Reading is Better With Cupcakes: Reading is Better With Cupcakes Year End Wrap Up *2016*

Oh geez! The year is finally over! FINALLY!

Personally, this year wasn't too eventful, which is a good thing I guess. I mean things happened...I lost some friends, I gained some friends. I lost myself a little, I found myself a little... Really it was probably a fairly middle ground sort of year, which I guess is okay. I mean...it could have been worse, but it also could have been better...

In regards to blogging, I actually think I had a good calendar year! My blog is right around 1.5 years old and I think it is going strong. I have started to build some relationships with publishers and authors - which I am super thankful for. I mean, as you know, I really like spreading the love of books to those around me, and these relationships are definitely helping me to accomplish this. I don't think I posted as often as I did originally every month, but I am still posting multiple times a month...the child likes to make me not be on the computer as often now so I get things done when I can.

And then, when it comes to spreading book love in my more immediate community, I have been trying to be more active there as well. Obviously this was easier when I had been a bookseller, but I have found a way. A small way, but still a way. There is a subgroup of people in my town that have been pushing for Little Free Libraries, and while I cannot have one myself (association and hubby are my roadblocks) I have been donating my books to the ones that do exist. I have managed to donate to two different libraries so far...very very large boxes of books! Hopefully I can get two more of these nice sizable book donations done in this coming year to 2 more LFLs! I am always accepting donations to give to these libraries...please feel free to contact me if you would like to donate to them. Our community really needs young adult and middle grade books! The libraries go through the ones they do get super quick!

Finally...my last years goals...yeah...I sucked at most of them. But I tried!

Here is what they were:

150 books - Well I managed to reach 135...which is not bad at all really. I almost got there!
Do atleast 1 reread a month - I got through 9 (thanks to audiobooks) which is actually a lot better than I have done in the past with rereads, but it is still 3 books short :(
Read at least 1 indy/self published book a month - This one I did pretty bad with. I think I only read about 5 or 6 of these...definitely no where near the 12 that were my goal.
Read 1 back list title a month - This one I surprisingly didn't do that poorly on (depending on your definition of what makes a backlist title!) and read about 15ish or so of these!
Read 1 classic - I think I got one of these in. I am counting The Hatchet as a classic dangit!
Read 1 biography/memoir - I kind of sort of read 1 of these. It was technically a fictional story based off of his real life. They played fast and loose with some bits for reasons explained after the story ended.
Up my Netgalley percentage to at least 50% - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I don't know if it went up at all. It might have gone down!
To keep up the love of reading and to share my book love with others. - This one is a constant work in progress. Hopefully in this next year I can think up a few more ways to spread the love. Maybe I just need to randomly give books to more people than I did this year! But please, if you have ideas on how I can do more of this please let me know them!

So I guess that leads me to what my bookish goals for 2017 are going to be.... So here they are:

75 books read
At least 1 reread a month (audio or actual reading)
1 classic
1 biography/memoir
1 discussiony post at least on the blog a month
To read more diversely - more books by POC, books with POC main characters, more Own Voices titles, more books with LGBTQIA main characters, etc etc etc
Post more bookish photos onto IG more regularly
To continue to spread the bookish love with people around me and people far away

I am sure over time I will come up with more specific things I want to accomplish as far as reading and spreading the love of books goes. Maybe I will try to do more specific challenges as they pop up - for example, I know I will be participating in ARCAugust if it happens again next year.

And now that we have gotten my goals out of the way I want to share with you some of my favorite books that I read from this past year! And some how I didn't really read any romance this past year, and what I did read was just okay...so that is why there is no YA romance category!

Picture Book