Okay, so I’m just going to admit to myself and you all that I’m not going to finish writing all the January WIPjoy posts and move on. I had written a list of ideas for each of them in January, but the second half of the list wasn’t as strong as the first, so it’s not really worth my trying to turn each of them into a post, even if I combine them. Besides, it’s March. January has sailed. Heck, February has also sailed.
I haven’t done a lot of writing lately, though I think about my story worlds every day. I fight fatigue (physical, mental) every day, and I don’t yet have a solution for how to have more energy to put towards actually writing. I will never be a speedy writer, just because I don’t have enough energy to go around for all the things.
I do make time for reading every day, which doesn’t require a lot of energy. I’ve especially come to love audiobooks so I can switch between reading the book to myself or being read to while I am doing a chore or just don’t want to hold a book or phone in my hand.
Last year, I read 103 books. Possibly a couple more that I didn’t list on Goodreads. I like to participate in their yearly reading challenge. I had set a goal to read 100 books last year, and it felt really good to achieve that. Mostly I wanted to see if I could do it. This year, I thought I would lower the goal to 60 books, so I’d be reading about half of the number I read last year. Five a month sounded like a breeze compared to how I crammed 8-10 in every month last year. I’m ahead of schedule at the moment, though, so I might end up reading 100 again.
Besides trying to hit a certain number of books read, I want to finish reading series that I have started or want to reread, or in some cases, finishing reading an author’s entire catalog of books. I set up a shelf on Goodreads called “challenge list” and pre-planned all the books I will read, adding the book twos and book threes, etc. that I have neglected to get to. I’m also rereading the Harry Potter series and the Mitford series. I have a few of the more recent books in Mitford to read for the first time, but it has been years since I read the first 8-10 of them, so I need a refresher. I have a few standalone novels on the list too.
If you want to follow my progress on my reading goals, you can find my Goodreads profile here.
Author Sara E. James 
Cool. I keep track of my reafing on Goodreads, too. Around 100 books is normal for me. Last year I barely made it to 24. This year I’m trying for 30, I think. I’m a couple of books behind already. I make a reafing list every January…then read other stuff all year!
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A lot of times I don’t read what I put on my to-read list, but that’s one reason I chose this year’s list carefully. I tried to pick things I really did want to read next.
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