End of Year Wrap-Up, Goals for 2014

Happy New Year, everybody!

Last year was pretty good, overall, but I am sure this one will be even more exciting, what with the wedding and the possibly house-buying.

I did reach my goal for last year of reading 26 books, but I didn't surpass it even though I had extra time at the end. For 2014, I'm setting my goal at 30 books. It will be trickier, to be sure, but I could easily spend less time watching TV.

My other goal for next year is to post more on here. I made 16 posts last year. I know I can do better than that, especially if I spend more time talking about the books I'm reading and the crafts and cooking I'm doing.

As far as everything I read last year, here are some of the highlights and lowlights:

Books read: 26
Fiction: 24
Non-fiction: 2
Graphic Novels: 3 (both also included under Fiction)
Approximate number of pages read (according to Goodreads): 10,000

Books with Male Protagonists: 12
Books with Female Protagonists: 7
Books with Both/Neither: 7

Favorite Book of the Year: Well, really, there were several, but at the very top, I think I'd place
"The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern, followed by "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman, "Life After Life" by Kate Atkinson, and "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman.

Least Favorite Book: "The Sword in the Stone" by T.H. White. Sorry. I know a lot of people love it, but I really didn't.

And since I don't want to end this on a down note, here are some of the books I plan to read in the next 12 months:
"Cleopatra" by Stacy Schiff. In truth, I've already started this one.
"The Passage" by Justin Cronin. I started this one when it first came out (and may have read about half of it on a Nook while working,) but I never finished it. I'll have to start from the beginning again.
"A Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuchman. Since I won't be able to go to Pennsic this year, I'll read this book about the 14th century instead.
"Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver. My mother and my sister both got a copy for Christmas. Okay, I may have been the one to give my mom the copy. Anyway, we all love Kingsolver, and I'll be able to borrow a copy.
And, of course, many, many more, but if I plan my whole reading list out ahead of time, I'm guaranteed to not read any of the books on the list and choose entirely different things to read.