2014 Goodreads Reading Challenge

[Quick side note before I begin this post. I usually do my Stacking the Shelves on Saturday, and then a post like this on Sunday. However, I am expecting one my shipments from Book Outlet's Black Friday sale to arrive today, so I will share those books in a STS post tomorrow.] 

I know that I am not alone in saying that I spend an insane amount of my computer time looking around on Goodreads. I knew of the site before I began blogging, and while I thought it was cool then, I did not realize just how awesome and helpful it was until I did start my blog. Along with starting my blog, came realizing that Goodreads allowed you to set a reading challenge for yourself in that current year. How many books could you read by the time the new year came around?

At the beginning of February when I started my blog, I decided to be extremely optimistic and set my goal for the year at 100 books. I had already enjoyed reading before, and did like to read in my spare time, but even I knew that this was probably extreme and unlikely. I wanted to actually challenge myself though, so I went with it. I had no idea that starting this blog would cause me to begin devouring books as much and as often as I could (of course, do note that a lot of this initially came from my requesting WAY too many books on Netgalley and signing up for WAY too many blog tours at the very beginning of my blog, because I thought I needed to. I've definitely chilled out with all of that.).

Due to those factors, it was mid-May when I completed my challenge of reading one hundred books. WHAT? I had been sure I was kidding myself at the beginning of the year when I set the goal, and then I completed it in less than half the year. After finishing, I felt great, but still had a lot of the year left so I had a couple of friends tell me that I should change my goal, challenge myself again. I decided that they were right, so I upped my number to 150, sure that it would probably be no problem after all of the reading I had already done so far throughout the year. Unfortunately, I was a bit wrong.

Over the past couple of months I hit a pretty severe reading slump. I read what I needed to for review and some books I wanted to read, but it was not nearly what I had been reading before. It happens to all of us, and I try to remind myself of that when I get really frustrated about it. I had always been ahead of the challenge, and suddenly I found myself getting more and more behind.

It is December 13th, and I am currently at 126 books read this year. That means I would have to read 24 books between now and December 31st in order to complete my goal. I think we all know that just is not going to happen. Am I disappointed that I won't complete it? Yes and no. I HAVE already finished one challenge of 100 books this year and I HAVE read 126 amazing books this year. But yes, defeat is a difficult thing to swallow.

Still, with half of December left, I have decided to challenge myself to get to 130 books before the end of the year. That, I feel, is a very obtainable goal. I have already picked the four books that I hope to finish before the end of the year as well, so I thought that I would share them with you. Two of them I have already begun, so that should make it quite a bit easier!

1. My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by various authors

I am already through three of the stories in this anthology, and I loved all three of them. I am very excited to continue with them and see what else the book has to offer. I hope to finish this one by the end of this weekend.

2. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

I am at about page 200 in this one, so almost half way done. Like with Cinder, this one is a bit slow for me as of now, but I am hoping it will pick up like Cinder did pretty soon. I need to get through it so that I can get to Cress and be ready for the releases next year.

3. Yes Please by Amy Poehler

She is so funny, that I think I will be able to get through this one incredibly fast once I get started on it. I need to finish one of the others first, though.

4. The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

I am ready to read the Throne of Glass series, and I have been told by a couple of people that I should start with the novellas, so that is what I intend to do. It seems like novellas might be easier to get through in my limited time frame as well.

So, there we have it. I am challenging myself to make it to 130 books read, and I intend to succeed. How are you guys doing with your Goodreads challenges? Have you already met your goal, or are you in the same boat as me? I would love to talk about it in the comments below!