2022 Bookish Resolutions’ Evaluation

Let’s get straight to the point. After having failed to achieve almost all of my goals for the blog and reading in general in 2021, the same happened this year. My resolutions weren’t even particularly challenging, but life just got in the way and I’ve only been reading for short periods of time each day. Will this affect the way I think about declarations of intentions in any way?

At the beginning of the year, I was convinced that I would be able to read 35 books. I was planning to read only short books during the summer after all. That didn’t happen, though. In fact, I’ve only read in their entirety 22 books for pure enjoyment so far and, although I may still finish another one tomorrow, I won’t get even close to my reading goal. At best I will have read fewer 12 books than I was expecting to. A number higher than in any other year.

My second resolution was to take part in more reading challenges and initiatives. I did participate in the four I was hoping to (Daphne du Maurier Reading Week, Reading Ireland Month, Women in Translation Month and 20 Books of Summer), having had varying degrees of success.

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2022 Mid-year Resolutions’ Evaluation

Back in January, I listed the five bookish resolutions that I have for this year. The second half of June is the perfect time to evaluate whether I’m on track to fulfil those goals or not. Spoiler alert: I’ve already failed one of them!

Let’s start with one resolution regarding which there’s still hope, though. I want to read 35 books until the end of the year. So far, I’ve only read 10 books, which would be worrying if I didn’t plan to read far more books in the second half of the year, thanks to the reading challenge 20 Books of Summer.

Taking part in more reading challenges or initiatives is another of my goals. Not only am I participating in 20 Books of Summer at the moment (I’ve only finished one book so far, mainly because almost two years and a half later COVID got me and I felt poorly), but I also took part in Reading Ireland Month, during which I read One by One in the Darknessby Deirdre Madden and DNFed Normal People by Sally Rooney, and Daphne du Maurier Reading Week, having started reading at the time The Flight of the Falcon, a novel I ended up only finishing some days later.
The time hasn’t yet come for me to try to fulfil my third resolution, though.

2021 Mid-year Resolutions’ Evaluation

Can you believe that we are almost mid-way through the year? Time seems to be flying by. At the beginning of the year, I set myself some goals / resolutions regarding my reading and the content that I create for the blog. Am I bound to fulfil them? I think that I’ve been making good progress in order to be successful at the end of the year, at least concerning the majority of the resolutions.

In 2021, I set the goal of reading at least 25 books. This is a lower number than in previous years, because I’m planning to read a couple of huge books (longer than 800 pages). I’ve read twelve books so far and am mid-way through another one! Goodreads tells me that I’m one book ahead of schedule, so achieving this goal seems more than plausible. Of the massive books that I was hoping to read this year, I’ve already DNFed two of them for different reasons and at different points. I gave up on War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy after reading just a couple of chapters, while I read almost half of The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber before abandoning it.

Other of my resolutions for this year is to read at least eight books by Lusophone authors. I’ve read four so far, which means that I still have plenty of time to achieve my goal. I just may not read precisely the ones that I was thinking about when I wrote the post on my resolutions some months ago.

2020 Bookish Resolutions’ Evaluation

When 2020 was still a promising year, that is to say in its first weeks, I set myself a few goals regarding my reading and the content I wanted to publish on this blog. The time has now come to evaluate whether I fulfilled them or not.

I wanted to read at least 35 books, having even the aspiration to read more pages than the year before. I failed to achieve my reading goal, though. Not only did I just finish 30 books, I also read fewer pages than in 2019. I blame the pandemic for this. Throughout the majority of the year, I struggled to read for long periods of time, even when I was enjoying the books.

Another of my reading resolutions was to finish three of the book series that I was reading. And I did! I completed The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan, As Areias do Imperador (Sands of the Emperor) by Mia Couto, and The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante. They are incredibly distinct in terms of genres and writing styles, but I relished reading all of them.

2020 Mid-Year Resolutions’ Evaluation

Before revisiting the blog post that I wrote about my bookish resolutions for this year, I was certain that I wasn’t on the way to achieving the majority of them. That is not the case, thankfully. But I’ve still read fewer books than I was expecting to so far.

One of my resolutions for this year is to read at least 35 books. I was hoping to surpass that number or at least read more pages than last year. I’ve only read 12 books so far, though, which means that I’m significantly behind schedule. I should have read 16 or 17 books by now. There are still full six months left in 2020, and I’m hoping to spend more time reading than I have so far from now on.

I was also eager to finish three of the book series that I was reading. I’ve already completed two – The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan and As Areias do Imperador (Sands of the Emperor) by Mia Couto.  I’m currently reading Royal Assassin, the second book in the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, but I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the last one until the end of the year (it’s massive!). Maybe I’ll read the last two books in The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante instead.

2019 Bookish Resolutions’ Evaluation

At the beginning of 2019, I set some goals for the year ahead regarding my reading, this blog and the social media that I use (not exclusively) for bookish purposes. The time has now come to evaluate whether I have met them or not.

I read in their entirety 35 books, the exact number that I had set as my minimum for the year. Although I read four fewer books than in the previous year, I read around 1300 more pages, according to Goodreads. And this is without counting with the eight books that I didn’t finish for various reasons.

Another of my resolutions was to reread at least one of my old favourite books. I reread O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis (The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis) by José Saramago and loved it as much as the first time. Despite it not being an old favourite, I also reread Hamlet by William Shakespeare at the end of December, after buying a new edition. I am still not a huge ‘rereader’, but I don’t feel like I’m ‘wasting my time’ anymore, even though there are still a large number of books that I’m eager to read for the first time.

2018 Bookish Resolutions’ Evaluation

I had six bookish resolutions for 2018. And I can proudly announce that I’ve managed to fulfil the majority of them! In fact, I’ve only failed to accomplish one of my goals, despite not having done as well as I was expecting to regarding another one.

My main ambition last year was to read one book by an author from each of the still 28 EU member states. I called this project ‘EU still 28’ and completed it before the end of December. I read some truly good books and discovered several authors whose work I want to continue delving into. I don’t regret doing it at all! However, I have to concede that having a relatively long list of books set to read during one year was too restricting, and it was really difficult to find books that immediately appealed to me to represent some countries. Thus, I ended up reading a couple of books that I would have never picked up otherwise and that I didn’t like that much.

I had hoped to read 35 books during 2018. I surpassed that number, having read a total of 39 books! A small number for many of you, but one that I’m really proud of. I also started reading two books that I ended up not finishing, so they don’t count for this purpose.