Good morning, good afternoon, good evening everyone! How are you ? First and foremost, I wish you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here’s to hoping that it’s better than 2016, filled with love and, well…tons of books, obviously.
And yes, it’s time again to get my favorite GIF number 2 here…
If you remember correctly, I am not really one of these people loving to make resolutions, because, well, I don’t really follow them (meaning : end up forgetting them halfway), but…well, last year I kind of wrote a resolutions post, so let’s see how I held up with that one now, shall we?
Reading 50 books
YES YES YES. Never have I read so much than I did this year, and I kind of blame you, to be honest. You, bloggers always throwing new books at my face and telling me to JUST READ THIS. Well…I’m not really mad, because I discovered way too many great books to be mad. Also, I should write here that never have I ORDERED so many books either. You shouldn’t know how many luggage it took when I moved to get all of my books. You also shouldn’t know how I’m about to drown in books in my own room.
I read 68 books this year – as I am writing this, I am hoping to get to 70 by the end of the year. I read AWESOME books, and I’m really happy about this, way more than the number.
Participating in Camp NaNoWriMo / NaNoWriMo / just WRITING
NO, no, NO. Epic fail here to be honest, haha. If I started participating in Camp NaNo to edit, I failed and failed and failed some more. I couldn’t participate to NaNo because I had no time. But I wrote. A little bit, I think. I wrote about 15 K this year ; still pursuing this same story, and if that’s not commitment, well… I guess I’m still doing okay ?
2017 here we come !
On reading
Since this new year is starting, I am going to keep the same goals because…well, I am kind of scared to make new resolutions when I know I’m not going to be following them. But I’m going to raise the stakes just a little bit for reading, for the fun of it, and try to read 60 books. That I might be able to achieve, right ?
On blogging
Now here comes the fun – or not. Since this is a new year, I wanted to talk about more of my blogging plans for 2017. No worries here, I am still going to be blogging as much as I can and, hopefully, loving it just as much. But I have some news to share about projects.
#SFATW : if you don’t know about my Souvenirs From Across The World feature, you can learn all about it here. It started last summer as an idea to send bloggers all around the world gifts, books, and love. In September, I started a new blog post idea : a monthly blog post, expanding on some part of each blogger’s country and culture.
I have decided, for now, to do a break on the blog posts idea. Next summer, there will be another round of souvenirs exchange, but for now, no more of the blog posts. They take me a long, long time to write and I am a bit on the fence about the results of this, both in terms of participation, and well, in terms of what makes me happy, as well.
As a result of this, I’m going to try to expand my travelling posts a bit. I really enjoy writing these kind of travelling diaries, and I would love to share more of my trips with you, hoping you will still enjoy it.
Regarding book blogging, well…no worries here. My favorite feature to write at the moment is Blogging Ways, and I have been loving all of your positive feedback about my ranting on blogging. I have SO much more to say, and I can’t wait to go on down that road. Always, bookish reviews and bookish discussions, and maybe getting a bit more into bookish recommendations, especially in the contemporary genre which I consider to be quite my specialty (read here: my LOVE).
And then there is writing, and my crazy relationship to it. I don’t know when you’re supposed to be considered a writer, maybe when you’re thinking about stories in the shower ?! In that case… Well, since I am going to try and finish my book this year, I want to try and write more about this. About writing, NaNoWriMo if I get to it again, about my struggles and everything.
Haaappy New Year! I hope you have a great year ahead and all of your plans succeed! <3
Thank you so much Poulami, the best of happy new year to you too! <3 <3
Happy new year, Marie! I’ve loved reading your blog this year – it’s amazing to see how far you’ve come, and how many new features you’ve added! This year I aimed to read 100 books but failed miserably… I only read 60! Still, I read some amazing books. This year I’m aiming for 52, and to post once a week on each of my blogs.
Oh, thank you so, so much Denise, this is making me so happy <3 <3 Wow, well 60 books is already an amazing amount of books, and what matters the most is how many great books you read 😀 I hope you'll manage to keep your goals! Happy New Year! 🙂
My reading goal is 60 books too. Good luck with your goals! Happy New Year!
Thank you Jess, best of luck to you too, and happy new year!! 🙂
Good luck on your resolutions?
