Category Archives: Progress

Q1 Reading

Posted in 2018 challenges, monthly goals, Progress by

I read and loved Ellie’s post on her book stats for the first quarter of 2018, and couldn’t resist looking at some of my own! I haven’t tracked the books that have come in like she has, but I’ve enjoyed looking at the series statuses and lengths of what I’ve read so far.

Books read so far: 33
Total pages: 11027
Pages per day: 123
Average pages per book: 334

Format:

  • 8 Paperback (24%),
  • 10 eBook (30%),
  • 15 audio (45%)

Series:

  • First in a series – 8 (33.3%)
  • Second – 6 (25%)
  • Third – 3 (12.5%)
  • Fourth or higher – 7 (29.2%)

Genres (note, books are categorised as multiple genres in some cases so don’t add up to 100%):

  • Fantasy – 12 (36.4%)
  • Sci fi – 6 (18.2%)
  • Mystery – 6 (18.2%)
  • Manga – 5 (15.2%)
  • Romance – 4 (12.1%)
  • Contemporary – 4 (12.1)
  • Horror – 3 (9.1%)
  • Non-fiction – 2 (6.1%)
  • Crime – 1 (3.0%)

Length:

  • 0-150 pages – 0
  • 151-300 pages – 9 (28.1%)
  • 301-500 pages – 20 (62.5%)
  • 501-800 pages – 3 (9.4%)

Publication date:

  • Pre-2018 – 29 (87.9%)
  • 2018 – 4 (12.1%)

Target audience:

  • MG – 4 (12.1%)
  • YA – 6 (18.2%)
  • Not-specified (eg Manga) – 6 (18.2%)
  • Adult – 17 (51.5%)

Length:

  • 0-150 pages – 0
  • 151-300 pages – 9 (28.1%)
  • 301-500 pages – 20 (62.5%)
  • 501-800 pages – 3 (9.4%)

Reading Goals (5)

  1. Read 100 books – 33/100 – ON TRACK
  2. Finish/catch up with 15 series
    I haven’t worked out the exact number of these yet, but two-thirds of the books I’ve read in series are book 2 or later, so I think this is going pretty well.
  3. Read at least 12 manga volumes or graphic novels – 5/12 – ON TRACK
  4. Get My NetGalley ratio up to (and then keep it above) 80% – 73% as of end of March
  5. Read at least 48 backlist books – 29/48 – ON TRACK

April check in: Goals and word of 2014

Posted in Goals, Progress by

Is it me or has this year just flown by?! I was just thinking ‘I should probably post a goals check-in soon’, and then I looked at the calendar (well okay, Excel) and realised that we’re 107 days into 2014. 107! Almost a third of the way through!

So, admittedly, this check-in is at a slightly weird point – not quite a third of the way through the year, but more than a quarter, randomly in the middle of the week….but it felt like a good time to check-in, so I’m ignoring the slightly strange date! Plus, seeing how far I’ve got (or not got), is always motivational, and I’m feeling ready for a kick up the….well, y’know.
Now, I’ll be honest, at first I couldn’t even remember what my goals of 2014 were, so I had to go look them up (probably not a great sign). To refresh your memory too:

Get my NetGalley feedback to approval ratio above 80%

Current: 53.2%
Honestly, I’m really pleased with my progress on this so far. I know to a lot of you, 53% looks really low, but considering I had an enormous backlog and started the year with something pathetic like 18%, I’m pretty pleased with my progress! 80% still feels a long long way off, but as long as I keep going in the right direction, (and keep the requesting sprees to a minimum!) I’m okay with that.

 

Read at least 100 books

Current: 19 books
I genuinely don’t know what’s been going on with my reading the last month or so. For January and February I was doing okay, but somewhere along the way I hit a total wall, and am yet to get my reading mojo back to normal. I’m waiting for things to click back into place (as they inevitably do), but if I’m still really behind for my mid-year check-in I I might have to reduce my goal a bit.

 

Read 45,000 pages

Current: 7088
Er, see above for this one too!

 

Read 12 books off my 101 Fantasy Project

Current: 3
Woohoo, I’m vaguely on target for this one! I’m thinking of trying to break my reading slump with some great fantasy, as it’s my go-to genre of choice, so hopefully I can tick one more off here soon too.

 

Write 75 reviews

Current: 20
This has been going pretty well so far, and I think I should hit my target. January was particularly great and I’m hoping for another month that good in May.

 

Branch out more

I think this is one I’m accomplishing. From my word of the year 2014, to filofax posts, bookish drinking games and posts like now and then, I’m slowly diversifying, which I love.

