Reading did not happen as much in 2018 as I was doing some inner work and healing. I read 54 out of my goal of 100 books. I know I’m capable of reading more so it came as a bit of a disappointment.
If you aren’t tracking your Books over on Goodreads, I highly suggest it! I love tracking what I’ve read, rating it, and even writing reviews on occasion. You can follow your friends (and strangers) to see what they are reading. Each year Goodreads holds a Reading Challenge and will track your progress. Here are my Stats from the last few years:
I wasn’t that thrilled with the majority of the books I read this year. I know I stopped reading a LOT of books as soon as I realized I wasn’t into them. This helped me get rid of hundreds of books I’ve had in my Kindle since 2013. Hooray for electronic decluttering!
Here is my 2018 Book List. I try to keep the ratings really simple. 5 = Loved it and would read it again. 4 = Really liked it. 3 = Liked it. 2 = It was okay but nothing to shout about and I probably only finished it because I kept thinking it would get better or wanted to know how it ended.
| Title | Author | My Rating | Pages |
| An Unforgivable Love Story | B.L. Berry | 3 | 366 |
| Brazen Violations | Jonathan Macpherson | 2 | 201 |
| She Dims the Stars | Amber L. Johnson | 4 | 172 |
| Damsel In Danger (Danger Incorporated, #1) | Olivia Jaymes | 3 | 280 |
| Erased | Jordan Marshall | 3 | 326 |
| Pushing Brilliance (Kyle Achilles #1) | Tim Tigner | 4 | 375 |
| The Beautiful Ones | Silvia Moreno-Garcia | 3 | 336 |
| Sharp Shooter (Tara Sharp, #1) | Marianne Delacourt | 5 | 394 |
| Eat, Pray, Die (An Eat, Pray, Die Humorous Mystery, #1) | Chelsea Field | 4 | 344 |
| Private Eyes (Alex Delaware, #6) | Jonathan Kellerman | 4 | 525 |
| State vs. Lassiter (Jake Lassiter #9) | Paul Levine | 4 | 254 |
| Me and My Ghoulfriends (Larue Donavan, #1) | Rose Pressey | 4 | 308 |
| Sycamore Bluff (Nicholas Colt) | Jude Hardin | 4 | 270 |
| Cruising for Death (Kate Jones Thriller #5) | D.V. Berkom | 4 | 197 |
| Sociopaths and Psychopaths: A Crisis of Conscience and Empathy | Max Wachtel | 3 | 79 |
| Big Numbers (Austin Carr Mystery Book 1) | Jack Getze | 4 | 206 |
| Carrots | Colleen Helme | 4 | 220 |
| ‘Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy (Greatest Hits, #1) | Leslie Langtry | 5 | 340 |
| Take the Monkeys and Run (Barbara Marr Murder Mystery, #1) | Karen Cantwell | 4 | 238 |
| The One Hour Content Plan: The Solopreneur’s Guide to a Year’s Worth of Blog Post Ideas in 60 Minutes and Creating Content That Hooks and Sells | Meera Kothand | 4 | 108 |
| The Color of Time (The Color of Heaven #9) | Julianne MacLean | 4 | 300 |
| The Spontaneous Healing of Belief: Shattering the Paradigm of False Limits | Gregg Braden | 4 | 243 |
| Steady Trouble | Mike McCrary | 4 | 304 |
| Violated (Brandon Fisher FBI, #5) | Carolyn Arnold | 4 | 251 |
| A Killing Truth: A Leine Basso Thriller Prequel (Leine Basso, #0.5) | D.V. Berkom | 4 | 172 |
| Sharp Turn (Tara Sharp, #2) | Marianne Delacourt | 4 | 241 |
| Out of the Mist (Can’t Help Falling) | Lauren Giordano | 4 | 302 |
| When Danger Calls (Five Star Expressions) | Terry Odell | 4 | 359 |
| Unleashed (Sydney Rye #1) | Emily Kimelman | 3 | 367 |
| Driven to Date (Better Date than Never, #7) | Susan Hatler | 4 | 244 |
| The Wisdom of a Psychic Cat: 15 Lessons on Happiness for Humans | Jessica McKay | 5 | 104 |
| Noble Beginnings (Jack Noble #1) | L.T. Ryan | 4 | 228 |
| Art Hound (Dev Haskell – Private Investigator Book 16) | Mike Faricy | 3 | 283 |
| With This Click, I Thee Wed (ClickandWed.com #1) | Bonnie R. Paulson | 4 | 275 |
| Must Love Ghosts (Banshee Creek, #1) | Ani Gonzalez | 3 | 171 |
| But Not Forgotten (Clint Wolf Mystery Trilogy, #1) | B.J. Bourg | 4 | 389 |
| Crosscut | Jude Hardin | 3 | 246 |
| IDo.com (ClickandWed.com #2) | Bonnie R. Paulson | 3 | 256 |
| Snuff Tag 9 | Jude Hardin | 3 | 260 |
| But Not Forsaken (Clint Wolf Mystery Trilogy, #3) | B.J. Bourg | 4 | 381 |
| But Not Forgiven (Clint Wolf Mystery Trilogy, #2) | B.J. Bourg | 4 | 230 |
| DIY Vows (ClickandWed.com #3) | Bonnie R. Paulson | 3 | 141 |
| Blood Tattoo | Jude Hardin | 4 | 224 |
| Key Death | Jude Hardin | 4 | 230 |
| A Thousand Letters (Austen #2) | Staci Hart | 3 | 282 |
| The Storm Beneath: Jon Kaine 2 | Nick Warren | 4 | 455 |
