Reading wrap up is not really the correct title for this post because it is going to be so much more than that. Having been away for a month things got a little out of hand and a little behind. I haven’t wrapped up December or 2017, I haven’t reviewed half of my January reading, I never quite got the AWW Challenge Completed post written and I haven’t signed up for the AWW Challenge in 2018.
Due to the reviews I still need to write, and book clubs to organise, I am going to do all of that wrapping up in one post because otherwise I am never going to get caught up. I also don’t have the photos I need because there is still stuff everywhere.
December saw me reading a lot less than I hoped, I ended up doing a lot of admin and holiday prep so reading time didn’t make the cut. I also realised that I would need to have somewhere for book clubbers to leave reviews so I did those posts a little differently. In the end my month in books looked like this:
Total Books I read in December: 5
6 Female authors/ 0 Male author
5 Fiction novels
5 print/ 0 digital
Books in a series: 0
5 stars on Goodreads: 3
4 stars on Goodreads: 2
Books that qualify for AWW2017: 3
Books for B&L Book Club: 5
I guess that’s still nothing to sneeze at in such a huge month but it did leave half of my book club titles unread by me though it seems our readers are enjoying them. I still plan to go back and read them when I have a chance.
My 2017 wrap-up is going to be a challenge in itself because I seem to have stopped recording things in my book which is a little silly.
Total Books I read in 2017: 86 (according to Goodreads)
82 Female authors/ 5 Male author (I think…. )
5 Fiction novels
5 print/ 0 digital
Books in a series: 0
5 stars on Goodreads: 47
4 stars on Goodreads: 34
Books that qualify for AWW2017: 54
Books for B&L Book Club: 73 (from what I can see at a glance I think this is right.)
Wow 73 book clubs, that’s not a bad effort at all really over 12 months. A lot of great reads we have shared with members of the Beauty and Lace Club.
Hopefully this year I will be able to keep better records…. she says when she hasn’t recorded any of January’s reading in her notebook.
Favourites would be way too hard a call really so I will leave it, there were some great books in 2017.
Total Books I read in January: 10
10 Female authors/ 0 Male author
8 Fiction novels/ 1 novella/ 1 children’s story
3 print/ 7 digital
Books in a series: 0
5 stars on Goodreads: 5
4 stars on Goodreads: 2
Books that qualify for AWW2017: 3
Books for B&L Book Club: 7
January ended up being quite a big reading month but that’s because we spent a lot of time in the car and I love reading in the car…when the children allow it. 7 digital reads, that’s a very high number because I knew that I would be travelling and there is only so much we can get packed in the car. Of those 7 digital reads I have 5 of the books in print so really it’s only 2 digital. I think part of the reason my tally was high is that I read so many digitally, I’m sure I read faster off the tablet.
My favourites for the month are super hard to narrow down because I started the year with some great books. There was a range of genres in there and some great stories so I won’t choose, you can’t make me *wink*.
Reading Challenges
So I have signed on for the AWW Challenge 2018 for 50 books again, and I’m actually going to be doing some posts for the Challenge Blog as well so that’s a bit exciting, my first one is coming up this month, a little nerve wracking I must say.
The Australian Women Writers Challenge was established in 2011 to help raise awareness for Australian Women Writers and start to even up the gender bias in reviewing books by women. This was basically all I knew when I decided to sign up to the challenge the first time but if you want to find out more about the challenge and it’s background the best place to get that information is the Australian Women Writers website. I have done a little background reading and I think this is a fantastic challenge to help increase the profile of our Aussie writers because there are some fantastic homegrown talents who deserve the recognition.
The challenge is about increasing our reading of Australian women but when I look at my recent reading history I find that reviewing for Beauty and Lace has certainly gone a long way to doing that for me already. If I was to compare my Australian reads now with those of a few years ago, the numbers would be very different.
The challenge levels are quite achievable but I have decided that rather than opt for one of the set levels (Stella: read 4, review 3; Miles: read 6, review 4 or Franklin: read 10, review 6) I am going to stick with read and review 50 books by Australian women in 2018.
I read and reviewed 54 for the Challenge in 2017 and I can’t promise I linked them all to the challenge, it’s one of the things I struggle with and I aim to do better this year.
I have already read 7 for the AWW Challenge in 2018 but I have not reviewed that many, hopefully I can play catch up this weekend.
The Goodreads Challenge is another I signed up for, after failing to reach my target of 90 last year I have dropped it again and will only aim for 80. Hopefully that isn’t too difficult.
On that note, I need to go hang some washing and tidy the lounge after a bunch of cute tornadoes ran through. Then it’s time to get some book club info happening.
Have a great day and happy reading!
Thanks for sticking with me for this longer post.
I would love to hear what you have read and loved recently. Are you involved in any reading challenges? Could you pick a favourite read from 2017?
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
I just recently finished an ARC of Every Note Played by Lisa Genova. It was so good. Very sad but yet so well told.
I enjoyed both of my latest Beauty & Lace Book Club reads (The Country Girl and The Last Days Of Us).
I am not involved in any challenges, even though I have seen some interesting ones out there.
You’re an absolute STAR, Michelle – I know I’ve said it before but I really don’t know how you achieve so much!!!! The Naturalist’s Daughter, Tea Cooper (Book Club read) and Rachael John’s The Greatest Gift which I bought, were as wonderful as anything I’ve read in a while. January started beautifully for my reading – I was lucky, I’m retired, have no little ones needing constant attention and it’s been too hot to do much else so I read. There’s no way you’d swap the “little tornados” and it’s a special time but also challenging – wonderful, but challenging.
Please realise how special you and Anna are, Michelle!! Have a great year.
Loved reading your post Michelle. I have vowed to be more organised with my reading and reviewing this year and started a notebook but alas the notebook has now gone missing. I love joining challenges but rarely complete them ( they are still fun though).
My favourite read of 2017 would have to be The Shape of Us by Lisa Ireland
What an interesting post Michelle and you are so busy and organised. I always envy people who can read in the car, it must make the journey much shorter. I’ve never been able to read in the car.
I’ll be looking up the Australian Women Writers website too.