My Reading Goals for the Year 2013 Recap and Reading Goals for 2014

My reading goals were:

1. Read 46 books - Nope, I read 30
2. Finish all books carried over (There were three but I finished one last night, so down to two.) - Done
3. Try some new authors I already have books by.  The authors I have chosen are :

Cassandra Clare
Rhys Bowen
Sarah Dessen
Meg Cabot
Harlan Coben
Sarah Vowell
Carolyn Haines
Robin Jones Gunn
Heather Webber
Victoria Thompson

I manged to read two of the authors on my list, though I am still reading one of them (Rhys Bowen) now.  I loved the book I read by Victoria Thompson.

It was a strange year of reading for me as I had a lot of things going on and struggled to be in the reading mood a lot.  I changed my goal mid-year to 30 and am glad I made that.

Going into 2014 my reading goals are:

1. Read 36 books

2. Finished all books carried over (The exception being the one in our car, which is there for reading emergencies.)

3. Get all my books on Goodreads (Makes it so much easier if I'm out and don't have my book list with me.)
4. Finish at least one book every month.  In September of 2013 I didn't finish a single book. That's the first time in 6 years that's happened.

5. Try some new authors.  The authors I have chosen are:

Christie Ridgway

Kristan Higgins

Nora Roberts

July Hyzy

Nancy Bush

Joyce and Jim Lavene

Jenn McKinlay

Jodi Thomas

Hope Ramsay

Emily March

Julia Spencer-Fleming

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Jill Shalvis

Kate Collins

Veronica Roth

All these are authors I have quite a few books by already.  Hopefully I'll discover I love some of these authors.  

It's not really a goal but I do want to try to read a diverse group of books this year.  I'm looking forward to it.  Happy Reading Everyone!

2013 Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge Results

I managed to read 4 Christmas books, three of which I had picked ahead of time to read.  I read:

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas - A sweet Christmas read. There were lots of little moments to laugh at in this book and lots of sweet, romantic moments as well. This was my first book to read by Lisa Kleypas and it was good enough to make me want to read the others in the series. A good holiday read.

The Mitford Snowmen by Jan Karon - Cute and sweet...a perfect holiday read.

The Quiet Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott - Louisa May Alcott is one of my favorite authors. The fact that these stories remained unknown for so long is amazing. I loved the first story, adored the second and liked the third.

A Virgin River Christmas by Robyn Carr - It took me ages to find this book (in the end I had to special order it) but it was worth it. This book was incredibly sad but so full of hope too. It was very emotional for me. Robyn Carr has introduced two new characters for her readers to care about.

I also watched a ton of Christmas movies -

The Family Stone
The Bells of St. Mary's
Surviving Christmas
It Happened on Fifth Avenue
The Waltons: The Homecoming: A Christmas Story
The Waltons - Ep. 5.12 "The Best Christmas Ever"
The Mistle-Tones 
Christmas with Holly (Movie of Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas)
Susan Slept Here
A Charlie Brown Christmas
Christmas Miracle
Window Wonderland
Bachelor Mother
A Princess for Christmas
Love Actually
Meet Me In St. Louis
Twelve Trees of Christmas