Category: Calendar Items Page 2 of 24

This year is speeding by, the way they do more and more…let’s take a quick look at the challenges and goals I set for the year

I’d hoped to keep charging ahead with Grandpappy’s Corner and Literary Locals, and while those haven’t completely died off, I haven’t done that much with them. I think the next couple of months should bear fruit along those lines, though. We’ll see. HC Chats are plugging around.

How’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own” goal going? Well, I bought very few books in February, so that helped, but overall…?

2025 Book Challenges

Goodreads Challenge

This actually looked better at the first of the month, but I forgot to get the image. Still, I’m on track.

Read Every Day in February for the American Cancer Society

Nailed it. Even better, raised a couple hundred dollars.

Reading with Wrigs
I missed completing this one last year, but have done some pre-planning on it and am about on schedule.

• • Religious theme: The Pilgrim’s Regress by C.S. Lewis
  • Set in a confined space: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
  • A book with a map: The Price of Power by Michael Michel (technically not completed during the first quarter, but…)

The 2025 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge

January–First steps: You have my permission to read the last book you added to the TBR pile: Sword & Thistle by S.L. Rowland
February: Short and Sweet: Read 28 short stories – they can be in magazine, anthology or collection form. You don’t even have to finish the books! Just 28 tales to read: Promise by Christi Nogle and Passageways edited by Rebecca Carey Lyles
March – Ready Steady Go!: Start a series, or the next book in a series that has been lingering on those shelves: Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames

Further Up and Further In

I’m on track here

25 in ’25

Ouch. Drawing a blank here.

Auditing Challenges
I’m not sure that I want to commit to these, but I saw them on Bookforager’s page, and wanted to give them a shot–they look fun. So I’m going to track them, and if I happen to do well with them, great. If not…oh, well.

(yeah, that’s true with all of these, but I’m sort of calling my shot with the above)
Alphabet Reading Challenge

Not bad…

Picture Prompt Book Bingo Challenge for 2025

Not bad…have one more finished already, maybe two.

I’m in decent shape, overall…

Finally it’s time to stop looking at 2024 (as fun as I hope that is’s been) and to start focusing on 2025.

Too many of my goals and the challenges I set for myself for 2024 were not accomplished. I’m okay with that, actually, because they served their purpose anyway, and/or weren’t that big of a deal. Still, I told myself I was going to scale back this year and only have 3 stated “goals” (you will soon see that this did not work out). Still…

I do have things I want to accomplish here over the next 12 months for a variety of reasons—and listing them like this helped last year (although, you’ll see a lot of echoes here from that post. But most of those echoes are of a “continue doing this” nature). So, here’s what I’m going to shoot for around here in the next 12 months.
Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own (a perennial project, but 2024 was not good for the size of that stack)—at least two of the Book Challenges this year should be a fun way to help.
I’m going to finish my Classic Spenser series and maybe find another Classic to do a project read-through. We’ll see about that. (This is a repeat from the last couple of years, but it’s nagging at me, we’ll put this one down in light pencil)
I’m going to continue to be picky in the Book Tours I participate in. I still like Tours, they expose me to things I wouldn’t normally read—and I’m going to keep doing them. But if I’m picky, it helps me focus on other things.
I was planning on cutting back on the Reading Challenges I was trying, but… Well, I already mentioned that. I’ll talk about those in a minute.
Try to interview more authors (maybe others, too?), and get better at that, too. The Literary Locals series is helping with that. Hopefully that also means more of the HC Chats, too.
I want to continue the Literary Locals, but I think I need to find a new phase of it, something different.
I plan on pressing forward with Grandpappy’s Corner, and hopefully do posts for it more frequently.

2025 Book Challenges

Goodreads Challenge
I lowered this from the last couple of years, although I expect my year-end numbers will be the same. This is mostly an attempt to shift my attention away from the numbers–I honestly don’t care about them, I talk about them just as an indicator of how I spend my time (for myself), although it often comes across as something else. I’m also planning on tackling some more thought-provoking and slower reads this year, so this might help me not care about that. We’ll see how that works.

Read Every Day in February for the American Cancer Society
I talked about this earlier. It’s pretty self-explanatory, really. If you’d like to contribute, please click here.

Reading with Wrigs
I missed completing this one last year, but have done some pre-planning on it and feel better about this year’s.

The 2025 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge

I really appreciate the way this one is put together, and it’s pretty easy—just 1 book a month and my TBR should go down by at least 12, more if I can squeeze in some of the stretch goals. This has been pretty helpful the last three years, and I expect the same this year.

Further Up and Further In
Thanks in part to Ward’s Planet Narnia, but also because I keep finding myself in conversations about Lewis lately, I figured it was time to spend some more time with Jack. For sundry reasons (good and bad), outside of the Chronicles of Narnia, I haven’t really read Lewis this century. It’s time I rectify that by revisiting some old friends and reading things I’ve been meaning to get around to.

