From 2019 to 2020!| My best books, my goal achievements, what I am looking forward to!

Greetings readers!

Happy new year to you all! It has been a hectic past couple of weeks with all the celebrations from posadas, to Christmas to New Years. I have been eating non-stop, got cute presents, spent some lovely family time and haven’t read enough at all! But with the end of a year, comes the beginning of a new one and it’s time to look back on the books I’ve read and the things I’ve accomplished! It’s also time to set myself up for the next 12 months! I’m excited and a little bit nervous, there is so much room for opportunity and I finally want to get to some things!

My Best Books

The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli | Review

The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhathena | Review

The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner | Review

Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George | Review

Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young | Review

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia | Review

Strange the Dreamer & Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor | Review

A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano | Review

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang | Review

via Goodreads

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A Review in the Goals from 2019

6. Connections. Connections. Connections.

I think I did a-ok with this goal. I’ve been able to reach out to one or two more publishers, I have strengthened the relationships I already have with some. Overall, I am really happy with the connections I have made this year.

5. Make a trademark blog feature and keep up with it

Mmmmmmm….I didn’t get to this exactly. I mean, I have been better with The Bookish Feels posts but not enough for them to be “trademark”. Perhaps, I was too ambiguous with this goal and I had no real plans for it. I think I will try this one again in 2020, but take the rest of this year to truly plan out what exactly I want to do.

4. Get Involved

Uhhh I didn’t do the best with this goal. My blog hopping has suffered, but my Instagram adventures have been very successful! I’ve made lots of new friends on there and have really built my page. So I’d say this was half a success!

3. Read My Shelves (But better)

By the end of 2019, I should have read the following series on my shelves:

A Crown of Wishes and The Star-Touched Stories by Roshani Chokshi
Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab
The DC Icons series
Dreamer duology by Laini Taylor
The Conqueror’s Saga by Kiersten White

I’ve read one of the five series I set out to read. Look this goal was flunked on again! I’ll be honest! Whenever I set time aside for them, I ended up reading something else. I am actually super disappointed I didn’t get to Chokshi’s books or the DC books, but I hope to get to them in early 2020(?) not gonna bank on it though.

2. Read my ARCs on time

via giphy.com

I…I have no excuse. I just suck at reading books on time and it is such a terrible habit. I am doing a disservice to the publisher, the author and to myself. I know I shouldn’t be that upset over this, but I have to to better. I was on a roll at one point in the year which made me a little happy, but I know I can do better if I put my mind to it!

1. Relax on the Requesting Game

via giphy.com

I am my own worst enemy. I request que me da la gana, as my mother would say. Whatever I’m in the mood for in the moment, I request. It is a terrible habit because this is the reason I never read my ARCs on time! I seriously need to stop over-requesting. One of my biggest goals is to be less greedy this year. It’s not just about being less greedy, it’s about de-cluttering my life. Becoming more sustainable, reading only what I truly want, when I truly want.

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Looking On into 2020

I honestly don’t know. I…hmm…I feel like I want to change in some way. Not total reinvention, but to change in some way meaningful. To bring something new to this blog. I don’t have all my plans set now, but I do know that a re-vamp of the website’s look is in the books. I also know that relaxing on the requesting game will also be very important for this reinvention of myself. Audiobooks, are definitely something I want to get more into this year too. I already started finding my mojo and I am very excited to see where these adventures take me

So these three things are what I do know

1. New Look
2. Relax on the Requests
3. Explore Audiobooks and other reading formats!

Let me know what you think! How did you do with your 2019 goals if you had any? What are you looking forward to achieving in the coming new year?

Happy reading!

~ Rendz

Clearly I Think Too Highly of Myself| A Look Back on my 2018 goals and setting myself up for 2019

Greetings readers!

Hehehehehehehehehe ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm welllll….uhhh let’s see, where do we begin?

Well, I, um made reading goals for 2018 last year. And the time has come to reflect on how I have done. And well, while I can say that I tried…if I tried my absolute best and hardest….that is another question.

The Old Goals and the Results

1. Read My Shelves

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Well…………………………………………………………………………..

