End of the Year Post (2016)

Well, 2016 is just a few days from being over, and it’s time to share some of my general thoughts about my year in blogging. To make it easier on myself, I’m going to divide this post down into sections, and talk about those subjects individually.

• Books…

This year, I went back and read a lot of older releases that I’ve been meaning to get to. I have to admit, it was a lot of fun, and I realized just how many great books I’ve missed.

One of the big things I’ve come to accept this year is that I don’t need the new releases as soon as they come out. I’ve realized that I’m okay with waiting a little longer—sometimes months—to read the books I’m really looking forward to. My reasoning is that I’m still going to eventually read the book, so I just don’t worry about it anymore and feel more relaxed.

I’m still okay with DNFing books I’m just not enjoying. I used to be one of those people who tried to finish every book I started. So, I’ve tried that before, it takes forever to get to the end of the book, and I end up losing my enthusiasm for reading and blogging. In 2016, I’ve pretty much stuck to the first 100 page thing—sometimes I’ll read a little more than that if there’s something I find promising about the story. However, for the most part, I’ve set aside books that I just couldn’t get into, in favor of ones I really wanted to read, and ended up enjoying.

The biggest thing I’ve focused on is reading what makes me happy, rather than spending too much time on things that I don’t like.

• Memes…

I actually really like the memes I’m currently participating in. They’re pretty easy to do, and it’s really up to me what I do and don’t want to post. Nothing has really changed since 2015 in that regard, except for the fact that I tried out some non-book related memes. Music seemed like a good fit for Our Thoughts Precisely. So, I tried out two—one on Thursday and the other on Monday. The Thursday meme didn’t work out since it added another day to my regular posting schedule. I wanted to keep Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as the days I primarily post on. So, Music Monday stuck around. It worked out for the better since I could use the two Monday memes interchangeably, or participate in both.

For the past several weeks, Adri has been blogging regularly on Music Monday. It has been so much fun writing out the post, and sharing our music recommendations.  

• Some thoughts about the blog...

I don’t think my method of blogging has changed much since last year. A lot of the things I started doing in 2015 occurred regularly in 2016 since they worked so well for me. Could things change in 2017? I don’t really think so. I’m pretty happy with how things currently work. However, a big part of blogging is learning as I go. So, it would be kind of premature to say “never!” to any potential changes.  

2016 Holiday Gift Guide

One of the things I wanted to do this year was put together a short gift guide to give you—the blog readers—some ideas for small gifts and stocking stuffers. I wanted to stay away from the more costly items. Hence, most of the stuff I’m going to mention down below is $20 or less. Quick note: The availability of some of the items are subject to change, but they’re in the photo as a sort of general example for the things I want to mention. I will add the links for the items I can find available online (look for the bold and italicized sections). Let’s get started…

• Books & Gift Cards...

Pictured above: None.
Comments: I think this is an obvious one. Books just make great gifts, and gift cards are always nice to give and receive.

• Headphones... 

Pictured above: VIVITAR Stereo Headphones.
Comments: I firmly believe that you can never have too many sets of headphones. They break so easily or one ear goes out—and the other is soon to follow. With that said, a set of headphones could make a nice gift.

• Funko...

Pictured above: Alice in Wonderland Alice Funko Pop.
Comments: Funko is probably one of my favorite items from this list. There is such a wide range of them available—from TV shows to movies—that there’s almost something for everyone. They also look very nice on a shelf.

• Music...

Pictured above: Badlands by Halsey, Starboy by The Weeknd.
Comments: This is another great one. Having an extensive playlist is always nice, adding even more music to it is even better.

• Art supplies... 

Pictured above: Sketchbook from Walmart (I use this one regularly, and it’s good for dry mediums), Prismacolor Premier Dual Tip Marker, Sakura Gelly Role White Gel Pen, and Sakura Micron Pen.
Comments: Art supplies can be costly no matter which medium you use, whether that’s digital, dry, or ink. Individually, some of the supplies are under $20, like prismacolor markers.

• Bookmarks... 

Pictured above: Initial It! Bookmark from Barnes & Noble.
Comments: Perfect for readers who don’t habitually dog-ear their pages like I do. I rarely use a bookmark, but I absolutely adore the ones from Barnes & Noble.

• Hotwheels...

Pictured above: The Beatles Yellow Submarine, The Mystery Machine, and The Jetsons Capsule Car; (availability is not guaranteed but its always fun to hunt for the ones you want).
Comments: This is actually an inexpensive gift, and if you know what you’re looking for, you can find some pretty neat cars like The Beatles Yellow Submarine and the Ghostbusters Ecto-1.

• Accessories...

Pictured above: Pink Silicone Watch from Michaels, comes in a lot of colors and a few different styles (A lot of the colors are out of stock online except for hot pink. However, they might still be available in-store).
Comments: It‘s kind of simple to find all sorts of nice things and keep the cost down. One of my favorite items is the silicon watch I got from Michaels a while ago.

• Coffee mugs...

Pictured above: Owl Coffee Mug.
Comments: The only reason coffee mugs made it onto this list is because most of them are under $20, finding them is ridiculously easy, and they come in anything from the basic solid colored cup to ones with owls on them.

So that’s it for today. I hope you find this guide helpful in some way. Happy reading!

2016 New Year Blogging Resolutions

Now that I’m completely done with 2015, it’s time to start looking forward to the year ahead and what kind of reading/blogging I want to do. So, today I want to talk about a few of my 2016 New Year Blogging Resolutions. It’s not going to be very different because I want to keep doing what’s been working for me, and try to be as consistent as possible with blogging/reading. I plan to try some different non-blogging activities this year, so I definitely want to make sure I have the time to actually do those things. Anyway, I’m going to get back to the subject of today’s post, my resolutions.

1. Take breaks when needed. I think this is an important one. Taking breaks last year really helped me get out of the occasional reading slump.
2. Try more authors that are unfamiliar to me. This worked well for me last year, and thanks to that I have a bunch of new favorites. I guess this one could count for also getting out of my comfort zone and trying books in different genres.
3. Read more of the older books on my shelf. I have a bunch of books, many that I have read (years ago, before I started blogging) but just haven’t reviewed—kind of the beginning of my collection of books. They’ve just been sitting there collecting dust, and recently I went through them. I know I’ve read them, but I don’t really remember them too much about some of them. So, it would be kind of fun to go back and read them again.
4. Avoid the Goodreads 2016 reading challenge. I don’t like to set a specific number, because I want to avoid putting pressure on myself. The number of books I read just depends on how many I get to.

Those are my resolutions. They’re simple enough, but who really knows how the year is going to go until it actually happens.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Our Thoughts Precisely! We hope everyone has a marvelous day. Blogging will resume shortly. ;-)