Mid-Year Check-In: 2014 Reading Goals

Can you believe we are already halfway through 2014?! I feel like I blinked and here we are at the end of June! Which means it's time for a mid-year check-in on our 2014 Reading Goals to see how we're doing thus far. Spoiler alert: if you need to feel better about yourself today, you've come to the right place. :)

Lesley Anne's 2014 Reading Goals - An Update

1. Read at least 40 books. I've read 16 out of 40 books so far, which means I'm currently 4 books behind schedule. I'm not too worried about reaching this goal, though, since at any point in the year it's easy to be behind or ahead of schedule depending on life circumstances.

2. Read a book of the Bible every month. This goal is going to have to change a little bit. Our small group has been doing a study on the book of Romans since January, and since we only meet twice a month, that means we've spent a lot of time in Romans this year. Which is totally fine with me -- Romans is full of GOOD stuff!

3. Read all of Jane Austen's novels. I'm doing ok on this one. Back in February I wrote an entire post dedicated to this and listed out my planned reading schedule. So far I've read Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, and loved them both! I've started Mansfield Park, but I have a feeling it's going to be the bane of this entire project. I just can't get into it at all, but I know I'll trudge through it eventually.

4. Read more of my eBooks. Um, no comment?

5. Keep a quote journal. I had every intention of keeping an actual journal for this, but it's so much easier to keep this up electronically. My method has been to take a photo of the page with the quote while I'm reading (so I can remember who said it and the page number), and then go back and type it up in a Google spreadsheet later. This method is definitely not perfect, and doesn't work for me every time, so if y'all have any tips on what you like to do for quotes (especially for audiobooks), I'm all ears!

Jenny's 2014 Reading Goals - An Update

1. Read more non-fiction.  I am doing awesome on this one. My secret? Research for my thesis! I know, it's kind of not fair that I am using books I have to read to fulfill this goal. Aside from my thesis, I have been doing okay on this goal.

2. Stop finishing books I hate. Not doing so great on this one. There were a couple of books this year, one in particular, that I was so bored with but had to finish because it was part of a series. Oh, well.

3. To have more self-control regarding reading (i.e.- stop putting off tasks that need to be done just so I can finish a book). I am doing okay on this one. There have been several times when the laundry was not done due to a book being published that I had been waiting to read. My thesis (again) is helping me out with this one because I am actually having to be more disciplined in what I do read. I am not reading as much fun stuff as I would like. So... I'm kind of doing well on this one? That sounds good.

4. Trust others' book recommendations.  I just read The Peach Keeper based on Lesley Anne's review (found here) and I LOVED it. I want to devour all books by this author now. I also found two series I am loving right now- The Mercy Thompson and Alpha & Omega series- based on a friend's Goodreads review. So far, so good!

5. Check out more books from the library. This one is a complete fail. I still do not have a membership to our local library. I am killing it at the UGA library, but those are a bunch of books about allegory and Grendel- not what I was talking about when I made the resolution.

The next time we revisit these goals, it will be December and we'll be doing an end-of-the-year wrap up! I'm sure it will be here before we know it! So let's discuss: How are you doing on your 2014 reading goals so far?