What were my goals for 2021?

These were originally laid out in this post, and I then amended them in my mid-year wrap up. I completed… exactly two of them. Yay. Go me.

1. READ 150 BOOKS THIS YEAR

I did succeed on this one! I read 175!

2. READ ALL THE COMPLETED JANE AUSTEN BOOKS, (AND POSSIBLY THE UNFINISHED WORKS AS WELL)

I actually did have hope for this, but alas, I only got around to reading Northanger Abbey and rereading Pride & Prejudice. This one will get rolled over to 2022 though.

3. FINISH READING WAR AND PEACE, AND READ ANNA KARENINA

I did finish War and Peace. I didn’t read Anna Karenina, though that was because I decided to wait and buddy-read it with my boyfriend, and we haven’t had a good shared time to do so yet.

4. READ THE HOBBIT AND THE LORD OF THE RINGS (eliminated in June)

I eliminated this in my mid-year wrap-up when I realized it was absurd, because I just don’t care enough about Tolkien to force myself through all of these in a year. It’s a someday-goal, not a as-soon-as-possible goal, y’know?

5. READ AT LEAST 5 BOOKS IN TRANSLATION

I did read 3 (War and Peace, Anxious People, and A Castle in the Clouds), which is progress? I at least mostly did it.

6. READ AT LEAST 3 SHAKESPEARE PLAYS

I did this! It was aided by the fact that I’m taking a Shakespeare course for my English class this year, so it was kind of mandatory (though I was in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the spring, so maybe that should count as well?). Anyway, I read As You Like It, The Tempest, and Richard II, so this was definitely a success!

7. READ AT LEAST 2 BOOKS IN FRENCH (amended to 1 in June)

Nope. This didn’t happen.

8. READ MORE POETRY

I’m honestly not sure I read any poetry this year that wasn’t sonnets for my Shakespeare English class. It was an unrealistic goal anyway, but… I did have hope.

9. REVIEW ALL BOOKS READ, EVEN IF IT’S SUPER SHORT

Hahahhahaha…. no. This didn’t happen. However, I did start reading a lot of NetGalley ARCs recently, so that’s been kind of getting me into the flow of reviewing books right after reading them, so maybe 2022 will be the year for this?

10. MAINTAIN BLOG SCHEDULE (AT LEAST MOST OF THE TIME)

This didn’t really happen until December, but now I’m feeling comfortably in a rhythm of about 3 posts a week and I have faith in myself.

*BONUS: POST CONSISTENTLY ON MY BOOKSTAGRAM ACCOUNT*

This… didn’t happen. I kept doing short bursts and then not posting anything for months.

How was my reading in 2021?

Yay for StoryGraph and its beautiful graphics and stats!

There were definitely some really good reading months and some much-less-good reading months. February, June, and July all make sense as peak reading months, since I had those off from school, as does December when I was procrastinating college applications by reading. No clue what happened in August though, considering that it isn’t like I was doing much else that month either.

Of my 175 books read, about 93 were physical books and about 82 were ebooks (I didn’t have a good system for tracking this this year, so it’s an estimate)

I’m kind of surprised at how many <300 books there are, but I suppose that’s explained by all of the contemporary books I’ve been reading, as well as the handful of middle-grade eARCs I’ve read from NetGalley.

This is a pretty average rating scale for me; I’m very good at anticipating what books I will or won’t like, and read or don’t read them accordingly, so reading books of my own volition that I dislike is pretty rare.

My five non-fiction books (3 graphic novels, 1 school book, and The Anthropocene Reviewed) are really trying to pull their weight here.

One of my big goals for 2022 is to read more fantasy than contemporary, since I just enjoy it so much more. Like, contemporary is quick and easy, and there are definitely good books in there, but I would guess that my average rating for YA contemporary is somewhere in the 3.5 range, whereas my average fantasy rating is probably closer to 4.5. I think I’ll enjoy reading more if I make that a priority.

None of this comes as a surprise for me, though I consider Brigid Kemmerer’s addition a representation of the greatest waste of my time this year, which was forcing myself through the A Curse So Dark and Lonely trilogy, which I loathed and wanted to DNF every other chapter. I only got through it because I was buddy reading it with my (former) best friend (who has since revealed herself to be a very toxic person, so I don’t even consider this to be worthwhile in its value as a bonding experience).

What were my favorite books this year?

I did a post here with my top 20 books of the year. Here are my top five:

5. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

4. Chain of Iron, by Cassandra Clare

3. The Reading List, by Sara Nisha Adams

2. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V.E. Schwab

How was my life outside of reading this year?

I finished 11th grade, so that was exciting. I just submitted my last college application, which has been taking up the bulk of my attention for the past few months, so that’s definitely a large weight off of my back; now there’s just the nerves of waiting for decisions to come out. I started dating my boyfriend of almost-nine-months, so that’s been amazing as well. I’ve done a ton of art, primarily landscape paintings, as well as a lot of theater, including being in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (my favorite Shakespeare play) in the spring. Overall, it’s been a great year, and I’m very much looking forward to the next one!

How about you? How was your reading year in 2021? Comment below!