At the very outset I would like to wish everyone a very happy new year! I wish that your life is filled with happiness, love, good health and lots of new adventures! 🙂
For me, 2015 flew by, literally; I experienced various ups and downs, travelled to new places, tasted some new food for the first time and learnt many a new and important life lessons. I do not do New Year resolutions but focus on living one day at a time but at the same time I always try to push myself a little bit out of my comfort zone and do something new.
The only regret I have for 2015 is in regards to the number of books I could read this year. Towards the second half of the year, I got quite slow and I could read only 28 books out of the 30 books I challenged myself in the Goodreads Reading Challenge. However, I did read some amazing books. Anyhow, this year I am again challenging myself to read 30 books; the number is not quite big since like last year my focus is to read some great books which have been in my to-read list since forever and some others which are of not the genres I generally prefer to read. So, along with the Goodreads Challenge, 2015, I am also joining the 2016 Monthly Motif Reading Challenge. I read about the latter in the blog THE GREEDY READER and the very idea of reading a book every month belonging to a different genre was quite interesting and challenging for me. And hence, I have decided to join in the fun. 🙂
Here are the month-wise themes for 2016 Monthly Motif Reading Challenge –
The Motifs
JANUARY- Who Dunnit?
Crack the case and solve the mystery with your first book of the year.
FEBRUARY- New Releases
Read a book released in the last year.
MARCH- Take a Trip
Time Travel or read a book set in a country different than where you live
APRIL- Best of the Best
Read a book that has won recognition or a literary award
MAY- Story of Survival
Make it out alive, beat the odds, save yourself stories. Try thinking beyond the typical wilderness survival. Surviving high school? Surviving a family road trip? Yep- those count too! PS. Dystopians would work great in this motif too.
JUNE- Girlxoxo Recommends
We’ve read a lot of great books. Check out our archives and pick one of our recommendations off our book lists.
JULY- LOL
Hilarious memoirs, silly chick lit, comedic scifi. Pick a book that is guaranteed to make you laugh out loud.
AUGUST- Genre Jumble
Read from a genre that you don’t normally read from
SEPTEMBER- Steampunk, Science Fiction, and Fantasy
Pretty self explanatory and loads of great books to pick from in this motif.
OCTOBER- Things That Go Bump in The Night
Cozy mystery ghost stories, paranormal creeptastic, murder mystery- it’s up to you!
NOVEMBER- Fiction Takes A Break
It’s all about Nonfiction November this month!
DEC- That’s a Wrap
Finish a series you’ve been meaning to finish or read the next book in a series you started but never finished.
So, guys wish me luck! 🙂
What are the things you have challenged yourself for 2016? Did you make any new resolutions? How is 2016 treating you so far? Do share in the comments section below! 🙂
dreamzandclouds 
Even I could not complete the 30 books target last year.
Good luck with your challenge!
Thanks Nats! I hope 2016 will be a good year 🙂
Good luck on your reading challenge! Personally, I feel as if I haven’t done enough justice to books, either since the past couple years; but, I did happen to devote enough time to read a few really good ones from my to-read list in 2015. Hopefully, this year will be better! 🙂 Happy New Year!
cheers to that! 🙂 at the end of the day quality matters more than quantity 🙂
All the best with the challenge…
i keep telling myself i need to start finding time to start reading books especially the ones resting in my loft …
My suggestion would be to aim for a page or two every day and you will soon get going…..good luck with that! 🙂
And a very happy new year! 🙂
All the best. I am sure you will reach more than 30. Happy New Year:)
I too hope so 🙂
Thanks Vishal!
I really should keep a count of the books I read!!
are you in Goodreads? It makes it quite easier to keep a track and also you discover many new books too 🙂
I use Goodreads very sporadically
I should put in an effort to use it for tracking my books
is it? why don’t you add the Goodreads widget in your blog sidebar? Also you can sign up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge; I think it can help you to keep a track of the books you read over the years. 🙂
I will check it out 🙂
yay! do send me a friend request; I am available as Madhusmita
2015 was a good year for you. Best of luck with your reading challenge for 2016
thanks a ton Michelle! 🙂
For me 2015 was quite eventful! On reading, kind of same happened to me too! 😛 Have the same goal too.
The other challenge seems interesting, thinking to join it too! 😀
same pinch then! 😛
and don’t hesitate to join in the fun 🙂
Yup just joined it
cool! happy reading! 🙂
May you read lots of books, travel as much as u want and taste even more dishes.. Happy 20 16!
cheers to that….that’s exactly what I want to do! 🙂
😀
I too have decided to be more serious about my reading. Last year I succumbed to the lure of the smart phone and my reading suffered a lot. But this year I have made up my mind to continue my love story with books 😊
Already finished one and now am reading one of my fav authors, Jodi Picoult. So it’s a happy me right now. I’m sure we’ll rock 2016 Madhu 👍🏻😊
I hear you Anjana, smartphones can be real time-wasters. For me, I have started to cut down on review copy of books and concentrate on reading the ones I have in my too-read list. At the end of the year, the number may be less, but I am sure I will be happy that I read some good books 🙂
Happy reading! 🙂
This is SO interesting! I wonder if I can be ambitious and fit this one in too… mmm. We’ll see 😉
Good luck and happy reading!
Thanks dear! 🙂
And yes it is interesting indeed and that’s why I decided to join in….maybe I will read a few books outside my preferred choice of genres 🙂