My Year in Books: 2016 Edition!

Hey everyone!  So, here's my yearly book stats for 2016 and even though I still didn't reach 100 books like I originally planned, I still managed to read more books this year than I did last year, which was a huge accomplishment!  This time around, I will not list a TBR list since that usually distracts me from reaching my goals and I feel that I can be much more successful with my reading goals if I just pick whatever book interests me at the moment rather than read a book from an assigned TBR pile (although I'm still trying to lower my TBR list).

So, since it would take me a long time to go back and check back on the books I've read this year, I will cheat a bit and use the Goodreads year in books chart to show everyone what books I've read in 2016!

 

Total Books Read in 2016: 69 (+ 1 2015 Wrap Up Book)

Number of Graphic Novels / Manga Read: 36

Number of Picture Books Read: 27

Number of Young Adult / Adult Books Read: 5

Number of Middle Grade Books Read: 1

Number of NetGalley Books Read: 13

Number of Reading Alley Books Read: 0 

First Book Read: Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Last Book Read: Rosie the Raven by Helga Bransch

What the Statistics Are Telling Me:

* I've noticed that I've read a lot of graphic novels and picture books this year, although that has always been a thing with me when it comes to reading. I've always found graphic novels and picture books easier to read because they are quicker to get through and I can always reach my reading goals a bit faster with picture books and graphic novels.  However, me only reading 5 young adult and adult novels is a bit of a letdown since this would be the year that I've read the lowest number of young adult and adult books ever.

* I've also added in NetGalley and Reading Alley reads to the statistics since I just started using both NetGalley and Reading Alley this year.  I'm surprised that I even read over 13 books for NetGalley this year since this was the first year that I've used it and it's actually quite a large number for a first time user!  As for not reading a book from Reading Alley, because I've joined Reading Alley towards the end of the year, I didn't have enough time to request many books due to trying to get my reads from NetGalley down a level and trying to get the golden 80% rating, which I haven't gotten yet as of this post.

* The fact that I was able to read over 69 books this year was a huge improvement from last year. Even though I didn't read up to 100 books this year like I planned to, it was still an accomplishment to read 20 books more this year than last year!

Things to Improve On:

* I really want to reach up to 80% on NetGalley and I will start requesting more books for next year, but I will also try to continue to read up the books that are still on my NetGalley shelf in order to reach that goal.  I will also try to read more books from Reading Alley and try to read my first Reading Alley book for 2017 "Immortal Flame."

* I'm going to try to read more young adult and adult books in 2017 since that was the lowest number of books I've read for 2016 and since there's a lot of great new books coming out next year, this goal should be easy to get through!

* I probably won't do anymore TBR lists for my reading goals since it only distracts me from reaching my goals and I'm one of those people who prefers to read whatever comes my way rather than going by a set list (even though another goal of my in 2017 is to lower my TBR list down to at least 200 books so I can catch up on books that I haven't read yet).

* I'm not sure about whether or not I should make it my goal to read up to 100 books for 2017 since that's a goal that I have trouble getting through, but I will probably try to read up to 80 books for 2017 and if it turns out that I was able to read up to 80 books midway through 2017, then I will raise my goal up to 100 books or more depending on how much reading I get done next year.

* I'm going to try to read up to at least 5 classic books for next year since I rarely read classic books like "Dracula" and "Frankenstein," but I seriously do need some classic books in my book pile!

* If I can complete at least 6 reading challenges for next year, then that will be a nice goal for me to reach since I'm definitely joining a ton of reading challenges next year!

* I'm so going to try and use more pie graphs and statistics to calculate my book reads since I find that very interesting and it's a good way to keep up with the type of books and ratings you get for your yearly reads!