Do you make a monthly TBR? I never really intend to because I like to be a little less confined in my reading. Yet somehow it always happens. Book club books, books for reading challenges, and books for my own personal goals manage to populate my monthly reading plans. Or rather, create a plan when I didn't necessarily want there to be one.

This month, my TBR list was determined by library due dates. I visited two different libraries at the end of January, and I also requested a couple titles that were at other branches. So my stack for this month is 6 library books and one book I own. Not an ideal ratio.

I was already planning to reread Jane Austen's 6 novels by listening to them on audio this year, when I stumbled across the Jane Austen Book Club Challenge hosted by Bunny's Girl. This challenge inspires you to read beyond the original novels to anything Jane Austen-related. So I decided to comb through my Goodreads TBR and see what books might apply. I found a bunch, and I'm always looking for more. So please drop your suggestions in the comments!

On Monday, the American Library Association announced the winners of this year's Caldecott and Newbery Awards (along with a whole bunch of other awesome awards!). If you're participating in my Newbery Reading Challenge, then all of the below books earn you points. If you're not participating (It's not too late to join), then all of these books look amazing, and you should read them!

I've got a few more reading challenges I wanted to sign up for this year, and they're all kid book related. I have a toddler and a baby, so I read tons of picture books. And I love reading middle grade just for fun for myself, so these challenges are right up my alley!

Well, you had to know this one was coming, since I'm the one who hosts this challenge! It helps me work on my long-term goal of reading all of the Newbery winners (and ideally all of the Honor books, too). I'm signing up for the Avi level, which means I need at least 45 points. I'm hoping to get through a lot of recent Honor books, since I've been reading more ebooks and audiobooks lately, and my library seems to have a lot of these through the Libby app.

There is never a shortage of picture books in my house. Our shelves are full, and we have a constant rotation from the library. This challenge is hosted by Becky's Book Reviews, and she has a couple of options of how to complete it. I'm aiming for two of the checklists. One is to read 4 books each month - something old, something new, something borrowed, and something true. The other checklist I'll work on is an A-Z list, for author, illustrator, and title. So much fun!

This challenge is also hosted by Becky's Book Reviews, and it also involves a giant checklist. I love reading middle grade books. It's the most dangerous section for me in a library or a bookstore. I know I won't come anywhere close to finishing this huge list, but I'll get as many checked off as I can!

One of my main goals this year is to relax and enjoy what I read - but I just can't resist signing up for reading challenges! (And probably more than I should.) I tried to pick ones that overlapped with my goals or wouldn't be too difficult to complete. I'm really aiming for a no-stress reading life this year, so I'm going to keep my reading challenges fun!

My personal goal this year is for 33% of the books I read to be ones I own. I'm hoping to get higher than that, so to give me a little extra push, I'm signing up for the Mount TBR Challenge hosted by My Reader's Block. I'm aiming for the Mount Blanc​ level, which is 24 books from my own shelves (bought before January 1, which makes it a little harder).

I've participated in this challenge every year I've been blogging, except for last year. I love reading books set in Europe, so I've decided to join again this year. This challenge is hosted by Rose City Reader, and I'm aiming for the Five Star level, reading books set in five different European countries (at least!).

This challenge, hosted by Bunny's Girl, just happened to overlap with my own plans for the year. I'm planning to reread all of Jane's novels by listening to them on audio. I've never done them as audiobooks before, and I'm pretty excited. I listened to Pride & Prejudice in December and just finished Sense & Sensibility this week. I've also got a few Austen-related fiction and nonfiction reads lined up, so I think this challenge will be a cinch to complete!

Okay, this is the one that is going to be the most challenging to complete, and therefore it's the one I'm most excited about. The Connect Five challenge is hosted by Book Date. The concept is to read five books that have some sort of connection, whether it's by the same author or about the same theme or something else entirely. We get to pick the connection, and we can have as many groups of 5 as we would like. I've got a few ideas, but the one I'm absolutely commited to is 5 books continuing a series. I have so many series that I've started, but never gone beyond the first or second book. In fact, just looking at my own shelves, I compiled a list of eleven books I could read for this category. I'm also hoping to read 5 books that start a new series, 5 travel books, and 5 books that I bought in 2019. I'll probably come up with some more connections as I read more books this year, but that's what I'm starting with!

It's a new year! Time to set some goals for myself! However, I am going to be much more laid back this year - or at least, I'm going to try to be. I usually set myself some pretty ambitious goals, but I'm discovering that having two little kids is finally catching up to me. I just don't have the amount of reading time that I used to, especially since their napping schedules don't match anymore. I try to remind myself that this is just for a season of my life and I will soon be reading as much as ever, but it's hard when all I want to do is escape for an hour and read. Someday!

