Top Shelf Text: Update: Books I've Read in 2014 {January}

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Update: Books I've Read in 2014 {January}

This year I pledged 60 books for the 2014 Goodreads Challenge. Every year, readers pledge a number of books and the community progress is tracked throughout the year. I love this feature on Goodreads because it keeps me reading at a (somewhat) steady pace throughout the year.

Last year I didn't meet my goal of 65 books, but seeing as it's just a reading challenge I wasn't too upset about it. It's good to have some failures, right? Plus, if I was actually that neurotic, I'd be a little concerned for my own well-being. I'm a college student, after all, I have plenty of other things to fret about. (For example, the future...)

As of today I'm at 23 books, putting me about 2 books behind where I should be. I want to reflect, in a month-by-month breakdown, on the books that I've read so far this year. In the future, I'll do a roundup of the books at the end of each month.

Here's a little guideline for how I decide (out of 5) the number of stars to give a book:

5 stars: Amazing. Perfect. Enthralling. Highly recommend it!

4 stars: It isn't a masterpiece, but I sure liked it!

3 stars: I wouldn't re-read it, but still liked it.

2 stars: Not at the top of my list. Maybe skip this one.(...Or don't! You never know what you may like).

1 star: It probably took considerable effort for me not to throw this at a wall. Who knows, maybe I did throw it at the wall.

Let's start with January, shall we?

My absolute favorites for this month were Queen's Gambit and The Mysterious Howling!