the author's Joe Ledger
series in 2017 so I'm really looking
forward to that especially because Joe
Ledger was introduced in a couple of
these books in the Rot & Ruin series so
that's really exciting. Another series
that I finished was Black Bird. This is by
Kanoko Sakurakoji. This was a manga
series that I had started in 2015 and I
finished it this year i really enjoyed
it, though I can definitely see how
somebody might have problems with it or
find some of the content problematic.
Then i finished The Maze Runner trilogy
by James Dashner. This one didn't end
well for me. I kinda felt like this
series didn't need to be a series by
time i finished The Death Cure, but I am glad
that I finally finished this series. I do
consider this a completed series even
though I have not read the two novellas
and I am going to, in the future, consider
series complete if i have read all the
books and not the novellas. But yeah,
this one I read the three novels and
I ended with The Death Cure this year
and I did like the series, but yeah...So
I'm going to say on that one. Then I got
caught up on the Witchcraft series by
Juliet Blackwell. This I read volume 8
which was the newest release earlier
this year,
and I am really enjoying this series.
Also, there were things that happened in
this last installment that were very
interesting and progress the story of
some of our characters, and I'm really
looking forward to the next one. The
other series are got current on was The
Others series by Anne Bishop. I did read
Marked in Flesh in 2016 and again
the next one is coming out in the
spring...I think it's in the spring...
I hope it's in the spring. Super excited
for it! The slow burn romance between Meg and
Simon! We keep getting closer and closer
to something happening yet nothing has
actually happened yet, but I do hope that
by time she finishes their storyline
that it goes the way that I hope it goes.
But I do hear she's going to continue
The Others series with a story from
another set of characters after she
finishes Meg's and Simon's story. So yeah,
still looking forward to reading that
next volume. Really love this series. I
love this series! I do recommend it to
several people. If you haven't read it
definitely check it out!
So those were the 6 series I either
completed or got current on, and then I
also completed other series that I
actually started in 2016.
I didn't start off counting those
series towards this goal, but after I
finished the sixth or got complete, got
caught up on the sixth series to
complete my challenge, I did keep track
of other series that I finished. So I
finished the Bloody Kiss duology by Kazuko
Furumiya. This was a manga duology. Very cute,
about vampires. Enjoyed it. Then I read
The Chronicles of Narnia series, all
seven books, with Lee over at totallee.net
I will link her down in the description box
below. We buddy read the entire series over
2016. Other than The Lion, The Witch, and
The Wardrobe which is the one that I was
most familiar with,
I think The Horse and His Boy was
definitely my favorite - my
favorite book in The Chronicles of
Narnia series and I'm glad that I
finally read it for the first time in my
life.
Another series I started and completed
in 2016 was The Dreaming. This is a manga
trilogy by Queenie Chan. This one
follows a pair of twins and they go off
to this remote boarding school that's
like really in the middle of nowhere and
there's a mystery at the school. I really
enjoyed this one. Then I finished Phantom Thief
Jeanne by Arina Tanemura. This is a manga
series with seven volumes. It's kind of a
re-telling of the Joan of Arc story...kind
of. Artwork again is beautiful. I love
Arina Tanemura's artwork and the story
was interesting. Not one of my favorites
but still enjoyable. Then I completed
Blood+. This one had I think five volumes.
It's also a manga series by Asuka
Katsura. I was already familiar with
this story because I had watched the 50
episode anime and this manga did follow
the happenings in the anime or the other
way around, vice versa...I don't know! They
were close to each other. The manga was
obviously much more condensed. There were
a few things that happened the same but
different which I thought was
interesting. It kept me engaged in reading
the manga. Again, I really enjoyed this
series and I might look into the
follow-up series to read in 2017. But
Blood+ the anime is one of my
favorites. I do own the first half of the
series on DVD
and reading the manga was definitely
another way to consume a story that
I already enjoyed. So again, really good
one and I'm glad I got to it. So in 2017
I'm gonna do another type of challenge
like this. I do have several series where
I'm just one book short of completing
them and I really need to get those
taking care of, so I will be joining
another challenge like this but I'm not
sure which one I want to join yet or if
i'm going to join one at all, but I'm
definitely going to be finishing some
series in 2017. I have four pages of
unfinished series. I wrote them all down.
