Happy New Year! Welcome to 2016 and Two New Challenges.

 

It's 2016!  Hopefully a better year for everyone, whether you had a good or bad 2015.  I'm planning to get more organized with my blog this year, and I was already doing  pretty well this past year.  But along with the organization, I'm going to do a couple more Challenges, and part of that organization will include keeping track of how I'm doing with those Challenges at the end of each month.  I already posted about doing the TBR Pile Reading Challenge, as well as my own It's New to Me Series Starter Challenge.  Today I'm going to share two other challenges I've decided to join in on, the 2016 Netgalley Reading Challenge, and the 2016 Bookish Resolutions Challenge.  

2016 Netgalley Reading Challenge:

The purpose of this is to get your feedback rating on Netgalley up to 80%.  I was there at one time.  But I've since dropped to 70%.  I'm going to start out easy on my goal with this one for this first year I'm trying, and try to give feedback on 10 books, new or old requests, on Netgalley.

 

2016 Bookish Resolutions Challenge:

I usually try to do some resolutions for my blog, and when I came across this challenge, it sounded like the right way to go this year.   

Blogging goals:

•  Subscribe to comments - I always make sure to reply to comments on my blog, and I do go comment on other blogs, but I rarely go back and see if I got a reply from the owner of the blog.  So this year, I'm going to subscribe to replies to my comments and be sure to go back and join into any conversations that may start when I post a comment.  
• Only download 2 e-galleys per week - In order to keep myself from ending up like I did at the end of this year, with having to give up and not read everything before it expired, I will only allow myself to actually download 2 e-galleys a week.  In fact, I may only write if they are ones I can download, and only download them when I get to the point where I'm ready to read them. That will help on Netgalley, with not dropping my feedback average anymore.  
• One goal I had last year was to post every day of the week.  I'm not going to keep that up, it just got to be too much.  Not that it won't ever happen, it's just not something I have to do.  In order to help with this, I will not sign up for more than one tour a week, unless, of course, one that I cannot skip comes around.
• This year I will have an end of the month post EVERY month, where I check in with all of the challenges I'm doing and keep track of them.
• I will keep one of my same goals from last year, at least two reviews every week.  I feel that is an important thing, as my blog is supposed to be about book reviews mostly, and that is why I started it.

Reading goals:

• I have several books that were recommended to me, and are actually YA books.  So my goal this year is to read more of my recommended books.  I won't set this one too high, as a lot of my recommendations aren't ones I would normally read.  I think I'll set it at 3 or 4.
• I used to have a goal with classics.  I still have a few on my shelves that I had planned to read before I got stuck on the last classic I tried.  So I will set a goal to get to those this year.  Maybe 3-4.
• Of course my Goodreads goal is 140 books.

Personal goals:

• First, I have GOT to start walking again.  I'm paying for membership at Planet Fitness, which is only $10 a month, but still.  Plus I need to lose weight, and that is the only way to really get it going.
• Save money to fix/replace my air conditioner.  That should have been done last year, but I was able to get through this summer with my A/C working okay.  
• Keep house organized/clean.  Now, part of this has to do with dealing with my dogs.  So that is something I'll have to figure out completely. But my dogs are staying with a friend today and tomorrow, so that I'll have all tomorrow to get at least a start on that.  

So those are my goals.  I plan to check back in at the end of every month to see just how I did this time!

2014 Wrap-Up and Goals for 2015

I participated in two challenges this past year.  One was the A to Z April Challenge, which I completed!  I intend to participate again this year.  The other was the Prequel and Sequel Challenge which I completed, although I slacked off on keeping track after September.  I had made it to the top level by then, so it didn't seem as big of a deal.  I  participated in giveaway hops, approximately one a month or more.  I made it to over 2100 followers this year.  I sponsored my September is for Sequels Challenge for the 3rd year, and even though I didn't do as well myself, I had more participants than the year before, and hope I can keep it up and do better myself this year.  I attended BEA for the 2nd time this year, and met a lot more great authors!  I even got my name in the "Thank You" part of The Dark World by Cara Lynn Shultz, and won a contest to have my last name used in Diamonds in the Rough (The Secret Diamond Sisters #2) by Michelle Madow, who I remembered to get a picture with at BEA last summer.  I won a ton of giveaways this year it seems, and have really added to my TBR shelves.  I also continued my 2nd year as a school librarian, and am so thankful to have this job, as I know it is what I want to do for the rest of my career, as long as I can actually.  Overall 2014 was a mostly good year, but as usual I'm hoping 2015 will be even better!

