The Looooong and the Short of It: December/End of 2023 Wrap-Up Post and Looking Forward to 2024

So, here we are again, another year past! Unlike last year, I feel like this year flew by! But it was so eventful, both good and bad. While I got to go to Scotland, a big dream for me, my family also had a lot of health scares, and we are still dealing with my stepdad as his cancer came back and his dementia/Alzheimer’s gets worse too. My mom ended up having to really start keeping on top of diabetes in a way she never did before after time in the hospital. My mom and stepdad also sold their RV knowing with their health they shouldn’t be trying to deal with that. And they lucked out and found a little cabin in Branson they bought, and they’ve been going down and staying there when they have time and my stepdad is feeling okay.

I am once again in touch and spending time with my dad’s side. Including visiting my sister who lives in Scotland for a day while I was there last summer.

Financially I started off the year not so bad. But my spending slowly sped up to where after the trip to Scotland it was like I’d forgotten how to be good with my money. Not to mention I bought a new car, when it was only two years since my last one, and that put my car payment about $40 more a month. Used a lot of my savings for the Scotland trip, but thought I was still doing okay. Then student loans started back up, and yeah, things aren’t as bright as I wish they were in that area.

My job is still as stressful as ever, even with giving up the online school part to someone else at the beginning of the year. Of course that also meant I didn’t get the nice stipend anymore either. My library clerk has been at school more this year, although her husband passed away during the summer, so she’s still not in the best place. Her son is having more surgery in 2024, so I foresee many more days by myself coming up, as they’ll have to travel out of state for that.

My reading for the last year was way down compared to the last few years. I didn’t quite reach 200 books, when normally I’ll go at least 210 or higher. I blame it on the eventful year. Both the bad stuff that kept my brain from being able to settle down enough to concentrate on a book, as well as the good stuff with the trip to Scotland keeping me from much reading for almost a whole week! One thing I’ve started fitting in at school again like I did my first couple years at my last library job, is occasionally having a Kindle book open on my phone and reading a bit here and there. Because of these things and picking up some shorter holiday novellas and picture books to try to reach my goal, my reading was actually up a bit for this last month of the year.

I also really started using The Story Graph as much as I use Goodreads. And I love the way they give me cool graphs and charts for my stats. I’m considering once my money situation looks a little better possibly upgrading to pay them.

Monthly reading stats:

• # of pages read: 3533 – number of books was up though, 20 books
• Amount of time spent listening to audiobooks – I had one audiobook this month that ended up as a DNF. With Christmas break taking away from the drive to and from work, that meant less time listening as well. Plus I got in the mood for some Christmas music at times. But I did finish a couple this month! So my time spent was 32 hours and 56 minutes, and that was for 5 audiobooks, two pretty short holiday listens, and another shorter one as well.

Found this fun yearly book wrap-up site to get this fun graphic too, although I did it before I finished up for the year, so it might be one book off:

December reading stats from The Story Graph:

December Reviews

Most of my reviews are caught up, although with my Top 10 posts the last week of the month, there may be a few that don’t get done till January. Continuing to do my L-L-L-Little Reviews and DNF Report posts kept me on track that way. I do need to come up with a way to make sure I get those all posted to Goodreads, Amazon, etc.

• [4 Dec] Where It Begins by Helena Hunting ★★★★★
• [5 Dec] My Darling Bride by Ilsa Madden-Mills ★★★★½
• [6 Dec] Sense & Irritability by Emma Lee Jayne
• [8 Dec] Whoa by Cambria Hebert ★★★★½
• [11 Dec] On the Plus Side by Jenny L. Howe ★★★★★
• [22 Dec] Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura DNF
• [23 Dec] If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy ★★★★½
• [23 Dec] The Getaway by Lamar Giles ★★★★
• [23 Dec] Oops, I've Fallen by Max Monroe ★★★★½
• [23 Dec] The Office: A Day at Dunder Mifflin Elementary by Robb Pearlman, Melanie Demmer ★★★★
• [25 Dec] OMG Christmas Tree by Stephanie J. Scott ★★★½
• [25 Dec] The Mistletoe Bet by Maren Moore ★★★½
• [25 Dec] Winter Kisses by Addison Moore DNF
• [25 Dec] Solo for the Season by Martha Keyes ★★★★
• [25 Dec] Gingerbread Kisses by Kat Baxter ★★★★½
• [25 Dec] A Winter in New York by Josie Silver ★★★★½
• [25 Dec] One Snowy Night by Jill Shalvis ★★★★
• [25 Dec] Christmas Every Day by Beth Moran DNF
• [25 Dec] My Not-So-Secret Santa by Sara Whitney ★★★★½
• [25 Dec] Christmas at Terminal 104 by Irene Micheals ★★★½

Challenge Wrap-Up

This is my final wrap-up for the year! I did much better than last year on most of my goals, even though I did drop my Goodreads goal down once I realized I wasn’t going to make the number I had the past few years. Is that cheating?

I’d already met and exceeded my goal earlier in the year, but in December I added 3 more with finishing up one I’d started this fall and two that were freebie ebooks I read for holiday reads. Next year I’ll probably do this one again, but I want to do so many more of the physical books!

