The Picky Pledge 2019

January 8, 2019


It's a new year, friends, and one of the things that I've been excited about doing is updating all of you on The Picky Pledge. The pledge is a project I started with Hannah of So Obsessed With in 2015, with the aim of becoming more intentional about our book buying and our reading choices. (Here's the original post if you're interested!) This will be our fifth year taking The Picky Pledge, which is wild.


In years past, we'd do an entire post filled with statistics pertaining to our book buying and reading habits. It was helpful for us to figure out what we wanted to work on, as well as celebrate what we were doing well at. Since we've both really benefited from this project over the last couple of years and have succeeded at shifting our habits, we decided it'd be simplest to share one particular statistic that really matters for this project: the sources for our reads last year.

I read 202 books last year, and here's a brief breakdown of their sources:
  • Bought: 44 books (22%)
  • Gifted: 9 books (5%)
  • Borrowed: 6 books (3%)
  • Owned (Pre-2018): 23 books (11%)
  • Reread: 27 books (13%)
  • Review: 93 books (46%)

I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised that there's a hint more diversity in the sources of my reads, since I do have a decent amount of bought, owned and reread books in here. I'm actually not too surprised to see that review books still dominate the sources of my reads, as I do receive and read a lot of books for review. I'm definitely still working on being pickier about review books, as well as trying to decimate my TBR (but more on that in my resolutions post!).


In years past, Hannah & I would each set specific goals for ourselves when it came to The Picky Pledge. In 2018, however, we decided to do something a little bit different... and The Picky Pledge Reading Challenge was born! We came up with 12 categories inspired by our book acquiring habits, and essentially decided we needed to read one book per category to complete the challenge.

Here are all the categories for 2018 and what I read.

For the Cover | Beginner's Guide: Love and Other Chemical Reactions by Six de Los Reyes
Based on a Recommendation | Blurred Lines by Lauren Layne
For the Hook | The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'Neill
Because It Was On Sale | Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond
Because It's The Next in a Series | Trust in Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout
On Audio | The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Because of the Author | Love & Friendship by Jane Austen
Gifted | The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Pre-ordered But Haven't Read Yet | The Chase by Elle Kennedy
More Than Five Years Ago | Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Hype | London Belongs to Me by Jacquelyn Middleton
Topic | Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill


It's time to look ahead to the rest of 2019! Hannah and I decided that we would go ahead and complete another round of The Picky Pledge Reading Challenge. Two categories have been modified just a little, but otherwise, we've kept everything else the same. You'll see our recaps in January 2020 once the year is through, but I'll track my progress pretty regularly on this page. And if you want to join us, we highly encourage you to do so!


Here's to more intentional reading and book buying habits in 2019! 
Do you have any reading goals for the year? I'll have more up tomorrow.

5 comments

  1. I've decided to "sign up" for this one, meaning I'll try to do the challenge! I've been looking at my owned books and thinking about just how few I've read haha. I need something specific to motivate me instead of just hoping I'll eventually read them.

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  2. I always look forward to reading these posts from you and Hannah!

    One of my goals this year is to go through all the books I own and really decide if I want to keep them or not. I have many I bought years ago, when I wanted to read them, but since then my reading tastes have changed. And I don't want to look at them and feel guilty anymore!

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  3. Excellent article. Read more technology blogs on Proche!

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  4. I'm joining in as well! I think this is a really cool challenge, and it really helps you to reflect on your spending habits.

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  5. YAY! This is such an awesome reading pledge :D I love that you do it each year. <3 Best of luck with all your goals Alexa :) You can do it. <3

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving a comment! I love seeing what you have to say, and will try to reply (here or on Twitter) as soon as I can :)

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