Goals from last year that I met include my reading goal of 125 on Goodreads.  I started titling my posts like I wanted, and I made sure to comment a lot more on other blogs.  I also am pretty sure I met my goal of at least 2 reviews a week.  I'll have to keep better track of those types of things this year, which I will do with the calendar I'm now using.  I did not get my blog re-designed last year.  But, I have taken steps to get it done this year already.  I had to give up on getting my sister to ever take the time to do it, and instead I've asked an artist friend of mine to help, of course I will be paying him.  He is going to design a new banner and button for me.  That will probably be all that I change for now.  My personal goals from last year didn't really get met, other than I did go ahead and have the surgery I needed, so that will help me to get back on track this year with those health goals I had. 

To see my goals for this year, you can check out my Top 10 Post from this week.  I will also be participating in the TBR Reading Pile Challenge again this year, to make up for the ARCs from BEA last summer that I didn't get read.  And the Winter COYER Challenge, something I'm not starting off with so great at the moment as I decide on my first read for 2015.  I also want to make a list of my fellow bloggers that comment on my blog the  most often and make sure I am keeping up with them just as regularly!

That's my post, my 2014 kind of went out with a bang when my car got hit while sitting in my friend's driveway last night.  My current car seems to be a magnet for people to hit it.

Happy New Year to all my followers!  Let's hope 2015 is a great one!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Goals/Resolutions For 2015

Top Ten Tuesday is sponsored by The Broke and The Bookish.  The goals can be bookish, blogging, or anything else.  So here goes!

1.   I want to continue to do at least 2 book reviews on my blog every week.  Along with that, I want to try to have a post every day of the year.  To do that, I am going to try to do as many scheduled posts as I can.  Possibly to try to have at least 10 ready to go at all time, and when one is used, then I will make another one.  
2.   My Goodreads goal was 125 this year, as of the time that I am posting this, I've read 136 books, and the year is not over.  For 2015, I want to bump it up to 130.  I know that is below how many I ended up reading this year, but I hate to set a too high goal.  What do you think?
3. I'm participating in the Winter 2014-2015 COYER Challenge to help clean out all those e-books that I download when they're free.  I will probably try to participate in this if it is offered for other times during the year.
4. I haven't signed up yet, but I think I will sign up for another TBR Pile Challenge, I have a lot of books I really need to get to.
5. I'm up in the air about my September Sequels Challenge.  I think I need to do it, but it really messed up my schedule of reading this past year.  Partly because it interrupted my getting through the ARCs I'd picked up at BEA.  So, that is in the air, but I will probably do it again, as I am not going to BEA this year, so won't have that same issue.
6. I am working with an artist friend of mine to re-do the banner and button for my blog.  I want to add the dogs I have now, and make a few other changes.  Only issue will be with how to add it, and if I'll have to have the person who did my current design add them or if I can figure it out.  What I like is that for the price my friend quoted me, I will have the image of the banner that I can then use for a Facebook page, or for business cards, etc.  My current banner I do not have the image for, so when I tried to use it for my Facebook page, I was unable to use it.  That's the reason I don't really have a Facebook page for my blog.
7. I want to work more on my Instagram presence.
8. I need to start my walking 20 miles a week again, and working on what I'm eating.  I'd really like to lose some weight.  Even if I don't lose any weight, I have a goal that by summer I will be able to be okay enough with myself that I can wear a swimsuit in public.  I am tired of not doing any swimming because I hate the site of myself in a swimsuit.  So that is working on my brain more than just my body itself.
9. I want to start saving money so that I can attend the Annual ALA Convention in the summer of 2016 because it is in Orlando.  I want to go down a week early, or stay a week after the convention so that I can go to the Harry Potter park and all the other Disneyworld and Universal Studio attractions.  
10. Revise the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo this past year enough to where I feel okay letting someone else read it to tell me if it is even worth working on anymore.

