So day 2 saw a little more reading than day 1 but I still ended up getting distracted by grocery shopping and blogging so...
I read another 15% of Milkshakes and Heartbreaks At The Starlight Diner by Helen Cox, I'm really enjoying this book!
And then I read almost all of Dash and Lilly's Book Of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. I listened to this on audiobook whilst in the gym and in the library, I'll definitely finish it tomorrow as I've only got 2 chapters left!
So what did I manage to read in the month of December? The answer is a hell of a lot more than I read in November. I didn't quite manage to read the 45 I needed to to reach my Goodreads goal but I did manage to read 22 books and novellas!
Here's what I read. (I'm not going to separate by how I read them this time!)
I'm pretty proud of the final push that I had and I'm only sorry that my favourite books of 2016 came out before I read a few that I finished off during the BookTubeAThon because some of those were truly excellent.
What did you manage to read in December? Should I continue to pursue the festive reads I didn't manage to get to during the festive period?
So day 1 didn't start off too well for me, I started reading the second book in the Starlight Diner series, Secrets and Fries At The Starlight Diner by Helen Cox. I read 20% of this before I realised...
Then I switched over to the first book in the series Milkshakes and Heartbreaks At The Starlight Diner but I only managed to read 10% of this. We were out for most of the day yesterday so hopefully I'll get some more read tomorrow!
I also completed the day 1 challenge and joined in with the Bout of Books chat over on twitter which was great fun! Hopefully I'll do some more reading on day 2!
Ok so I decided to do this post because there has been so much talk of what an awful year 2016 was. I completely understand that this year was pretty bad in terms of political events and deaths but for me, 2016 has been a pretty good year. So I thought I would do a post, chronicling what went on with me each month in 2016, what I read and what I did. So here is my year in review!
January
In January I started a new job as an assistant headteacher, this also meant getting a new class and trying my hand at a couple of other new roles within school. It had always been my goal to get to the senior leadership team in school and so I was happy to have done this!
I read 7 books in January, a great start to the year!
February
In February I travelled to Denver for the first time because my (now) husband had moved there. This was great and we spent valentines day here. Then on the 29th February I got down on one knee and proposed, he said yes!
I read 3 books in February, not quite as good but it was a short month!
March
In March, I went back to Denver again. I had 2 weeks off school and really valued this time to get a lot of paperwork done. Whilst I was in Denver, aside from the school work, we bought my ring and drove up into the mountains for the first time!
I read 3 books in March, I blame work!
April
April started in Denver and was the month I really felt like I had begun to find my feet at work. I was also starting to have to deal with the kind of things you have to deal with when you prepare to move to another country! We also booked our wedding chapel in Las Vega in April. It was a long month but I read some really good books!
I read 6 books in April!
May
May obviously includes 2 bank holidays which is great, It is a busy time a school because my children have SATs tests but this is also a really proud and emotional time for me because I get to see them confidently go into these tests with all the things they have learned over their time at primary school and tackle the questions the way we have taught them. It is such a draining time but only because I get so excited to see them achieve!
I read 8 books in May (most of these during half term week)
June
Things were really starting to ramp up for me in June, I started clearing things out and selling the furniture in the house because we weren't taking any of that with us. School was very busy too but I got to see some real progress in some of the projects I had been working on which was really exciting. My (now) husband turned 30 in June and I wasn't with him, which was sad, but I got to speak to him at the beginning and end of his birthday because it was a Friday so the 7 hour time difference at night didn't mean quite so much!
I read 2 books in June, this is traditionally a busy month at school and so I never have high numbers then!
July
July was the month we were reunited again, which was nice! I also had leaving parties with family, blogger friends and work. I got to tell my class that I was leaving, which was hard but it felt like I had closure, and of course I left my job. We packed up all our things, which was odd, and then went off on holiday! My best friend also had a little girl, so amazing!
I read 7 books in July (mainly because I had quite a few flights)
August
August started off in California on the holiday of a lifetime, if you have't read my posts about my travels, I've detailed it all there. We had an amazing trip. We returned to the UK for 4 manic days which included dumping the last of our things on various people and me getting to meet my best friends little girl. We moved on the 21st August and that was such an exciting time for me. The rest of August was spent unpacking and letting it sink in that I had just moved 5000 miles!
I read 5 books in August
September
September was spent with more unpacking and paperwork but we also went on some fabulous road trips. I had always wanted to see more of the USA and I was finally getting to. This was also the first time since I was 16 that I didn't have a job and so I celebrated by finally letting myself relax for a while and catching up on books, films and sleep! I also did something I always wanted to do, joined a book club!
I read 6 books in September including 1 re-read!
October
October meant final wedding preparations including checking I was 100% happy with my dress and getting clothes for my other half. I also got to see my mum in October because we had made plans to meet up in New York. I had a great time in New York and it was one of the first times I got to accompany my other half on one of his business trips. I got to celebrate my Mum's birthday with her and see the studios where The Tonight Show and SNL are filmed!
I read 6 books in October
November
November was a busy month (hence the lack of books read!) we had our families over to Denver and celebrated our first American Thanksgiving, the cooking went well! We then travelled with them to Las Vegas where we got married. I so enjoyed our wedding and getting to show our families our new home was pretty special too. I took part in NaNoWriMo once again, and won, and I went to a writing group too. We started attending a weekly trivia night this month too, something which we are still doing now!
I read 0 books in November
December
December brought us more visitors. It is really cool to show people where we live now and for them to see how my change of lifestyle has affected me. We celebrated our new home/wedding with friends here in Denver and we also celebrated my birthday and Christmas just the two of us which was really nice.
I read 13 books in December
So you can see, 2016 was a year of big change for me. I took quite a few risks this year and I think they paid off. It has been quite scary at times but totally exciting and I am excited to see what the next chapter holds for me!
A Happy New Year to you and thanks for your continued support!
Bout of books 18 is here! Here's what it's all about...
The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 2nd and runs through Sunday, January 8th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 18 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.
Now I'm really looking forward to another readathon and I'm really excited that this one is going to kick start the year. Although I have created a January TBR as well, there are a couple of books that I know I definitely want to read this week. So this is my Bout of Books 18 TBR
I would also really like to read the remaining five short stories in the meet cute series by Katey Lovell. I loved reading these during the booktubeathon and I think short stories during a readathon are great!
And in terms of having an audiobook on the go for when I need to be moving from A to B or when I'm in the gym I've got two options...
So there you have my TBR, things may change so keep an eye out for my wrap up post at the end of the week!
So here is my wrap up of how I fared during the holiday booktubeathon.
I decided right from the start that I would probbly only dedicate most of the 29th and the 30th to reading because I would be out and about on the 31st. I actually got time for some rather bitty reading on the 31st which helped boost me towards my goals.
Challenge 1: Read a book with your favourite colour on the cover.
For this I read The One We Fell In Love With my Paige Toon 416 Pages
Challenge 2: Read a book in a genre you've discovered this year
For this I read A Merry Christmas by Louisa May Alcott 160 pages
A Shoe Addicts Christmas by Beth Harbison 160 pages
The Boy At The Bakery by Katey Lovell 19 pages
The Boy at The Beach by Katey Lovell 19 pages
The Boy Under the Mistletoe by Katey Lovell 23 Pages
Challenge 3: Read 3 books in the 3 days
For this I read Instructions for a Second Hand Heart by Tamsyn Murrary 233 pages
I also read the last 146 pages of Darcy Burdock: Sorry About Me by Laura Dockrill
So the total number pages read was 1176
I'm really pleased with that page count and I enjoyed making the updtae videos as I went along, I can't wait for the next readathon...
