Favorite Books of the Year

• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
• American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• The Strain by Guillermo del Toro
• The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
• Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
• Washington by Ron Chernow
• No Turning Back by Estelle Freedman
• A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin

Honorable Mentions: The HM category is reserved for rereads that I really loved.

• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Total Books Read – 88 books

Total Pages Read – 28,381 pages

I averaged 2365 pages per month.  My lowest month was April with only 1616 pages.  My highest month was August with 3466 pages.  I hope to read 30,000 pages next year.

Book Rating Stats –

• 5 stars — 30 books
• 4 stars — 37 books
• 3 stars — 19 books
• 2 stars — 1 book
• 1 star — 1 book
• DNFs —0

Special Projects/Features

Readathons —I completed 8 readathons this year.  My totals are down from last year, but I did well with an almost toddler running around.  I'm always up for readathons each quarter.

• January's Bout of Books 9: 750 pages, 3 books
• February's Winter's Respite: 738 pages, 2 books
• February's Love for Books: 265 pages, 1 book
• May's Spring into Horror: 348 pages, 2 books
• May's Bout of Books 10: 686 pages, 1 book
• July's High Summer: 767 pages, 4 books
• August's Bout of Books 11: 1180 pages, 3 books
• October's Frightfall: ? pages, 1 book

Bloggiesta in September — I participated again in September and loved getting my blog back-end in order. Definitely participating in 2015.

Day Zero Project  – I lost steam and ended my first attempt in failure. I am going to try this again starting January 2015.

Quote Wednesday — I kept this feature going this year.  Next year, I'm going to alternate between QW and Currently to give some variety to my week.

Music Monday —Still love sharing my favorite music videos every Monday.

Top Ten Tuesday — I don't usually participate, but every once in awhile the topic inspires me.

Fashion Friday — Love doing FF. I am definitely continuing this into 2015.

Arthur Updates — I loved sharing an Arthur update every week, but after 52 weeks, I am burned out.  I am switching to a monthly update in 2015.

Project Life — With the start of my craft blog in April, all PL spreads have moved over there...

Thanks/Odds and Ends/Fun Videos -- My Thursday rotation was a good way to break up content and not get bored with writing. I will be continuing the rotation in 2015.e

Reading Challenges

Here’s the final breakdown:

• Fantasy Project  8/20  40%
• Nonfiction Adventure  18/20  90%
• NPR Scifi and Fantasy   4/10  40%
• NPR Teen  8/10  80%
• Top 100 YA   5/5  100%
• 21st Century Women Authors  3/5  60%
• US of YA   3/5  60%
• Time Top 100   1/5  20%
• Rory Gilmore   6/10  60%
• 1001 Books  5/10  50%
• U.S. Presidents   2/5  40%
• Mount TBR  36/36  100%
• TBR Pile  7/30  23.3%
• Ebooks  23/25   92%
• New Author   15/15  100%
• Women Authors  20/20  100%
• 52 Books in 52 Weeks   52/52  100%
• Library  12/12  100%
• Read Your Freebies   12/12  100%
• Monthly Motif   10/12  83.3%
• Monthly Key Word   11/12  91.7%
• Books to Movies  12/12   100%
• Well Rounded Reader  22/25  88%
• Seriously Series  8/10   80%
• What’s in a Name   5/5  100%
• Picture Books   100/100  100%
• Rereading  3/4  75%
• Chunkster  5/10  50%
• Lucky No. 14   14/14  100%
• Back to the Classics   6/10  60%
• Fall Reading Challenge 15/20  75%

Total:  11/31 challenges   35.5% done

Total:  451/541 slots   83.4% done

Overall Thoughts/Reflections/Musings/Ideas

I anticipated that my reading totals would decrease this year and it happened. But I still read a ton of great books and wrote a lot of other blog posts. I'd say 2014 was a good year. I'm planning on continuing with a lot of my regular features. And I'm going to be adding in more personal posts tied to my new 101 in 1001 project and One Little Word. Stay tuned for a great new year!