Looking back on 2014, I feel I’ve accomplished and grown a lot in my book travels. I started out this year blog-less and having no idea how much I would love blogging and how much I would become involved in it. Blogging, and even specifically book blogging, is this whole other world that you can become immersed in. There is such an audience out there for book bloggers, it is just astounding. And while there are many things I’d like to improve about my blog in the coming year, I think that this past year has been very successful. I held my first reading challenge on my blog, and though I was the only one who participated, it was still very fun.

With regards to my 2014 reading goals, I accomplished many of them but not all. One of my goals had been to read Pride and Prejudice, it is one of my absolute favorite movies and I started it years ago and just never finished it. Unfortunately, I did not read it again this year so I will most likely be rolling that goal over to next year. I also had a goal to read at least 2 books that were made into movies that I like. I read one (Beautiful Creatures) but did not read a second. I actually ended up reading the whole series and it was very interesting. My goal for 2014 was to read sixty books and I far surpassed that during the year. I slowed down in my reading towards the end of the year due to having to work a lot of overtime and therefore not having a lot of extra time for reading but I read over 100 books for the year so I am still quite pleased with my accomplishment.

It’s very hard to decide what my favorite book of 2014 was. Fortunately, I was able to narrow it down to 4 favorites out of the 100+ I read this year. I loved Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger because it was very interesting and different. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn was a fan-favorite this year and became a fantastic movie. Glass Kitchen by Linda Lee Francis was beautiful and touching and magical. And finally, In Your Dreams by Kristan Higgins was just as wonderful as I expected it to be. Higgins never lets me down, I devour her books as soon as they’re released.

My 2015 goals will not include a specific number goal for the year. I don’t think I will be able to hit the 100 book mark again between having a house now and acquiring 3 pets at the end of 2014 and also dealing with my job, I’m lucky if I can find 20 minutes to read each day. Nor do I want to read books just to get the numbers in and to get up to my number goal. This year I want to focus more on expanding my horizons and reading different types of books that maybe I’ve never read before. I’m also creating goals this year that are more blog-related than reading-related. The following will be my goals for 2015:

1. Read at least 20 different types of the books on the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge 2015 checklist
2. Post at least 2 non-book review related posts per month
3. Participate in one book reading challenge (on an external site) per quarter
4. Post at least two posts per month concerning various book memes
5. Read at least 5 books from Amazon’s 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime
6. Participate in Roof Beam Reader’s 2015 TBR Pile Reading Challenge

My books for this reading challenge are all books that I currently have on my TBR shelf and that either I own or someone has loaned to me and I few thrown in that I will get from the library. My goals will be:
1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. Girls of a Tender Age by Mary-Ann Throne Smith
3. Lightning by Dean Koontz
4. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
5. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
6. Lethal by Sandra Brown
7. Running for Women by Kara Goucher
8. I Adored a Lord by Katharine Ashe
9. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
10. The Wonder of All Things by Jason Mott
11. The Cage by Meghan Shepherd
12. Cemetery Girl by David Bell

I am looking forward to what 2015 will bring! Happy Reading everyone!