2019 Blog Challenge Sign-Up Post

Posted January 1, 2019 by Lisa Mandina in / 14 Comments

As you  might have read in my last post, I was not very successful.  But, I don’t want to give up on trying to do things with goals and challenges.  So I’m going to work on a few of them again this year, some new, some old.

So this year this Challenge is being hosted by a different blog, Because Challenges Make Reading More Fun.  They do the COYER Challenges, if you’ve ever done any of those.  Now, even though I didn’t completely  make my goals last year, I still like them, or want to do something similar.  Here are my three goals:

1.  Blogging – I spend a lot of time making a list of e-galleys and where they are available and when they are published and when I would need to read them by, etc.  I started this a few years ago to help keep myself on track with downloading them, so I would hopefully improve my Netgalley percentage. Which I didn’t really do that.  Oops.  But, I have definitely cut way back on requesting e-galleys, which is a good thing, and my percentage hasn’t gotten any worse.  Based on that, and the fact that I’m still keeping those lists going, I want to use them for something.  I want to share those lists, this feeds into a resolution from last year that I’m still kind of working on, to not do as many book tours, so I have more time for my own posts or discussion posts, etc.  So I’m going to wrap all these up into this one resolution with 2 action steps:

  • Once a week, either Saturday or Sunday, I will post a list of the next week’s books being published that I had hoped to get to, but did not, using this list I’ve made.
  • I am going to use that same day to go out and comment on other people blogs instead of spending a ton of time just on my own blog.  I have a few blogs I comment on regularly and they comment back on mine regularly, but even though I have thousands of followers, I don’t feel I get as much action other than when I do giveaways. So I want to get out and be a better blog follower!

2.  Reading – This is one that I started last year, but did not get around to completing, so I want to continue working on it.  I want to read the books that people recommend to me.  Not all of them, I’d never get anything else read, and they’re not always ones I actually want to read.  But here are the ones off the top of my head that I plan to do for sure:

  • Finish reading the DC graphic novel to compare to the Marvel one I read last year to make a choice on which I like better.
  • Struck by Lightning by Chris Colfer – recommended by the same friend as the one above.
  • Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut – someone recommended a while back that I would like it, so I need to read it!
  • Intercepted by Alexa Martin – a new co-worker/friend at the bookstore job, who is a fellow romance book reader like I am recommended this one, and I bought it.
  • Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo – I know, I know, I’m so far behind, but I just haven’t had the chance, I intend to pick this up this year and see if I get hooked like everyone else.  I only hope that it doesn’t disappoint me like The Lunar Chronicles did when I started those.

3.  Writing – So last year my main writing goal was to finish one of my works in progress.  I did that with my short story.  My goal this year is to finish editing it.  And maybe find a beta reader?  And then maybe send it to Carina Press to try to get it published.  Or, if that doesn’t work out, maybe I will try to self-publish to Amazon.  We’ll see. I also have a couple children’s book ideas that I’d like to finish at least one of those.  And, if time, maybe I’ll try to finish one of my romance novels I’ve started and need to finish.  Or maybe I’ll work on going back through and editing my YA modern day Cinderella retelling.

Usually in the past I’ve joined the Mount TBR Challenge hosted by Bev at My Reader’s Block.  This year I’m going to try a different one, not because I didn’t like the Mount TBR, but because I love all the extra stuff that goes along with the Beat the Backlist Challenge, like Harry Potter related!  It’s hosted by Novel Knight, so it’ll be a new one for me.  I am going to put a little bit of a slant on this one, and aim to try to read the ARCs I got last year at ALA.  Or ones that I got from publishers without requesting them, but I really wanted to get to.  So while this is my wishlist to complete, it isn’t set in stone.

  1. Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
  2. Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf
  3. Pride by Ibi Zoboi
  4. After the Fire by Will Hill
  5. Give the Dark My Love by Beth Revis
  6. Black Wings Beating by Alex London
  7. Rabbit and Robot by Andrew Smith
  8. Damsel by Elana K. Arnold
  9. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
  10. Grim Lovelies by Megan Shepherd
  11. Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa
  12. Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson

I also plan to join and contribute points to the Hufflepuff house, so I must meet my goals!

So, even though I failed this last year, I’m going to try this again.  It goes along with all the things about trying to get more of my own posts done on my blog.  Plus, I’m always coming up with good discussion ideas, I just need to do them.  So, yeah.  This is sponsored again by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight.   I’m going to set the same goal as last year, 4 discussion posts for the year, so that will make me a Discussion Dabbler.

