January 2019 Wrap-Up Post and Looking Ahead to February

Posted February 1, 2019 by Lisa Mandina in / 20 Comments

I’d like to do better about wrap up posts this year as another kind of blog resolution.  So let’s start out that way! I recently was pointed to All About Books for spreadsheets she already had made that could help with organizing.  I’m using the first one to keep track of my year-long reading.  I’ve gotten more familiar with Google Documents since I used another blogger’s spreadsheet last year for my ALA convention plans, and then created my own based on that for the Book Bonanza the following month.  So hopefully, this will be a big help for me in doing wrap-up posts, at the end of the year for sure!

Let’s start by talking about my Challenges and any progress I’ve made. 

1.  For my Blogging resolutions, I’ve been doing really good so far for the posts I wanted to do that listed the upcoming books to be published that week.  I’ve titled that post “Lisa’s Looking Forward To”.  I’ve been doing them on Sundays, but I think in the next month or so I’ll maybe switch it to Wednesdays, and tie in with the Can’t Wait Wednesday Meme.  Here are links to the posts I did this month.
January 8th
January 13th
January 27th

There was one week this month that only had one book on my list to share, so I ended up not doing it that week. 

Another part of my blogging resolutions was to comment more on other blogs, and I’ve got a little planner where I’m keeping track of that.  In the 2 weeks that I’ve been keeping track, I’ve commented almost every day on at least one blog. 

There’s a third goal I want to add to blogging.  I’m going to do the Clean My TBR Pile post hopefully about once a week. And along with that, I’m doing giveaways each week.  Unfortunately since they are books I actually own, they’ve only been US so far.  I’m still trying to come up with a way to make them International, yet still cost-effective for me.  Here are my posts from this year so far:

January 12th
January 19th
January 26th – Giveaway open till midnight tonight!

2. For my reading resolutions, I had kept my goal from the year before, that I didn’t meet, to read books recommended to me.  I have completed one of the five I picked, just finished reading Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo this week.  Won’t get a review posted till February some time though.

3.  For my writing resolutions, nothing.  Nothing done. Although, I had to figure out with my short story how I could change it so that it wasn’t actually based on real people in my life, and I did figure that out, so now I can start going through it again and changing those things as I edit.  Plus, I went to seasonal at my part time job at the bookstore, so there should be lots more time to write this month!

My main goal with this was to get the ARCs I picked up at ALA convention last summer read, 12 of them.  So far, I’ve finished a big fat 0 of them.  One of them will fit into a new challenge though that I’m doing in February, so I’ll talk more about that in a bit.

Nothing yet.  But I only plan to do 4 for the year, so I’ve got 2 more months before I’m technically behind.

For the First in the Series Challenge that I’m doing, which has no button or banner yet, I’ve read one of my six choices, Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.  Only 5 more to go!

On Monday I signed up to take part in the Catastrophe Read-a-Thon sponsored by Olivia’s Catastrophe.  You can check out my sign up post for that HERE.  It doesn’t start till February 14th, so I’ve got a bit on that.

January Stats:
 So far this month I’ve finished – 20 books (although one or two were actually started last year).  To make my Goodreads goal of 215 for the year, I only needed to read 18, so I’m ahead!  I’ve definitely done a lot more reading so far this year.

I’ve posted a total of 40 times, which is more than the one post a day I want to try to shoot for, 16 of those were reviews.   According to the stats spreadsheet I’m using, the average rating so far this year is 4.5 stars.  

Looking forward to in February:
As I mentioned above, the Catastrophe Read-a-thon is half of February.  

Here is my proposed TBR, according to blog tours and review requests I’ve signed up for this month:

  1. Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers – currently reading, review on the 4th.
  2. Unlucky in Love by A.J. Renee – review on the 5th
  3.  Teaching Tucker by Jillian Quinn – currently reading, review on the 6th
  4. The Secret to Falling in Love by Victoria Cooke, review on the 9th
  5. My Life in Shambles by Karina Halle, review on the 13th
  6. Unsteady Heart by Keira M. Belle, review on the 24th
  7. To Best the Boys by Mary Weber, review on the 27th
  8. (Maybe) The Boyfriend Whisperer 2.0 by Linda Budzinski, review on the 18th, 28th, or 29th
  9. The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton
  10. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
  11. Rabbit and Robot by Andrew Smith
  12. Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley
  13. Riot by Jamie Shaw
  14. Moonlight Sins by Jennifer L. Armentrout
  15. Hot Winter Nights by Codi Gary
  16. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
  17. Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill
  18. The Last 8 by Laura Pohl
  19. The Sweetest Match by Abby Tyler
  20. Diary of a Bad Boy by Meghan Quinn

 Whew!  That’s a long list.  A few of those are ARCs I got sent from the publisher, and will hope to get to, but won’t be stressed. Some at the end are ones that I will review in March, and so may not get to by the end of the month.  I may have to see if there are any of the non-new ones that I can do as audiobooks!  Like the Jamie Shaw book maybe.  We’ll see.  And since I haven’t heard for sure if I’m on the tour for The Boyfriend Whisperer, that one might be cancelled out!

Okay everyone, that’s my January wrap-up post!  I linked above to the giveaway I’ve got going on until midnight tonight. And I’ll be posting one tomorrow as well for my Clean off my TBR post, so be sure to check back then too.  Maybe by next month’s wrap-up I’ll get some graphics made for a couple of the ones I’ve talked about above. 

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20 responses to “January 2019 Wrap-Up Post and Looking Ahead to February

  1. Sounds like you're doing pretty good on your resolutions! I didn't really make any this year. ? I plan on reading Courting Darkness this month, too. Hope you enjoy Fangirl when you get to it! I highly recommend the audiobook for that one. I remember really enjoying Slaughterhouse-Five back in school, but I don't really remember it. Prolly time for a re-read…

    • I tried listening to the audio of Fangirl, but couldn't keep my attention on it, so I think reading will be better. Reading Courting Darkness now and it's really good. It's so big! Thanks for stopping by!

  2. You managed to read so much in January! And yay for reading 20 books 🙂 That's such a good amount. And I am so impressed that you managed to post 40 times in a month DD: I give myself a pat on the back if I manage to post twice in a week 😛

    • I'm so picky about audiobooks. I might try for some of the books I own that are the type of audios I like. But trying to at least keep up on my new ARCs. Thanks for stopping by!

  3. Great job on your goals. The only sort of resolution I made for the blog this year was to talk about books in ways that aren't just book reviews. I did pretty well on that in January. Check out my wrap up

    • I've had a good year so far. We'll see if it continues. I think I'm making myself read more, but in a good way! Haven't done as much writing though. Thanks for visiting, and I'm off to check out your post as well!

    • 20 books was normal, until last year. I think I spent a ton more time on "writing" dates, where I didn't always get a lot of writing done. More talking with the person I was supposed to be there writing with. So, yeah. More so far this year. Can't wait to start Moonlight Sins. Thanks for visiting!

  4. Your 2019 is off tho an amazing start! As someone who follows your posts by email, I've definitely noticed your posts have increased. I do love your conversational reviews and admire how many books you can read and review.

    • Thanks! I'm working on it. Glad you like my reviews. I used to try to do them in a way everyone else did, but since I blog because I enjoy it, and I don't get paid, I just will keep reviewing my way. Thanks for stopping by! Love having you as a follower!

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