2018 Round Up | Xpresso Reads

And That’s a Wrap: 2018 Edition

Posted by Rashika • 2 Comments

Last year, I just did a general roundup trying to include best books and all that jazz but this year I wanted to do a more detailed book roundup. I wasn’t sure if I should do a personal roundup too but its such a good way for me to reflect on the year and figure out what I want from the next one SO HERE WE ARE!

– I survived???? I really haven’t accomplished much this year but with the amount of turmoil I’ve experienced, I feel like surviving is a huge feat. *gently pats self on back*

-I also baked a lot this year and I stepped outside of my comfort zone! I made pain au chocolat, made the perfect batch of cookies, a good scone, biscuits (I am usually a cookie person so biscuits was something new!), AND BEIGNETS (that were fucking amazing)!

– I cut a toxic person out of my life. Throughout our friendship, they’ve said so much racist shit to me that I never had the courage to call out and they’ve never been as good of a friend to me as I was to them.

– I WENT TO MY FIRST WEDDING. LOL. The last time I went to one I was 5 and I am not counting that.

I am looking at this section and feel like I don’t have much to say because I started this year SO strong but the second half of this year was extremely rough on me so I lost my #bookstagram mojo and my blogging mojo. I want to apologize for not being better at commenting and communicating even though I appreciated everyone who took the time to read and/or comment on posts <3

-I READ MORE BOOKS THAN I HAVE IN YEARS. I really wanted to hit 300 books and I did IT (I wrote this post before I actually read 300 books and hope I didn’t jinx it.)

-I made a lot of progress on unread sequels and backlist novels. I also did major cleaning of my Goodreads TBR (which I will have to do again this year because I HAVE TOO MANY BOOKS ON THERE.)

– I got into non fiction this year. Like really got into it beyond memoirs. I never thought I’d be the kind of adult that sought out non fiction but here I am, checking out non fiction

-I’ve officially read over 2000 books in my life time! I know I’ve read way more but at the same time, there are 2000 books on my goodreads ‘read’ shelf and that blows me away. I wonder if I’ll hit 4000 before 40 (not that I even want to think about being 40)

– Last year I said I wanted to survive 2018 and I did. I am sort of laughing at 2017 me, with no idea how horrific 2018 was truly going to be, and I REALLY HOPE 2019 me won’t be laughing at 2018 me this same time next year. SO PLEASE, 2019, please give me, GIVE THE WORLD, a break.

– Be a better friend. I think this is a two way street and my friends and I are all bad communicators but I want to be better and do better. I WANT TO RESPOND TO FRIENDS instead of leaving them on read for weeks.

– Try to regain blogging mojo. I don’t know where things will go from here, especially because blogging feels more like a chore lately than actual fun, but I want to regain that mojo I had in early 2017.

– Be better to myself. I think this is the hardest part, especially because I am a bundle of anxiety thinking about what awaits me in 2019, but I want to do better and be better for myself because I DO DESERVE BETTER. I am mostly a wonderful person.

– READ MORE FANTASY. OMG. I NEED TO READ FANTASY AGAIN. I miss it. Girls of Paper and Fire reminded me just how much I missed a good fantasy novel.

– Continue to read more backlist and also pace myself with my reading. I read a lot this year and I am not entirely sure that was a good thing for me?

-Attempt to be more active on social media. I think I am officially done with Instagram but I still like Twitter and do enjoy interacting with people when I have the energy to do so?? I want to try harder this year.

Last year, I got lucky because my shortest and longest reads were both books I loved but this year, my shortest read is way too short to have left a mark and my longest book was a let down. It wasn’t not worth the 621 pages but I am sure there are other 621 page books out there that are more worth my time.

My average rating for the year is lower than last year’s 3.9 but I can honestly say that I mostly had a decent reading year? I didn’t really read many books (if any) that I hated with a passion and even the ones I didn’t love entertained me so that is not bad at all.

And I read 300 books towards my goal of 1 book so I WIN. LOOK AT HOW SATISFYING AND ROUND THAT NUMBER IS.