So yes, this was also one of my plans last year, and I didn't complete it. I made the bingo card in August 2017 and read 6 books off it by that December. In 2018, I read another 13. That means I have 6 left to go. I'm hoping to read one book a month and have the bingo card completed by the end of June. But if it takes me longer than that, then that's okay!

I have a long-term goal to read all of the Newbery winners (and hopefully all of the Honor books). I'm chipping away at this little by little. Each year, I read one decade of winners (this year, I'm reading the 1960s). I read all of the books that win in the current year, which will be announced on January 28 this year. And I read at least one year of Honor books (2013 this year). It'll take me a while, but I'll read them all eventually!

For the past two years, I've set myself a goal of having at least 50% of the books I read be ones I own. I achieved that goal both years, but it has been occasionally stressful - especially towards the end of the year when it's coming down to the wire. I'm trying to eliminate stress from my reading this year, but I still want to make sure I'm reading my own books. So I'm aiming for 33% of the books I read being ones I own. That's one book I own for every two library books. That should be doable and pressure-free. And hopefully I can end up with a higher percentage than that!

You've probably gotten the gist from the rest of my post, but I'm making this an official goal this year. No pressure to read all the books. No shame for not fulfilling reading challenges. No guilt for taking my time or reading only a couple books a month. My reading time is shorter than ever, which is why I want to be able to enjoy every bit of it!

It's surprising how fast a year can go by with a new baby in the house! (Especially when those sleep-deprived days seem to last forever!) But 2018 is officially over, and it's time to take a look at my reading for the year. I read way more than I thought I would be able to, and audiobooks really helped with that. I also read a few e-books, which is a method of reading I never thought I would like. But I have to admit that being able to pull up a book on my phone when I'm nursing or in those few moments when the two-year-old is playing contentedly by himself has been really nice. E-books might just become a more regular part of my reading life in this next year. . .​

Favorite fiction books: The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay & Can't Help Falling by Kara Isaac (So I like bookish love stories. What can I say?)
Favorite nonfiction books: Mail Obsession by Mark Mason & West with the Night by Beryl Markham
Favorite children's books: The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser & Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Favorite series:​ The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb (I have her next trilogy sitting on my shelf, ready to read. But they're quite thick, so I just need to find the time somehow!)

Last January, I posted about my personal goals for my reading in 2018. It's time to look back and see how I did.

My five-year deadline was the end of August 2018. I was really hoping to finish my list before my daughter arrived in June. With planning and persistence, I finished my last book (Daniel Deronda by George Eliot) on May 3!! I wrote a post about my Classics Club journey with plenty of fun stats, if you'd like to read more about it.

I created my TBR Bingo card in August 2017. At the beginning of 2018, I still had 19 books to read. I made great progress during the year, and I'm now down to 6. Maybe by the end of this year?

I made a goal that 50% of the books I read would be books I own. I (just barely) succeeded in reaching this goal in 2017, so I knew it was possible. This year, I didn't count audiobooks and ebooks, since the only way I could access those was through my library and that seemed to unfairly tip my number towards library books. So just counting physical books, 52% of the books I read this year were books I owned. Yay!

Since we're five days into a new year, I figure I should probably post my wrap-up of my remaining 2018 reading challenges. I was a little disappointed that I didn't quite complete my Mount TBR Challenge. However, the rules of that challenge state that it only includes books bought before January 1, 2018. I read more than my goal of 36 books that I own last year, if I include the ones that I bought during the year. I was pretty pleased that I read 9 books that I bought. It sounds small, but that's a better number for me than normal! So even though I didn't technically complete the Mount TBR Challenge, I think I'm satisfied.

70 out of 104 categories complete
(It helped that you could count one book for two categories,
​but I was still pleasantly surprised by this number!)

Reading challenges are definitely one of the areas where I can overcommit myself. With a new baby arriving in June, I knew when I started this year that I needed to limit the number of reading challenges that I signed up for. It sort of worked. I only signed up for 6, instead of my usual 10+. And I'm happy to report that I did fairly decently! I'm still working on a couple, so here are the first three reading challenges that I completed this year.

​1. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (3 points)
2. The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes (2 points)
3. Doll Bones by Holly Black (2 points)
4. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (3 points)
​5. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (3 points)
6. Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly (3 points)
7. One Came Home by Amy Timberlake (2 points)
​8. Paperboy by Vince Vawter (2 points)
9. M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (3 points)
​10. The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (3 points)
11.  Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (3 points)
12. Sounder by William Armstrong (3 points)
​13. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (2 points)
14. Crown:​ An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes (2 points)
​15. The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (3 points)
16. Ramona and Her Father by Beverly Cleary (2 points)
17. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary (2 points)
18. The Grey King by Susan Cooper (3 points)
​19. Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson (2 points)
20. Carver: A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson (2 points)
​21. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (3 points)