Now, in the past I’ve done the Series Ender Challenge every year.  I don’t see that being hosted by the same people this year. And actually, I feel like I’m in a place where I need to start some series that I always said I was going to read.  So I’m joining in with Tari over at Cuddle Up with a Cozy Mystery and a Dachshund for the First in Series Challenge.  It’s pretty casual, she doesn’t have a button or banner to share.  Maybe I’ll take some time and design one myself if I get a chance. But there are so many series I keep meaning to start, and this will totally align with the books in my Beat the Backlist Challenge as well.  So killing two birds/books with more than one challenge?  That doesn’t make any sense. Sorry, it seemed to in my head.  I’m going to set my goal for that at 6 for the year.

  1. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
  2. Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa
  3. Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf
  4. Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson
  5. My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
  6. A Date with Darcy by Tiffany Schmidt

This is one that I may go over, based on the  many other books I actually have on my TBR physical shelves, and others I can’t think of as I write this post.  And like I said on another challenge, the titles may not be these ones.

Alright, I think I’m done signing up with challenges for 2019.  Someone stop me if you see me signing up for anything else please!  Other than maybe smaller one week or one month challenges.

What challenges did you sign up for this year?

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14 responses to “2019 Blog Challenge Sign-Up Post

  1. I signed up for some too! I may do the back list one because I have so many unread books. (I actually went through my reading list on Goodreads last night and started cleaning up my want to read list). I now can't remember what I promised to do for challenges so hopefully I see a post soon or something to remind me because I forgot completely! LOL

    • I haven't done a clean up on my Goodreads TBR in a couple weeks. Need to do one of those soon! Yeah, I have to save a page in my planner for remembering my challenges. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by! Good luck on finding your list.

  2. Intercepted was fun. I have Martin's next book and am excited to read it. I am trying to cut back on galley requests too. Just so I can read more backlist. I read a lot, but I still couldn't keep up with some of the months that have a lot of releases. I am going to keep doing the discussion challenge as well. I want to be more active in it and not just link my own post.

    • I'm excited to read Intercepted. I've been doing much better about not requesting galleys. Not necessarily getting a lot of my backlist done though, because I keep buying new ones. I want to be more active as well with the discussion and other blogs in general. Thanks for visiting! Good luck with your challenges!

  3. I hope you can do all of these goals! Discussion posts are really fun and I like the sound of finding out whether you like Marvel or DC more (boosts DC because that is definitely the best). If you want a buddy read for either Pride or Shadow of the Fox reach out to me on Twitter or something because if I haven't read it by then I would happily read with you. I am glad you're managing your e-galleys. I'm trying to burn through my physical TBR at the moment but eventually I need to get around to burning through my backlisted ebooks. It needs to be done and that sounds like a good way of monitoring things.

    • So far I hope that DC is better than Marvel, because I wasn't impressed with the Marvel comic. However that could just be my not being a fan of comics. When I get around to fitting those books in, I'll see if you're up for a buddy read! I need to work on my physical TBR as well! Thanks for stopping by!

  4. Shadow and Bone didn't hook me, but I LOVE the Six of Crows duology, so if you haven't read it already (I don't think so) I hope you give it a chance even if you aren't super into the original trilogy.

  5. Awesome goals! It seems like we have some things in common. 🙂

    I like your goal to compare DC to Marvel. I'm actually really curious what you think. I don't tend to buy comics or read them, but I do have some Captain Marvel editions. Marvel just has such good storylines and character ARCs, but I'm a DC fan too.

    Oh, and I also need to spend more time getting around to other blogs. It takes time that I don't always have, but I've always wanted to never be one of those bloggers who never comments back or who isn't active on other blogs. Hopefully I'll do better with that this year.

    And a note about Shadow and Bone… I really enjoyed that series and am super excited for the new addition (King of Scars), but I have to say that Six of Crows tops it by quite a lot. If you're going to read both series, then start with Shadow and Bone, but if you're not, just read Six of Crows.

    Thanks for stopping by and happy New Year!

    Tressa @ Wishful Endings

    • See, I liked Marvel movies much better than DC ones, so that was why my friend challenged me to try the comics, even though I'm not a fan of comics either, I told him I would try. I'm going to work on getting to other blogs more, although once school started back up I started sucking at that again. We'll see how SHadow and Bone goes! Thanks for returning the visit!

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