Bookish Musings: 2017 Bookish Goals End-of-the-Year Update

 
 

Merry Christmas to anyone who celebrates! Yes, that’s right, I am posting on Christmas. I figured anyone who isn’t celebrating will have a brand new post to read instead of just cricket noises coming from their feed readers, and anyone who is busy celebrating will just see this another day 🙂

Anyway, at the beginning of the year, I set some bookish goals for myself—not things I was going to be strict about or stress over, just things I really wanted to do—so it’s time to see how I did!


Read At Least 100 Books

The Goal:
Self-explanatory.

How I Did:
I succeeded! I read over 150 books 🙂 Some of those were comics I wasn’t sure how to count, I read a few things that weren’t even on GR, but I decided a little ways into the year to just read what I wanted and to not let whether something “counts” factor into my decisions.

 

Expand My Repertoire of Supernatural/Paranormal/Sci-Fi Creature Reads

The Goal:
I wanted to read about less common supernatural creatures, ones I’d never read about or hadn’t read much about. And I really only count this if they’re the protag or love interest or maybe a main POV character.

How I Did:
Already on the list of creatures I’ve read about were: vampires, incubi, shifters, ghosts, witches, zombies, androids, aliens, demons, angels, faeries, merpeople, dragons, reapers, phoenixes, hellhounds (vaguely), gods, cupids, djinn, golems, unicorns*, krakens*, kelpies* (*technically those three were shifters for their animal because otherwise the books would be about animals).

This year I managed to add: mummies (Graveyard Shift), nymphs (The Night Realm), berserkers (Berserker), orcs (The Glamour Thieves), gargoyles (Gargoyle, Stone Sentinel), and centaurs (Hotblood!). I totally want to read more about mummies and centaurs now. Anyone got any recs??? I’d read more about the others too if I could find any good sounding books. I need to try some more books about gargoyles before I can decide about those since the one I read sucked.

Graveyard Shift by Michael F. Haspil
The Night Realm by Annette Marie
Berserker by Emmy Laybourne
The Glamour Thieves by Don Allmon
Gargoyle by Scarlett Dawn
Hotblood! by Toril Orlesky
Stone Sentinel by Jex Lane
 
 

Learn More about Supernatural Creature Lore and Origins

The Goal:
Self-explanatory.

How I Did:
I actually did this one! I didn’t learn as much as I wanted, but I did learn some. I learned kind of the basic lore about a lot of different creatures, and I went a little more in-depth about a few. I even watched a documentary show one day about vampire lore (where the myths came from, Vlad the Impaler, etc.). Funnily enough, the thing that finally motivated me to start doing this research was creating that house of supernatural sims. They inspired me!

 

Read More Retellings

The Goal:
Self-explanatory.

How I Did:
Not too well. I kind of lost interest as the year went on because I just can’t seem to find the types of retellings I’m looking for. I don’t want the vaguely inspired-by stories, I want actual retellings that take the important elements but twist the story. And I don’t want them to be just fairytales, I want a different genre, like paranormal or sci-fi.

Anyway, the only true retellings I read were A Face without a Heart and Persephone. The rest (The Little Red Wolf, Creatures of Will & Temper, Emerald Bound, All Darling Children, Peter Darling, Hyde) were more inspired-by or like sequels to the original.

A Face without a Heart by Rick R. Reed
Persephone by Allison Shaw
The Little Red Wolf by Amelie Flechais
Creatures of Will & Temper by Molly Tanzer
Emerald Bound by Teresa Richards | reading, books
All Darling Children by Katrina Monroe
Peter Darling by Austin Chant
Hyde by Lauren Stewart
 
 

Work on My Own Writing

The Goal:
Self-explanatory.

How I Did:
Not so great. Probably less than 10,000 words total. I did a lot of brainstorming though! Does that count?

 

Finally Read Certain Books I’ve Been Wanting to Read

The Goal:
I basically had a list of books I really wanted to get to this year.

How I Did:
Meh. Although, to be honest, I deleted the books from the list as I read them, so I’m not even sure which ones one on it at the start of the year. Oops lol. But I know I wanted to reread Interview with the Vampire and read Claudia’s Story and the Chaos Station series, so I accomplished that much at least.

 

Do More Author Interviews/Guest Posts

The Goal:
Self-explanatory.

How I Did:
Not so great. I did one interview—with J. Armand. At least it was a good one though!

 

Finish Some Damn Series

The Goal:
Self-explanatory.

How I Did:
Not great, but, in my defense, it’s not my fault. I keep up with the series I’m reading usually, but most of them simply are still going. I read a few complete series though (Chaos Station, The Captive Prince Trilogy, Chester 5000 XYV) and did finish a few others (Real Vampires Don’t Sparkle, The Harker Trilogy, Deadly Dreams).

