Welcome to 2014

Welcome to 2014.  The last two months of 2013 were a blur for me.  Although I was reading, I was not able to get online to blog or review for the most part.  I apologize for that.  What I was doing was spending a lot of time with my family during the various birthdays and holidays that occurred.  To make matters worse, getting flowing in 2014 has been a struggle, too.  I find that I am in a slump of sorts.  Although I have been reading, and have finished several books, I have not been able to focus on reviewing.  I have been mainly spending my time organizing my reading for 2014 which is now mostly complete.  SO - what is in store for 2014?

Back to Reviewing - My return to reviewing will begin with reviews of the 7 books that I finished in 2013 during the months of November and December.  My goal for 2014 is to post three reviews a week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

2014 Challenges
Number of Books
I accomplished my 2013 goal of reading 75 books, in fact, I completed 82 (See the 2013 Book List tab).  I upped my goal for 2014 to 85 books, but am hoping to read 100...I have never reached that goal yet, coming the closest with 98 books read in 2011.

Clearing my TBR  (2014 Highlight Challenge)
Along with reading new books for review, this year I want to concentrate of clearing my TBR.  I think I have 889 books that I own and have never read, and a number of books that I have wanted to read for 5 years or more.  Three of my groups are hosting TBR reduction challenges this year with the LOST (Longest On Shelf To-Read) Challenge, the Mount TBR Challenge, the Moving Mountains Challenge, and the From The Stacks Challenge.  The books on some of these challenges overlap, but some of them have very specific rules and do not.  This will be my 2014 Highlight Challenge, much the same way that Short Stories were my 2013 Highlight.  Reviews for these books will be posted on Wednesdays.

Short Stories - Once again I will be reading a short story a week during 2014 and will post the list and ratings on the 2014 Short story tab.

Other Challenges - Other challenges I have slated for 2014 include some Royalty History based challenges, Challenges where books are recommended by other users, genre challenges, monthly designated letter challenge, monthly key word challenge, and of course, the regular slew of monthly, seasonal, and bi-monthly challenges that the various groups come up with.  You may see me write about them as the year progresses.

Hope you are all having a great beginning to 2014 with lots of reading enjoyment!