2014: My Goodreads year in books!

I wanted to take a picture of myself with all the books I’d read this year, which ended up being a little more difficult then I had originally thought.  Pro tip, if you want to keep your self-esteem don’t try and take a full length picture of yourself sitting on the floor!  Anyway, after much stress this is what I came up with.  Here are *almost* all the books I read this year (about 10 of them were books I borrowed from family members and are now back safely at their houses).  As I mentioned in my last book post I managed to read 53 books this year, which works out at just over a book a week!  Honestly, I’m not sure how I did it.  I didn’t think I’d read that much so I’m really happy, I completely smashed my goal of reading 30 books.  So I thought I’d use Goodreads to help me look further at my reading this year.

I first started using Goodreads half way through 2012, (although it says I read 24 that year I actually read 30, as it classed the Harry Potter series as one book).  I have to say it’s the one thing that has really helped me to read more, I love updating and seeing how far I am progressing with a book.  The reading challenge is really helpful but can also be a little stressful if you set the bar too high!  This year I improved on last year by over 10 books, and considering I now work full time, I’ve got to say I am really pleased.

The first year I read just over 10000 pages without really aiming for anything, so since then this has become my goal every year.  Which is a bit more worth while then a book total because you can read 4 small books in the time it takes you to read one long one, and I don’t want to be put off reading longer books.  This year I managed to hit over 15000 pages.

Lastly I thought I would take a quick comparison between what I’ve enjoyed this year and last year.  I am pretty disappointed to say I only read two 5 star books this year, both right at the start, and a multitude of 4 star!  I’m not sure if this is because I have been reading worse books or because my reviewing is getting harsher, but either way I hope to improve on this in 2015!

As for this year, I did set my reading goal for 52 but then thought I was putting too much pressure on myself so I’ve dropped it back down to 40.  If I beat that then great!

So there you have it, what books are you looking forward to reading this year?