Thank you!! Happy New Year, and good luck to you too if you’re making any resolutions 🙂
Some of the travelling posts and discussions on blogging and writing methods have been very well received (I personally enjoyed them, too, but I know I’m not alone – so hopefully that helps inform you!)
My view of SFATW: It was a fun, but very time consuming, experience. Monthly posts became a bit difficult, especially if there was NaNo or kid stuff, or other things going on away from the blogisphere. Shipping the souvenirs was fun, but also more expensive than I’d anticipated (but that could just be my personal issues with math). It is a great idea, I stand by that – I also think that making it just an annual thing, or say once a season, could be better as well.
Hope some of this helps!
Thank you so, so much for your thoughts about this, Daley! <3 I am happy that you were such an enthusiast paticipant to the SFATW feature, and I get it. It was so time-consuming for me too, even if I loved writing these. In the end, it was a lot, for, well, not much, since not many bloggers participated. Thank you! For now on, I am planning on only keeping the souvenirs exchange, and it will be twice a year in the summer, and in the winter 🙂
Thank you so much, this really helped <3
You’re welcome. The souvenir exchange is a great idea, and I wish I’d had the money to participate internationally this year. Next year will be different.
Of course, I understand. I’m hoping to get more bloggers to participate this summer, from all around the world, so that it’ll be easy to put them together and find someone fitting for everyone, depending on what they can spend 🙂
I think maybe having a theme could help, too – for example, summer events in your area – that could be a good way to keep to the “cultural share” idea as well.
Yes, that’s what I wanted to do, but I’m thinking that I won’t have too many ideas of themes to keep this up for long, or it not to become too, redundant. I’ll have to think about it. Thank you! <3
Every year I make a resolution to myself to try and write more…and every year I fail. The ideas come so easy to me (the number of point form notes on my phone are proof) but when it comes to actually sitting down to write it, I can never seem to manage!
Maybe 2017 will the the year 😛
Happy New Year!
Ohh, I get it. I have tons of ideas as well, but I feel like I don’t write enough. I hope you’ll be able to write more this year! Maybe doing NaNo or Camp NaNo might help you? Or we should try some sort of writing camp of some kind to motivate each other? Haha. Happy new year to you too!! <3
I tried NaNo this past November but with me working full time, the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was sit down and write. But I’m hoping once me hours go down, I can get that balance back again 🙂
But a writing camp might just work!
I understand. I wanted to do NaNo last November as well, but didn’t even try because it was impossible to juggle this with working full time. I hope you’ll be able to write again soon! We can motivate each other haha 🙂
Happy New Year, Marie!
I’m glad you were able to achieve your Goodreads goal! My goal wasn’t very high, so I was able to achieve it quickly, but I’m still happy with everything I read this year. It was a much more productive year than 2015 was, so yay!
Although I love the Souvenirs From Around the World feature (especially reading other people’s posts), I understand that they’re time-consuming. Regardless of that, I hope to share some more souvenirs next summer as well. I really enjoyed everything that I got last time, so I’m excited about it, hahah.
I didn’t put much reading goals for me this year. 2017 will be a very stressful year for me, so everything I wrote in my resolutions is “work hard!”, hahah. I hope I can manage everything and still have a good time!
Happy New Year to you too, Lais! <3 <3
Oh yay, that's so great! I think that what's most important is how many good books you read, and not how may, quantity-wise. I know people who read 200 books, and I read like, 69, but still I am happy to have discovered so many great books 😀
Thank you so, so much Lais, for all of your support and love for my SFATW feature, your enthusiasm made this all worth it <3 And yay, I am eager for the summer and the souvenirs exchange to come again for sure <3 <3
Ohh, well I wish you all the luck for this new year, and I hope you'll be able to manage everything you need to do and have a wonderful year <3 <3
HAPPY NEW YEAR, MARIE!! Congratulations on all your accomplishments this 2016 — 68 is more than twice as much than I read xD I’m really happy that you are deciding to post content that makes YOU happy because that is the best way to do it. I still think SFATW is a genius idea, but I can understand that participation and your mentality can alter how you feel about it. As for Blogging Ways, I’m really excited to see what you have in store for us! I know your blog will continue to strive this 2017, so thank you for providing so much to the blogging community. Here’s to an even BETTER 2017 <3
-Jess @jbelkbooks
Thank you so, so much, Jess! HAppy New Year to you too, and wishing you for a great year <3 <3
thank you! I really love my SFATW feature, but it takes so much time, I think for now it's good to take a break and reflect a bit on it, to see how I still feel about it after this little time away 🙂 Thank you so, so much <3 <3
Yeah, I totally understand. Time management can be a pain, but like mentioned, I’m happy you are posting content that you want/love (: Either way, your content will still be amazing!