I put progress bars on all of them so I
have good visual markers as to how many
books I have left in each series. I'm
going to try to knock some of those out
in 2017. I'm probably going to strive to
finish at least one or two more than I
did and 2016, so keep your eye out and
I will let you know what I decide to do
with that either in a video, on twitter,
or in a blog post, but I will definitely
be doing some kind of series finishing
challenge in 2017. I had mentioned that I
wanted to do more buddy reads in 2016
and I did do lots of buddy reads,
especially with my good friend Raul at
Latin Lector. We just - we buddy read a lot
of stuff together and it's just super
enjoyable. We always gush about the same
types of things or he points out
something that I didn't see or I'm able to
point something out to him that he
didn't notice. We just have really great
banter and I'm glad that he has become a
good friend of mine. So thanks Raul,
for being my buddy reading buddy! I
did some (buddy reads) with Lee. I told you I read The
Chronicles of Narnia with her
in 2016. We will be conquering The Lord
of the Rings trilogy in 2017. Both of us
had not read the books before. She read
The Hobbit, I think in 2016.
I have not read The Hobbit, so I may try
that one before we get started with our
buddy read of The Lord of the Rings. So I
will be definitely doing some buddy reads
with her in 2017 and I also buddy read a
couple with my friend Janie over at the
Bookworms Buddy, and I did one buddy read
with Janis at jjjjanis at the
beginning of 2016. So I did do quite a
bit of buddy reads. Hoping to do more. If
you are looking to buddy read
something that's on my list, let me know!
I will link my Goodreads TBR. If anything
looks interesting to you and you'd like
to buddy read with me, just drop me a line,
write a comment, message me, direct
message me on Twitter, anywhere on my
social media. Just get in contact with me and
we'll set that up. Another thing I
mentioned in 2015 as a goal that I
wanted to accomplish in 2016 was to do
more crochet or knit projects. I did do a
couple and I'll show you some pictures
here of things that I have made. There
are a couple things that I finally
worked out as far as things that I had
floating around in my head that I
mentioned. I'm not ready to show those to you
yet, but I did work on them and so I'm
happy to have accomplished that. As far
as my Korean Drama watching goes, I did
watch some but I still did not delegate
the time to watching as many as I
thought I would watch in 2016.
I did watch a few though, so I am happy
with that. My favorite one has to be
Descendants of the Sun. I love that drama! I
watched it twice...TWICE in 2016. I don't
think it was even a month apart from my
rewatching, it was that good. If you're
interested, I think it is still on
netflix and I will link it down below. So
some other things that I want to
accomplish or to happen in 2017 is
that I want to read a few more classics.
I did read Anne of Green Gables and The
Secret Garden in 2016 and so I do want
to read a few more. I'm really lacking in
my classics reading experience. I just
tend not to pick them up.
Not that they're not available to me or
that I'm not interested in them. I always
find some excuse not to read them. I will
be endeavoring to read a few more classics.
i'm not going to set a number but
something that I'm hoping will help me
is that I want to collect the Word Cloud
Classics editions and so, I'm not sure
how that's going to work because I kind
of want to - and this leads into another
thing that I want to do - lessen my book
buying. I'm not going on a book buying ban
because if there's something that I
really want I'm going to get it, and
there's no point in putting a ban on
myself and then just saying that I
failed or I cheated or whatever,
I'm not about that, but I do want to
lessen my book buying. 2016 has been a
book buying year. I have bought more
books in 2016 then I have any other year
that I've been on Goodreads, which has
been four or five years. I do create
shelves, separate shelves, every year on
Goodreads and books that are acquired
during the year, I add to that shelf so I
know relatively what I got
when I got and how many I got in each
year and 2016 had a lot. So I do want to
lessen book buying. I don't usually buy a
lot of new books. I will mostly go for
second-hand books from either library
book sales or used bookstores, but in 2016
I got a Barnes and Noble membership and
that has increased my book buying of
brand-new books quite a bit - as well as
being introduced to Right Stuf, where I
have been collecting manga. So I will
still be allowing myself to buy manga
from Right Stuf for series that I have
started collecting and series that are
pre-ordered and all of that stuff, but
for series that I don't currently have
I'm going to try not to add those to my
collection. I will try to borrow them
from the library first and if I really,
really, really, really have to have it,
then I will allow myself to buy it. But
right now I will only purchasefrom
Right Stuf, manga that I
already started collecting. As for
other books from Barnes & Noble, they do
send me coupons every once in a while because
I'm a member and so I will definitely be
using those to help me by the Word Cloud
Classics editions that I want to obtain
and I will still also allow myself to
buy something off Manga Monday, which is
the fifty percent off manga selections every
Monday, because that's a really good deal.
So I will definitely be lessening my
book buying. If I really need to have
something
new or I'm itching to buy something then
I'll try to trade a book and at the
Little Free Library that is close to me.
