reading goals

February 2018 Reading Stack

byjehunter books, I love books, reading, Young Adult Books , , , ,

Today is the first day of February, and I thought I would try something new: planning out my reading for the upcoming month. I still haven’t finished a couple books I began in January, Do Not Say We Have Nothing and A Torch Against The Night, both of which I hope to finish this weekend. IMG_5251

Then, since I’ve decided that 2018 is my year of “finishing/reading trilogies” I’m finally going to read Library of Souls. I need to read Deep Work by Cal Newport this month as well, as I prepare for my four months of full-time writing (I can’t wait!). Scarlet, the second book of the Lunar Chronicles is on my list for near the end of the month, and then, in the hopes that I still have time, I’m planning to read Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal as it has been on my shelf forever.

What are you planning on reading this month?

JEH

Writing 365,000 Words in a Year Update #26

byjehunter Blogging, books, Uncategorized, Writing Goals, Writing Prompts , , , , , , , , , ,

Something has changed with the arrival of summer, and unfortunately that appears to be the amount of time I have for blogging and writing. I’ve been doing a miserable job keeping up here, and also keeping up with my 1,000 words a day goal. It’s been off and on lately. The good news is that if I forget one day, I tend to remember and prioritize it the next. I’ve found a few hours this weekend to dedicate to a “mini-marathon” and maybe I will somehow be able to catch up on the 23,000 words I’m behind on. If I could manage to catch up, that would mean I’d almost completed the draft of The Torc, the new thing I’m working on. Here’s a look at my word count chart for the beginning of June:

Screen Shot 2017-06-08 at 10.05.58 PM

The large number on the right is my current deficit. I realized the other day that if I was caught up, I would have less than 100,000 words to write before reaching my goal! That makes me feel pretty close to achieving my target with approximately 3 months to go. Time is ticking away quickly and there is still a lot I want to get done before September 1st, when my goal will shift to rewriting, though I plan on continuing to draft a lot, since drafting makes me happier than rewrites.

My day job has kept me busy, so busy that I haven’t even had time to read much, though I was traveling so I did finish a couple audiobooks. Being busy hasn’t stopped me from buying more books to read either. Or planning to read more books. I was terribly behind on my GoodReads entries, and just paused to enter all my recent reads. The funny thing is that I feel like I’ve missed entering a book, but if I have, I don’t know which one. This is why I use GoodReads, because otherwise I forget what I’ve read! Here’s a shot of some new books in my garden. They’re so pretty.

So, after catching up on my GoodReads entries, I’m still two books ahead of my GR goals, which is awesome. I wound’t be anywhere close if I hadn’t listened to so many audiobooks this year, but listening to books at the gym has been inspiring both for my reading and writing, and also for working out. My current listen is Graceling, which i’ve just started. It will probably take me a while to get through as it is 11 hours, and I don’t have any solo road trips planned, though I do have a family trip.

Alright, so for the next week, my goal is to catch up on blogging, aim for 1,500 words a day, and just continuing enjoying books. What are your plans?

JEH