Chaos Station by Jenn Burke & Kelly Jensen
Captive Prince by C. S. Pacat
Chester 5000 XYV Vol. 1 by Jess Fink
Real Vampires Don't Sparkle by Amy Fecteau
Damned If I Do by Erin Hayes
Fine Lines by Bella Roccaforte
 
 

Maybe Do Some Rereads

The Goal:
To stop worrying so much about new books and take some time to reread favorites or ones that I just wanted to read again.

How I Did:
I reread the entire Thieves series. And I reread both the Real Vampires Don’t Sparkle series and the Deadly Dreams series in preparation for the last book in each. I also started rereading The Vampire Chronicles. Oh, and I reread Peter Pan. So yeah, I think I did pretty good here!

Steal the Light by Lexi Blake
Real Vampires Don't Sparkle by Amy Fecteau
Fine Lines by Bella Roccaforte
Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice
Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie | books, reading, book covers
 
 

Read the Older Review Copies I Have

The Goal:
Self-explanatory.

How I Did:
Crap. I don’t even remember which were old ones and don’t feel like figuring it out. But honestly I probably didn’t do very well with this one lol. I’m sorry, authors who gave me your books a long time ago. I’m still planning to read most of them! (I’ve unfortunately lost interest in a few though.)

 

Read More Books with Disability

The Goal:
This wasn’t in my original post, but I realized that it definitely was one of my goals. I just wanted to read more books with physically disabled main characters or love interests (with smaller/side characters, you just don’t really get to experience or understand it).

How I Did:
Pretty good, actually! There are still a whole bunch I want to read, but I managed to read 19 books/series/webcomics with some sort of disability. It wasn’t represented well in all of them, it was only kind of briefly mentioned in others, but still. Here are the books: Obscura Burning, Unfolding, Foamers, Peter Darling, Chaos Station, When Planets Fall, Sugar Scars, Surrender the Dark, Conviction, Unhooked, Damned Either Way, The Storm Lords, The High King’s Golden Tongue, The Pirate of Fathoms Deep, Welcome to Crash, 27 Hours, Dawn in Damnation, Smoke City.

Obscura Burning by Suzanne van Rooyen | reading, books
Unfolding by Jonathan Friesen | reading, books
Foamers by Justin Kassab | reading, books
Peter Darling by Austin Chant
Chaos Station by Jenn Burke & Kelly Jensen | reading, books
When Planets Fall by Abby J. Reed | reading, books
Sugar Scars by Travis Norwood
Surrender the Dark by Tibby Armstrong | reading, books
Conviction by Lissa Kasey
Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell
Damned Either Way by Erin Hayes
The Storm Lords by Ravon Silvius
The High King's Golden Tongue by Megan Derr
The Pirate of Fathoms Deep by Megan Derr
Welcome to Crash by Lina Langley
27 Hours by Tristina Wright
Dawn in Damnation by Clark Casey
Smoke City by Keith Rosson
 
 

Keep Blogging

The Goal:
Self-explanatory.

How I Did:
Clearly I succeeded!

 
 
 
 

Talk to me!

How did you do with your bookish goals this year?

 
 
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Your Thoughts

 

46 thoughts on “Bookish Musings: 2017 Bookish Goals End-of-the-Year Update

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  1. Sabrina Fox

    I’m glad you achieved some of your goals! I don’t even remember making any except to read at least 30 books, I ended up reading 104! Not as good as your impressive amount, but I’m glad I’ve been in more of a reading mood all year.
    Hope you’re having a good holiday!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Thanks! My goals just kind of help me remember what it was that I said I wanted to read more of or do or whatever lol. 104 is just as impressive! And I did end up reading a bunch of novellas in December, so you’re prob not that far behind 😉 Thank you, same to you!

  2. chucklesthescot

    I failed on the series catchups! I only managed one! Hope to do better on that next year. I just recently grabbed a book that looks good-a germaphobe with OCD struggling to cope when a global pandemic hits! It’s called ‘Phobia’ by Jack Hunt. It sounds a bit different!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Oh no! Well, here’s to next year 😉 I have that book either on my kindle or on my tbr, so I know which one you’re talking about! It does sound diff than the usual.

  3. Karen Blue

    Ummm, not so great. I had less goals and completed only two of them. I am not ready to quit trying though so I signed up for a bunch more for next year. Good job with your goals. You did fantastic!

  4. Angela

    I think you did really well with your goals! You had a lot, and they were all pretty different. Good luck with any goals you set for next year!

