Looking back 2021, wasn’t my best year numbers wise, but I did read a lot of amazing books. I managed to finish a respectable 62 books with about 80% of them being advanced copies. Not bad if you ask me. 

It’s probably a bit too late to be doing a post like this, but life got in the way at the start of the year. I’m still posting this because I really like the idea and I’ve never done anything like this before. Plus everyone loves being a bit nosy and seeing what people have read at any time of the year right?

How I Did

Considering 2021 was my first year of working full time and I didn’t have as much time to read as 2020 I’m really proud of the number of books I was able to get through. With that being said I did hit some pretty horrible slumps multiple times last year and the pressure of delivering arc reviews on time did get a bit much. Not that I wasn’t grateful for every arc I received, it was more my fault for taking on so many when I had a very busy work schedule. 

Did I find the challenge hard this year?

I started out the year very strong by finishing seven books in just January alone, which included me finally reading the second instalment of The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater. It took me an entire year to stop putting it off and it’s becoming a bit of a running joke I have with myself. As it’s almost been another year I think it’s about time I get on to the next one. 

Anyway I digress. The challenge was not an issue for me until I went back to work full time in April. Once this happened I was reading less and averaging at just three books a month. I actually think if I wasn’t reviewing so many books I wouldn’t have been reading at all.

When November came round I really started getting into graphic novels and I soon realised it was a great way to pad out my challenge so it was actually achievable. 

Am I happy with what I’ve read?

Even though I finished more books last year compared to 2020 I didn’t find as much enjoyment from them. When writing my top 5 of 2021 post I found it quite hard to pick five books that I really enjoyed. I gave out a five star rating very early and I really thought it was a good sign for the rest of the year. 

Turns out it wasn’t. I only rated three books five stars and I found quite a lot of the others average at best. Hopefully 2022 fares better.

Unfortunately I yet again did not achieve a single re-read, but I’m kind of ok with that. I did really want to re-read The Lunar Chronicles, but looking back trying to achieve a re-read of an entire series was quite ambitious. 

2022 Challenge

For 2022 I have tasked myself with a respectable goal of 50 books. I’ve decided to cut down my challenge from 2021 by 10 books, which probably doesn’t seem like much, but it feels way more achievable to me. 

As I didn’t get a re-read done last year I definitely want to get at least one this year. To make sure I do achieve this, I’m going to get started on one in the next few weeks. 

My biggest change for this year is to try out StoryGraph. I haven’t quite got the hang of it yet, but if you want to be friends my username is: melyoungcreativepress

I did a post in December all about my 2022 reading goals so I’m going to go into too much detail here. Read it here: My Reading Goals for 2022

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WANT TO SEE WHAT I’VE BEEN READING LATELY? CHECK OUT MY GOODREADS HERE and my storygraph here

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Like this post? Why not read this one too: Top 5: 2021 Reads