So those are my goals.  I would love to put something about getting more ARCs requested from publishers, but I don't know how to go about that, and feel weird asking for them.  I feel greedy to email and ask. What are your goals for the year?  Bookish or otherwise?

Feature and Follow Friday - January 10th, 2014

Wow!  I just realized I haven't participated in this meme since last August!  So time to start it off for the year.  Feature and Follow Friday is sponsored by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.  The purpose of this event is to learn about the two featured bloggers each week, as well as to increase your own blog following by joining in on the fun! This week's question/activity is:

Resolutions: Put together your blogger resolution list for all of us to see!

Well, I actually kind of did this already HERE.  But I'll go ahead and list them again below:

1.  Have a giveaway every time I reach another milestone in followers, like for my 1800 followers I had an $18 gift card giveaway.

2.  Change my post titles.  For example, if it is a review, put that first in the title, as well as mentioning if it is to complete a challenge.

3.  Possible redesign of background/images.

4.  Continue my September is for Sequels Challenge and November is for Novellas Challenge.

So really the 2nd one is my main thing to work on.  That and I really want to have at least two reviews a week if not more.

What about you?  What are your resolutions for the year?

2013 Wrap-Up and Goals for 2014

I only participated in one Challenge this year, the TBR Pile Challenge, and you can see how I did HERE.  I participated in quite a few Giveaway Hops.  I sponsored my September is for Sequels Challenge for the 2nd year, and started a November is for Novellas Challenge.  I passed 1800 followers on GFC.  I got to meet a ton of cool authors, as well as some cool ones I'd met before.  I finally got a school library job this year as well.  My Goodreads goal was 120, and I surpassed it quite a bit!  I won quite a few giveaways this year, only adding to my already huge TBR pile.  All in all, 2013 was a pretty good year.  I'm hoping 2014 will be even better!

For one thing, I plan to attend BEA again this summer!  Yay!!!  Along with that, I'm really going to do some work on trying to get invited to at least one publisher party, like Harlequin Teen or similar.  Just don't know how to go about doing that.  I'll look into it, and start asking around.  Hope there will be a lot of my fellow bloggers there to meet again this year!  I was really wanting to go to ALA this summer now that I'm officially a librarian, but as of now, the plane tickets are way too expensive, so that will probably not happen.  But I did see that the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) will be having their big convention in October in St. Louis, so I will plan to try to go to that.  I will also be setting my Goodreads goal to 125 this year.  

Other blog/reading goals, hmm.  Well, I didn't get around to re-designing my blog this past year, but I'm still hoping to do that this year.  Maybe I can finally get my youngest sister to help me finally.  I plan to have a giveaway every time I reach another milestone of followers.  In fact I need to go pick my 1800 follower winner tonight.  When I reach 1900, I'd like to do a giveaway.  However, I know a lot of people are more into Bloglovin' than GFC these days, so maybe I need to do a giveaway for that as well.  One other thing I want to do is a bit of a change in how I title my blog posts.  I want to start them out with "Review" if it is a review.  That way I can see better how many reviews I'm getting done.  So that's one idea.  And when I'm reading something for my 2014 Prequel and Sequel Challenge, I need to make sure I put something about that in the title so I can keep track as I go along.  

Personal goals, I didn't really reach any of them last year I don't think, not with the walking/exercising/losing weight that is.  But I will try to work on it again!  One thing though, I have an issue that I will need to have surgery for, and it is something that I think has contributed to my weight issue.  So I'm hoping to take care of that in March during my spring break.  Afterwards, I'm hoping I'll be able to get back to my walking, etc.  Well, after I recover, which I'm told could be 3-4 weeks.  And I'm going to set this reward, once I lose 15 pounds, I plan to get my next tattoo, a dachshund of some sort!!  Still coming up with ideas for what I want to do.  And the final goal is to work on training my dogs better.  The older one will be 3, and she's gotten pretty good.  The puppy, now a little over a year, well, he is hiking his little leg on everything, and so I'm going to have to learn to be more strict with him.  If I can't keep my eye on him because I'm on the computer or something, he'll have to be in a cage.  When he's out, on a leash so he can't sneak away from me.  And I think the hardest will be putting him in a cage at night so he won't get down and pee on something while I'm sleeping.  Someone told me to try the leash at night, but I'm afraid somehow he'd strangle himself if I didn't wake up, so I don't know about that. 

