Reading Resolutions for 2019

Hi you all!

Even though it already is almost mid-January, I wanted to post my 2019 reading resolutions. This actually is more for myself than for you, but I know that a lot of people really like seeing and reading these kinds of posts.

Since this year I really want to get back into reading (the last two years were, due to A-levels, quite stressful and I wasn't able to read much), my goals aren't ambitious but rather do-able.

And I suppose, it would be fun to look back at them at the end of the year and check, which I did accomplish and which I didn't.

So let's just get them over with:

1. Reading Goal / Goodreads Challenge

• I want to read 12 books this year. 

I know, it is not a lot, but I rather read more than that than not accomplish it at all. And since I already finished 3 books so far in January, I might even raise the goal on Goodreads as the year continues. If you want to check out, if I do raise my Goodreads Challenge goal, feel free to follow me (or add me as a friend) on Goodreads!

2. The books that count towards my goal

• In the last couple of years, I only counted the "actual" books I fully read towards my reading goal. This year I want to change that and count manga towards it too since I read a lot of those as well.
• Furthermore, I will count my DNF's, still not towards my reading goal, but because I want to use a spreadsheet (credits to Crini) to have more stats on my reading, there I will mark my DNF's too.

3. Statistics

So this leads to my third goal: I want to analyse my reading more and therefore will use the mentioned spreadsheet from Crini to do so:

• What genre did I read the most of?
• Did I read more male, female or mixed/other authors?
• What was the average length of the books I read?
• My best and my worst reading months?

And so on. I suppose you know where this is going.

4. TBR

I counted my physical TBR at the beginning of 2019 and it contained 74 books. For some, this might be a pretty small TBR, but I still want to reduce it as much as I can. 

• I would love to reduce my TBR to 50-55 books (but I don't want to pressure myself).
• To achieve that, I want to unhaul books that I am quite sure about not wanting to read anymore or I just lost my interest in them. 
• Furthermore, I don't want to buy as many books anymore but only the ones I am very interested in and excited about. I don't want to go on a book-buying-ban but I just want to be more careful with what I spend my money on.

5. Blog Goals

• As for my blog, I don't want to pressure myself too much. I obviously want to get back into the book blogger community and I want to post regularly (thought about 1-2 posts a week), but if I don't have the time to post as often (especially if I have exam season), I don't want to put that weight on my shoulders to get a blog post out. I hope you all can understand this.
• I thought about participating in Top5Wednesday again if I like the topic of that week. 
• If I do a lot of book reviews, I don't know. I don't feel that confident about the quality of my review skills, but I want to try to do them anyway (just please bear with me if they aren't very good).
• I want to try to do monthly wrap-ups od the books I read with a short review. So if I don't do a separate review for one book, you will always find my thoughts in a quick one at the end of the month.

So I think, these were all the resolutions for my reading in 2019.

Do you have any reading resolutions for this year? Feel free to leave them in a comment below!

xo Anne

REVIEW: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Synopsis

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart - the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning - and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

Review

This was my first Brandon Sanderson book and I really enjoyed it!

He surely is a fenomenal world builder and the Epic World Steelheart takes place in is very well constructed with many story possibilities.

The protagonist David and his story were really captivating and I liked it that throughtout the book his theories intertwined with the ones of the others. I think that his past really made him who is is in the book and even though it is very dark with his fathers brutal death it made him believe in many things. I found it quite sweet how much he informed himself about epics and his determination towards Steelheart getting killed. And he really grew in the story as in to what he believes and how things are.

The Reckoners were quite a funny lot of people with many differences but I believe that is what made them so unique and work well together. They all had their topics to deal with but still were a great team which took care of its members.

I really loved their relationships within the group and their open minds.

Steelheart and the other Epics were great villans and although bot all were really bad they made an amazing cast of the enemies with their powers and all.

The storyline wasn't mayve that unique with a rebel group wanting to fight the bad guy but Brandon Sanderson made it look unique, which it was in some aspects.

There were so many little and some big plot twists (especially at the end (the big ones)) which made the book very fastpased.

All in all, I very much liked this book and it won't be my last Brandon Sanderson one for sure!

I recommened it to every fantasy lover who hasn't read it already!

★★★★

xo Anne

Have you read it?

REVIEW: The Sleeper And The Spindle by Neil Gaiman

Synopsis

A thrillingly reimagined fairy tale from the truly magical combination of author Neil Gaiman and illustrator Chris Riddell – weaving together a sort-of Snow White and an almost Sleeping Beauty with a thread of dark magic, which will hold readers spellbound from start to finish. 

On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword and follows her brave dwarf retainers into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future – and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems. Twisting together the familiar and the new, this perfectly delicious, captivating and darkly funny tale shows its creators at the peak of their talents.

Lavishly produced, packed with glorious Chris Riddell illustrations enhanced with metallic ink, this is a spectacular and magical gift.

Review

This was my first Neil Gaiman book but I honestly wasn't really impressed by it. The writing style was great but hard to read sat some points.

I really liked the idea of the storyline, intertwining two fairytails, but I think it wasn't done too well.

The story wasn't told very detailed and you just jumped from one situation to another without really knowing who's the current narrator since you couldn't make a big difference at first.

I think it worked pretty good with letting the two stories combine even though it was unusual and mentioning the pasts of the fairytales too, but I personally couldn't connect to any characters. Probably because the book is quite short but as well that the characters don't seem like they want anybody to connect to them.

The queen seemed adventures and caring since she wants to protect her people and the dwarfs were funny too, but the other characters were odd.

And after the extreme plot and character twist at the end you have to think a whole lot about one of the main characters and this was confusing for me, a lot. And the end.. let just not talk about it..

The illustrations were what made the book better for me as they are so beautiful and underlined the story really well. And because of the book's length I was able to read it in one sitting under an hour.

So all in all it is a nice in between read which you can easily do before going to bed.

★★★

xo Anne

Have you read the book?