25 in ’25
I keep seeing people do this (or earlier versions). I’m tackling it essentially as a way to do more than Booktempter’s TBR Challenge (also to tackle a few I’ve said I’ll read before and haven’t). Gamifying my goals tends to work. It’s like a year-long version of the 20 Books of Summer Challenge (RIP). You will note that the books from Top 5 books I will definitely* read in 2025 show up here, I’m really trying to tackle those.

Auditing Challenges
I’m not sure that I want to committ to these, but I saw them on Bookforager’s page, and wanted to give them a shot–they look fun. So I’m going to track them, and if I happen to do well with them, great. If not…oh, well.

(yeah, that’s true with all of these, but I’m sort of calling my shot with the above)
Alphabet Reading Challenge

The idea is pretty easy, I don’t imagine I’ll find a book for them all (that said, come November, if I’m choosing between a MG novel called “The Quest for Clean Underwear” and a bestseller called “Murder Most Foul,” you know I’m going for the Q)

Picture Prompt Book Bingo Challenge for 2025

My brain doesn’t do well with things like this, I end up tying myself in knots interpreting the pictures (too literally, usually). But I’m trying to do things outside of my comfort zone–also, I really did the look. So, we’ll see how I do. (I probably will get my kids to help, their brains do better)

That’s everything I have planned, I can’t wait to see what unplanned things happen around here. Hope you’re around to join in the fun!

I’d hoped to keep charging ahead with Grandpappy’s Corner and Literary Locals, and while those haven’t completely died off, I haven’t done that much with them as I expected.

How’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own” goal going? Well, I bought very few books in February, so that helped, but overall…?

Goodreads Challenge
I topped it by 1, but Goodreads won’t give me the silly graphic for 2024 for some reason. So you’re going to have to take my word for it.

12 Books

I didn’t touch any of these, and I’m really annoyed with myself.

Reading with Wrigs

Like I mentioned the other day, I didn’t finish this one, either.

• A Book with a Dragon: Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire
• A Book with the word “leap” in the title: Couldn’t think of one.
• A Book with the Olympics: Running and Jumping by Steven Kedie
• A Book with an Election or Politician: The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher
• A Work of Fiction with an Eclipse: Missed it
• A Book by an Author Who Has Written Over 24 Books: Dream Town by Lee Goldberg
• A Book Set in a Different Culture Than Your Own: I have an idea or two.
• A Book of Poetry: Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker
  
• A Book with Time Travel: A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen
• A Book with Antonyms in the Title: I really thought I’d get this one, but, alas
• A Book Told from the Villian’s Point of View: Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart kind of applies.
• A Book With a Purple Cover: Abnormal Ends by Bryan McBee

The 2024 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge

All 12, plus two stretch goals. Fourteen off the TBR. Sure, it’s just a drop in the bucket. But a step is a step.
January – Lucky Dip: Randomly choose a book by someone you’ve never read before: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Stretch Goal – In the same spirit I give you permission to read the last book to enter your TBR pile. Actually read something you’ve got yourself to recently read: Hacked by Duncan MacMaster
February – Lovers Meeting: No not romantasy focused – this challenge is somewhere in TBR is a delayed treat. Read an author you’ve loved and held back from reading because the time was not right. Its time for you two to get re-acquainted. Enjoy yourself! Return of the Griffin by JCM Berne
March – Spring :You know that first book of a series you bought and have now realised is now finished? You have my permission to read this at last. And you know what? Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn
April – Diamond Anniversary: Diamond is the birthstone of April so your challenge is to read something over 60 years old: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
May – The Fourth…May the force be with you and I permit you to read a SF themed tale: Grave Cold by Shannon Knight
June – The Longest Days: You may choose the longest book in your TBR pile the days are long so go for it: The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
July – The Ides have it In an ongoing tribute to Julius pick a tale of intrigue and scheming: The Last King of California by Jordan Harper
August – Travel Broadens the Mind: Choose a Book that is from an author from a different country to yourself: The Nameless Restaurant by Tao Wong. I’ve read all from other places that aren’t from this year, so…Canada (which doesn’t seem to count, but does)
September – Back To School: Choose a Book about a character learning something – be it in school, a new power or something about themselves: Project Hail Mary by Andy Wier
October – Yep Its Halloween Time: Find a spooky themed read!: My Darkest Prayer by S.A. Cosby (a murder mystery focusing on a mortuary worker, as creepy as I could come up with)
November – Short but Sweet: Four Novellas – and you cna do this in a month: 1-800-CallLoki by Dawn Blair
Stretch Goal – I test you – I want eleven short stories read – magazine, collection or anthology!: Instinct: An Animal Rescuers Anthology by L. J. Hachmeister
December – Parting Gifts: Read a Book gifted to you – before Christmas comes and you realise you’ve still not read it!: Shadow of Hyperion by JCM Berne

Backlist Bingo 2024

I did get a bingo, but not the blackout that I hoped for.

In sum…while I read a lot of great stuff this year (and even more good stuff), I didn’t do so good with my goals. Oh well.

(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)