  5. Greg

    Merry Christmas! Hope you had a great holiday. I sucked this year at reading more uncommon paranormals, so I’m glad to see that you did better. 🙂 that was kind of a goal I lost sight of, since I didn’t read as much UF. I need t find some more gargoyle reads in 2018, so if you find any let me know. Stone sentinel has a wicked cover!

    I could deal with a good kraken story too if I could find one. Love the cover of Peter Darling too.

    You did good with the re- reads! I had some re- reads I wanted to get to and mostly didn’t, but *shrug* maybe in 2018.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Thanks, I did have a pretty good holiday! Hope you had a great one too 🙂 Lol I never as good at that goal as I want to though. It’s just so hard when there are so few books about uncommon creatures, and then even less that sound like I’d like them.

      Rereading was one that I did really good with! Ah well, you can always get to your rereads next year 🙂

  6. Wattle

    Brainstorming totally counts! And I think comics count as books too. You did great with reading that many, I feel so inferior 😛 haha

    I know I made some goals at the start of the year, but I can’t remember what they were! I should write them down this time perhaps.

    I hope you had a great Christmas 🙂

    1. Kristen Burns

      Haha thanks! Then I succeeded because I did a lot of brainstorming lol. And nooo, shhhh some of the “books” I counted were really short 😉

      Lol yes writing goals down helps. I’d forget mine too if I didn’t!

      Thank you, same to you 🙂

  7. The Orangutan Librarian

    Massive congrats on smashing your reading goal!! And it looks like you did really well with a lot of these other goals as well- I especially liked your goal of finding out more about supernatural creatures 😀

  8. Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

    This is an awesome look back at your goals. I don’t think I made any solid goals for 2017, but now I’m wondering if I put some in my 2016 wrap-up post. I’ll have to go check! By the way, my monthly wrap-up round-up (which is going up in a couple of hours) is for ALL year-end wrap-up posts this year too, so feel free to link this one up!

  9. Lola

    I posted a few times on Christmas as well, there are always some people visiting and like you said else they see it the next few days.

    It’s nice to look back at the year and see how you did with your goals. i also read more than 100 books, although i set my Goodreads challenge lower. And I agree, I think comics and such also count toward your goal.

    You did well with your goal of reading about different supernatural creatures. I think I once read a centaur book, but don’t remember the title at the moment.

    There does seem to be a wide variety of retellings and what exactly they entail (if they stay close to the original, many twists etc). I don’t really like retellings, unless it’s only a slightly inspired by the original type of retelling.

    That’s too bad you didn’t work too much on your own writing, but every bit counts and brainstorming counts too in my opinion. You can’t write without some ideas or brainstorming first.

    Nice you read some series this year. I actually read one whole series this year at least that I remember from the top of my head.

    You did great reading about disabilities this year. I actually read quite some books with a disability as well, not sure how many, but as you talk about it so often I am now more and more often noticing it in books. I just finished a book with a legally blind main character earlier this week and then a book were a side character was legally blind.

    I am glad that you’re still blogging :).

    btw your sidebar looks a bit off on my screen. It only starts underneath the comment sections.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Exactly, people don’t have to visit the day it’s posted 🙂

      It is nice to look back on goals! I think I might set my challenge lower next year too to take the focus off of numbers. I do count comics, it’s just confusing when it’s webcomics because should I count by chapter? Should the whole thing count as one? Idk.

      Idk, I still didn’t do as well as I wanted with the uncommon creatures goal! It’s just so hard to find books that actually sound good though.

      That’s interesting, you like retellings that are only vaguely inspired-by, whereas I like ones that stick closer to the original just with some twists.

      I did do good w/ the disabilities one! I’m glad you read some too!

      Aww thanks 🙂

      Again, thanks for mentioning the sidebar so that I could fix it!

  10. suzanna

    Merry Christmas!
    Well done on smashing your reading goals. I don’t think it matters whether you stuck to your original plans at all. Reading to a list takes all the fun out of it. it’s like getting a reading list from an English class – nothing stops me reading quicker lol.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Merry Christmas to you too!

      Thanks 🙂 I wasn’t stressed over these, but I am bummed that it’s so hard to find books that actually sound good about uncommon paranormal creatures!

  11. Carrie @ Cat on the Bookshelf

    You did great with most of your goals. I did alright with mine. I’m expecting to be done with a little over half of my goals for specific reading challenges. I did meet my goal of blogging regularly and working on Twitter.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Thanks! I think meeting half your goals is still good! I mean, I didn’t quite meet all of mine either. I’m glad you met your goal of blogging regularly and using Twitter!