This goal really sucked because I didn’t outline specific books I had in mind that I wanted to read, but now that I think clearly about it…I just didn’t get to any of them. No. That’s false, I just didn’t get to many.

Despite the two series rereads that I did (The Penderwicks and Ember Quartet (1-2)), the books that I read this year (that were not ARCs or review books) in total is 9 and the first 12 issues of the Fence comics.

Doesn’t seem that bad, right? But in reality I didn’t get to the books I really wanted to reads on my shelves.

Roshani Chokshi’s books — didn’t happen, but I practically own them all
V.E. Schwab — again I have her Shades of Magic trilogy and Vicious, but didn’t read them
The DC Icons series — own them all, all unread!
And more…

I really slacked with this goal for *reasons* and that must be rectified.

2. Read 25 debuts

12 / 25 read debuts books of 2018

S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett
Blood and Sand by C.V. Wyk
The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
The Calculus of Change by Jessie Hilb
Sleight by Jennifer Sommersby
Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian
The Light Between Worlds by Laura E. Weymouth
Mirage by Somiaya Daud
Game of Secrets by Kim Foster
Kiss of the Royal by Lindsey Duga
Charlie Hernandez and the League of Shadows by Ryan Calejo
Lulu the Broadway Mouse by Jenna Gavigan

So like half of this goal was reached. I don’t know what I was thinking with the number 25 to be honest. Stupid past-Rendz.

3. Gain those 1000 followers

Current Follower count: 680

No. Didn’t happen. I am terrible at interacting, that is all on me.

I took several unannounced breaks. I didn’t blog hop weekly like I said I would. I tend to not comment on a lot of things, shame on me. And I was gonna host a giveaway and instead spent the money on myself, bigger shame on me.

4. Manage my book money “better”

Total money spent: ~$230

This actually hurts my soul a little. Holy cannoli I spent over $200 on books this year alone. Yikes. I mean considering how many books I got for free (I love you my dearest Canadian publishers) this number is still little too high for me.

5. Expand My Genres

3 Thriller/Mystery: 2/3 – S.T.A.G.S., The Little Dog

3 Contemporary: 5/3 –Broken Beautiful Hearts, The Calculus of Change, A Prom to Remember, Save the Date, Tell Me No Lies

3 Historical Fiction: 3/3 – Blood and Sand, Game of Secrets, Kingdom of Ash and Soot

3 Romance: 1/3 – Crazy Rich Asians

Well, I at least surpassed my Contemporary goal which makes me very happy. As for the others…some of the books under those categories are a bit of a stretch. I really thought I would surpass the romance one, there have been some really intriguing ones that have been released this year, but alas fantasy seemed to topple my TBR again. (Which I am not upset about, but still)

Goals for 2019

1. Relax on the Requesting Game

This includes accepting solicited requests and actually requesting books for myself. I keep digging myself into holes that I have trouble getting out of.  And often it happens that I am no longer interested in reading the book I requested.

So for 2019, I will only be requesting books I actually, truly want to read and not just those I think I *may* want to read. This also means that I am not going to request so frequently so I have time to read what I have already received.

2. Read my ARCs on time

I have a track record of not reading books on time and it is getting bad. The amount of expired ARCs I have not read yet and other book requests is ridiculous. I really need to start making proper schedules and it all starts when I relax my requesting game.

3. Read My Shelves (But better)

I want to carve out time in the year and at least once a month to read the books I actually own. It probably won’t happen every month, but I want to at least try.

By the end of 2019, I should have read the following series on my shelves:

A Crown of Wishes and The Star-Touched Stories by Roshani Chokshi
Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab
The DC Icons series
Dreamer duology by Laini Taylor
The Conqueror’s Saga by Kiersten White

4. Get Involved

I’m not really going to focus on follower count this year, instead I am going to try to make actual friends on this world web. This definitely means more blog hopping from me and forcing myself to interact.

5. Make a trademark blog feature and keep up with it

I really want to bring something to this blog to make it more enticing and exciting. My creative well has been dull these past months so now I need to amp my game up and bring something new and exciting to this blog. Any ideas are welcome XD

6. Connections. Connections. Connections.

I also want to build stronger connections with the publishers I am already engaged with. This traces back to interaction, what seems to be the theme of these goals. I have one publisher in particular that I am looking to reach out to. Hopefully they say yes!

