Happy 2016!

I wasn’t planning on writing a “Happy New Year” post, but it felt a bit strange to just get on with my usual schedule without paying any attention to the fact that 2015 is over. Although, I have to say, I’m not as excited about the new year as I have been in the past. 2015 was a good year for me, so I simply want to keep doing what I’m doing.

However, this doesn’t mean that I don’t like to look back on everything I did in 2015! A year ago today I wrote a post in which I mostly looked forward on what was to come, and also included a few goals. I also wrote a post with some blogging resolutions at the end of December, so let’s take a look at the goals in both of those posts and see how I did…

• Read 50 books – Check! I had to squeeze in a few short novels at the end, but I did it! If you’re interested in what I read, go take a look at this end of the year survey I did.
• Get organised on Goodreads – Sort of, I guess. I cleaned up my shelves a little, and added a “books I own” and “favourites” shelf, but that’s about it. My plan to cross post my reviews failed miserably.
• Post a Monthly Recap each month – Yep! This is the first year I did this, and I really like it. I think it’s a fun way to summarise what happened on the blog each month, and to see how much I actually read and posted (and consequently to make plans to read more – and fail to do so).
• Plan blog posts/write in advance – Uhm. Well, sometimes. I went on holiday to Malta for two weeks, and didn’t miss a post, so that was good. However, I also missed quite a few days on which I should’ve posted, so I could have done better.
• Read more books out of my comfort zone – Did that! I now know I like YA fantasy and science fiction.
• Put together my own rating system – I did that too, and I’m really happy with it! It suits my needs much better than those darn stars on Goodreads (we need half stars, Goodreads, get with the programme!).
• Use NetGalley more often – Well, technically I did this, but I still only used it about three or four times. Maybe this year?
• Make better use of Twitter and interact more with other bloggers – Again, technically I did, but I still think I could do better. I want to interact more with you guys!
• Have fun! I certainly did that! 2015 was a good year for fun!

I also mentioned that in 2015, if all went well, I would write my bachelor’s thesis, earn my BA in English Language and Culture and start my MA in Writing, Editing and Mediating, and I did all of those things! So academically speaking, 2015 was quite a big year for me. I’m really enjoying my MA and feel like I’ve found my place even more than during my BA.

This year, my plan is again to read 50 books, since that seems like a doable amount for me. A new goal is to bake more things out of my comfort zone (I sometimes forget that this is not solely a book blog – oops!).

I’m going to post a more elaborate list of resolutions or goals on Tuesday as part of Top Ten Tuesday, but here’s my main goal for this year: have fun and be happy. That should be enough, I think!

Thank you guys for being cool and lovely, and a Happy New Year to you all!