2013 Mid-Year Update

I can hardly believe we are already halfway through 2013! 

Now that we are at the year's halfway point I thought it was high time I provided an update on my progress towards the achievement of my 2013 reading goals and challenges.

Reading Goals:

My goal for this year is to read 85 books.   With 48 books read to date I'm happy to report that I'm on track to meet this goal. Yay me!

Of the 48 books I've read so far, here are my favourites (click on the titles to read my review):

• The Geneva Option by Adam Lebor (5 Stars);
• The Last Summer by Judith Kinghorn (4.5 Stars);
• The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway (4.5 Stars);
• The Midwife's Tale by Sam Thomas (4.5 Stars); and
• Letters From Skye by Jessica Brockmole (4.5 Stars)

Another one of my goals is to read more books outside of my comfort zone.   I can't say I've been very successful with this one, given that my genre of choice is historical fiction and most of the books I've read so far in 2013 fall within this genre.   That said, I have read a few historical novels that feature subjects I don't normally read about and for this reason, even though they fall within my most read genre, I consider them outside of my comfort zone. 

Challenge Update:

I signed up to participate in 5 reading challenges this year:

The 2013 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.  This wasn't really much of a challenge for me since so many of the novels I read are historical fiction.   I selected the Ancient History challenge level, which requires that I read 25 works of historical fiction over the course of the year.   I've achieved this one already, as 45 of the 48 books I've read so far this year are historical fiction novels (click here to see the books I've read for this challenge).

The Pride and Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge 2013.   I joined this challenge to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice, one of my all-time favourite novels.   I joined at the neophyte level, which means I have to read or watch 4 Pride and Prejudice-related books or movies during 2013 (click here to see what I've selected to read and watch).  So far I've not made any progress towards achieving this goal, but I have half the year left to complete this challenge so I'm not worried.

2013 Book Bingo Challenge.   This challenge takes the form of a BINGO game.   I'm doing well on this one, as I've already achieved Bingo twice :-)  Click here to check out my progress.  

2013 European Reading Challenge.  The purpose of this challenge is to read books set in different European countries.  My goal was to read at least one book in five different countries.   I've achieved this.   Click here to see the countries I've visited through fiction. 

2013 TBR Pile Challenge.  I joined this challenge because I have a massive TBR pile that I need to start tackling.  The rules are simple: participants must read 12 books that have been on their TBR pile for at least a year.  The catch?  The books had to be identified prior to the start of 2013.   I selected my 12 and figured this would be an easy challenge to achieve (click here to see the 12 books I've committed to reading).  Guess what?  I've been so busy reading novels I've received for review that I've barely touched my TBR pile.   As a result, I've yet to read one book from my challenge list.  At this point I don't think I'll achieve this one :-(   

How are you doing on your reading goals and challenges so far this year?