Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Bookish Promises for 2023 Results

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.    

Welcome back to Tuesday. Seems I am going to stray away from the weekly topic again. The suggested topic is the "Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024." So many of you are great about staying on top of those, but I'm not one to keep track of what's coming soon... unless one of you fine blogging friends points me in the right direction. I've added two upcoming releases to my Goodreads "Want to Read" shelf if you would like to check them out. 

Since next week we will be talking about Bookish Goals for 2024, I figured this week would be a good time to share the results of the bookish promises I made in January 2023. 

Top Ten Bookish Promises for 2023 - RESULTS 

One First Chapter Review a week 

I expected this to be an epic fail. That's okay. I still posted nine First Chapter Reviews. For the most part, I focus on free Kindle books, so that I feel less guilty about grabbing a freebie and having it sit on my device for years. 

Read 10 books from my TBR Pile. 

I read 15 books from the TBR pile this year. Even though some of these were additions to my TBR pile in 2023, they weren't ones I had to review. Win!

Read 5 leadership books this year. 

As of October, I had logged 10 books, which was the final tally. Win!

Read one book in a genre I don't usually read. 

I read three books in genres that I don't typically reach for: Christian suspense, graphic novel, and tween science fiction. Another win! 

Post more regularly at my children's book blog. 

I created 27 more posts in 2023 than in 2022. That's a win!

Reconsider the book lists (including freebies) I subscribe to and delete at least one. 

I hit the delete button on a lot this year, but in December I unsubscribed from a handful. 

Take a writing MasterClass.

I made it through one, but it was hard. There are so many other things I would like to do sitting in front of my computer than take a class. I will give up my subscription in January, but I enjoyed it. 

Re-organize my works in progress.

Didn't get through most of this in 2023. Mostly because I took on paying edit work while having my best year in real estate. There is time to tackle this one in 2024.

Increase the number of paid editing jobs.

Definite win on this one. I know there are two more jobs coming this year once the author is ready. As for right now, I am editing my NaNoWriMo project. 

Submit one or two short stories.

Nope. Nada. Not even close. I'm really not a short story writer. I talk too much. LOL! I still want to pursue this in 2024.

That's how my year ended up. I am satisfied with it and ready to write out my Bookish Promises for 2024 next week. 

Happy Blogiversary to The Book Connection

 

Today marks 15 years I've been posting at The Book Connection. Thanks to all my loyal readers who have followed me through reading adventures, writing adventures, and family memories. 

Beyond the Books - 2018 Blogging Goals

Beyond the Books is a weekly feature hosted right by Kissin Blue Karen. Beyond the Books is a weekly writing prompt where she throws out a topic (mostly non-bookish) and others blog about it.

Starting off the year right our first topic is....

2018 Blogging Goals 

I've already set my writing, real estate, and personal goals for 2018, but let's nail down blogging in some detail. 

I shared on The Children's and Teens' Book Connection (TCTBC) that I wanted to be sure to blog at each of my four blogs twice a week. TCTBC focuses on books for pre-schoolers up to young adults (depending on content).

The Book Connection, as you know since you're here, is for adult fiction and non-fiction.

An Imperfect Christian Mom is a blog discussing topics that are important to me as a Christian mom, including family friendly books and movies.

Books Can Be Deadly is a blog about mystery, suspense, thrillers, and true crime books.

I also blog twice a month at Christian Children’s Authors where I am one of a group of Christian authors discussing family activities, books, writing, and more.

How can I achieve my goal?

1. Add blog days to my calendar. I'm working on time blocking my calendar in earnest and adding those dates (I'm such a paper calendar girl) to Outlook so they feed into my phone and provide me reminders that aren't as easy to ignore.
2. Set aside one hour on Sunday evenings to pre-schedule the following week's posts. This will be tough because I work so much and in the evenings I am usually tired. It might have to become early Saturday morning. 
3. Participate in two weekly blog memes. This is one of the easiest ways to add blog content. Some are more time consuming than others, so I'll have to choose wisely.  
4. Look over my book review spreadsheet and put forth a plan to promote books if I haven't had time to read them yet. While I can't control how long it will take me to read a book or how much reading time I'll have, I want to focus on creating a regular blog column that enables me to discuss books in my TBR pile. Used to be the First Chapter Review, but those might take more time than I have. Still plan to continue the First Chapter Reviews when I have time.

What do you think of these goals? What are some of your blogging goals for 2018? How many years have you been blogging? If you have a special blogging anniversary coming up--5 years, 7 years, 10 years, etc.--are you planning anything special? 

The Book Connection Year in Review

We are about an hour away from 2017. Have you already considered your new year's resolutions? I only have one this year and it is based upon on what I missed in 2016: time to enjoy what I love most.

