State of the Blog

Hurrah! Year three of the blog, and time to change things up again!

First things first - how'd I do with my 2016 resolutions?

• Read Books. Check! My "goal" was 42; I finished up with 105.
• Finish P.D. James's Adam Dalgliesh series. Nope. I just couldn't get through them, guys. I still think P.D. James is a great writer, but I just can't read one mystery after another the way I can fantasy or science fiction. I'll finish them eventually - but probably slowly.
• Keep up with the Under the Covers book club reads. Check! We ended up reading thirteen books this year. Next year, we're changing the format of the club, and I think I'll like it better.
• Revamp the blog to review books. Check! I think the Readers Advisory Committee format was a success, although I did end up not loving it as much as I'd thought I would.
• Make at least one major change in life.  So many checks! 2016 brought me a new job and a move back to the area I grew up in. I'm so glad to be working in an academic library again, and to be back in the mountains. Here - have a look at my view: 

OK, time for 2017 New Year's resolutions! It's going to be a short list, and focused mostly on reading.

• Read books. The goal for this year is 115 books. A large number of those books ought to be giveaways and ARCs I've collected over the past year, to be honest.
• Keep up with Under the Covers book club books. We're shaking up the club, too. We have been reading a book a month, each book one that is being made into a movie that year. But many of us were dissatisfied with the books themselves, and all of us had trouble keeping up with the schedule. So! For 2017, we're going to read the winners of the 2016 National Book Awards, interspersed with our own readings. That's eight books total, with at least one book in each of four categories (Fiction, Nonfiction, YA, and Poetry).
• Make the Free Reads for Under the Covers book club match the previous National Book Award read. So I'll be reading at least one additional Fiction, Nonfiction, YA, and Poetry book over the course of the year.
• Change up the blog. Because I felt so constrained last year by the genre/subject categories, I'll ditch those. I also had trouble with posting once a month - sometimes I wanted to post more, and sometimes I felt rushed to post even once. So, I'll just post when I have something to post. Specifically, I'll post a book review whenever I read a book I love enough to post about - although I'll continue posting them as readers advisory reviews. The Readers Advisory Committee will probably continue to make guest appearances. 
• Play with TiddlyWiki. It looks interesting; I might migrate my reviews and pictures there eventually, if I like it enough. 

That's it! That's the goals for 2017. Now I'm off to read - what better way to bring in a new year?