  12. Annemieke

    Yeay for reading more than 150 and I am with you on the whole what counts. The only person that decides what counts is you, really. So if you want to read it, it counts. 🙂 Or that is my motto now haha. You reread so much. I need to take a page out of your book haha.

    I have never read a book about mummy’s. Interesting!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Yeah, I’ve decided to just stop worrying about what counts or how to count things or whatever. Reading should just be fun! I did do a lot of rereading this year, but I’m glad since they were all worth the reread!

      The mummy book was good, I loved the portrayal of the mummy! I would like to read more about mummies, if only there were more books lol.

  13. Amber Elise @ Du Livre

    You had some great goals AND you kicked ass! I want to read more paranormal creatures as well, I just haven’t dedicated the time to go looking for it. Peter Darling was on my radar but then I forgot about it (per usual). I’m excited for your 2018 reading!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Thanks! Yeah, that’s the biggest prob with reading about uncommon paranormal creatures, I just can’t find many books! Peter Darling was great, I rec it! Thanks 🙂

  14. Danya @ Fine Print

    Dang, Kristen! Overall you completely killed it with all your challenges. Like you, I sorta failed at the whole “read and review old review copies” thing…*sigh* There’s always next year. And I think a lot of brainstorming for your own writing totally counts!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Thanks! Ah, well, we can’t be perfect, right? 😛 I really would like to get to some of the older review copies though cuz they just make me feel guilty every time I see them on my list lol.

  15. Karen

    Yay to keep blogging! That actually seemed to be a challenge for a lot of us this year so that’s no small accomplishment & I’m glad you’re here 🙂

    I feel like my goals the past few years is to just hang in there and hope I don’t burn out on reading or blogging. I was soooooo close to quitting both for awhile there.

    I’m not a big goal person (I tend to do the exact opposite lol) but I do have a few things in mind for 2018 that I need to write a post about soon.

    For What It’s Worth

    1. Kristen Burns

      Thanks! <3 And yeah, I didn't plan on stopping, but I've seen enough people disappear from the community to know that it happens.

      Well, that's as good a goal as any 🙂 I don't want you to quit!

  16. Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight

    Ahhh you always count the comics! It’s fiiiine. Because look- I bet you read some books that had like, 500+ pages, right? And those don’t get to count for *more*, so why should comics count for less? My plan is to start 2018 with graphic novels, get ahead of my challenge goal hah. Also, I had no idea that a berserker was a real thing! You just taught me something new! You did awesome with the books with disability goal, too. And I feel you about some of the older review copies. I wish I hadn’t said yes to everything when I first started blogging, ugh. Your last one made me chuckle, too- because yes, clearly a job well done 😀

    1. Kristen Burns

      Oh you’re so right! I did read some 500 page books, and those didn’t count for extra, so the short ones shouldn’t count for less! Lol I like your plan 😉 Yeah, Berserkers are a part of viking mythology! I actually never had the whole yes-to-everything phase that most bloggers had, I’ve always been picky, it’s just my mood reading causes a problem sometimes, and then my TBR keeps growing… You know how it is lol.

  17. Evelina

    Sounds like a good job to me 🙂 you absolutely kicked it with the Goodreads goal! I am reducing mine this year. Don’t want to struggle with numbers anymore 🙂

    And it seems you did great with the paranormal creatures, wow! I can understand about the retellings, those are tough to find, and most of them ARE for fairytales.

    Those books about/with disability look cool. Especially because it’s such a huge list!

    1. Kristen Burns

      Thanks! I think I’m reducing mine too simply because I don’t want to focus on numbers anymore.

      Yeah, retellings are kinda hard to find for some reason.

      I’m happy with how many book with disability I read!

  18. Olivia Roach

    You did pretty well on your goals! And girl how did you read over 150 books??? That’s crazy amazing DD: I kinda want your reading powers. You also did so good on rereading, reading more books with disabilities and a variety of supernatural creatures, Go you! Hopefully in 2018 you can also get on top of that writing game. And yup, you slayed at blogging 😉

    1. Kristen Burns

      Idk I have no life, that’s how I read so much, haha. Thanks, I did do really well on some of those goals! But yes, here’s hoping to getting more writing done *fingers crossed*

  19. Becky @ A Fool's Ingenuity

    I did ok with my bookish goals, although I forgot about most of them. You did way better than I did and it was extremely impressive. I mean, there are a couple that you might have done better with but considering the number of goals you set for yourself I’d say this is a success. I just wanted to conquer my TBR really and I failed epically at that so achieving even a few of your goals is doing good.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Yeah, that happens. Pretty sure I forgot about some of mine too lol. But thanks! I didn’t end up doing too bad. And hey, maybe this year you’ll finally get to that TBR 🙂