2016 Challenges – 1st Quarter Check-in

At the beginning of the year I set some challenges for myself. Now it’s time to check-in and see how I’m doing.

ONE. Limit my bookish spending. Pre-order no more than 12 books (average 1 per month). Spend no more than $60 on used / bargain books (average $5 per month).

I pre-ordered 2 books this quarter, which I gave to my kids as Valentine’s Day gifts:

1. Paddington at Large by Michael Bond
2. The Princess in Black and the Hungry Bunny Horde by Shannon and Dean Hale

I spent:

• $2.00 on Knight’s Castle by Edgar Eager
• $0.25 on Tron: Legacy by Alice Alfonsi (for my son)
• $0.50 on Raccoon Moon by Nancy Carol Willis
• $2.00 on The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
• $0.50 on Purr . . . Children’s Book Illustrators Brag about Their Cats by Michael J. Rosen
• $0.50 on The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
• $1.00 on The Witches by Roald Dahl
• $3.00 on The Minpins by Roald Dahl
• $5.46 on Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine (I used a $5 Amazon Promotional credit to get this price)

I also won a giveaway hosted by Lois @ You, Me, and a Cup of Tea. I got to pick any book, up to a $10 value, from Amazon! I chose Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

TWO. Post more book reviews. Write monthly Look Reviews (full book reviews with an accompanying outfit) and post my micro mini Goodreads reviews on the blog.

I posted 3 Look Reviews – The Madness of Love, A Study in Charlotte, and Devoted, as well as 9 Mini Review posts.

THREE. Read at least 200 books.

My Goodreads total is currently 98.

FOUR. Read these 11 Poirot novels, plus 1 short story:

1. Four and Twenty Blackbirds (short story) Completed 1/1/2016
2. Sad Cypress Completed 2/11/2016
   
3. One, Two Buckle my Shoe Completed 3/11/2016
   
4. Evil Under the Sun
5. Five Little Pigs
6. The Hollow
7. Taken at the Flood
8. Mrs McGinty’s Dead
9. After the Funeral
10. Hickory Dickory Dock
11. Dead Man’s Folly
12. Cat Among the Pigeons

FIVE. Read 26 books for a personal Alphabet Challenge.

1. After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2. Because if Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
3. The Coincidence of Coconut Cake by Amy E. Reichert
   
4. Dark Shimmer by Donna Jo Napoli
   
5. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
   
6. Flunked by Jen Calonita
7. Goodnight June by Sarah Jio
8. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
   
9. Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
   
10. 
    
11. The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi
    
12. L
    
13. M
14. A Night in with Audrey Hepburn by Lucy Holliday
15. O
    
16. P
17. Q
18. R
    
19. S
    
20. Tempest-Tost by Robertson Davies
    
21. The Unbound by Victoria Schwab
22. 
    
23. Wildflowers by Robin Jones Gunn
    
24. X
25. Y
26. Z

SIX. Participate in Cruisin’ thru the Cozies with Yvonne @ Socrates Book Review. I’m entering at Level 4 – Sleuth Extraordinaire – Read 21 or more books.

1. Gretel and the Case of the Missing Frog Prints by P. J. Brackston
   
2. A Rather Lovely Inheritance by C. A. Belmond
3. There Must Be Murder by Margaret Sullivan
4. Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich
5. Dishing the Dirt by M. C. Beaton
6. Death of a Dustman by M. C. Beaton
7. Once Upon a Crime by P. J. Brackston
8. Pies and Prejudice by Ellery Adams
9. Murder Actually by Stephanie McCarthy
10. The Case of the Fickle Mermaid by P. J. Brackston
11. Death of a Hussy by M. C. Beaton
12. Death of a Snob by M. C. Beaton
13. Death of a Traveling Man by M. C. Beaton
14. Wedding Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke
15. Death of a Charming Man by M. C. Beaton
16. Bed of Scorpions by Judith Flanders
17. Death of a Celebrity by M. C. Beaton

SEVEN. Read at least 12 selections from my personal Classics Challenge list.

1. Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Agatha Christie
2. Howards End by E. M. Forster
3. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
4. The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
5. Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde
6. An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
7. A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde
8. Salome by Oscar Wilde

EIGHT. Once again, cut WAY back on my wardrobe. I want to go minimalist. I’m still working on the details. This includes my kids’ wardrobes too. They have so many clothes they rarely wear!

I’ve pared my own wardrobe down and committed to a year of no clothes shopping (with the exception of essentials that wear out or the kids outgrow). I did have to buy a new swimsuit, pajamas, and shorts for Sweet Potato, as she’s grown several inches since last Summer.

NINE. The obligatory fitness resolution. 😆 But seriously, after my epic year of reading, I really need to get my butt in gear and be more active.

I’m drinking a lot more water.

TEN. Participate in TTT every week.

So far, so good.