Review of Challenges: January

End of January, time for a review of my challenge progress!

1. 50 Book Pledge

I'm committed to 150 books this year. My profile is here.

I've read 19 so far, which is above and beyond my monthly goal of 13.

2. 2016 New Release Challenge   

This one is about reviewing books released in 2016. I'm going to be aiming for New Release Enthusiast (45+).

Almost all of the books reviewed on the blog this month were New Releases.

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
Because of You by RaShelle Workman
The Art of Taming a Rake by Nicole Jordan
Fixer-Upper by Ines Saint
Extreme Honor by Piper J. Drake
The Knave of Hearts by Elizabeth Boyle
Torn by Alexa Kim

** I have four additional titles with fully written reviews pre-posted for next month





3. Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2016

My goal for this one is Mt Ararat, which is 48 books from my TBR pile (i.e. books purchased/received prior to 2016). 

North Pole Reform School by Jaimie Admans
Sweet Girl by Cristin Harber
Kill Without Mercy by Alexandra Ivy
Vendetta by Gail Z Martin
Nuts by Alice Clayton
Escaping Reality by Lisa Renee Jones
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

4. COYER

So COYER runs from December 19th to March 4th. It's all about reading the freebies or nearly free books. 

I've read 18 books that qualify for COYER - mostly ebooks received for review, but a few that I've purchased on sale or gotten as freebies. I do need to get some clean-up done and post them to the link-up. To keep COYER in my mind for February, I've joined the Facebook group!

5. 2016 Reading Assignment Challenge 

 I'm going for reading level 2 - 2 books per month. This challenge asks you to make a list of all the books you are committing to read, and then check them off on a monthly basis.

I read my two books for January, and I've selected by two books for February.

1. Miss Mayhem by Rachel Hawkins - February
2. Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - January
4. I am Princess X by Cherie Priest
5. Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger
6. Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs
7. The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd
8. The Collector by Victoria Scott
9. Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
10. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch - February (This will be a challenge!)
11. Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
12. Reap the Wind by Karen Chance
13. Halfway to the Grave by Jeaniene Frost
14. Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin
15. Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch
16. The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
17. Reckless by Cornelia Funke
18. Shooting Scars by Karina Halle
19. Outcast by Cheryl Brooks
20. North Pole Reform School by Jaimie Admans - January
21. The Duchess War by Courtney Milan
22. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter
23. Three by Jay Posey
24. Indexing by Seanan McGuire

6. 2016 Bookish Resolutions Challenge

This challenge is the biggie. This challenge is basically a to do list to accomplish over the year. The requirements are basically, choose at least two of Reading/Personal/Blogging and insert two-three sub-goals for each. But I'm going to go above and beyond! 

Reading Goals:

- get my Netgalley percentage up to 90% and keep it there (I'm at 84% currently)

Acquiring books for reviews through mid-March has screwed with my percentage. I'm down to 83%--the opposite direction I wanted to head in! I need to get in 35 reviews to hit 90%, which is a lot. But! I have a plan. There's 5 books that I've read but not posted reviews for; these were books I read quickly when I was sick, but didn't take time to review. I'll need to skim again to refresh my memory, but I think I can knock these out this month. Then there's another 8 that I already plan to review this month, so we're up to 13 total. That leaves 22. I have 5 that are for early March that I hope to review and have scheduled before the end of February, so that's down to 17. I won't be at 90%, but I'll be closer--granted, I'll probably pick up a handful of books to review for the end of March, but if I keep that number reasonable, I should still be farther ahead in this by the end of the month!

- read 1 book from Goodreads' Choice awards per month (doesn't have to be a winner)

I read The Book Thief, a book that came up in discussion during the Goodreads Choice awards the year it came out. I'm calling this done for February.

- create a prioritized TBR list 
I had a list for January, and I've got a list for February that needs a tiny bit of tweaking.

Personal Goals:

- lose 35 lbs   
 I'm down almost 8 right now

- deep clean/declutter/organize all rooms of my house 
  I'm done the major decluttering/organizing tasks in the kitchen

- write 500 words, 5 days a week, 48 weeks of the year. - This is going to be very hard to do this year - I wrote great the first week and not so great the last three.

- keep an up-to-date wall calendar so my husband has a reference point for family activities.  Calendar is up, I've kept it updated

- duolingo 5 days a week, 48 weeks of the year (rotate languages if need be). 
 I was good on this for the first three weeks, not so much for the last one.

Blogging Goals:

- post 2 blog posts per week, minimum  
  Absolutely on top of this so far.

- by the end of February, have created a buffer of 3 weeks on reviews   
  I have a buffer of a week right now, need to pump this up!

- maintain my goodreads/amazon/50 reads accounts with reviews and read books as I read through 2016  
  I've stayed on top of everything that's gone live on the blog so far.

I haven't tackled any of the following:

- catch up on all outstanding goodreads/amazon reviews from 2015 

- set dates for two themed weeks this year 

- tidy up tags. 

- make indices by rating, author, genre, year reviewed for past reviews, and create a spreadsheet to track, including publisher information