 

Change my layout

Not yet, BUT I have a defence…I’ve been looking into renaming StudentSpyglass, and working on ideas for a new layout that fit with the new name, so obviously I can’t implement it yet!

 

Be healthier

This is one I’m doing okay with. I’ve lost 8lbs, which isn’t huge but it’s a start. I’m also mostly eating less junk food, and doing a little exercise. (Although I fully admit I’m eating an Easter egg as I write this, because they were a £1 and my family are celebrating being free from work for a few days!)

 

Find a job & save towards my MSc

Well, I found a job (back doing the same temp work I was doing before Christmas). So far, I’ve managed to pay my 10% deposit, and pay off my overdraft, but that’s about it, so still a long way to go on the savings front, but I’m definitely making progress.

 

Get organized

Well…..January was fantastic, February was great, March was okay, but April….April has been a disaster! (I’m starting to notice I’m kind of an all or nothing person! Reading, blogging, scheduling, being healthy and being organised – they all seem to have gone out the window at once!). However, I’ve got ideas and plans, so fingers crossed I can make some headway on those and get back to being organised.

 

My word of 2014

fearless

As well as my goals, I wanted to check in on how I’ve been doing with my word of 2014, which was fearless. So, how have I been getting on? Pretty damn well actually! Here are a few of the fearless things I’ve done so far this year, that the ‘normal’ me would have balked at:

  • Signed up to the Race for Life (5k)
    • I’m about as unfit as a sloth.  In fact, that’s an insult to the sloth.  Maybe a dead sloth… Anyways, the point is, despite that, I’ve decided to sign up to the Race for Life – and I’m hoping to jog it, even though right now I can jog for about 30 seconds.  I have 9 weeks to fundraise and train, so any hints and tips greatly appreciated!
  • Requested review copies
    • Again, to some of you this is probably no big deal, but my review copies before this year came almost exclusively from NetGalley.  I haven’t requested many (and I haven’t had responses on everything I requested) but I’ve been branching out and requesting a few and it has been so worth it!
  • Dyed my hair a very different colour!
    • Until this year, my hair has been light blonde.  Like, forever, apart from one horrific incident when I experimented with brown that should probably never be talked about….  Last week I went totally different – the top is now very dark blonde (virtually brown) and the tips are red.  I maybe wasn’t fearless enough though, because I’ve decided to go back this weekend and go red all over!  Pre-2014 me would never have even dreamed of going so bold.

How are your 2014 goals going?  (And do you have any tips for a super-unfit me to survive 5k?!)

 

2013 Reading Progress

Posted in Goals, Progress by

Goodreads challenge

2013 Reading Challenge

2013 Reading Challenge
Faith has
read 70 books toward her goal of 100 books.
hide

2013 books
Books read so far: 70
Goal: 100
Progress: 70% (19% ahead of goal)

I made some really great progress on this challenge for the first half of the year, and had planned to up my goal quite significantly, but now that uni is finished and I’m (temporarily at least) working, I’ve been doing a lot less reading. I’m going to up my goal slightly I think, to 120, because I’m not sure yet whether I’ll find another job after this temporary contract ends (in which case I won’t be reading too much) or whether I’ll be unemployed (and have loads of time for reading), but leaving it at 100 feels like playing it too safe! It is supposed to be a challenge after all 😉

 

What I’ve been reading

Review books: 40 (57%)
Library books: 12 (17%)
Freebies: 6 (9%)
TBR: 9 (13%)
Books bought this year: 3 (4%)

Pages so far: 22,235
Longest book: Beautiful Creatures (563 pages)
Average length: 318 pages

Hmm, the length of books I read has definitely dropped since I started blogging, and even further now that I’ve finished all of the Song of Ice and Fire series. The number of books I’m picking up as a personal choice are also coming to just under half, at around 43%. I’m hoping to even that balance out a bit throughout the rest of the year, particularly since I’m near the library now. Hopefully that’ll also mean more long fantasy books too!

 

Ratings

5 stars: 4 (6%)
4 stars: 16 (23%)
3 stars: 30 (43%)
2 stars: 18 (26%)
1 star: 2 (3%)

Average rating: 3.02

This looks low-ish, but it doesn’t particularly surprise me. I guess I’m a slightly harsher reviewer than a few of my goodreads friends, because I would say that the majority of books I pick up either do fall into the 2 stars (It was okay) category, or the 3 stars (I liked it). The ones I really like get 4 stars (I really liked it) and the amazing ones get 5 stars (It was amazing!).  That my average rating is 3, rather than 2.5, means from my point of view, the books I’ve been reading this year are better than average!