Reading Reflection: 2018

2018 is at an end, and I can honestly say that this has been a difficult year for me. I left a job I was quite comfortable in and all of my family and friends to move across the country. The goodbyes were intensely painful and my new home, while fine, has been an adjustment to get used to. All of these changes has meant that my reading this year wasn't as prolific as I'd hoped. I fell short of many of my goals. However, with everything I've had to navigate through, I think I did okay overall. Here's the breakdown:

My Goodreads challenge was to read 50 books this year. I only made it to 44. This is the lowest amount of books read in a year for me since 2012. I attribute this to all of the stress of moving and I hope to get to a better number in 2019.

I was supposed to read 20 more books off my Classics Club list this year. I only read 13. I still have three years to finish my list. I need to use this coming year to catch up!

I did actually finish my Back to the Classics Challenge in 2018! I read a total of 12 classic novels from different categories. My wrap up post for that is here.

I wanted to donate some of the books off my shelves this year. I ended up donating a total of 21 books to either book donation boxes or to my classroom library. Not too bad!

I had a goal to read more nonfiction books this year. I didn't end up reading all of the ones I owned (which was my initial goal), but I did read 10 of them, which is definitely the most nonfiction I've ever read in a calendar year. So I partially accomplished my mission. I want to continue reading more nonfiction in the future, as several of these books became new favorites!

I have to admit that I'm a bit sad I didn't get through all of the books I planned to in 2018, but as I said, it was a difficult year. The times when I let stress get the better of me and I wasn't reading were very hard. If I have learned anything through this experience, it is that I need to read more when things get rough, not less! I'm hoping that 2019 brings with it more books, more fun, and the discovery of my new normal.