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Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Reading Report for 2013 and Goals for 2014

Happy New Year! I wish all of you the best for 2014.

As has become tradition on this blog, I start the new year by looking back at my reading. I track my books through Goodreads; you can find the list of books I read here. My original goal was to read 175 books, since I read 174 books in 2012. (I track everything from short stories to omnibus editions; if it's listed on Goodreads, I track it.) I then increased my goal to 200. How many did I wind up reading? 230. Yeah, that's a lot, but keep in mind books are my main source of entertainment. (I don't watch TV.) Once again, I have to thank my Kindle for making all that reading possible. I know at least ten of these books were in paper, but I'm not sure if any others were paper. Obviously, the vast majority of my reading is on the Kindle now; I prefer it to paper, even when I'm at home and have lots of paper books to read.

I simplified my genre breakdown this year to four categories:

Fantasy: 95
Science Fiction: 52
Non-Fiction: 67
Other Fiction (everything else besides SF/fantasy): 16

Every category except Other Fiction is up from 2012.

Recommended Reads:

Fantasy: Brood of Bones and the sequels, The Curse of Chalion, All the Paths of Shadow, Vessel, Books I and II
Science Fiction: Khe
Other Fiction: Just Exactly How Life Looks
Non-Fiction: A People's History of the World

I had to break up my "To Read" Collection on my Kindle because it was so big I couldn't find specific books. Now I have four to-read collections:

Fantasy: 227
Science Fiction: 198
Non-Fiction: 197
Other Fiction: 45

That's not including the nearly fifty paper books I have to read. The stack (see picture) is taller than my son. (Note: son not shown.)

Even though I don't read every sample I download or finish every free book, it's obvious I'm never going to conquer my To-Read pile. I'm downloading more books every day. Ah well, I wonder if I'll catch up when I retire.

As for goals for this year, I'll finish up a year-long poetry project in March, so it will be available (if I don't lose my courage) by April. I also want to publish Season's Beginning, the first book in my fantasy Season Avatars series, by May and the next installment of the Catalyst Chronicles by the end of year. Since these stories are still in draft form, there's a lot of work ahead of me. I'm going to try tracking my writing/editing for a while to see if that helps me be more productive.

Anyway, if the snow isn't too bad, we're off to the Field Museum today, so I'd better stop blogging and get some writing done. Enjoy the rest of your day, and remember, you don't have to accomplish all of your goals today; baby steps will get you there too.


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