October 2016 Goals

Happy October everyone! It literally feels like I just sat down to write out my September goals. But here we are in yet another new month and it's time to set a new handful of goals to keep ourselves motivated as we head into one of the busiest times of year! October is always an exciting month for me. For the last 3 years it's been the month I've run a marathon in. It's the month we celebrate Brett's birthday. It's the month of my favorite holiday - HALLOWEEN! And it's the month to cozy up, enjoy the changing colors of the leaves, yummy warm food, football, and scary movies. I really love October and I'm pretty positive it's tied with July for my favorite month of the year! <3

1. No book buying!

September.... I went fairly crazy in the book buying department. It seems like with every paycheck I was perusing Book Outlet for new deals and filling up my cart to the brim with new reads. I feel like I'm in a place where I should cool it when it comes to book buying for a while and focus on the books that I have unread on my shelves. I have plenty! I do have a couple of pre-ordered books that will be coming throughout the rest of the year but no more book buying at least through the month of October (save for books I plan to purchase as birthday gifts for others)!

2. Finish the Green Mountain Marathon

Gah! The Green Mountain Marathon is happening in just 5 DAYS I'm feeling super nervous and not really feeling all that prepared, but I'm pretty sure that's how I feel before every marathon that I've run. Again, the goal is to finish. I was toying around with the idea of hitting a sub-5 hour marathon this time around but considering how the tail end of my training has gone (read: not great because September eats my whole life every year) I'm again, just shooting to finish. (Though beating last year's PR of 5:08:24 would be icing on the cake!)

3. Read 6 books

I have 6 books I want to finish this month (which does not include the books I plan to read for the readathons I have planned for October):

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald  

A reread originally intended for Tackle Your TBR

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Originally intended for Tackle Your TBR

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Buddy reading this with Shannon!

What the Dog Knows by Cat Warren

A non-fiction study of dogs who work with police and in other investigative capacities

Bloody Mary by J.A. Konrath

For the PopSugar prompt "A murder mystery"

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

This has gotten such positive reviews AND it's about monsters so totally appropriate for October

4. Participate in Inktober

I'm going to try my hardest to participate in Inktober this year. Inktober is a month long challenge that prompts you to create one drawing using ink each day. I've been sharing my drawings on my Instagram so make sure you're following me there to see my progress! I'm not sure if I'll complete all 31 days, but I'm definitely going to try to do as many days as I can!

5. Participate in SpookAThon & BookBuddyAThon

These are the two readathons I will be participating in this month! SpookAThon will be taking place from October 17th to October 23rd and encourages you to read (you guessed it) spooky books! There are a few prompts to this readathon which follow the theme of reading thriller/horror novels and include:

-Read a thriller
-Read a book with red on the cover
-Read book with a spooky word in the title
-Read a 2016 release
-Read a book with a paranormal character/creature

BookBuddyAThon is a readathon that you participate in with a buddy! My friend Shannon and I will be participating together. This readathon overlaps with the SpookAThon by two full days and will be running from October 22nd to October 28th. There are also several prompts for this readathon which include:

-Read a book with a title that starts with the same initial as your book buddy's name (since I'll be reading with Shannon I have to choose a book that starts with 'S')
-Buddy read a book with your book buddy (We'll be reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn throughout the month and have chosen to count it as our buddy read for this readathon as well!)
-Read a book with pictures in it
-Read a book that you really want to read
-Read 5 books

TBRs for both of these readathons will be going live the week before they begin, so be on the lookout for those! I'm looking forward to another month filled with reading and getting to know people in the bookish community!

6. Prepare and officially announce BorrowAThon

I've been mentioning this in my YouTube videos and very briefly in my Reading Challenge Update that I posted last week but I am hosting a readathon in November called BorrowAThon! You'll be getting all of the information about this readathon on both this blog and my YouTube channel this month but please go follow the BorrowAThon Twitter page for more information for the time being! :) Hope you can all make it in November!

And those are all of my October goals! I hope you all have a fabulous month and accomplish everything you want to in the first official month of fall! <3

To read my update on my September goals, click "read more"!

Anticipating a busier month, I only set two goals for the month of September and was able to accomplish them both!

Reach the 18-20 mile mark in my training (DONE) - I managed to run a fairly solid 18 miles in the middle of the month and while I'm feeling fairly nervous for this upcoming marathon, at least I know that I've gone as far as I need to in my training to match previous years. Fingers crossed that this weekend goes well!

Read 7 books (DONE) - I somehow doubled this goal in September, despite my insane schedule! I also was able to read all of the books I had set out to read as well, which I am very happy about. Here's what I read last month:

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

Mr. Smith Goes to Prison by Jeff Smith

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

The Dinner by Herman Koch

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

The Girls by Emma Cline

Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup