So I mentioned in this post that for 2021 I'm breaking the year into five sections of 12 weeks. Friday February 12th marked the end of the first 12 week block which means block 2 started on Saturday. My goal for block 1 was to read 12 books. How did I do? I did awesome, with 20 books!!! Considering I didn't even think I would make 12 books I see this as a major win! I did, briefly, consider setting my block 2 goal at 18 (50% more than block 1) or 20 (at least meeting my block 1 end number) but I've decided to keep it at 12. If I do awesome again this block then maybe I will change my goal number. The main goal here is to try and set aside some of the stress of 2020-2021 and get back into reading, not get back into reading then make reading stressful. I would love to make the goal of 100 books for 2021 but I'm worried if I set the bar too high (or, in this case, just below my normal amount) I won't make it. So what 20 books did I read?
Block 1:
- Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: 9 From the Nine Worlds
- Mrs Jeffries Turns the Tide
- Mrs Jeffries Rights a Wrong
- Mrs Jeffries Delivers the Goods
- The Witch's Book of Self-Care
- Little Guide to Love Magic
- Mrs Jeffries and the Alms of the Angel
- Falling Kingdoms
- The House Witch
- You Are Magical
- The Nameless City: The Stone Heart
- The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal
- The Nameless City: The Divided Earth
- Mrs Jeffries Demands Justice
- Warriors: Path of a Warrior
- The Wheel of Time: The Path of Daggers
- Warriors A Vision of Shadows: The Apprentice's Quest
- Warriors A Vision of Shadows: Thunder and Shadow
- Warriors Field Guide: Secrets of the Clans *
- Warriors: The Untold Stories *
Now, I'm pretty sure I have mentioned before that I have decided to shelve buying a new book series until I complete (or abandon, like I did with Goddess Girls) all the ones I am currently reading. If I didn't mention this before, I think I made that goal 3 years ago? I was looking at my pile of unread books, which numbered in the hundreds. And I don't mean hundreds as in 201, I mean hundreds as in over 500. I had just bought about a dozen new books for myself over the previous few weeks. It was a treat. I hadn't really bought myself a new book in probably four years at that point. There was just too much going on in my life with my marriage falling apart, moving across the country, finding a job, helping my kids adapt to school (from homeschooling), etc. I wanted to treat myself, and I usually treat myself with books. I bought a bunch. And since I don't really care for standalone books, the new ones I bought were all book 1 in a series.
Well, looking at my new purchases next to the 500+ books I had been sitting on for quite a few years, I realized I had a book buying problem.
Part of it was I was focusing on too many series at once. So many, as a matter of fact, that I set some aside to come back to "later" - then never did. Good examples of this are The Ranger's Apprentice, The Last Apprentice, How to Train Your Dragon, and Warriors. I would read the first couple of books, go "I really like this series - but I'm reading too many series right now. I will come back to this later," then I would never come back to it. I had to accept I had too many. Some, I donated - like How to Train Your Dragon. Some I started back up - like Warriors. Some, The Ranger's Apprentice and The Last Apprentice, are still sitting in my TBR pile and I am okay with that.
Another part of the problem was my kids wanted to share their favorite books with me. Suddenly new series like Wings of Fire as well as hundreds of graphic novels were added to my TBR pile.
And since I had so many series going on at once and I was shelving them for years at a time that when I finally came back to them, I completely forgot what was going on. So I'm skimming through previous books to figure out the plot, like with The Mortal Instruments/The Dark Artifices.
It was all too much. I donated most of the books and started working on others. I'm probably down to 150 right now and that number really doesn't change. For every Warriors book I read I buy a new one. I'm making a dent in that series, though.
So, why am I getting into all of this right now? Because the day I sat down and did a book purge, I made a list of series I own, then split that list up even further into different categories of what I wanted to focus on. And, I am happy to say, it has worked. I'm moving seriously along that list by focusing on just a couple of series at a time.
As of right now, with this post, I have FINISHED the Mrs Jeffries series. Now, more books will come out. The series is not done yet. But, I am completely caught up on a series I really enjoy. To me, this is a major accomplishment! Also, as of this post, I'm now at the point in the Warrior series where I have more books in my finished pile than my TBR pile. That might change when the newest hexalogy (The Broken Code) is released as a box set, but I hope not. With my Mrs Jeffries accomplishment out there now I need to pick out a new secondary series to focus on.
So, I just wanted to take a moment to shine on a major reading accomplishment for me. I was pretty excited when I realized I could officially cross a book series off of my list! It was not the first, of course. Percy Jackson was on that list, as was Magnus Chase. But I wasn't looking at 20+ books to read in each of those series, whereas I was with Mrs Jeffries and still am with Warriors.
I'm off to pick out book #1 for Block 2 now!
* Posts are written and will be posted soon
**(This post has been edited to reflect the new ending date of block 1 and beginning date of block 2.)
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