Happy New Year!!

I hope you all saw 2018 out in the way you wanted to – we played board games all evening so I started 2019 by winning a board game husky race which was funny.

So, 2019 is here and with it comes a new reading challenge. After my over-achieving last year I have decided to put this year’s target at 52 books, so one a week throughout the year on average.

Another book-related ‘resolution’ I’m trying for, is to remember to make proper notes about the Smut Club books as I read them because last year I was a bit patchy and I forgot stuff.

In December I did actually, finally, do some proper reading, having not finished a single thing since October. Whoop whoop!

I finished Brenna Yovanoff’s The Replacement which was an easy, intriguing story about the fey and their relationship with humans (relying on their love/hate/belief to survive). It was entertainingly creepy without being over the top or actually scary, the characters were fun and I really enjoyed the story but I don’t think I will remember it by this time next year.

I also read the three books I got for Christmas: ‘Twas The Fight Before Chistmas, The Very Hungover Caterpillar, and Little Miss Busy Surviving Motherhood.

I adored Little Miss Busy and The Very Hungover Caterpillar made me laugh out loud but ‘Twas The Fight Before Christmas tried a little too hard and missed the mark by quite a way. Ah well, can’t win ’em all.

Now, with my 52 book target in mind, I have picked 5 titles for January so that I have one a week. With reality in mind, one of the books is about 50 pages long because another is closer to 600 and I like to try and be balanced about these things!

In January I am hoping to read:

1. The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie – Yes, this was indeed November’s Smut Club book and no, I haven’t read it yet. I’m 200 pages in so only 400 to go and technically we haven’t had its meeting yet because we decided to do a bumper one in January as December was crazy for trying to get everyone together. So it’s fine just as long as I get it finished by the 13th. I am enjoying it, I’m sure I’ll get there!
2. Wailing Ghosts by Pu Songling – This is my tiny book to counteract The Blade Itself‘s enormousness. I’m still workiing through my Little Black Classics as I think they are perfect for getting me to read outside my comfort zone successfully because they are short enough to stick with even if they aren’t to my taste. This one is full of classical ghost stories from China which I am quite looking forward to.
3. Fallout by Sandra Glover – I picked this one up at the library for 10p when they were clearing out old stock. I don’t know the author but the cover grabbed my attention and the blurb was interesting – a teenager holds a house-party whilst her parents are away and ‘from the fallout of the party emerges an accusation that shatters lives.’
4. Evolution by Teri Terry – The final instalment of the Dark Matter Trilogy that I am looking forward to and hoping is as quick and exciting a read as the others have been before it.
5. The January Smut Club Book – Represented here by my Smut Club notebook because we haven’t picked it yet. I am just hoping it’s not another 600 pager because we are having a late meeting so we have less time to squeeze it in before February!

EDIT: We have now picked both the January and February books for Smut Club as these two months are a bit busy (one of our number is getting hitched!) so we want to be able to get them read. The two titles chosen are The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith and Witch Fire by Anya Bast.

That second one is actual smut – we are hoping it is better than the last smut we read at Smut Club!!!!

The gorgeous desk calendar is one I won in a giveaway over Christmas and is from Not Only Polka Dots – I have decided it is going to be my book calendar and I will put a pretty sticker on it every day I finish reading a book.

Have you set yourself a reading target for the year? I love looking back on my GoodReads challenges because they show that everyone has phases – one year my target was 15 and I barely managed it and another year I hit 75 no problem!