Thank you for the kind wishes! Here’s to a better 2017! <3
-Jess @jbelkbooks
Thank you so, so much Jess <3 <3
Congrats on your 68 books read, well done!! I read 50 and I’m really happy about it. Last year I read 30 and I felt like I had read SO much, so you can imagine how awesome I feel this year haha. I’m a very slow reader, so it’s a huge achievement 🙂 It’s my first year with a blog, so I’m really excited to start off the year with it and have goals for it. One of my goals is to visit more blogs and comment on them, because I know comments make my day. Another one is to read more own voices books.
I hope you have an awesome 2017!
thank you so, so much Esther! And wow, that’s so great, seems like you had a very great reading year, congratulations! 😀
I get the feeling, I love comments as well, it’s what’s making my day all better <3 HAppy New Year, and a great 2017 to you too! <3
Thank you! <3
Even though you didn’t make you Camp NaNo resolution from last year at least you beat your reading one! Did you make it to 70 books in the end Marie?
Hopefully this means good things for your goal of 60 books in 2017, it should be easy knowing you read at least 68 books this year right. Also I love your travelling posts so I’m looking forwards to seeing more of them in 2017, and your Blogging Ways posts too!
Happy New Year as well Marie, I hope you had an amazing one! 😀 <3
Thank you, Beth! No, I sticked to 68 books because I didn’t have time to read that last week of December…but I guess that’s still a great goal haha 🙂
Thank you so, so much, it makes me so happy to hear you’re looking forward to some of these posts 🙂 Again, the best of happy new year to you too, Beth <3 <3
I didn’t have much chance to read during the last week of December either, too much going on with Christmas the New Year. Still at least 68 was more than your original goal! 😀
That’s all right, and yes happy new year to you too, and I hope you have an amazing 2017! 🙂
Yes, I’m still very happy I managed to read that much, I hope this year will be just as good 😀
Fingers crossed right! 😀
Happy New Year!! I can’t wait to see what you post this year 😀 I also have failed at NaNo. This year (or last year haha) in my creative writing class, we did YWP NaNo which is technically for 18 and under. You get to set your own goals and everything. It’s a lot more doable.
Happy New Year to you too!! Oh, this is SO cool you have a creative writing class, I wish I had that just as well! Wishing you all the best for 2017 🙂
Thank you! It’s a great class. Sadly, it’s ending soon. Wishing you all the best in 2017 as well 😀
It looks like 2016 has been a pretty great year Marie! I hope you’ll achieve your 2017 goals especially the writing one 😀 and I think 60 books are pretty good number, it’s doable but won’t stress you out too much haha I only planned to read 45 (though I’m sure I’ll read more) because I want to focus on doing other things as well haha and YES to the recommendation posts! I trust your contemporary recs so much hahaha I personally have done a few recs post on my blog based on tropes and I’m going to work more on it this year <3 have a great 2017 Marie! 🙂
Thank you so much Puput, I hope so. I love writing and I hate not being able to make more time for it. I hope I will this year 🙂
I understand, I think it’s great to have goals but not aim too high, otherwise it’s just too much pressure haha, I don’t like it.
Have a great 2017 as well!! <3 <3
Can’t wait to see what your blog has in store for us this year, Marie ♥ Looking forward to all of your posts even if your travel ones will make me cry ?
I hope you have an amazing 2017!!
