Go away, I'm reading: January 2016

Thursday, January 28

Series I want to finish in 2016

I've noticed, over the years, that I have a really hard time in finishing series. I don't know why, but it definitely is not because I don't enjoy it - I think it might have a bit more with my difficulty of letting go. Because when you finish a series, it's done. There are no more books, there are no more new situations and new moments with your favourite characters.

It got to the point that I have way too many series to finish, and I keep starting new ones. To try and take care of this before it gets even more out of hand, I decided I'd make a list of the ones I'm going to try and tackle this year, to see if I can keep myself motivated. I realise that I probably won't manage to read all of these, but if I can get through a few I'll be happy.

The iron fey, Julie Kagawa

Vampire academy, Richelle Mead

The lunar chronicles, Marissa Meyer

Shatter me, Tahereh Mafi

Daughter of smoke & bone, Laini Taylor

The infernal devices, Cassandra Clare

Anna and the French kiss, Stephanie Perkins

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Rick Riordan

The bronze horseman, Paullina Simons

Throne of glass, Sarah J. Maas

To all the boys I've loved before, Jenny Han

Do you have unfinished series you want to tackle this year? Let me know! :)

Monday, January 25

Bookish goals and challenges for 2016

Last year I was kind of lenient with challenges. I set myself a GoodReads goal of 80 books, which I completed, but other than that I didn't really do many reading challenges.

There were lots of times during the year when I felt slumpy and I went weeks without picking up a book. Even though I still managed to read a lot of books, I kind of wish I'd set myself a challenge or two to keep me motivated to read.

At the same time, I feel like most of my reading slumps were caused by my monthly TBRs. Every month I evaluated my TBR pile and chose which books I wanted to read the next month. The thing is, I'm not really sure this helped.

Bookish goals and challenges of

I'm sure I've mentioned before that I'm a very spontaneous person when it comes to reading, and the books I want to read are constantly changing due to the mood I encounter myself in when I go to pick my next book. My first goal is simple. No more monthly TBRs. This year I'll try to just read what I want to read when I finish a book. I'll still have my huge TBR pile up (which by the way, needs to be updated and restructured - I'm currently at over 200 books, and that's just madness), but I'll just stop doing monthly TBRs.

That being said, I do have a list of books and series I definitely want to read in 2016. Those will be posted soon.

As for the bookish challenges I'm hoping to achieve this year:

You can find out more about these challenges in my Challenges page.

What are your 2016 reading/bookish challenges? Let me know! :)

Saturday, January 23

Most disappointing books read in 2015

As I've mentioned previously, there were a lot of books that I read in 2015 that left me really disappointed. My reading year was at best mediocre. Therefore, and as I don't really want this post to be huge, I'm only listing the books that I rated either one star or one and a half stars.

Once again, there are many books listed here that I have yet to post my review detailing my exact thoughts and feelings on them, so if there's a book you'd like to see my review for sooner rather than later, let me know, so I can rearrange my posting schedule!

Fantasy

Mystery/Thrillers

Contemporary

Dystopia

Science Fiction

New Adult / Romance

If you liked one of these books, let me know why in the comments! Somehow they just didn't work for me, but I'd really like to know your thoughts. :)

Friday, January 22

Favourite Books read in 2015

The past year was kind of slumpy and full of really bad reads. The fact that I read so many books that didn't manage to impress me as much I as wished they had, or that were just plain awful made me really treasure the ones that I did like.

These are literally all books I rated four stars or more. I had to include the four-star books I read, otherwise this would be even shorter than it already is.

There are a lot of books here that I have not yet written a review for, but I will. If there is a book you'd like to see me review sooner rather than later, let me know in the comments and I'll rearrange my posting schedule.

Retellings