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I am going to play 2019 by ear. There are so many fantastic books coming that are literally going to knock my socks off and I couldn’t be more excited. Seriously, this year is going to rock the book world and I couldn’t be more happier.

While I may have not met many of my 2018 goals, I am still so proud of how much I was able to accomplish. The amount of publishers I’ve reached out to, the books I have read and the work I have done.

Above all, I want to thank each and every one of you who have made this past year even more special. I hope to get to know you all a lot more this new year.

Let me know what you think! Did you meet your 2018 goals? Are you making any 2019 goals? What was your favourite moment from this past year (book or non-book related!)? What book(s) are you most excited for this 2019?!

Happy reading and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

~ Rendz

An Update on My Blog Goals of the Year

Greetings readers!

At the beginning of 2018, I decided that I wanted to set down some goals for myself. I never thought that this blog would become such an active part of my life, but now that it is getting bigger, I figured I should put down some regulations to keep myself in check.

Now if any of you know me, I stink at meeting goals.

I make excellent lists, I write whole blog posts about them, but can I actually stick to them? That is another thing entirely. So I decided to check in on my goals and see how I’m doing. I’m writing this intro before I even dare to check, so we’re going to be experiencing my failure or triumph together! 😉

Time for Total Recall!

What were my goals? Excellent question! I actually have a fuzzy recollection of what they were, so it’s best that I go read about them in a blog post that I wrote way back in January.

If you want to check that out, I shall leave a link here. But if not, I will give you the quick rundown as I go.

1.  Read My Shelves
– Read books that I have had on my shelf before the start of 2018. Minimize the number of unread books I have bought in the past months.

My Progress:

OKAY HERE ME OUT. *Wow Rendz, we are starting with excuses? SMH*

via giphy.com

Because blogging has been going so amazing lately and I have had insane luck with giveaways I have required many, many, MANY books to add to my shelves.

That being said, I’ve still been able to read some of my shelved books…

And my grand total is….14

BUT…6 were rereads…..and one of them was borrowed from the library.

Conclusion: I’VE REALLY BEEN SUCKING ON THIS GOAL and I need to read the books on my shelf now more than ever!!!!

2.  Read Debuts
– Read 25 2018 debuts

My Progress:

I have had my luck with ARCs these past few months, so I think I have definitely done a good job of keeping up with this goal! I know there are so many more exciting debuts coming later this year and I cannot wait to read them!

Since January I have read….6 2018 debuts.

S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett
Blood and Sand by C.V. Wyk
The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
The Calculus of Change by Jessie Hilb
Sleight by Jennifer Sommersby
Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian

Okay I swear that number was way higher in my head…

Conclusion: Keep working at it! I know I have quite a few debut arcs sitting on my shelf right now so I am definitely going to get to those and I also have a finished copy of a few!

via giphy.com

3.  Gain those 1000 Followers
– Interact, self-promote

My Progress:

Yeah I already knew this one is not my best.

Current number of followers: 613 WP + 7 Email followers

That’s a total of 620/1000. Not exactly the closest number, but if we are rounding to the nearest thousandth I totally did it.

Conclusion: Interact!!! I hit a huge blogging slump in the middle of the year and I have been terrible at reaching out which I really blame on school. But I am hoping to get on a better blog hopping track and meet more awesome bloggers that I know are out there!

4.  Manage My Book Money Better
– Try not to have to many splurges!

My Progress:

As mentioned, my luck with giveaways has been insane and publishers have been LOVING Rendz so I think this is my best category! I know I’ve visited Indigo quite a lot, but I haven’t spent much and while I browse BookOutlet almost everyday…I haven’t filled my cart (yet).

via giphy.com

5.  Expand My Genres
– Read at least three books from each of the following genres: Thriller/Mystery, Contemporary, Historical Fic, Romance.

