Good morning fine friends!  I know you’re probably expecting the usual tv chatter but once again I’m behind on my DVR watching.  Thankfully there were only a few select shows with new episodes this week so it should hopefully be fairly quick to catch up.  That and you all aren’t missing much by my inability to share recaps this week.

In it’s stead I’m gonna gab a little to catch up on other things.  How does that sound?

First, I’m excited to announce I finished up my first List of Ten!  I can say that I found the initial experiment to be quite a success.  Though I didn’t necessarily increase my reading speed (which wasn’t the point) I did minimize the amount of time procrastinating my next read and was able to diversify the stacks.  I have to say I like this method a lot and am encouraged to keep going with it.  As a result here is my new list — also shown in my sidebar:

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare – audio
Bunheads by Sophie Flack – ARC
Finnikin of the Rock by Malina Marchetta – backlist
A Match Made in High School by Kristin Walker – backlist
The One That I Want by Jennifer Echols – can’t wait to read
How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr – ARC
Shine by Lauren Myracle – new release
Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard – ebook
Bitter End by Jennifer Brown – new release
Lament by Maggie Steifvater – series

I’m pleased that this idea has drawn such attention and that it’s encouraging others to possibly trying the same.  I’d love to hear if you’ve found it successful as well.

This week has had me thinking a lot on the status of my blog and what my particular goals are for the coming year.  Some of you may have seen me mention on twitter that I want to make 2012 more fun and that I hope to become more involved in the community again.  Sure, I’m out and about and do involve myself but because of work and other non-blog obligations I’ve been a bit more disconnected.  In 2012 I hope to change that.  Get better about commenting and participating on your blogs, enjoy participating in some of the fun features you all have like Top Ten Tuesday and TGIF.  I even hope to start sooner than later!

Another way to get involved is to take on a few challenges this year.  I’m notoriously bad at follow through, mind you, but I believe 2012 will be the year I turn that around.  Particularly since the three challenges I’m taking on are fantastic.  I strongly encourage you to check out The Story Siren‘s Debut Author Challenge, and Chick Loves Lit‘s Completely Contemp Challenge and Sophomore Reading Challenge.  I know there are a lot of similar challenges out in the blogoshphere and it’s difficult to suss out which is best to join but when I say these are three of the best out there focusing on YA fiction I’m not lying.  Great bloggers running them, fantastic events and prizes associated with them and just all around fun!  Oh, and you can check out my lists on my Challenge Me! page.

OH! A small group of non-blogging friends and I are playing a game with our reading goals in 2012.  Here’s how it’s gonna work. Every person is going to contribute $5 a month into a pot.  We’ve devised a point system.  Then each book read earns points and the person with the highest point value gets the book stipend for the month! Fun right?  I’m totally going to lose every month because I read slow but it does give me additional incentive to read certain books like backlist, challenge and others.

I’ve also stumbled upon (thank you again Twitter!) a new group called The Nerdy Book Club.  It’s a group dedicated to the love of books (children’s lit in particular) and is currently taking nominations for their list of the Best Books of 2011.  Get thee to the form and nominate away!  Speaking of nominations the time where The Cybils shortlists are announced is coming ever closer!  In the beginning of January I will start my duty as a round two judge and will read all of the books on the shortlist so that I can join the other judges on my panel in determining a winner.  I am so honored and thrilled to be participating again this year it’s a fantastic experience that I’m grateful for.

So those are my plans.  What’s on your agenda?