#lisareads2016 - Let's Get Started!

It's that time of year again...time to start a new Book List, and wrap up the current year's list.

An Explanation: I have been keeping track of my reading lists on this blog since 2011. It's a good way not only to keep track of the books I read, enjoyed (or hated), and see how my preferences and reading habits have changed (or remained the same) over the years. That was the year I started setting a numerical goal of books to read for the year. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, by any means. More of a gentle guideline, and reminder. How I get to that number has changed over the years, but it's always been 52. And it is one goal that I set for myself that I can be confident in completing!

Most of the books I read are IRL copies from the library (88% last year), but this year I would like to add more audiobooks and e-books to the list. When I started this list, I had a separate goal for # of library books read, and # secondhand/borrowed books read. I have eliminated those categories this year.

If a book is marked with two asterisks ** this means "I Recommended You Read This". In the past I have marked library books as such, and if the title was YA ("young adult") or a graphic novel (the latter not counting towards my total). This year, I might include a reference to the genre, but I kind of like keeping this page as clean as possible. Perhaps a link to the Goodreads page would be helpful? I am terrible at writing book reviews, and had to give those blog posts up awhile back, but I can at least give you a little bit more info!

Here is a link to my Goodreads page, in case you're interested in seeing what I've rated each book, and which titles I have on my "To Read" list. I've got 335 books in my "Read" list, and there are lots of great titles there that are not included in the lists I've made for the blog. Also, I have started a "To Read" shelf for books set to be released in 2016. I will continue to add to it as I find more titles.

This past March I decided to read only lady-authors for the remainder of the year. And it was the best decision I've made in a long time. I plan to continue reading mostly female/women authors, but I already have a few male/men authors on my "2016 Release" list that I am really looking forward to! I highly recommend this "challenge" to any reader, but especially women. I didn't realize what I was missing out on...perhaps I should do a proper post on this topic.

Here are my lists from past years:
2011 Book-Learning (total read = 53)
2012 Book-Learning (total read = 71)
2013 Book-Learning (total read = 54)
2014 Book List (total read = 55)
2015 Book List (total read = 57)

I post photos of the books on Instagram, and you can follow my progress there with the #lisareads2016

My 2016 Book List lives in the sidebar. Yes, I realize that the tab still reads "Book List 2014" but I haven't had a chance to tackle the much-needed blog updates, so you'll have to just roll with it.

One of my 2016 Goals is to get back into Blogging, and one of my Blogging goals is to create a place here where I can better share what I am reading, how I find new books, bookish podcasts about, etc. We'll see what happens there. At the very least, I need to update that damn sidebar button.

Did any of you create reading goals for yourself this year? Any of you planning on creating a reading challenge for yourself next year? Any "must reads" from your list that you'd like to share with the group?

xo