Thank you Lauren, happy new year!! I hope you will have a wonderful 2017 as well <3 <3
I just made it to 70 books for 2016 and will now be reading have set goodreads to only 50 because I want to reread more books this year. So that’s 50 new books plus rereads. I might make it to 70 again, who knows. But I also want to do more reading challenges as I love these the most
Wow, congratulations on all of these books Karine, this is great! I hope you’ll manage to read just as much, and fall in love with great books this year 🙂
Wishing you an amazing year ahead. Heres to more travel posts
Thank you so, so much, wishing you a great happy new year as well! <3 <3
HAAAAAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AS WELL!
I set my Goodreads challenge to 70 books for 2017 😀 I think I can do it, since I read 80 in 2016, but I don’t want to pressure me hahaha
I have every intention on actually participating in one of the monthly SFATW this year :/ I feel like I really missed out there, but I just had so little time to do really thought out posts.
My main goal is to finish Arcadia’s first draft this year though. That’s something I HAVE to achieve to feel content with myself I think.
HAPPY NEW YEAR Kat <3 <3 I hope your year's off to a good start <3
OH no :/ Well for now I am taking a break on the monthly blog posts, I guess I'll see after a few how I feel about these. I enjoyed them, but not many bloggers participated and they are time-consuming, so I'm not sure about it anymore. I guess I need to think about it more.
YES YES PLEASE DO. I want to read it allll <3
It was an okay start, but I am not worried about the year. I just need the first two weeks of work to be over because then I will finally be free (and I will so sleep 15 hours). How did your year start?
Maybe you can make SFATW a feature that’s like 4 times a year? Or I will just do old themes. That’s okay, right?
Oh well, two weeks will pass in a blur, I’m sure, then, sleep is all yours 🙂
It started all wrong since I have been sick since the year started, haha. But well, what can you do. I just hope this is not how the whole year’s going to be, otherwise it’s going to be awful haha.
Oh of course, if you’re feeling inspired to do the old themes, I’d love to read them 🙂 For now I’m kind of thinking about how to re-organize this, maybe I’ll do the blog posts again but less frequently. I also need to think about good themes, so it doesn’t feel like it’s always the same thing… Lots of work here haha 🙂
They better! I am SO tired.
I’ve heard that it didn’t start so great for many people. It’s the residue of 2016 still seeping through. 2017 just wants to get all the bad stuff out of the way to get to its full potential 😉
Oh yeah, I can definitely imagine how that’s a lot of work! You can do it 🙂 I believe in you, but don’t overdo it if you feel like it is too much.
I hope so, ahha 🙂 Thank you so much <3 <3
I spent a long time thinking about my resolutions as they relate to blogging and reading. It was hard! I am going to try to read 100 books this year, and I want to participate in the Popsugar Reading challenge. I participated in Read Harder last year– but it’s *even harder* this year, and that seems like too much. I don’t want to overcommit!
I respect your choice to stop #SFATW as a blog post series, though I really enjoy them. I can imagine they take a lot of time! I love your Blogging Ways series of posts, and I’ve considered starting my own version of this myself. Perhaps I’ll hold off as cooler people are working on them. 🙂
Good luck with all your goals! I believe in you.
Best of luck for all of your challenges, Jackie! I am sure you can do this, and what matters the most is reading great books 😀
Thank you so much for your support and love for #SFATW, it means a lot to me. Maybe this break will make me want to start again, but for now I feel like I need to take a step back. Maybe I’ll come up with another idea or something new to make people participate more.? I guess I’ll have to brainstorm a bit 🙂
Oh no! Well please don’t feel afraid to start your own discussion posts about blogging if you’re feeling like it 🙂
15K I still good. LOOK AT ME. I wrote 7K. I will definitely participate in Camp NaNo too. And as for blogging, I want to get more posts done! 🙂
Best of luck for all of this, YOU CAN DO IT! 😀
Happy New Year, Marie! 😀
Happy New Year to you too, Ashley!! 😀
Happy new year. Amazing resolutions you’ve set. Hope you achieve them all ??
Happy new year to you too, Jess! Thank you so, so much! Did you make any resolutions? 🙂
Not yet. I’m kinda new to the idea of setting resolutions. But I guess you’ve inspired me to. It’s amazing that people can actually read up to 50 books!!! I guess I’ll start with one book each month and see how it goes??
