2016 Year in Review

January 3, 2017

2016-in-review

It’s hard to believe that 2016 has ended and we are into 2017 already! 2016 was a hallmark year for me. In real life, I had some great adventures with my friends and got engaged. In the blog world, well, I created my blog and began my journey to make friends and better understand books. I think it’s only appropriate to do a high-level reflection on the previous year, as well as set some dreams for 2017! Without further ado:

book-stats

Thanks for Goodreads, it’s easy to get some books stats. I used to keep more manual track of my reading, but… well, tracking for the sake of tracking is exhausting. Now I’ll let other systems get stats for me. 🙂 Here are some of the more interesting statistics:

  • 178 books read
  • 48,807 pages read
  • 3 books DNF’d
  • Shortest book: Marvel’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Issue 1 (24 pages)
  • Longest book: Marvel’s Oz Omnibus (1,080 pages) [When I realized how many volumes there were, I went big instead]
  • Average book length: 280 pages
  • Average Rating: 3.5 stars
  • Most Read Genres: Graphic Novels, Memoir, Fantasy
  • Most Read Reading Level: Adult

favorite-books

When you read 178 books, there are bound to be quite a few 5 (and in some case 6!) star books! Below are a collection of my favorites. All links are to reviews on my blog.

least-favorite-books

And when you read any collection of books there are bound to be some duds. 🙁 It’s a shame, but it’s true. Below are my least favorite reads for 2016. Yikes. I hope to avoid 1-star books completely in 2017 (if I can help it). The two without review links were both 1 star reviews, hence the lack of posted reviews…

blog-stats

We’ve just passed the 1 year anniversary of Death by Tsundoku! YAY! I haven’t really looked at stats all year, but I am super curious, and I found this to be interesting.

favorite-non-review-posts

For most of the year, I only wrote review posts. Now I’ve started to branch out a bit. My favorite posts are still book reviews, but these are some of my favorite non-review posts from this year. I look forward to expanding this list in 2017!

2017-goals

In my 1 Year Blogoversary post I identified some aspirations for 2017. Those aren’t specific enough goals for me, however. Plus, today’s Bout of Books post is about goals for 2017! Here are my concrete goals for 2017:

  • Never have a backlog of more than 5 books which need to be reviewed.
    jbf-bookshelf

    My current bookshelf: A Kindle Paperwhite

  • Spend at least 5 minutes a day blog hopping.
  • Expand the book discussion question database by at least one book a month.
  • Maintain posting at least twice a week.
  • Participate in at least 5 cross-post style events (such as guest posts, readathons, etc) with other bloggers.
  • Make the Thanksgiving Readathon with Ottavia a real thing! Planning! Posts! Prizes! All of that stuff.
  • Expand my non-book review posts, specifically the Between the Line series and a few other series ideas I have floating in my head; write at least 6 this year.

 


What do you think?

  • What are your favorite and least favorite books you read in 2016?
  • What sort of posts are your favorite to read?
  • If you are a blogger, what is the post you are most proud of from 2016?
  • Do you have 2017 resolutions? If so, what are they?

26 Comments

  • Birdie January 3, 2017 at 12:20 pm

    A Thanksgiving Read-A-Thon would be so fun!

    • Jackie B January 3, 2017 at 3:40 pm

      I’m so glad you think so, Wendy! I will be certain to keep you in the loop when it comes around. 🙂

  • Bethany January 3, 2017 at 2:19 pm

    I want more books like The Martian! And by that books that are novels but share really awesome real-life facts. Also my goal for 2017 is to actually get close to finishing my Good Reads challenge 😛

    • Jackie B January 3, 2017 at 4:37 pm

      I completely agree with you! The Martian was particularly delightful because it had the pace of fiction but all the science and realism of non-fiction. I wish that we could find more books like that. Perhaps that should be a goal of mine for 2017, too? I can bring more books like it to our book club at least. 🙂

      Thanks for commenting, Bethany! I have high hopes you’ll reach your Goodreads challenge this year. Just make time for books which are less than 600 pages!

  • WordsAndPeace January 3, 2017 at 6:52 pm

    wonderful books and ideas here! your 2nd and 3rd favorites were also on my list last year

    • Jackie B January 4, 2017 at 12:20 pm

      I’m so glad you think so, Emma! I am not great about reading books the year they are published. I like to wait out the hype and read them once the dust has settled. I hope you can continue to see some of your favorites pop up here.
      Thanks for commenting!

  • Anna @MyBookishDream January 5, 2017 at 10:55 am

    I adored The Martian and Aristotle and Dante so I’m very happy to see them on your list!!
    It’s too bad about The Darkest Minds and The Gunslinger – both of them are on my TBR. I tend to love Stephen King’s work so I’m really exited to start his Dark Tower series, even though I have heard that the first book isn’t that good. I don’t know when I’ll get around to it. A friend of mine really enjoyed The Darkest Minds and she gave me the fist two books as a gift, so I’ll definitely be giving them a shot some time in the future!
    Great post! Good luck with all your resolutions. 🙂

    • Jackie B January 6, 2017 at 9:05 am

      I have been told by *many* people that the Dark Tower improves with each book. I just disliked the first book so much I can’t continue. I’ve never read King’s other works (I don’t do horror or thriller), so I don’t have an attachment to him as an author either. He wrote The Gunslinger as his first novel, in his teens! I’m not surprised I didn’t connect well.

      I look forward to hearing what you think of The Darkest Minds. There was something which didn’t really do it for me, but I definitely plan on continuing to read the series. It’s my first Bracken, and I don’t want to give up on her already!

