Bookish Resolutions
Hey everyone! It’s the first day of the new year and today I’m going to talk about what my reading goals and resolutions are going to be this year. As you might know if you saw my life update post from a few weeks ago, I’m going to be studying abroad this upcoming semester, and I really don’t know how much time I’ll have to read while I’m there. Still, just because I’m going to be gone for a while doesn’t mean I should let my reading go by the wayside. So. Here are some of my reading (and blogging!) goals for 2019.
Read at least 50 books.
Last year I set my Goodreads goal at 30 books, and I not only completed that goal, at the time of writing this post, I’ve surpassed it by reading 44, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to read one or two more before the year’s over. Based on that, 30 books was clearly not enough of a challenge, and this year I want to try to challenge myself a little more, so I’m setting my goal at 50. If I don’t end up meeting that goal, I won’t be too upset, but I do want to try.
Read more books by non-American authors.
I have a tendency to let myself fall into a kind of rut with my reading (and my life in general, really). I read all the same authors, sometimes even the same books, over and over, and most of the books that I read tend to be books by authors who are both white and American. This year, I’m already breaking out of my rut in a huge way by going to a completely different country by myself, and I would really like to break out of my reading rut, too. Luckily, my goal of reading books by authors from other countries will probably be pretty easy to accomplish when I’ll be in a different country for a while.
Finish the Harry Potter series.
This year, I finally got around to reading the first two books of the Harry Potter series, after 19+ years of my life having not read it. I know that I need to go ahead and try to read the rest of the books as soon as I can or I might never get around to it. So that’s a goal of mine—I need to read the rest of the Harry Potter series before the year is over. I’ve liked it pretty well so far, so I imagine it shouldn’t be too hard.
Put up a blog post at least once per week.
That was what my goal was back when I started this blog, to just post once a week. Then I got overly ambitious trying to post twice, or sometimes more often, every week, while also juggling all my other responsibilities. It got to be a lot, and I think it’s partially because of that that I burned out at the end of the year and didn’t post for several weeks. This year, I’m hoping to avoid that. I love this blog and I would like to keep it that way.
Post a book review at least once every two months.
You guys probably know that I’m not a huge fan of writing (or reading, for that matter) book reviews. If you want to hear more about that, I have a whole post about why I don’t like book reviews here. Still, I did make this blog so that I could talk about books with all of you, and book reviews are a pretty big part of that.
Complete at least 4 of the books on my Scratch-Off Bucket List Poster.
I recently bought this poster of the supposed “100 Essential Books” that everyone should read. I’ve already read about 16 of the books on the list, but someday I would like to be able to have every single book scratched off. I think aiming to read about four of the things on that list per year is a good goal. Plus, the Harry Potter series is included on that poster, so this goal sort of ties in with that one.
Participate in at least five readathons and post about them on my blog.
Last year, after I participated in the Summer Biannual Bibliothon, I decided to participate in a readathon every single month through the end of the year, and I did exactly that. Since making that decision, I’ve discovered that readathons really help me. There were several months in the second half of the year where if I hadn’t been pushed to read by a readathon, I might not have read anything at all. Readathons keep me accountable, and help me avoid the procrastination that I’m so fond of.
However, they can also be really stressful, particularly during busier times of the year. Out of the 6 readathons I participated in, I only met all the official challenges and/or my personal reading goals for 2 of them. A lot of the reason for that was because I was attempting to juggle school, two jobs, blogging, and reading all at once. This year, I want to be more successful, and selective, with the readathons that I participate in, so instead of trying to shove a readathon into every month regardless of how busy I am, I’m going to try to only do readathons when I know I can really devote a lot of time to them, and not only meet my goals, but maybe even surpass them.
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Okay! That’s all I have in terms of bookish resolutions this year! Let me know down in the comments what your New Years’ Resolutions are—bookish or not. I’d love to hear them!
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you soon!
-Ariel
About The Author
Ariel
I am an aspiring writer and lover of stories as well as a college student double majoring in French and Writing. I love reading, and I wanted to make this blog as a way to share my love of books and writing with other people like me.