Oh well I’m glad! And don’t feel too pressured, I never end up doing everything I set up myself to do, anyway, haha 🙂 I hope you’ll read great books this year, Jess, no matter if it’s 5 or 50 😀
Happy new year to you too! At the moment, I have zero special projects planned haha. Alll of the features you mentioned in your post are awesome and I’m looking forward to reading more blog posts from you this. And definitely keep writing!!! You can do it! <3
Oh thank you so much Rachana! <3 <3 Happy new year to you too, and it's good to have nothing special planned, and just see where life and blogging takes you 😀
Happy New Year my adorable sweechie!!!! In addition to the usual health, love, and money, I wish you a wonderfully creative and bookish year, I can’t wait to read all of your posts for 2017!
Oh thank you my Sweechie, you are THE BEST <3 <3 <3
I love travel posts, especially when I’m secretly reading them while stuck in my office chair, dreaming of far-away places…!! ?
Haha oh yes, I love that too, we all need to dream a bit when we can’t get away haha 😀
Oh, I am so looking forward to your travel posts! They always give me such wanderlust 🙂 And I also really love your posts on blogging! And even though I’m not a writer myself, for some reason I’m always strangely interested in posts about writing… Maybe I think it’ll wake up the writer in me… but so far no luck 🙂
Ohh thank you! I’m glad to hear you enjoy these travelling posts 🙂
Ohh well I am not too much of a writer, though I do try my best to because I love it, when I have the time to – BUT I do love reading posts about writing as well. They are just so great 🙂 Who knows, maybe one day one will awake the writer in you! Did you ever try to do NaNoWriMo or something? 🙂
I never did a NaNoWriMo, mostly because I have no idea on what I would write a book about – I have like no inspiration 🙂 This one time, when I was maybe 12, I started writing my own book, but it was actually more a copy of a Goosebumps book I just read, but with my friends and me as main characters. Haha, so I just stopped after 1 chapter 😀 I loved writing exercises in high school, but without a prompt of some kind I just don’t know what to write about… Maybe some day inspiration will strike, who knows? In the meantime, I’ll just stalk all the blog posts on writing 🙂
Oh I understand. There are always some kind of inspiration somewhere,and I think NaNo gives some writing prompts from time to time, maybe this would help with the inspiration, who knows 🙂
What constitutes too much reading or writing? I dont think there is any such thing because we all should read and write more….I also challenge myself to read more – didnt quite hit the 60 book mark this year but there is always next year – and to combat the “too many books” problem, I got myself a Kindle – so I carry around at least 500 books at one time!
You’re right, we can never read or write too much! 🙂 Best of luck for all of your resolutions this year! 🙂
Maybe a little too late but Happy New Year!!!! 🙂
Regards
JC
http://www.mijn-website-maken.be/
Thank you , happy new year to you too 🙂
Hey… Could you suggest me some good books to read? BTW Happy new year to you!!
Wow that’s such a big question to ask haha, do you have any particular genre you like? 🙂 Happy new year to you too! 🙂
Mysterious or thriller.
I’m not much of a thriller reader, but you can check out books I classified as mystery in my book reviews : https://drizzleandhurricanebooks.com/category/books-by-theme/mystery/ 🙂
Thank you so much.
You’re welcome 🙂
You writing this post surely constitutes, in some capacity, that you are a “writer”. I am most certainly better at boosting people up to write instead of doing writing myself (I’ve plotted so much but haven’t actually gone about writing things down).
Anyhow, I think we both need to just disable the Backspace/Delete key because if you’re editing as much as I am…it can definitely be counter-productive!
Oh well thank you, Joey! I am in much, much need of someone boosting me haha. You’re so right, I should like blacken my Backspace key on the keyboard and not touch it until I’ve written a lot ahah 🙂
Yay travel posts!
Glad you like them Anna 🙂 Thank you!
I want to read more books this year. I’m also doing a 31 day yoga challenge. I need to get grounded!
Oh wow, that’s great! Best of luck for your resolutions! 😀
so late but happy new year!! My new year resolution is to be a blogger
Thank you, happy new year to you too! 🙂 And I hope you’ll have tons of fun blogging this year 🙂
Happy new years to you! I will be reading alot of ? I also do audio books from the libarary. When your on the go or just relaxing.
Thank you, Happy new year to you too, and happy reading! 😀