Lost in My Library

I've been talking a lot about how I'm behind in my Goodreads challenge, and it occurred to me that there are probably other people in the same boat. What better way to catch up on your challenge than reading short books? I've put together a list of some of my favorite short books in each of eight categories. I didn't put individual page counts, but the range is with the category name and I listed them from shortest to longest. Every single book here is fewer than 300 pages, and most are under 250. No matter what kind of short books you want to read to catch up, you'll (hopefully) find something you'll like! Picture Books (24-40 pages) Nonfiction (88-290 pages) Novellas (100-226 pages) Comic Books (111-256 pages) Books in Verse (156-210 pages) Middle Grade (182-286 pages) Classics (184-251 pages) YA (210-288 pages)   What are your favorite short books? Tell me in the comments - I need some advice for this, t...

I've usually had a good track record with my Goodreads challenges. It was a little bit of a struggle last year, but in other years, I've made it with time to spare and actually increased my challenge in a couple of cases. I was so sure that last year was just a fluke and I'd be back to breezing through my challenges without making any special effort. Not so much. I honestly don't remember what I set my challenge as at the beginning of the year. I had to lower it pretty quickly when I got horribly behind, and as of right now, my Goodreads challenge is to read 100 books. I know that's a lot for some people, but I haven't set it this low since 2013. And every year since then, I've ended up reading at least 140 books. My highest goal was 170 in in 2015, which I broke by reading 174 books. My highest number was actually the next year, when I set my goal lower but wound up reading 180 books. And now, when my goal has been lowered to 100 and we are (at ...

I didn't finish all of my challenges this year, so I'm going to do more challenges next year! That makes sense, right? In all seriousness, I think that this year's challenges are going to help me set more realistic goals for next year. In a lot of those cases, I didn't really know what a realistic goal would be, so I just picked a number. A lot of my challenges for next year are related to ones I did this year, so I can build a more doable goal from what I actually ended up reading. 2017 WRAP-UP Goodreads Challenge: I'm going to say I completed this one, even though I technically haven't done it yet. I'm so close, and the books that I'm planning on reading before the end of the year are so short that I think I can manage it. So 140 books, done! Backlist Reader Challenge: This one was a fail. My goal was 60 books, and as of right now, I've read 42 (which is a whole lot better than it was looking even a month ago). A few more of the book...

Welcome back to my week of 2016 wrap-up posts! The year isn't quite over yet (unfortunately), but it's already time to start looking ahead and planning for next year! I think I've spent more time planning next year's reading than I have for any other year - side effects of blogging, I guess! This post is basically the sum of all of those reading resolutions - personal goals and more organized challenges. 1) Read at least a little bit every day. One of the weirdest things about my reading habits since I got to college is that the time I spend reading each day varies greatly. I can go from finishing a book in a day to not reading for fun for two weeks, which is really weird for me. I want to make an effort to always be reading something, even if I only get through 3 pages a day. 2) Read more books by authors of color. I talk a lot about how I want to read more diversely, but looking back at the books I read over the year, I was unpleasantly surprised to find t...