| Ghost of a Chance (Banshee Creek, #2) | Ani Gonzalez | 3 | 362 |
| Avenging Agent (Agents Under Fire #2) | Dana Marton | 3 | 73 |
| Warrior Agent (Agents Under Fire #3) | Dana Marton | 3 | 82 |
| Guardian Agent (Agents Under Fire #1) | Dana Marton | 4 | 57 |
| The Fred Factor: How passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary | Mark Sanborn | 4 | 128 |
| An Ace and A Pair (Dead Cold Mysteries, #1) | Blake Banner | 5 | 206 |
| The Gray and Guilty Sea (Garrison Gage, #1) | Scott William Carter | 4 | 269 |
| Cool Heat | Richter Watkins | 4 | 260 |
Jyllicious™ Medal giving (that should be a thing!)
AxxLC / Pixabay
The BEST Metaphysical/Spiritual book I read was The Wisdom of the Psychic Cat – 15 Lessons on Happiness For Humans by Jessica McKay. You can read my full review here. The lessons were simple, yet so profound. I thoroughly enjoyed how the book was written – from the viewpoint of a cat. I think this would make an excellent series for a variety of topics.
Leslie Langtry wins for the Most Entertaining read – ‘Scuse Me While I Kill This Guy (Greatest Hits, #1) – about a family of assassins. It was very fun to read and a decent mystery too!
This choice can be difficult…I would have to name Blake Banner as my favorite new (to me) author. I’m really digging his Dead Cold Mysteries series – so much that I’ve already finished the 2nd one a few days ago!
READ and ROAR!!!!
Every year I declare I am going to read more Metaphysical, Spiritual, and Historical books and…surprise, I don’t do it. Maybe this year will be different! My reading goal for 2019 is 70 books.
Do you enjoy reading? Have you ever considered setting reading goals and keeping track of the books you’ve read? I started writing book reviews early on in my blog. Then I started keeping track because I was curious how much I was reading, and it morphed into this!
So, I hardly heard of most of the books you read. But, that means nothing- except I am curious from where you get your recommendations.
I have not found much value in Goodreads, but I am glad someone has.
The majority of these books weren’t recommended to me, they were found on a mailing list (http://fkb.me/) informing me of free Kindle books. I went a bit nuts every day opening this email and downloading books!! I removed myself two years ago and am still trying to work my way through 800 books, mostly mysteries!
I love reading! Especially romance novels. And I was just going to say that I can’t really afford the spiritual books right now, that I also like to read, But did you say there’s a list where you can get them for free? Or is it just novels, because I might be on that one already.
I’ll read a romance novel every once in a while! I like mystery-romance-comedy. There was a site fkb.me but I see it hasn’t been updated since last July. I think BookBub.com is another one. If you are on Hay House email list they send out eBooks Specials for 99 cents to $2.99 every month or so.
I love to read – I finished 78 books of my 70 book goal this year and hope to meet that again. Mysteries, thrillers, and suspense are my favorite genres to dive into. I’m in a book club and enjoy most of my reads through that!
That’s Awesome Shelly! I love it when I outdo a goal!! I love to read Mysteries too!!
Reading is an almost first and favorite activity!
I’ve never even considered tracking how many books I read, as it might start to feel like “work”. 😉 However, I can definitely imagine the satisfaction of looking at the list and feeling accomplished. (Unfortunately for me, it might also mean I’d need to look at the reading as a reason for what I haven’t accomplished, so it might be a bit brutal. 🙂
Lori, I totally get it. I started tracking an “unfinished book” list and gave up on that as there were too many I read a few pages of and put down – that felt like work to track it. At the time I was curious how many I started and didn’t finish but decided it really didn’t need to be tracked. For me, reading less than my goal usually signifies other things going on that took my attention and energy. Not necessarily a bad thing. I remember posting on Facebook about not reaching my goal and a fellow reader friend told me that I was busy living life, so that felt like a good way to look at it! READ and ROAR!