1. The Hunger Between Us by Marina Scott
2. Twisted Love by Ana Huang
3. Lord of the Fly Fest by Goldy Moldavy
4. Always Jane by Jenn Bennett
5. My Second Impression Of You by Michelle I. Mason
6. Gold Mountain by Betty G. Yee
7. Spicy Pickle by J.J. Knight
8. My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth
9. Forging Silver Into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer
10. Rima’s Rebellion by Margarita Engle
11. The Lost Dreamer by Lizz Huerta
12. One for All by Lillie Lainoff
13. The Dachshund Wears Prada by Stefanie London
14. Beyond the Wand by Tom Felton
15. I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
16. The Warning by Kristy Acevedo
17. Shame on Me by Tara Sivec
18. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
19. Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson
20. Swing and a Mishap by Tara Sivec
21. Shame On Him by Tara Sivec
22. Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle
23. Christmas Shopping for a Billionaire by Julia Kent
24. Gingerbread Kisses by Kat Baxter
25. Oops, I’ve Fallen by Max Monroe
26. Christmas at Terminal 104 by Irene Micheals

I actually completed my goal of 6 this year with one last post in December! Yay! And I think I’ll try to join in again next year at the same number of posts.

1. Don’t You Know That You’re Toxic or Why Don’t People Get the Point of This Book?
2. Got to Get You Into My Life or How Am I Ever Going to Read All Those Books I Bought as soon as they were Published??
3. I’ve Had the Time of My Life or How Do You Feel About Book Conventions?
4. Dancing With Myself or How Many Bookish Friends Do You Have In Real Life or Outside of the Book Blogging World?
5. Can’t Buy Me Love or Have You Ever Tried to Keep Your Book Buying on a Budget?
6. Return to Sender or Do You Get Too Many Author Emails?

• Blogging:
  • 1. Keep my Netgalley percentage up to 80%. I was back up to 81% last I checked! Yay!
  • 2. Discussion Challenge: Completed! See above!
• Reading:
  • 1. I ended up dropping my Goodreads goal to 298, and I met that on the last day by going to B&N and fitting in a picture book.
  • 2. My TBR Challenge above.
• Writing – Guessing I failed this, because I decided that I am done with writing. However I’m continuing to help my author friend get ready to hopefully get a bunch of new readers at Flirty in KC in February.
• Book Buying Ban – Another failed goal. But I feel like I lasted a lot longer than I thought I could! I did pause both my Audible and Book of the Month subscription for the beginning of 2024.

What To Expect in January 2024

I think I will continue with Tackle My TBR, or maybe find another TBR challenge? I am going to do the Discussion one again, and I will probably do Bookish Resolutions with a few changes. Of the 11 specific titles I listed last month, I finished 9, and one I’m still working on – Voyager, really long, so I’ll be working on it slowly. I will probably post another Challenge Sign-Up post tomorrow too!

Here is my proposed TBR for January:

1. Somewhere in the Deep by Tanvi Berwah – got an ARC from the publisher at the AASL conference in October, I liked the author’s first book, Monsters Born and Made, so excited to read and possibly post my review on the 8th
2. Love, Naturally by Sophie Sullivan – got an ARC from the publisher, and excited to read and probably post my review on the 11th
3. Wayward Son by Jay Crownover – hoping to get an e-galley and read and review by pub date, the 12th
4. Sun Don’t Shine by Crissa-Jean Chappell – I’ve got an e-galley of this to read and hopefully post a review on the 13th
5. A Drop of Venom by Sajni Patel – another ARC I got from the publisher. Hoping to read and post a review by the 15th
6. Face Off by Teagan Hunter – Hoping I get the e-galley to read and review this for a blog tour on the 18th
7. My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland – I started listening to this as part of the read-along on Books of My Heart. Will post my review maybe on the 19th or 20th?
8. Once Upon an Algorithm by Clara O’Connor – the publisher reached out and I think I have an e-galley of this that I plan to post a review on the 19th
9. Wake Me Up Before You Cocoa by Kimberley Montpetit – Remember how I was going to cut back on blog tours? Yeah, um, well, I saw this series, and this author specifically is one that I liked her YA books. Even though her adult romance is “clean” or sweet romance, this whole series just sounds cute, so I signed up for several. Should be posting a review for this as part of a blog tour on the 23rd I think.
10. Just Do It by Maxine Morrey – This is for a blog tour review on the 24th
11. Baby, One More Time by Camilla Isley – also for a blog tour review, on the 26th
12. Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart: And Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott – an ARC I think I maybe got at AASL? Won’t be posting review until the 1st of February though.
13. Bride by Ali Hazelwood – should be reading the e-galley to post a review also the first week of February.
14. Any other audiobooks I listen to.
15. Any books from my Backlist challenge I get to, hopefully two of them since my goal is 24 for the year!

Final Thoughts

So how was your December? I hope you were able to get some joy out of the season if you celebrate any holidays. And I hope your new year starts off as well as it can! Did you complete your reading/blogging/personal goals in 2023? What are you looking forward to in January 2024? I’m getting switched over to my new planner this weekend! I’ve had to have both with me for the last few weeks, ready to be just down to one again. I actually decided to go back to the style I used to use, just kind of self-made with a Day-Timer yearly set and extra pages added in where needed to a Mead three ring binder. I don’t use all the extra pages in the really neat one I’ve used the last couple of years, so trying to go back to a thinner one. And I’ve already just about completely covered the new one with stickers, lol.

I’ve decided to also cut back on some of the giveaways I was doing. Maybe just back to giving away my extra ARCs. Which will mean no international giveaways for a while.