2015 in Review and Challenge Updates

Books Read

It was a very good year reading wise. I don’t like to stress out about “how many” books I’ve read, so I tend to set goals I truly think are possible (not a stretch goal). I set my Goodreads challenge to 60 books, and pretty much blew it away by reading 95.

Goodreads does a fun break down showing your longest and shortest books, as well as the most and least popular. What it shows me is WAY more people need to read In Midnight’s Silence by T. Frohock!

Now, I signed up for a number of challenges at Worlds Without End. And, silly me forgot to update my reading over there and now I can only update one of them. So, the one that was the easiest to attain! I read over 18 Speculative Fiction books that were published in 2015 (which was not much of a goal, really, but hey! It’s fun to mark off boxes!)

The other challenges were the slightly more challenging ones. And while I can no longer update them to mark off my complete status, I at least know I did finish them.

New to me Female Authors In addition to what I entered on the challenge, I know I read Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, Updraft by Fran Wilde, Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, The House of Shattered Wings by Alliete de Bodard. There’s liable to be more as well.

Must Read More of that Author In addition to what I entered, I read 5 more Robin Hobb books this year. That alone finishes off the list. I know there were more authors I read more of this year as well (K. J. Parker, Ann Leckie, George R. R. Martin, Chuck Wendig, Sarah Lotz)

I also made progress on my r/Fantasy Bingo challenge. This one is different as it start/stops in April, so I still have time to finish, even if I suspect the odds of me getting some of these final squares (like pre-Tolkein fantasy) are pretty slim! I’ve read at least 3 short stories this year thanks to A Knight of Seven Kingdoms, and I’ve read some novellas that may count for that spot as well, but I’m waiting to update the square until I know for sure what I’m using for it.

Around the Blog

I published 91 reviews this year (definitely up from 72 last year). I also struck more of a balance with my reading regarding author’s gender. I’ll be honest, this was not intentional, but I was happy to see it because I know it has been rather lopsided.

• Female Authors: 53% (last year was 30%)

• Male Authors: 46% (last year was 70%)

Over all, I had 187 posts this year (up from 151 in 2014).

I successfully completed my Backlist Burndown every month this year! This is actually the most challenging challenge I have on my plate, and I think it helps that I turned it into a recurring feature and meme to encourage others to join in. Even if no one does, I feel a stronger obligation to get my book read and the post out there just incase. And reading Backlist Books is always a harder choice with all of the new and shiny books are being talked about.

The Speculative Herald

I can’t really do a wrap up of what I worked on this year without including a mention of The Speculative Herald. This new blog really started as a whim of an idea, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. And eventually I worked up the nerve to bounce the idea off of some fellow bloggers. The response was positive, and so 3 months ago (Yes! It has only been around for 3 months), I saw this idea actually come alive. It has been a lot of fun working with other bloggers, and I love seeing the coverage we are able to get for new releases between us. In 3 months, we have posted 75 posts, 54 of which have been reviews. The collaborative lists we’ve worked on have been a huge success, so three months in I am very happy with how things are going.

Many, many thanks to Mogsy at The BiblioSanctum, Tammy at Books, Bones and Buffy, Bob from Beauty in Ruins and Lynn from Lynn’s Books for their regular contributions, as well as many thanks to Nathan from Fantasy Review Barn who has also had some great contributions when time/scheduling permits.