      Thanks for the well-wishes, Anna. Good luck with your new year, as well!

  • Grab the Lapels January 5, 2017 at 2:42 pm

    Blog hop 5 minutes per day?! Holy moly, you need so much more than that. The posts pile up and people think you’re neglecting them, etc. etc. It can be exhausting.

    • Jackie B January 5, 2017 at 3:14 pm

      Oh yeah, I know I need to do more than that. But I don’t have a habit of blog hopping right now. If I can make it daily, I can build upon that. I definitely don’t have the bandwidth in my life to blog hop the way many successful bloggers do, sadly. Sleep is a larger priority to me for now.

      Once this is a habit, I will grow it. Baby steps. 🙂

      • Grab the Lapels January 5, 2017 at 4:12 pm

        I support your baby steps! *high five*

  • Novels And Nonfiction January 5, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    Ooo prizes for the Thanksgiving Read-A-Thon! I hadn’t even thought of that but that sounds like a great idea 🙂 Good job on your year of blogging, when did you officially start?

    • Jackie B January 6, 2017 at 9:11 am

      I am counting my 2017 goals as of January 1st. It’s close enough to my blogoversary and Goodreads can help me track things if I go by the 1st of the year. I’m lazy. 😀

      I’m starting to brainstorm some ideas for the readathon. We’ve got some time, but we should connect soon and see what sort of planning we will need to get in place.

      Welcome back to the States! 🙂

  • morethangeekylove January 12, 2017 at 7:20 am

    This is great and motivational! I plan on reading Illuminae, Gemina and some other of the books you have mentioned including The darkest minds. I have heard only good things about Illuminae so I am really thrilled to be reading it! It is totally normal to have least favorites books and in my case when I totally dislike a book I simply cannot finish it. It becomes a torture to me and trust me is admirable that you have had only 3 DNFs. Also congratulations on your engagement!! I wish you only great memories and happiness as well as health!! Love your blog and I would totally dedicate more time to it this year and I am curious to know your opinions 🙂

    • Jackie B January 12, 2017 at 1:06 pm

      D’aw, thanks Lin! That means a lot to me. I look forward to your eventual review of The Darkest Minds. I am almost certain I will read the other books in the series eventually, but I just didn’t connect when I read it. That happens more often than I’d like to admit.
      I don’t have a ton of DNF’s because almost all the books I read are for book clubs. I like to finish those books, even if I don’t like them, because I want to argue my point as articulately as possible. If you count books I’ve started but let fizzle, well, there are 4 sitting on my Goodreads Currently Reading list which have been there for months… Oops.

  • morethangeekylove January 13, 2017 at 3:00 am

    You are welcome!! And I hope to get to read it soon as I currently am doing reviews by request so I am a bit busy with other books that I have to prioritise. Still I would love to reach your level of readings as I am not that of a fast reader only if the book grabs me I can finish it in one sitting but that happens rarely. 🙂 And no worries I have 2 books currently put on hold haha

    • Jackie B January 16, 2017 at 11:16 am

      Haha– I’m not a fast reader, really, I just sacrifice sleep for reading time. 🙂 Also, do you read many books in English? That isn’t your native language, right? I cheat by only reading books in my native language. But I believe in you! You will do great things with your reading and your blog, and I can’t wait to see what happens.

  • Amanda @Cover2CoverMom January 13, 2017 at 1:25 pm

    Loved this recap of 2016 Jackie! I’m super impressed you read 178 books! The Shadow of the Wind was one of my favorites in 2016 as well and many of your favorites are on my TBR. I’m sure I’ll love them too since we tend to have very similar reading tastes.

    I also enjoyed reading about your blogging stats! How happy I was to see I was one of your top commenters.

    The goal to never have a back log of more than 5 book reviews to write is a goal I need to work towards as well. I want to say I am like 15 reviews deep right now? The struggle is real.

    • Jackie B January 16, 2017 at 11:11 am

      Thanks, Amanda! It was a bit of a shock to me to see 178 as my final number– that said, I read more and wrote fewer reviews by the end of the year. Oops! That’s one reason I need to focus on review writing for 2017. Important goal! If we are only looking at my 2017 reviews I’m on track. But I have 18 in the hole for 2016. Baby steps, I guess. I hope to get some downtime this weekend to catch up.
      The struggle is sooooo real.

  • morethangeekylove January 16, 2017 at 3:02 pm

    Ohh I do that as well and most of the time I am a walking zombie. And 98% of the books I read are mainly in English. This is because here in Bulgaria I have to wait years until they translate a book I would like to read, and no it is not my native language although I wish it was haha. And thank you very much for your kind words they mean a lot to me 🙂 and I already told you that, but I love your blog and its content!!

  • Diana January 30, 2017 at 8:18 am

    It seems like 2016 was a great year for you.Blog hopping is usually tough though necessary.How many posts do you do in 5 mins?

    I hope you have a wonderful 2017.Cheers to many more milestones in life and over here.

    • Jackie B January 30, 2017 at 9:56 am

      It was, thanks Diana!

      Honestly, not a lot gets done in 5 minutes. I made that goal for myself to get into the habit of blog hopping. Typically, I make it to one, perhaps two, posts before my 5 minutes are up. That said, I typically do that between meetings at work. Now I end up spending closer to 15 minutes a day throughout the day in 5 minute bursts. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely starting to build a habit!

      I hope *you* have a wonderful 2017 as well! Cheers!

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