My Progress:

Thriller/Mystery:

2/3 – S.T.A.G.S., The Little Dog

Contemporary:

5/3 – Broken Beautiful Hearts, The Calculus of Change, A Prom to Remember, Save the Date, Tell Me No Lies

Historical Fic:

1/3 – Blood and Sand

Romance:

1/3 – Crazy Rich Asians

Conclusion: So it’s not bad. I have been killing it in the contemporary section! But my Hist Fic and Romance sections have really been suffering. I mean the books I put under them barely even count XD! I need your recs people and I need to actively search for more books under that genre! I have six months to do it!

via giphy.com

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Okay…so I still have quite a lot of work to do. Thankfully I have six months to do it. But if I’m 100% honest, I’ll probably forget about these goals again and have to do a final showdown in December to get them all done XD

Let me know what you think! Do you believe I can achieve these goals? Did you make reading goals this year? Have you been able to keep them?

Happy reading!

~ Rendz

Ringing in the New Year Book Tag!

Greetings readers!

I was tagged by the lovely Sophie @ Blame Chocolate to do the Ringing in the New Year Tag! Sophie is a wonderful friend and blogger! She has tons of great reviews and posts, so make sure to drop by and pay her a visit!

It is still January so the idea of setting goals is still applicable. Especially if you have already broken some resolutions, it is not too late to set some more!

RULES:

• Link to the person who tagged you
• Link to the creator of the tag (Bookmark Chronicles)
• Share the tag image
• Answer the questions below
• Tag friends (or not if you don’t feel like it)

Best book and/or series that you’ve read in 2017

*I say rereads count!*

I reread The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer in the summer of 2017, which was the best decision I have ever made. Reliving all those emotions and revisiting the characters I adore was the most amazing experience!

I wrote four fangirling posts along the way which was also pretty fun, so if you want to check those out, be my guest!

A Moment of Fangirling: Cinder | A Moment of Fangirling: Scarlet | A Moment of Fangirling: Cress | A Moment of Fangirling: Winter

Authors that you’ve recently found and would like to read more of in the new year

Roshani Chokshi, Stephanie Garber, Kendare Blake, Lilliam Rivera, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

***And clearly in 2018 I have to go about finding some male authors of interest too! I hear Jay Kristoff and Neal Shusterman are ones to look out for!

 

 

Most anticipated book turned movie/tv show?

I’m pretty excited to see The Hate U Give movie…I believe it comes out this year! There are so many other YA adaptations coming to the big screen, but I haven’t had a chance to read them yet!

Name a character that you wouldn’t mind sharing a kiss with at midnight (if there is one)

CARSWELL THORNE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CHAOL WESTFALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUT MOSTLY CARSWELL THORNE!

*Artist: Taratjah*

What’s on you TBR for 2018? (Top 5-10 will suffice if it’s an extremely long list!)

A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

via Goodreads

Immortal Reign by Morgan Rhodes

via Goodreads

Wires & Nerve Vol. 2: Gone Rogue by Marissa Meyer

via @marissameyerauthor

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

via Goodreads

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

via Goodreads

Wacross 2 by Marie Lu

Furyborn my Claire Legrand (I got an ARC, so I get to read it early! *gloats*)

via Goodreads

How many books do you hope to read in 2018?

60 is my plan. 25 Debuts and whatever I find on my shelves or the library!

Will you participate in the Goodreads Reading Challenge or any others (PopSugar, Down the TBR Hole, etc.)

Yes! As stated above I plan on reading 60 books, so I have Goodreads to keep me on track! It is the same personal goal I had from last year and I got close but didn’t exactly achieve it. Here’s to hoping this year turns out better!

Any New Year’s Resolutions? (Bookish, blogging (or vlogging), and otherwise)

I do! I even wrote a whole blog post so that they would be written out meaning I can’t opt-out anymore!

1. Read my shelves
2. Read 25 Debuts of 2018 in 2018
3. Get to 1000 followers (I’ll kind of need your help for this one)
4. Manage my book money
5. Expand my genres

You can check out my full post here!

In terms of life goals….I’m trying to get Real Life-Rendz together. We have important decisions to make and she has to not be afraid of change and taking risks. So hand me your most inspirational quotes, please!

I Tag…

If you’ve already done this tag, feel free to just tell me your goals in the comment! ❤

Abigail’s Books

Darque Dreamer Reads 

Pages Unbound Reviews

Let me know what you think? Do we have any common goals? What were your favourite books of 2017? What are you most looking forward to in 2018?

