I just squeezed in my 50 books last year. Only just. *whew*

This year, I hope to bypass that impressive number and actually read throughout the entire year rather than peter out after July, like I did to my great regret last year. I’m removing the pressure of reviewing each and every book I read, which will help a lot in the morale department, I believe. I hope.

No, I believe!

I hit a rough spot last year when I read a book that had potential but was frankly not put together very well. I didn’t know how to proceed! Should I be honest in my review and state how I really felt? Should I lie to schmooz up to the author? The self-published author in question had approached me on Twitter asking me to read and review his book so I felt obligated to do so, but said author has also made comments regarding bad reviewers and actually including them in future books… in a very bad light. I don’t know that becoming an unsavory character in a book very few people would probably ever read would bother me all that much, but then I never published the review, did I?

My hesitation to review the book solidified into adamant resolve to not do so when I recently re-read a book by a favorite author of mine and realized that the poorly-written-put-together-badly book had a lot of similarities to best-selling-author’s book. A LOT of similarities. WAY too MANY bloody similarities, for my taste! At that point, I knew that if I reviewed the not-so-great book and published it, that I would end up making accusations and I knew that wouldn’t go well. It was then that I gave myself permission to read and not review everything. How very nice of me, don’t you agree?

So pop in from time to time and check out my reading list and what reviews I may have posted. You can also subscribe to the blog or just follow me on Twitter or friend me on Facebook, as I link to my reviews on each of those networking sites.

Now, bring on 2012’s 50-Book Challenge! To kick off the New Year, I’ll be posting a guest review in February over at Waiting For Fairies for my dear friend’s birthday celebration month but I’ll certainly be linking to it here, so check that out. I’m also planning an author-signed book giveaway to celebrate having obtained 10,000 blog views! So stick around, 2012 is starting off with a bang!