Introspective Thoughts (2) - No Guilt

That's right. You heard it here first. No more guilt.

I completely and utterly failed at Mini-Bloggiesta last week. Did not complete ONE single thing on my list. Know what? No guilt.

I still haven't come up with ANY resolutions/goals for this year, reading or otherwise. Know what? No guilt.

I'm not going to do a 2014 top ten favorite reads this year. That's right. No guilt.

But hey...here's my favorite read from 2014. Drumroll...

Grist by Linda Little (read my review of this magnificent little book here) My sister also loved it. It's just really, really, really good.

I'm hoping to decide on reading challenges and to get my TBR jar done this weekend, but it I don't...you got it. No guilt!

I guess you could say that is my number one goal this year, and moving forward in life. Letting go of the guilt, especially in reading and blogging...my passion in life. We'll see how it goes.

Are you letting go of guilt in your reading/blogging life?

Introspective Thoughts - Post Number One

As I look through my A Novel Challenge folder in my email inbox (yes, I have a special folder for those emails from their blog), I find myself contemplating what my reading plans are going to be like in the new year. I have found myself becoming more and more overwhelmed with the number of review books I have on my plate. And while I love reading challenges, I find myself signing up for them year after year and then not keeping track of my progress during the year. What to do, what to do? I know I'm just going to chalk my 2014 reading challenges up as incomplete and prepare myself for the new year. I honestly don't have time to go through and document what I read for which challenge. I'll just hope to do a better job of keeping track in 2015, if I do sign up for anything.

I did not manage to read the 75 books I had challenged myself to this year. I will end up at 56 by year's end on Wednesday. Not a shabby total. That's more than one book read per week, but I do feel like I could read more. I do an awful lot of time wasting...online and watching TV. Something has got to give.

I do seem to do better with long term challenges. I have made pretty good progress on The Classics Club and the Fill in the Gaps 100 challenge. However, I've neglected my Non-Fiction Adventure and my Fantasy Project challenges. I'm hoping to remedy that neglect by adding books from those lists to my TBR Jar Project (as seen on other blogs...I heard about it from The Book Vixen so that's who I'll link back to), as well as 100 books from my book catalog which means all books will come from my own shelves. I'm working on making my lists out now. Planning to have all the little scraps of paper in my jar by January 1st so I can pick my first book of the year!

So, what has my introspection revealed? Well, I plan on cutting back on review books/book tours (hopefully), to sign up for only a few reading challenges (I can handle a few, I think) and read more, much more, from my own shelves which, for me, is the ultimate goal.