It is time!!! Today we must talk about the challenges I set myself at the beginning of the year and how badly I did! This is the first time, since starting my blog and taking reading that bit more seriously, where I have failed a challenge!

I love doing challenges I think they are super fun and allow you to try and branch out and read new things. This year though, I want to focus less on the challenges and more about just picking up what I want to read. So, in 2022, as you will see in my reading plan coming soon, I am really scaling back on the challenges.

Goodreads Reading Challenge

This challenge is purely focused on the number of books you plan to read in the year.

So, I originally set my goal as 58 and made the decision to add 1 book to my goal for every book I DNF. Since I DNFd 7 books this year that meant I changed by goal to 65. Next year I will only be adding an extra book to my goal if I DNF a book so early I can’t give it a rating. Anything under a quarter read I will add an extra book but anything 25%+ stays as read. I feel that constantly adding to the goal stressed me out to meet it and it’s just meant to be a fun challenge.

But despite all the DNFs and goal shifts I am happy to say I have successfully completed this challenge. I ended up reading 75 books this year which has been my highest yet! A whole 10 books extra than planned!

Excluding the DNFs that comes to 68 books read.

2020 Sequels Challenge

This is a challenge I made myself to keep me on track with all the numerous series I have going on. I challenge myself to read at least 1 book in each of the series I am currently making my way through and I am happy to say I was successful in completing this challenge. I even read some more sequels than I had originally planned.

• January

  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Volumes 10-12 – Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist Omnibus #4)
• February

  • Lord Edgware Dies – Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #9)
• March

  • Red Seas Under Red Skies – Scott Lynch (The Gentleman Bastard #2)
• April

  • The Battle of the Labyrinth – Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #4)
• May

  • The Mystery of Three Quarters – Sophie Hannah (New Hercule Poirot Mysteries #3)
  • The Last Olympian – Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #5) (Additional Sequel)
• June

  • The Alloy of Law – Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn #4 / Wax and Wayne #1)
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Volumes 13-15 (Fullmetal Alchemist Omnibus #5) (Additional Sequel)
• July

  • The Shadow Rising – Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #4)
  • The Inugami Curse – Seishi Yokomizo (Detective Kosuke Kindaichi #2)
• August

  • Guards! Guards! – Terry Pratchett
• September

  No sequels read.

• October

  No sequels read.

• November

  • The Fall of Babel – Josiah Bancroft (The Books of Babel #4)
• December

  • Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #10) (Additional Sequel)
  • Shadows of Self – Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn #5 / Wax and Wayne #2) (Additional Sequel)

I just wanted to highlight a couple of series that I actually decided not to continue with despite including them in my 2021 Reading Plan.

• The Witcher Series – Andrezj Sapkowski
  I personally really enjoy the TV show so I plan to just follow the story along with the show rather the books. The first book didn’t blow me away and once they announced the series I just decided to stick with that.
• The Lightbringer Series – Brent Weeks
  I tried to read the second book in this series but I was just so bored reading it and I really didn’t like the main character Kip at all. I ended up just googling the plot to see how it ended because I just didn’t enjoy the novel enough.

The ONTD Reading Challenge

Now, this is where it starts getting tricky. I am just going to say it right from the jump. I failed this challenge.

The ONTD challenge was a challenge I had done for the last 2 years and I really enjoyed it. They give you a prompt each month and you try to complete them. This years theme was authors from different countries and I only managed to read up to Feb!!!!!

• Read a book from an author who is from South Korea – The Plotters by Un-Su Kim
• Read a book from an author who is from Argentina – Death Going Down – Maria Angelica Bosco

The reason I didn’t complete this challenge is due to two reasons.

1. I found that I had set myself so many challenges that my reading started to feel restrictive and I was losing interest in reading. I chose to get rid of this challenge to free myself up.
2. I researched some of the authors and while there were some interesting book I could’ve picked up I just wasn’t that invested in any set book or author and I preferred the books I owned already to the ones I was considering for the challenge.

Physical TBR

Every year I try to get a good chunk of my physical TBR read. This year I challenged myself to read 30 books. I am happy to say that I completed this challenge! I read exactly 30 books!

1. The Inugami Curse – Seishi Yokomizo
2. The Devil and the Dark Water – Stuart Turton
3. The Plague Letters – V.L. Valentine
4. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Akira Himekawa
5. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask & ALttP – Akira Himekawa
6. The Decagon House Murders – Yukito Ayatsuji
7. Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie
8. Lord Edgware Dies – Agatha Christie
9. The Child Thief – Brom
10. City of Secrets – Victoria Ying
11. The Binding – Bridget Collins
12. Forest of a Thousand Lanterns – Julie C. Dao
13. We Hunt the Flame – Hafsah Faizal
14. The Mystery of Three Quarters – Sophie Hannah
15. Descendant of the Crane – Joan He
16. An Ember in the Ashes – Sabaa Tahir
17. Bullet Train – Kotaro Isaka
18. The Fifth Season – N.K. Jemisin
19. The Shadow Rising – Robert Jordan
20. The Poppy War – R.F. Kuang
21. Red Seas Under Red Skies – Scott Lynch
22. Beasts Made of Night – Touch Onyebuchi
23. The Art of Dying – Ambrose Parry
24. The Battle of the Labyrinth – Rick Riordan
25. The Last Olympian – Rick Riordan
26. Ariadne – Jennifer Saint
27. Fullmetal Alchemist: Vol 10-12 – Hiromu Arakawa
28. Star Wars: From A Certain Point of View – Various
29. The Plotters – Un-Su Kim
30. Beneath the Citadel – Destiny Soria

Not a Novel Challenge

Last year I challenged myself to branch out and read some different formats and I wanted to try to read more books that weren’t just novels. Books like comics, manga, graphic novels etc. I didn’t set myself a specific number but I read loads of different books this year so I can safely say that I completed this challenge.

1. Lore Olympus – Rachel Smythe
2. The Steam Dragon Express – R. Merryweather
3. Fullmetal Alchemist: Volumes 10-12 – Hiromu Arakawa
4. Fullmetal Alchemist: Volumes 13-15 -Hiromu Arakawa
5. The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn – Ari Vuong
6. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – Akira Himekawa
7. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and A Link to the Past – Akira Himekawa
8. City of Secrets – Victoria Ying
9. PIGPEN – Kim Carnby
10. Orange: Volume 1 – Ichigo Takano
11. Orange: Volume 2 – Ichigo Takano
12. Delusion – Hongjacga
13. Attack on Titan: Volume 1 – Hajime Isayama
14. Ouran High School Host Club: Volume 1 – Bisco Hatori
15. Saga: Volume 1 – Brian K. Vaughn
16. Labyrinth Coronation: Volume 1 – Simon Spurrier
17. Miss Abbott and the Doctor – Maripaz Villar
18. Always Human – Ari North
19. Your Letter – Hyeon A Cho
20. Komi Can’t Communicate – Tomohito Oda
21. One Piece: Volumes 1-3 – Eiichiro Oda
22. Gustavo, the Shy Ghost – Flavia Z. Drago
23. The Remarried Empress – Alphatart
24. The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess – Tom Gauld
25. Methods of Dyeing – B. Mure
26. Leo and the Gorgon’s Curse – Joe Todd-Stanton
27. Marcy and the Riddle of the Sphinx – Joe Todd-Stanton
28. Arthur and the Golden Rope – Joe Todd-Stanton

So, this was actually the worst I have ever done with my reading goals. Normally, I complete all my goals and with my failing the ONTD challenge it meant that this was my worst year. Let’s hope I’m more successful in 2022.