I started 2019 with the goal to read 3 books a month: 1 from my TBR pile, my book club read, and the book for my LM Montgomery Read Along Challenge. I also decided to keep a reading journal for the year to help me keep up with my thoughts on the books I was reading and give me a place to jot down favorite quotes.

I started the year off with a bang completing 4 books for the month of January! February and March were pretty good too. The area I tended to lag in was the LM Montgomery read along, partly because my local library didn’t have the books I needed and partly because my little guy was becoming more mobile and my reading time was being cut short.

The area I consistently succeeded in was my book club book. I was, after all, leading the book club so I needed to be prepared. The books also fit my current life status: mother, wife, and homemaker. Thus, these books held my interest longer and were easily applied to my daily life.

As the year went on, reading became much harder. I was so tired that reading before bed was difficult. I tried reading aloud to little man and that helped some. I also returned to work. If you were to look in my reading journal you would find a direct correlation between J’s mobility, my returning to work, and my decrease in reading. My book club fell apart after I returned to work so consequently I wasn’t pushing to finish those books. In fact, I’m pretty sure I didn’t finish October’s book nor did I open November’s.

The area I was most successful in was not buying any new books in 2019. Ironically! My TBR pile did decrease by several books and I am thrilled about that. I also reread two books in order to complete a series I had read out of order. In October, I was gifted a 3 month subscription to audibles, so I listened to 2 books not originally on any list or in any pile.

I have dealt with a little disappointment in the way my reading year turned out but I have come to two conclusions because of this year: any amount of reading is awesome and read what you really love. I believe it’s good to read books in different genres, but when you find one you really love, it’s ok to read as much in that genre as possible! The last several books I read were Civil War Historical Fiction. I enjoyed every minute of those books and that is what really matters. Not how many books I read, but the fact that I truly enjoyed the time given to those books.

I haven’t set any reading goals for 2020. I did, however, get on Goodreads. So we shall see if that helps me out any. I will continue to keep my reading journal but am not planning to create any specific monthly goal like I did for 2019.