I was just browsing through The Book Connection's archives for this year and discovered I read 23 (not 21 as I said earlier this week) books. Seven of them were picture books that didn't appear here. Here's a look at what was reviewed:

The problem is, I used to read over 100 books a year. Now, I don't expect that will be the case in 2017 because I'm working outside of the house now and I wasn't before; but just like I took last year's resolution to lose weight, eat better and exercise more seriously, I am embracing this resolution 100%.

I vow to make more time for:

• Family
• Reading
• Writing
• Cooking
• Gardening

These are the things I enjoy the most. Those are the people I want to dedicate more time to. As such, I am working on my 2017 calendar and seeing how I can arrange things to dedicate at least one day off to family each week and cook real food at least three days each week. I also want to plant a garden in the spring, something I didn't get to this year. Even if I only write a chapter once a month, that will be more than I did in 2016. As far as reading goes, I would like to double the number of books I read in 2016. 

If you have any tips to share I would love to hear them. 

Wishing you all a happy and healthy new year!

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2015 -- bookish, blogging or otherwise!

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they will post a new Top Ten list that one of the bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2015 -- bookish, blogging or otherwise!

1. Catch up on my TBR Pile. This truly is a hopeless cause, but I must add it. With 334 books on my 2015 TBR list (those are only the ones on a spreadsheet, not all the books in my office I want to read) and 475 free books on my devices, catching up is far, far away. I simply want to make 2015 the year I read every book I agreed to review for someone. And for gosh sakes, if you hear me taking on a new book to review, give me a virtual slap.

2. Catch up on writing reviews. Thankfully I am almost done with this one. I wrote a few reviews this week at my kid's book blog and one here. I have at least one more to go. 

3. Re-organize my books. This is a low priority item, but something I want to do. I'm sure I have some books I can donate, but who knows what the heck is in my office right now. I can barely find the floor.

4. Reconsider my blogging duties. This I must do out of necessity. Now that I am working outside the house (if you're looking to buy or sell a home in MA, call me) I simply can't run so many blogs. I think I will only dump one and just post things of interest to its Facebook page, but I'm not sure yet. All I know is that things are changing. You'll notice that the Upcoming Events page is back in my navigation bar, so I think this blog will stay rather active. 

5. Finish my middle grade novel. Amelia's Mission seems to have dragged on forever. I'm hoping to use some recovery time from surgery this coming February to polish it off. 

6. Get in shape. This will have to wait until after my recovery, but it is coming. I have new cookbooks too, so the family better watch out. 

7. Clean out the basement. This is the lowest priority item on the list. Our plan is to finish off the basement at some point, but I honestly have no idea where all that stuff we have there now will go. We certainly don't have enough attic space to store it. 

8. Seriously look at self-publishing. I want to do it. I know I will. I just need to learn more about it.

9. Re-organize my closet. Another low priority item, but one I hope to tackle. Now that I am buying more business clothes, I need the room.

10. Stage my house. This is last, but definitely not least. We've been here 15 years now...and it looks it. I'm learning more about staging as I work in real estate. I also know two professionals stagers. Before the holidays next year, I want this place looking beautiful. 

Hope you'll share some of your 2015 goals with us. 

Total Books Read Across All Genres and 2014 Blog Goals

So, what did my reading year look like? You already know my favorites, which I talked about here. This year, I read 115 books across all genres (including children's and young adult). That's only 16 fewer than last year, so considering how busy I was, that's not bad.

So, what does 2014 look like? As I already mentioned, I won't be participating in as many virtual book tours this year. Honestly, I don't feel that's a bad thing--for me or my readers. I hope you feel that way too. I have a couple final VBT reviews scheduled for January and one for February. While I might take on new books, my focus must be on all those books in my mammoth TBR pile. Right now, my spreadsheet reflects 288 books--and that doesn't even count all the Kindle freebies I've downloaded over the past year. Luckily, only a dozen of those paperbacks and 50 digital books are ones I agreed to review for authors/publicists.

In addition to catching up and giving myself some breathing room, I plan to continue with Top Ten Tuesday created by The Broke and The Bookish when I can. I also hope to participate in Musing Mondays and W...W...W...Wednesdays, which were created by MizB at Should Be Reading.

One final project is dedicating a tiny bit more time to my other blogs that have branched off of this one:

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection : http://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com/

A Little Bit of Spice: http://spicyromanceconnection.blogspot.com/

Cheryl's Christian Book Connection: http://cherylschristianbookconnection.blogspot.com/

Books Can Be Deadly: http://bookscanbedeadly.blogspot.com/

I'm in the process of populating Books Can Be Deadly with some of the older posts from here. Then I will be featuring crime fiction, mysteries, thrillers, suspense novels, and true crime books at that blog.

Thanks for your loyal support through the years. It is greatly appreciated.

Happy New Year!