ShelfLove challenge

So last year’s ShelfLove challenge went really well and I finished up the year by meeting pretty much all my goals on not buying books. In fact, this is the first year since 2011 that I kept the average under buying a book a day. I am seriously addicted to books — for one thing, when I’m sad, I want new books — so this was pretty good. And I kept it quite a ways under that average, too, with only around 240 books bought or acquired before my Christmas presents, vouchers, etc, joined the list.

My goals this year? Beat this year’s buying average, stick to the budget I maintained in 2015 (no more than 10% of my income on books in any given month), and read 200 books acquired before 2016. I know, I know — the actual highest number suggested by the challenge is 51+. But I’m ambitious. I have no idea how attainable this is as a goal, but I usually read 300+ books a year, so I think it’s doable if I can just keep focused.

Another side-goal is getting my Netgalley ratio to 100%, after finally reaching that coveted 80% juuust at the end of December. Obviously I’m okay with this being via finally reading and reviewing the books, or accepting that it’s not going to happen: that’s how I got to 80%, after all. I also want to finish series that I’m partway through — like Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher books — and get on top of my library addiction a bit. I currently have 30+ books out of the library and a special shelf to keep them on. I like having them there to look at, but I’m not keeping up with them properly. Time to fix that!

Ready? Let’s get reading!