I met my (adjusted) goal for the year! With that in mind, my 2024 mileage goal will be 800 miles. However, I’m adding a goal of 100 miles (of the 800) to be walked outdoors. I would like to try several walking and easy hiking trails that aren’t too far from where I live, but I also live next door to a park with a paved loop I can walk whenever I want, no driving necessary.
My overall life goal for the year is to live a more Hobbit-like lifestyle, with my word for the year being “Hygge.” That doesn’t mean that I will be eating 7 meals a day or enjoying sweet treats regularly; instead, I’m simplifying, slowing down, and cozying up. Since my “diet” goal is to cut the sugar and fast food again (other than 1 sweet treat and 1 fast food meal a month), I’ll bake my monthly sweet treat instead of buying it, and I’ll go through my cookbooks and start trying the recipes that sound yummy on the weekends instead of going to restaurants. I’m going to garden again this year, with plans to expand to a 2nd raised bed and maybe grow a tea garden. I will enjoy lots of tea, whether in a thermos outdoors or reading a book indoors. Essentially, I will continue to work on all of the things I’ve been working on for years regarding my physical and mental health; however, my path to good health will look much different. It will be less about productivity and more about my quality of life.
I’m going to continue to track my stats Sunday through Saturday and post on Sundays. Since living the Hygge life isn’t about stats, I’ll also include a few sentences in my weekly posts about what activities I did or what things I decided to let go of to better reach my goal.
“Building the Book Fort” is a weekly post where I track my bookish life.
Currently Reading:
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
How to Hygge by Signe Johansen
Found in a Bookshop by Stephanie Butland
Finished:
The Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
Total pages read this week: 338
Total books read: 101 of 80
This has been an excellent reading year! I finished 21 books over my goal, read nearly 30,000 pages, and rated 12 books at 5 stars (10% of my total reading for the year).
In 2024, I’m participating in a couple of reading challenges, #COYER and #BookSpin to tackle my digital TBR. I own over 400 ebooks and audiobooks combined, some of which I’ve had for more than a decade, so I would like to chip away at that a little bit while enjoying my new Kindle.
While I’m keeping my overall reading goal at 80 books for the year, I plan to reduce my TBR by 36 books. My plan for this is to change up my habits a bit by going for walks outside instead of going to the bookstore, which will also help me with my 2024 fitness goals (I’ll write more about that tomorrow in my #FitReaders post).
What are you reading? Let me know in the comments!
“Building the Book Fort” is a weekly post where I track my bookish life.
Currently Reading:
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Christmasaurus by Tom Fletcher
DNF:
A Lone Star Christmas by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone
Finished:
Nothing Much Happens by Kathryn Nicolai
Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
Midnight in Everwood by M.A. Kuzniar
The Winter Freak Show by Daniel Parsons
Total pages read this week: 762
TBR Mountain:-25
Total books read: 99 of 80
I’m back from visiting family in Arizona, and even though I finished two books from my physical TBR, I came back with two new ones. I also got the Kindle Scribe as one of my Christmas presents, and it’s awesome! On top of that, I got a gift card to buy some ebooks, so I’m looking forward to a lot of great reading in 2024. I’ll be spending the rest of the year going through my books to update Goodreads (I’m sure I’ve missed a couple of books that need to be shelved), setting up my book tracker for the new year, and figuring out new goals.
What are you reading? Let me know in the comments!
It’s been several years since I’ve participated in #COYER, hosted by Berls, Michelle,Lillian, and Stephanie, but I have so many ebooks I’ve been neglecting in favor of trying to get my physical TBR under control, that I’m going to join in this annual reading challenge once again.
I’m not going to repeat all of the rules since they can be found at the #COYER link above, but the basics are that there are four chapters for the reading challenge portion and four semesters for the community challenge portion. While I’ll participate in the community challenge as I can (which will include some readathons and other activities), my focus will be the reading challenge.
Chapter 1 will run from January to March and will return to the strict rules for Winter.
Chapter 2 will run from April to June and the rules will be a little looser (including physical books).
