Happy New Year + 2016 Book Challenges

Posted December 31, 2015 by shooting in Uncategorized / 22 Comments

Happy New Year! I can’t believe that 2016 starts tomorrow. I’m excited for a new year though. 2015 was nice – I got to attend BEA with my sister in NYC and during that trip, I celebrated my 25th birthday and visited with a friend I hadn’t seen in forever. I also got my master’s from graduate school. I’m ready for 2016 though because I’ll be going to London in September (I’ve never left the U.S., so it should be interesting) and I’m no longer in school so hopefully that will bring some new job opportunities my way. I also want to read as many books as possible, go to fun author events when I can, and generally grow the blog as much as possible!

I hope you all have a fantastic 2016 and be safe tonight if you’re going to be out!

Now, here are the 2016 Book Challenges I have decided to take part in: 

Goodreads Book Challenge (add me!): Confession – I have never done the Goodreads challenge. I’m actually not that great at keeping track of what I read over there, but I have tried to do a bit better recently and I think it would be great to have an exact number of books read for the year at the end of it all! My starting goal is going to be 100 books!

Unique Formatting Book Challenge (check it out here): This is the challenge I am personally hosting, where you read books with unique formats or fun extras included (like illustrations or photos). If the link to sign  up is closed, that’s fine. You can join in whenever you want throughout the year! If you make a post about this challenge, please let me know! I made one post with some ideas of books you could read – I have at least one other post coming up in the next week or so with even MORE ideas for MG, YA, and Adult! 

Book Blog Discussion Challenge (sign up here) hosted by Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon at It Starts at Midnight! I did this challenge last year, but not very well. I had a lot of different discussion ideas I wanted to talk about related to books and book blogging, but for whatever reason, time would pass me by and I never posted them. This year, I am hoping to do a lot better!

My goal is to be a Creative Conversationalist which means I will make 13-24 discussion posts throughout 2016!! That’s either close to one a month, or two discussions a month. I think I can do it!

Non-Fiction Reading Challenge (sign up here): This challenge is hosted by Angie from Lady Knight Reads. There aren’t a ton of participants for this one, so think about joining in. I actually read a lot of non-fiction in 2015 so I think it will be fun to keep track of all that I read in 2016, especially since I didn’t review all the non-fic I read this past year!

There are no set numbers, so just sign up and feel free to read what you can/want!

2016 Series Starter Challenge (sign up here): Lisa from Lisa Loves Literature has created her own challenge for 2016 as well, and I decided to join in. I started reading more series in 2015 that I had never gotten around too, so I love this idea of a challenge where you START a new series. At least two books must be out for the series (or the second comes out in 2016) but that’s the main rule. You can read older series or newer ones. You can read the first book and decide the series won’t be for you, or you can continue on! There are a lot of series I want to read – and many that I own the first copy of, so I hope this will be good motivation to read as many as I can!

Lisa made these really cool badges based on NASA space missions to note what level you are going for during the challenge. I’m going to start at Gemini: 3-4 new series, but I do hope to get past Gemini as the year goes on! I want to start somewhere manageable though!

Rock My TBR (sign up here): This challenge is hosted by Sarah at The YA Book Traveler. I have so many books I’ve bought or was gifted and just never got around to reading. I want too, but I find that review books often get in the way. I decided to sign up for Rock My TBR because it sounds pretty laid back and it’s good motivation to reading my own books. The main goal is to try and read at least one book every month from your TBR. I think I can manage that one!

Commenting 365 Challenge (sign up here): Nori from ReadWriteLove has created this fun 2016 challenge where the goal is to comment on 365 different blogs throughout 2016. You don’t have to comment on a blog every day of the year, but whenever you have time, work on finding/visiting new blogs and leaving some bloggy love. I always comment back on your blog if you comment on mine, but at the same time, I like branching out and finding other bloggers. Nori is going to make a Master List of blogs you can use to comment on or you can make your own list! I think I’ll start out with Nori’s – helps me find new blogs!

Whew – so that’s it! There are tons of amazing challenges out there for 2016 but I have NEVER done this many even, so it should be crazy just handling these. At the same time, I found challenges that allow me to read what I like, read what I want to read, and hopefully find new blogs to follow and discuss with!

What challenges are you taking part in? Did you or will you sign up for any of the ones I featured here?

22 responses to “Happy New Year + 2016 Book Challenges

  1. You got your Masters! That's amazing. Congratulations!
    Good luck with your own challenge this year. I'll look out for your ideas for books with unique formats.
    That's actually a great idea to comment on 365 different blogs. It's kind of an epic challenge. I do want to comment more because I'm so bad at being consistent.
    I'm participating in so many including the Goodreads challenge.
    I hope you have a great New Year!

  2. It sounds like 2015 was a successful year for you! Congratulations once again on all of your accomplishments!

    The non-fiction reading challenge sounds daunting – I admit it's not a genre I typically enjoy reading from, however, I almost always glean inspiration from it when I do.

    I just sent you a friend request over at Goodreads! I can't believe we weren't friends already 0_o

    Wishing you all the best in 2016, Lauren; Happy New Year!

  3. Congrats on all the good that came your way in 2015! You have some great challenges and link-ups planned for this year. I love Goodreads, but I admit to not being very good at filling out my reviews over there. I am happy to say though that over the holidays I read 3 books. That made me so happy. Of course the house was trashed and kids were running rampant, but I did it. Best wishes for a great 2016 to you!

  4. Ohh I love the 365 Blogger love! I think it's a great way to meet new bloggers. I know I'm always looking for new blogs to follow, so I think it's a great challenge!

    You've got some big goals and challenges for 2016! I wish you the best of luck, Lauren!

  5. Congrats on Masters!!
    The goodreads yearly challenge is all I have done this year actually. When I review a book, at the same time I add to goodreads, amazon, barnes and noble, library thing, and if I got from netgalley or edelweiss

  6. Happy New Year! You accomplished some amazing things in 2015, I hope you have an awesome 2016 as well 🙂 I also participate in the Goodreads Challenge, I like how it keeps track of everything for you!

  7. Congratulations on earning the Master degree! London sounds great! I've never been there, but I really want someday 😀 Anyway, hope you could accomplish all of your challenges, and happy new year!

  8. My 2015 was great too, and I think 2016 will be amazing 🙂 I'm doing the goodreads challenge too, I want to read 50 books.

    Happy new year!

  9. I always keep track of what I read on Goodreads, so I participate int he Goodreads challenge each year, it's a fun way to see how many books you read in a year. Good luck with all your challenges, they sound fun!

  10. Ohhh some of these look fun! I am tempted to add more but am restraining myself. lol. Good luck!!
    <3Britt @ PleaseFeedTheBookworm.com

  11. I hope getting your Masters will help you land a great job, Lauren! And I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun in London, it's one of my favorite cities 🙂
    Are you coming to BEA in Chicago in May? I'm going, and it would be awesome to meet you IRL.
    Good luck on your challenges, I hope you'll have fun participating.
    Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews

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