2018: My Best Reading Year

A year ago, I was in my bedroom, sitting at the desk I’m currently sitting, admitting to myself that I let my mental health get the best of me in 2017 and because of that, my reading suffered. I came to this corner of the internet and talked about how I had only read 10 books in 2017 (the least amount of books I’ve read in a year since I fell in love with reading).

It wasn’t an embarrassing thing to admit. Or a scary thing to admit. I wasn’t comparing myself to others. I didn’t feel proud that I read more than some friends and I didn’t feel inadequate compared to other friends who read over 100 books. It was the simple fact that I didn’t read as much as I wanted to that was so disappointing. I felt like I failed myself because I let something get in the way of something else I value and love so much.

To me, reading as much and as widely as I can is important. At the beginning of every year, I set my reading goal on Goodreads and I want to hit that goal by the end of the year. Hitting that goal gives me a sense of accomplishment and working towards that goal all year helps me to keep books central to my life.

So going into 2018, I felt a spark of determination. My small goal was to read 11 books, one more than what I read in 2017. My big goal, was 35 books.

By the end of May, I read 15 books. On December 27th, I hit my goal of 35 books.

I’m proud of myself. There is such a huge contrast to how I felt at the end of 2017, and how I felt at the end of 2018. The feeling of accomplishment is like nothing else.

Now, onto an overview of what exactly I read this year. The first book I picked up was Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas, which was released in 2017. I ended up audio booking it because it centered around my least favorite character at the time and the book itself was printed on those thin bible pages, which I hate.

Speaking of audio books, I fully embraced them in 2018 and listened to a total of six. They helped me stay on track of my reading goal when I was doing things like walking from class to class, cleaning my room, or even shopping.

I read two entire series in 2018. The first was Harry Potter, which I was reading for the first time, and yes, it changed my life. The second was the Throne of Glass series in preparation for the final book that came out in October. All of those were rereads and for that, I picked up the physical copy of Tower of Dawn and read it for the second time that year.

I also discovered a love for Holly Black, I grew to love To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and read the entire trilogy, I cried and cried while reading The Hate U Give, and I cringed my way through Twilight (a personal experiment, don’t ask).

For 2019, my big goal is 40 books, and my small goal is 36. I already have my January TBR set and I can’t wait to get reading. Let’s see how this goes.