Sabrina’s 2021 Mid Year Challenge Check In

Hi all, it’s Sabrina!  Today I’m revisiting the goals I set for myself and my reading at the beginning of the year as well as the challenges I’m participating in.  I’m going to tell you how I’m going and about a few new things I want to achieve by the end of the year!  Also it’s worth mentioning that I’m only talking about reading goals here, because I’ve already failed at most of the other ones and I don’t want to talk about them, lol. I’ll save those for the end of the year, and maybe by then I’ll actually be doing them. Let’s get into it!

MY GOALS

🌻 be more lenient about giving out 5 stars 🌻

In my original goals post, which I am referencing for every one of these goals, I mentioned that I thought I was being too harsh on books that I loved 98% of, and how there is a voice in my head that says if a book isn’t 100% perfect, I can’t give it 5 stars. Well, I am pleased to say that I think I’ve overcome this! I’ve already rated more books 5 stars this year than I did for the whole of 2020, (and I have read about the same amount of total books at this point, so it’s not just a percentage thing). I’m very happy with this!

🌻 read at least 5 books where sci-fi is the primary genre 🌻

In the past, I have read a fair bit of sci-fi, but I started leaning away from it as a primary genre and I decided I wanted to change that and read some more books that are more sci-fi than anything else. I’ve almost completed this goal, as I’ve read four books so far that I would consider sci-fi to be the main genre for.

4 stars

3 stars

3 stars

2 stars

It’s worth noting that most of these books don’t have a very high rating from me, which is a bit sad, but maybe the next sci-fis I read will work better for me. I’ll be really interested to see the results of this when the end of the year rolls around.

🌻 pick up at least one book about genetics 🌻

I completed this goal! Thank you to Malka who mentioned The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee to me, because I read it and really appreciated it. I got the book both as a physical copy from the library and on audio from Libby, and I felt the combination of reading while listening helped me comprehend all the information a bit better than reading in my head or listening alone. It’s also led me to add a few more nonfiction books to my TBR, and I’m really excited to read some of them over the rest of the year.

🌻 read at least five books that you already own 🌻

I’m well on my way to completing this goal as well, as I have already read three books that I owned before the start of this year plus one that I purchased this year. I’m hoping I will read more than five that I already own at this stage.

3 stars

3 stars

2 stars

3.5 stars

Specifically, I am planning on reading The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan, Damaged Goods by Talia Hibbert, The Legend of the Golden Raven by K. Ancrum and Wicked Like A Wildfire by Lana Popovic at the very least by the end of the year.

CHALLENGES

🌻 read 25 sequels before I’m 25 🌻

On my birthday last year, I challenged myself to read 25 specific books, all sequels or somehow related to other books I’ve read. As the year has gone on, I’ve had to change some of those books for one of two reasons, either a) I don’t have access to the book anymore or b) I’ve moved on from the author. I’m a little behind on this because I’ve only read 9 out of the 25 books, but I have solid plans to read seven more in the near future (ie. I either have them out from the library right now, or am in the queue for them), plus I own three more and can pick them up at any time. So, I’m not exactly on track with this challenge, but I still believe I’ll be able to complete it by the time the deadline rolls around!

1 star

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

5 stars

5 stars

4 stars

4 stars

3.5 stars

🌻 goodreads/storygraph challenge 🌻

At the beginning of the year, I said that I wanted to read 52 books this year, as I do most years now, one book for every week. I’ve managed to surpass this, having already read, at the time of writing this, 61 books. So, yay for that 😌

🌻 out of your comfort zone reading challenge 🌻

Caro from BookCheshireCat runs this challenge, and I love it. This year, I decided on four categories out of my comfort zone, and I’m going okay with them. I’m a little bit behind, especially with the historical mysteries, so I’ll have to try hard to complete the challenge in time! Here’s my categories and the books I’ve read for them so far:

nonfiction (6/10)

unrated

unrated

unrated

4.5 stars

5 stars

unrated

historical mysteries (1/5)

middle grades (4/5)

unrated

unrated

3.5 stars

unrated

translated novels (2/5)

4.5 stars

4 stars

🌻 buzzword reading challenge 🌻

I’m definitely on track with this challenge! I’ve read one book per buzzword every month, as planned, and as you can see in my Twitter thread, here. I did have one very close call – in April, I finished my chosen book with less than an hour to spare! I’ve been really enjoying this challenge and I’m looking forward to continuing with it. I think September, when I have to read a book with “dark” in the title, is going to be an interesting month.

4 stars

3.5 stars

unrated

3 stars

3.5 stars

5 stars

MY NEW AND ALTERED GOALS

🌻 read 100 books 🌻

I’ve reached 100 books for the last two years, but it’s always been close and I’ve been hesitant to put myself under that pressure – especially because I know I tend to hit a slump around August/September every year – but I think I can do it again this year so I’m just going to go for it.

🌻 read at least 40% of my yearly books from countries outside the US 🌻

I’ve been tracking the countries the books I’ve been reading this year have come from (I’m doing it by where the author is based, to the best of my knowledge), and it’s been a little irritating to me to see that so many of the books I’m reading are from the US – about 65% at this point. So, I think it’s not too late to change that, albeit slightly, for the year. Depending on how I go with this challenge, I might make it a bit more drastic next year.

🌻 read 10 or more books that I already own 🌻

As previously mentioned, I’ve got solid plans to have read at least eight books that I own by the end of the year, so I don’t think it will be too hard to add another two books to that!

What do you think?

Did you have reading goals for 2021, and are you making progress with them? What about yearly reading challenges? Let me know!