2015 Wrap Up/2016 Introduction

A Year In Hindsight from Erin:

Well it’s that time of year again! That time being the beginning of a brand spanking new and shiny year! Everyone give yourself a nice pat on the back from making it through 2015. I don’t know about you, but for me? 2015 was a crazy BUSY year. I mean, just think about it:

• 2015 was my first full year as a college graduate.
• I read 100 books exactly, satisfying my goodreads goal for the second year in a row.
• The blog went through at least 3 major redesigns, last of which including a move to wordpress, self hosting, and our own domain name.
• A fabulous new co-blogger Jenny, who has helped make this blog kick ass and picked up my slack for the second half of the year when I was having a mini crisis.
• A huge move! First, moving my fiancee back from Maryland, then moving both of us to another city. It’s the first time I’ve had my own place (dorm rooms don’t count).
• Getting, hating, and losing my disaster of a job. OMG that job. It can rot in the Underworld for all I care.
• I’m driving! Kinda.
• I started Ohio Author Appreciation in April! An event I’m planning on continuing next year.
• I got close to a lot of great people: authors, bloggers, and readers alike!

 

And so…on to 2016! Who knows what’s in store for next year? Well, we have some plans but we’re no fortune tellers.

• I WILL be continuing OAAA! Sign ups are underway so contact your favorite author and tell them you want them to participate.
• I want to revive Thumbing Through Throwbacks, Pet Peeves, and The Thing About… features.
• I want to read and review all the older books on my shelves, particularly from my Ohio shelf.
• More reader input! I would love to get more ideas from you guys and see what you want to see.

 

Looking back at 2015 with Jenny:

Wow, i’ll be honest, 2015 was a pretty horrible year for me personally.

• My MIL passed away in January
• Horrible nonsense in my personal life and relationships
• Husband was hospitalized for 10 days and required long term at home care
• Working full time plus three kids in school full time
• Financial stress
• All of which led to. . . .very little reading!! I only read 24 books this year. I mean, I could try and justify that but it’s just . . .horrible

 

On the plus side!

• Found an awesome co-blogger who seems to know exactly when I need some help picking up the slack and puts up with my less than reliable blogging schedule
• Made some big changes to the blog that are going to lead us to some great things this year!
• Am working on scheduling in all the things I need to do and trying to lessen the amount of time I spend wasting. . .ahem. . .Twitter
• Found some great new bloggers and friends and was lucky enough to meet and talk to some great authors!
• Am slowly getting my personal life back on track and with that, working on some organization in my home and for my time that I think will lead to less stress in my life

 

Some goals for 2016:

• Try to get my reading on a schedule so I know i’m getting in a certain number of pages in a day
• Write my reviews right after I finish the book
• Set up some sort of TBR jar so I can rely less on my habit of mood reading. Mood reading is great in theory but leads to a lot of procrastinating on my part
• Only request books I REALLY want to read!!

There’s a lot of goals in my personal life that I want to reach too, so i’m debating starting a personal blog to document those changes.

And i’m with Erin, please let us know what sort of things you’d like to see on the blog! More reviews? Shorter reviews? More discussion posts? Hit us up with all your ideas!

 

Wishing everyone a happy and bookish 2016!!

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