Looking Back on My Reading Journey in 2018
Image Credit: haraka
Last year, around this time I published my reading goals for 2018. Since the new year has begun, it's time to see and review my reading journey in 2018. Will it be better than 2017? Or will it fail like the previous year?
Did I Successfully Reach My 2018 Reading Goal?
Although I can't say that I have the greatest reading journey in 2018, but it's obviously better than 2017. Why? In 2018, I have a more organized reading goal and resolutions compare to 2017.
Basically, my 2018 reading goal is to have a better reading experience than the previous year because for past couple year I was behind with my reading. Therefore, in 2018 I aimed to catch up with the reading habits that I had before.
When I planned my reading goal for 2018, I was not ambitious to complete all the goals that I had planned. I only wish those goals could help me to actively read as well as being up-to-date with the new releases. Last year, I planned six reading goals and here are the results.
1. Read 50 books in 2018 and achieved my Goodreads Reading Challenges
2018 is still not the year where I have reached my Goodreads Reading Challenge. Out of the 50 books that I have set as my target, I only finished 28 books in 2018. However, this is not a failure for me, because I managed to read more books than in 2017.
Image Credit: screenshot from Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge edited by haraka
2. Read one historical fiction
My initial plan was to read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. However, I can't force myself to start reading this book. I have started reading another historical fiction titled Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin, but unfortunately, I can't finish the book before 2018 ends.
Although I couldn't complete it with the book that I had planned before, luckily I was still able to complete this reading goal with Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare. Actually, I just realized that the last book from The Infernal Devices Series was suitable for this reading goal when I was drafting this blog. It's such a coincidence!
Image Credit: Ayla via booksandbabbles
3. Read more books from the indie publishers
In 2017, I read a book called Followed by Frost by Charlie N. Holmberg - which is a book published by an indie publisher. Therefore, I want to support indie publishers by reading more books from them. Although I have prepared two books from The Dragori Series by Ben Alderson for this reading goal, I didn't succeed in completing it.
Image Credit: robin_thereader
4. Read 2018 new releases
In order to be up to date with the new releases, I planned to read 10 books published in 2018. Another reason why I added this reading goal because I wanna read the final book in the Themis File Series by Sylvain Neuvel titled Only Human. However, until the end of October last year, I have only finished one new release which was Sadie by Courtney Summers. That was because of my participation in a readathon called Spookathon in October 2018.
Image Credit: Vanessa via thebookishdeer
To help me achieve this reading goal, I also participated in another readathon called the Magical Readathon: Christmas at Hogwarts in December 2018. I deliberately adjusted my reading list with 2018 new releases for this readathon. But sadly, I only able to read one new release (The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas) during this readathon.
Image Credit: Chelsea via thesuspenseisthrillingme
In total, I read two books that were released in 2018. Although I didn't succeed in completing 10 books as I planned, I wasn't too disappointed with this result because I still read more of the new releases books compared to 2017.
5. Finish the five series that I started before 2017
Among of all the reading goals that I planned in 2018, this one is the most successful one. There are five series that I want to complete before 2018 ends. The series are:
- The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare
- The Infernal Devices Series by Cassandra Clare
- Legend Series by Marie Lu
- The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
- Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Series by Ransom Riggs
I successfully completed seven of a total of eight books. The only series that I can't finish is the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Series with one book left titled The Library of Souls.
Video Credit: haraka via bitLanders
6. Read 5 Adult books and 3 Middle-Grade books
This last reading goal is the other one that I failed miserably. Out of all 28 books that I read last year, all of them are the Young Adult books. I have started a Middle-Grade book (Flunked by Jen Calonita) last year, but my attention was distracted and I could not finish them.
Image Credit: haraka via bitLanders
2017 vs 2018 Reading Stat
Image Credit: screenshot from Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge edited by haraka
I surpass my 2017 reading stat by reading 28 books with total 8.781 pages. In 2018, I read the shortest books that I ever read which is a short story in The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare (What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who Has Everything). This short story has 40 pages in total, while my shortest read in 2017 was 256 pages.
Meanwhile, the longest book that I read in 2018 overcome my 2017 result. In 2018, I read a book with 725 pages while comparing to the previous year, the longest book that I read was only 524 pages.
In terms of rating, I have equally good reading experience in 2018. My average rating in 2017 was 4.8 while in 2018, I concluded the year with 4.6 as my average rating. The highest rated books on Goodreads that I read in 2018 was Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare with 4.6 as its average rating. This result quite interesting for me because my highest rated books for 2017 is the first books from the same series titled Clockwork Prince with 4.45 as its rating.
Image Credit: screenshot from Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge edited by haraka
Although my average rating in 2018 is lower than the previous year, I wouldn't say that the books I read in 2017 have better quality than in 2018. My result is slightly lower because I'm more strict with the rating that I gave.
In 2018, the amount of the book with four stars as the rating almost equal with the five stars. 42% of the books got four stars and the rest of 53% got five stars as the rating. Comparing to 2017, most of the books got five stars and only 20% of it got 4 stars.
Image Credit: screenshot from Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge edited by haraka
Besides getting better in reviewing and rating a book, I also have better reading variation in 2018. I read more books in different format including 11 mangas, 3 ebooks, and 4 books audiobooks. I also read more unpopular books compare to 2017. The least popular books that I read was Detective Conan Volume 82 by Gosho Aoyama with a total of 426 people had read it. Meanwhile, for the most popular book that I read in 2018 is Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins with 2,357,006 people had read it.
Although fantasy is still a genre that dominates my reading in 2018, I also read books with more varied genres, including detective fiction (nine books), dystopia (three Books), thriller (two Books), horror (one book), contemporary (one book), and science fiction (one book). Check out the video below of all the books for each genre.
Video Credit: haraka via bitLanders
I found an interesting fact where the last book from the same series managed to defeat the previous book.
The first one is City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Claire which is the last book in The Mortal Instruments Series, overcome the third book in the series (City of Glass) for the longest books that I read. The second one is Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins which is the final book in The Hunger Games Trilogy, successfully beat the first book from this series (The Hunger Games) as the most popular books that I read. And lastly, the last book in The Infernal Devices (Clockwork Princess) surpass the first book (Clockwork Prince) for the highest rated books in Goodreads.
Is 2018 better than 2017?
I might not able to say that I achieved all of my 2018 reading goals, but I'm still satisfied with my reading experience in 2018 because:
- I read eight more books in 2018 compared to 2017
- I'm more aware of the new releases and finished two new releases in 2018
- I read four genres that I didn't read in 2017
- I read more books in the different formats compared to 2017.
In conclusion, I can say that I am quite successful with my 2018 Reading Goal especially by comparing it with my 2017 result. So, I am ready to have a better reading experience in 2019 and make sure you check out my next blog to find out my 2019 reading goal.
See you on the next blog!