Chapter 3 will run from July to September and the rules? What rules?!
Chapter 4 will run from October to December and the rules will be like in the Spring.
Since #COYER Winter only includes free or nearly free ebooks and audiobooks that aren’t library books, borrowed books, or included in Kindle Unlimited, Amazon Prime, or the Audible Plus Catalog, I’ve added the books from my TBR that count to a new COYER bookshelf on GoodReads. I’ll pull from these throughout the year, and read other books when they count during the other Chapters.
Will you be participating in #COYER? Let me know in the comments!
Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
Read the synopses of the books
Decide: keep it or should it go?
My shelf is up a couple of books to 1118. I finished and started several books this week but added some to my wishlist.
This week’s books:
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë – KEEP. It’s a goal of mine to read all of the books written by the Brontë sisters.
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – KEEP. I will also read all of Dickens’ novels at some point since he is one of my all-time favorite authors.
Warcross by Marie Lu – KEEP. I’ve had this book for quite a while and have heard it’s one of the best YA Sci-Fi books out there. Perhaps I’ll finally pick it up during next year’s #SciFiSummer reading challenge.
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab – KEEP. I have loved most everything Schwab has published, so I’m looking forward to getting around to this one before long.
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty – GO. This book sounds amazing, and that’s exactly what many reviews say; it sounds great but is extremely slow and they put it down to read other books. I don’t have time for that.
My want-to-read shelf is down to 1117 books. The next post won’t be until after Christmas, but it will have more of the physical books I own.
One of the Boyfriend’s friends is visiting this week, so we’ve been busy busy busy. It also means I’m getting in a lot more walking than usual, and I think I might just barely hit my mileage goal for the year.
“Building the Book Fort” is a weekly post where I track my bookish life.
Currently Reading:
Nothing Much Happens by Kathryn Nicolai
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
Midnight in Everwood by M.A. Kuzniar
A Lone Star Christmas by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone
Finished:
Twelve Slays of Christmas by Jacqueline Frost
The Twelve Strange Days of Christmas by Syd Moore
It Ate Billy on Christmas by Roman Dirge
A Die Hard Christmas by Doogie Horner
The Night Before Christmas in Texas by Betty Lou Phillips and Roblyn Herndon
The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton
Total pages read this week: 598
TBR Mountain:-24
Total books read: 94 of 80
I’ve hit both of my book goals for the year! Assuming I don’t buy any more physical books this year without finishing an equal number of them, I have earned a new Kindle. I’m going to wait until after my Birthday (in January) to buy it, though, since there’s a possibility that the Boyfriend got it as either my Christmas or Birthday present.
What are you reading? Let me know in the comments!
Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
Read the synopses of the books
Decide: keep it or should it go?
My shelf is down to 1118 books. I finished and started several books this week.
This week’s books:
Dear Theo by Vincent Van Gogh – KEEP. Van Gogh is my favorite artist and this book contains his letters to his brother, which I think will be much more telling about his life than any biography.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune – KEEP. I have heard nothing but rave reviews for this book!
Tools for Slow Living by Agata Toromanoff – GO. This seems to be more of a design/style book than anything else and its overall rating on Goodreads is 2.73 with no written reviews. I bought it (along with the next two books) as an impulse during a trip to Half Price Books when stores were starting to open back up during the pandemic.
Stop Saying You’re Fine by Mel Robbins – GO. I got into Mel Robbins for a while after reading a later book of hers, The 5 Second Rule. This book seems to be all of the same information. I don’t need to reread about how not hitting the snooze button changed her life.
Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin – KEEP. While this book might not have any new insights than what I’ve gotten from other similar books, I’m willing to give it a chance.
My want-to-read shelf is down to 1116 books and I’m now only 3 physical books away from my TBR goal for the year. That’s much more doable than 5 books with less than a month to go. The next post will have more of the physical books I own and likely be the last post for 2023.
The Boyfriend and I went to the Christmas Ranch on Friday night and had a really good time walking around to see all of the lights and drinking hot chocolate.