So you've probably heard enough about my plans for the year.  Hoping to stay on top of all of them this year.  Also hoping I've remembered everything I want to do this year!  Thanks to all of my followers for being here, and I hope to hear more from you this year!

Feature and Follow Friday #16

Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly event sponsored by Parajunkee and Allison Can Read. The purpose is to expand your blog following by a joint effort between bloggers. This week's question is:
The New Year is here - and everyone wants to know your New Years Blogging resolution! What are you going to try to revise, revamp, and re-do on your blog for 2012?
Well, that's a hard one. While I'm considering moving my blog or maybe re-doing the background (adding another dog to the header now that I have a puppy too), the main thing I want to do more of this year is scheduling blogs. I only learned about doing that this past fall. I know, I know, I'm behind. But I plan to use this to make sure that I am blogging once a week for sure. I can get my Waiting on Wednesdays set up ahead so that I know I will always have one once a week. Also, according to NetGalley, some of the publishers want you to wait until about a month before a book's actual release before you post a review. So I can use the scheduling for that, and actually already have one scheduled for a book that doesn't come out until August! So I've already started.
So, what are your resolutions for your blog?

Welcome 2011!

I see everyone else seems to be doing a New Year's resolution/goals blog, so I'll do one as well. I usually only do either book reviews or waiting on Wednesday blogs, but this will be out of the ordinary. First, I want to set some goals for the blog itself. I hope to make it more known by not only posting my updates on Facebook for my friends, but also posting them to Twitter. I also signed up to a challenge for next year: The 2011 Debut Author Challenge.

Next, I couldn't decide if I should list how many books I read only by what I actually blogged about, which is: 104. According to my notebook where I write every book that I read, even re-reads, the number is only 2 or 3 more, and actually 2 of those are ones I started, am still picking up and reading at times, but haven't finished. Weird. I must have counted wrong somewhere. So I think I will set my goal for how many books to read this year to 110. That's only 5 or 6 more than this year, so a reasonable goal. However, since I have a feeling I won't be signing up to read for any of the book awards through the state this year, it might be hard to get that many books in. Or not. We'll see.

I plan to blog in just one entry about series if I am able to read them right in a row, like I did with the Mortal Instruments series, or I am getting ready to do with the Carrie Ryan zombie series right now.

I also intend to take a creative writing class this summer, and get back to work on my chick lit novel I started a few years ago during NaNoWriMo. I'd love to get it finished this year. Since there's a good chance there won't be any need for summer school librarians this year with the state budget, I may have to set up a schedule for myself for writing.

One last reading goal, this year, if a book is just too hard for me to get into, and I don't have to read it for any reason, I will not make myself finish it. I will put it away in a pile and get rid of it. I will not waste any more time on books that I do not enjoy.

Other personal, non-reading goals include getting that final 5 pounds off so I can reach goal and hopefully become a WW lifetime member by the end of 2011. I need to make sure I get out and walk at the gym during the cold months at least twice a week, and then once the weather gets nice, I need to get back to 20 miles a week as soon as I can. With my new online teaching job, I hope to soon be able to start getting some credit cards paid off and get my life in a more financially stable place.

So, those are my main goals/resolutions. I'd add that I want to get a library job this year, but I think that's a pie in the sky dream for me at this point. Not to say I won't still apply and interview whenever possible, but I won't make something a goal that is so far out of my control anymore. I've always liked double numbers, like 11, probably because my birthday is October 22. So I'm hoping my love of double numbers will mean that 2011 is going to be a good year for me.