In 2016 I did start my book club which
is the First in a Series Cozy Mystery
Book Club and that has been going really
well. We're really laid back about our
reading and even I have had a hard time
like I said, picking up a book just
because I just don't feel like reading
this month, but you know everybody's just
real understanding and cool about when
we discuss things and we're on kind of
our own time. If you want to talk about a
book that we read previously, just pop in
and start a discussion. If you have
read one of the selections already,
people pop in to talk about it. We just
talk about it as we go so I'm enjoying
that. I'm enjoying getting to know some
of the series that have been in my
collection or have been on my radar for
quite a while and having people to talk
to about it and just bring more
awareness to the Cozy Mystery genre in
general. There was a Save Our Cozies
Readathon, I think in april of 2016, that
brought awareness because a lot of the
Cozy Mystery series we're getting
cancelled by publishers and I just
really enjoy Cozy Mysteries. If you want
to join us,
we do have discussion threads up in the
Mystery Madness Goodreads Group and I do
post the books that we have read in the
library shelf in the group. So feel free
to come and chat with us or join us in
any one of our reads! I will be
continuing to pull at least two books
every month from the jar which is over
here, or feel free to suggest one if
there is a series that you're interested
in starting. We do only read first books
in the series but yeah, that has been
really enjoyable for me and I'm looking
forward to continuing that in 2017.
The last thing that I have planned for
my reading in 2017 is that I'm going to
have some themed reading months.
This is just something that I'm going to
do to kinda help me read things that
I've been meaning to read but just
either don't find the opportunity to or
skip over it. So this is going to be like
focused themes for me. So my first themed
reading month is going to be in February
and that is going to be Flashback
February Books. Basically for this month
of February coming up, I want to read
books that I had enjoyed in my school
years. So you may know that I do have a
collection of RL Stine and Christopher
Pike books that I had read growing up. I
still have them and I've been meaning to
get to them and i just have not, so I do
want to knock some of those off in
February. There are also books from
other authors that I want to read that I
did love in my intermediate and high
school years.
those are from Joan Lowery Nixon and
Diane Hoh, and I want to reread The
Phantom Tollbooth. So there's a lot of
books that I could fit in there but
basically I'm going to be reading books
that I loved in my intermediate and high
school years, so that's Flashback
February Books. If you'd like to join me,
feel free! I'll be using the hashtag
#flashbackfebbooks - I don't think
anybody is using
that right now. So that's my plan
for February, and in March The Mystery
Madness Group I believe will still be
doing March Mystery Madness (they are!) which is a
month-long mystery reading month. So
mysteries of all kinds. Last year we had
different categories for different types
of mysteries, so there was one for Cozy
Mysteries, there was one for like Agatha
Christie Mysteries, there was one for
Paranormal Mysteries. So I'll definitely
be participating in March Mystery
Madness and like I said, there is a Cozy
Mystery category or there was last year,
so since we will be doing March Mystery Madness,
I am only going to be pulling one book
out of the jar that month unless I get a
recommendation from somebody, but there
will only be one #Book1CoziesClub
book for March so that we can all
participate in March Mystery Madness.
Then in May, I was going to do
Manga May and just focus on manga
throughout the month, but it's also
Asian-Pacific Heritage Month, so I have
been acquiring slowly a collection of
Asian type books. So I have some
nonfiction books and I have some fiction -
I have lots of fiction books. I also have
some Pacific Islander books that I want
to read during that month, so that's what
I'll be focusing on during May. So as
of right now, those are the themed months
that I have planned for the first half
of 2017. If you want to join me, feel free!
I don't have hashtags for anything set
up yet except for February.
There might be one for March Mystery
Madness. I think it might just be hashtag
#MarchMysteryMadness and then I'm not
sure what I want to use for May But yeah,
those are gonna be my themed reading
months for the first half of 2017. Not
sure if I'm going to continue that in
the second half.
We'll have to see how that goes for me. I
am quite a bit of a mood reader so I'm
not sure how well i'm going to be able
to stick to the theme in those months,
but I definitely want to try it because
there are things that I really want to
get to and I think having the themed
months is going to help me a lot. So I
think that's it as far as things I want to
accomplish in 2017. Overall in 2016 I
think I did pretty well with the goals
that I set for myself. I obviously
still need work on balancing my hobbies
but I'm happy with what I was able to
accomplish in 2016 and I'm excited to be
participating in other challenges and
things in 2017. I've had this channel for
a little over a year now and I really
appreciate all the comments and
subscribers and I'm looking forward to
chatting with more of you in 2017.
Thank you so much for watching, thank you
for subscribing.
I hope you all have an amazing 2017 and
until next time, Take Care and Smi-Le
Always. Bye!
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