July 2014 summary

Back at the beginning of the new year, I listed my 2014 reading and blogging goals. I plan to post monthly updates on my goals as one of my Saturday Conversation posts near the end/beginning of each month.

1. GoodReads Reading Challenge… 100 Books.
   In July 2014 I finished 10 books:
   Book #56: Marked by Midnight by Lara Adrian (July 1, 2014)
   Book #57: Dead End by Shirley Wells (July 6, 2014)
   Book #58: Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews (July 9, 2014) – Audiobook
   Book #59: Into the Shadows by Carolyn Crane (July 12, 2014)
   Book #60: In from the Cold by Taryn Kincaid (July 13, 2014)
   Book #61: Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews (July 18, 2014)
   Book #62: Dirty Deeds by SE Jakes (July 20, 2014)
   Book #63: His Marriage Bargain by Sidney Bristol (July 21, 2014)
   Book #64: Crave the Night by Lara Adrian (July 25, 2014)
   Book #65: Taste of Darkness by Katie Reus (July 30, 2014)
   In July, I finished my “re-read” of the Kate Daniels series. I wrote a post about my audiobook experience too.  If I want to finish 100 books by the end of the year, I need to read on average 8.33 books per month, which is just over 58 books through 6 months. Therefore, at 65 books so far this year, I am ahead of schedule!
2. Reading books off of my TRB pile instead of picking up new-to-me authors and series.
   I actually did read a book from my TBR this month! The Hell or High Water series by S.E. Jakes has been on my Kindle since B. reviewed it for the blog. I read story 2.5 from that series (Dirty Deeds). I also finished the “re-read” of the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews just for fun. This is my favorite UF series, and I’ve been wanting to re-read the series for about a year. I’m glad I’m finally getting to it! I did purchase a new book and devoured it… His Marriage Bargain, after hosting Sidney Bristol and reading an excerpt. I couldn’t help myself!
3. Featuring more LGBTQ authors and books on the blog.
   In July 2014, we featured two reviews and two blog tours of LGBTQ books.
4. Spending more time reading and less time tweaking the blog.
   Other than working on updating old blog posts as new books were reviewed in the series, I stayed away from any major changes.
5. Opening up Sunday Snippets to authors as a chance to spotlight his/her work.
   This has REALLY taken off! All three Sunday Snippets in July were submitted directly by the authors and/or publicists.
6. Continue Saturday Conversations Posts, but open them up.
   As I wrote in my post dated March 15, 2014, I’m dropping the weekly Saturday Conversations post for now. It’s just not working for me with the time spent on posts versus the readership of the feature. I will continue to post monthly updates, and perhaps in the fall, Saturday Conversations will return for a more regular appearance.

I’ve also been participating in the #BookBlogWalkers challenge hosted by Felicia The Geeky Blogger. I do weekly updates on this goal HERE, but I’ll also do monthly updates with my monthly goal updates.

My goal for July was moving with purpose for 30 minutes for at least 5 days per week with no more than 1 day off per week. I also joined one “fitness challenge” on LoseIt! for July: to track my food and exercise for every day in July. I’m happy to report I made both goals.  I’d hoped I would have taken off the excess weight I gained while on vacation earlier in July, but instead I’m finding myself stagnant. I looked back over the past few weeks, and calorie-wise, I’m consuming on par with what I was doing before vacation. However, even though I’m making my minimum movement goals, I don’t have any really long walks (more than 35 minutes), which before and during vacation, I would do once per week. 

Coming up for August, I plan to continue my goal to walking/moving 30 minutes/day for a minimum of five days per week with only one day off per week. I also plan to continue to track my food.

So how did YOUR July go? Did you accomplish any goals? Did you set any new ones? 

Thanks for stopping by to chat!