2014 Wrap-Up: My Bookish Accomplishments This Year

Image sourced from Peddhapati at Flickr

At the end of every December, I look back and marvel at how quickly the year has come and gone. And it almost feels as if with every year, the speed of its passing seems to be that much quicker. I feel like I'm getting old.

2014 has been quite an up and down year. Career-wise, I've finally graduated and started working. It's been quite an experience. So much to learn. So much to do. So much to overcome. With the final two weeks of my internship looming ahead of me, residency is starting to look mightily scary!

Book-wise, 2014 has been a big year. It's been the first year that I've really started to read novels in large volumes. And when I started this blog back in February, I had five bookish goals for the year. So let's have a look and see which ones I've accomplished.

1. Goodreads 100 books challenge

Success! I have, at the moment of typing, read 105 books for the year so yes, I have completed this challenge! I was off to a flying start in the first couple of months, especially during my fortnight of annual leave but then my reading tapered off. I hit a reading slump towards the third-quarter of the year and am only now slowly crawling out of it.

2. Read 10 classics

I've never been a fan of the classics and sadly, I didn't complete this goal this year. I've read two classics this year, namely 1984 by George Orwell (mindblowing!) and A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (which I find okay). 

3. Read 10 books from the genres Science Fiction, Crime/Mystery, Memoir & Historical Fiction

I have read 10 books in total from the genres listed above (even though I didn't read a memoir). So success! 

4. Read at least 1 play and 1 book of poetry

Half-half. I did read one volume of poetry The Winnowing Fan by Laurence Binyon (so technically I've read 106 books!), a slim collection of poems on the Great War including the famous "For the Fallen" parts of which are recited every Remembrance Day here in Australia (and elsewhere in the world). However, I didn't get around to reading a play.

5. Write reviews for at least half of the books I read

I've written 35 reviews this year, so I'm about 17 reviews short of target. Part of me is a bit disappointed that I didn't quite reach the target I set for myself. But another part of me is proud that despite the blogging slump I fell into recently, I have written the number of reviews that I have and I still have an 100% ARC to feedback ratio on netgalley. 

So there you go. That's how I've done on the goals that I've set myself in the beginning of the year. It's a bit of a mix-bag but I'm happy with how I've done. 

What about you? How did you go this year with your bookish goals?