Happy reading!

~ Rendz

 

New Year Reading Goals | 2018, I Am Coming For You

Greeting readers!

So reflecting on my 2017 reading goals. I realized that I didn’t really have any. I just sort of went with the flow. That year was full of new changes and lots of books (most that I didn’t get to…oops) I realized that for this new year, 2018, I want to have a set list of just a few things I want to accomplish. Things that I can reflect back upon throughout the year and hopefully within 360 days, I can say I got things done!

The Goals….

1. Read my shelves

I can’t even begin to explain the amount of unread books currently sitting on my shelves. It’s quite a large number and for this new year I want to actually make a significant difference in that number. I want it to go DOWN! Now some of the books I have sitting around are recent releases, whereas others are three years old! (Some even older) That is just ridiculous and it is necessary that I get to them as soon as possible.

Plus, as my shelves expand throughout the year, I want to make sure I have a balance of read shelved books and newly acquired shelved books. This is my biggest goal of the year because I am a sentimental weirdo who deep down believes that my old books will get jealous if I put them off any longer. (I won’t even breach the topic of “expired” ARCs….I have like five on my shelf…….oops!)

via giphy.com

2. Read debuts

I know this is always a tough one to accomplish. I have still not made even the smallest of dents in 2016 and 2017 debuts so don’t expect too much from me, I am trying my best to catch up.

There are currently 102 YA Debuts on the Goodreads list I am starring at. Many of them on my To-Be-Read and others I haven’t gotten a chance to look at yet. My plan is at least to get to 25. (Remember this is just debuts, there are still a whole bunch of other books out there that I want to get to!)

So 25 2018 debuts is the goal! I have three ARCs currently in my possession meaning progress is being made!

3. Gain those 1000 followers

So this really doesn’t completely depend on me, but it would be really nice to reach those 1000 follows by the end of the year. I’m am almost to 500 right now so if I can do math correctly, 500 more followers in another year isn’t too unlikely!

I have two tactics to actually lure in readers that will hopefully bring me good luck.

1. INTERACT! Follow other blogs myself. Fastest way to make friends is to go out and blog hop, like, comment and share opinions with people! I really have to amp up my commenting game!
2. Promote me-self. I am literally the most awkward self-promoter out there but like you gotta do what you gotta do. Sharing reviews on any social media outlet from Instagram, Goodreads, Twitter and maybe I’ll begin a Tumblr, will really help spread the news that Reading with Rendz exists and that I’m pretty awesome (if I do say so myself!)

via giphy.com

4. Manage my book money “better”

Hehehehe…what I mean by this is that by the time my highly anticipated books are released, the ones I know I want to buy, I will actually have the money to buy them!

The library and I have always been good friends, but now we are going to be blood relatives. I’m going to borrow physical and ebooks as much as I can, so that I can read as much as I can. Especially books that I’m still iffy about. Getting debuts from the library will be tough, but doable!

I will also be taking advantage of sales when I can and if possible order more from cheap stores like Book Outlet.

I make this promise to my wallet.

via giphy.com

5. Expand My Genres 

Almost 90% of what I read last year was fantasy. Which in my case…is completely understandable, but I really want to make some changes. I want to open myself up to different genres out there and read what they have to offer.

I already started off the year right! I read a thriller-ish/contemporary-ish (more thriller) book which I very much enjoyed! I hardly pick up thriller, but this one sounded so intriguing!

I plan on reading about three books from each genre that I hardly pick up so…

3 Thriller/Mystery

3 Contemporary 

3 Historical Fiction

3 Romance

*maybe a non-fiction book*

I might read more in some areas than others, but hopefully I get to at least one from each! This is one of the most important goals on the list and something I really want to achieve so send me your recommendations people, I’m going to need them!

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Five goals for 2018. Doable.

I may not exactly achieve the exact numbers for each, however I’m hoping that I do touch upon most of these goals. I have a feeling about 2018. It’s gonna be a good one. Otherwise, I’ll make it good. Optimism is hard to keep hold of, but we can do it peeps.

Be bold. Be open. Be you!

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!

~ Rendz