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2019 Goals
Happy (almost) New Year, friends!
I know I said it in almost every single wrap-up/TBR post this year, but I literally can’t believe how quickly this year flew and now its New Years Eve?! I’ve had such a great year this year and can’t wait to see what 2019 is going to bring. One of my favourite things to do to bring in the New Year is share my goals with you all in an effort to feel somewhat prepared for the coming year.
As 2018 was my first proper year of blogging, I thought it would be cool to see how I did with my 2018 goals before sharing my goals for 2019!
🕓 Go my own way: I feel like I mostly achieved this? This year I made more of an effort to read the books I wanted to, rather than feeling pressured to read the most popular books that month. I still feel a bit of pressure to keep up with popular YA books but I think I definitely made progress with this
🕓 Read 50 books: SMASHED IT. I met my goal half way through the year, upped it to 75, and ended up reading 82 books!
🕓 Beat the Backlist:FAIL! I did read a lot of books which weren’t new releases but they were recent discoveries rather than my own backlisted books…
🕓 Balancing ARCs, backlist, and new releases: Mostly fail. I did read a lot of ARCs and new releases but obviously failed on the backlist aspect of this…
🕓 Treat myself to more books and book related products: Yes! I definitely treated myself more this year. I think I bought about 51 books this year and also got 2 Fairyloot boxes. As someone who always feels guilty about buying things for myself this is a pretty huge thing!
🕓 Make more friends in the book blogging community: YES!!! I met so many wonderful people this year and cemented some firm friendships. I posted a little 2018 friendships post which you can check out to find out more about my friendships from this year ❤
🕓 Themed Reads: I think I did about 7/12 themed reads this month
🕓 Limit Diversity Tick Boxing: In 2017, I felt that I was forcing myself to read particular books for a certain type of rep but that it wasn’t making my reading habits more diverse. I read A LOT of diverse books in 2018 which I tended to pick up of my own volition and made my reading more diverse all around.
🕓 Be more adventurous with books: Kind of, I did discover some great new books that were quite under the radar, but found I still focused a lot on popular releases.
🕓 Continue using the library: Yep, that’s partly why I’m behind so much on my own backlist books because the library thoroughly swallowed me whole this year!
2018 was my first full year as a book blogger and I feel like I made some pretty good progress. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I would like to achieve in 2019 and am super excited to start working towards these new goals ✨
2019 Reading Goals
🎆 Read 75 books: This year I managed 82 books which was 32 more than my original Goodreads Challenge goal so I’m setting my firm goal at 75, and my stretch goal at 100.
🎆 Don’t stop reading series!: I have the worst habit of really enjoying the first book in a series but then feeling too guilty about binging the rest of the series for fear of “ignoring my other books”. And we all know how that story ends…
🎆 Read books as soon as/soon after I get them: Along similar lines of series, when I buy books I end up putting them aside “for now” because I feel a sense of obligation to my other books but then end up not ever getting round to them? YALC was in July and I have only read 2/16 books I bought…
🎆 Read more graphic novels: I love graphic novels and there’s a lot that I’ve been meaning to read (The Wicked and the Divine, Moonstruck, the rest of Saga, the list goes on…) but I often feel guilty about the price of graphic novels and end up not buying them. I would like to buy some in 2019!
🎆 Keep up with ARCs: I’m so thankful to receive so many fantastic ARCs but like many other book bloggers find its so easy to quickly get behind on them. I’ve been using Kaleena’s fantastic spreadsheet to keep better track of my ARCs and setting myself actual due dates which will hopefully help me keep on top
🎆 More buddy reads: I did my first book blog buddy read with Ashley just before Christmas which was so much fun. I’d love to do more buddy reads with reading friends ❤
2019 Blogging Goals
🌌 Review books a maximum of 1-2 weeks after I finish them: Reviewing in 2018 started off pretty well but I got so bad at reviewing over the last few months. I stopped writing reviews immediately after finishing and by the time I got round to writing the review, I had read a lot of other books in between meaning I would forget a lot of important stuff
🌌 Quartely/tri-monthly check in’s: I’m taking part in a lot of challenges this year and I feel like part of succeeding in them will be down to keeping a careful track of my progress throughout the year. I’ve planned to do regular blog check ins to share my progress with you all (and remind myself what I’m doing!)
🌌 Continue bloghopping: I did not know what bloghopping was until half way through this year and have only done it a few times, but every time I do I find some excellent blogs and I want to continue my blog discoveries next year
🌌 Hosting/taking part in more events: The book blogosphere runs some amazing events and I want to take part in more of them! I loved taking part (however briefly) in the sci-fi month activities, meeting other participants and supporting each others blogs
2019 Personal Goals
☄️ Get onto a PhD: This one is kind of in my control but also kind of not but I want to work as hard as I can to secure a PhD studentship at my university for next year
☄️ MORE VIDEO GAMES: I want to play more video games, especially multi-player games! If you want to buddy up and play some games together then let me know
☄️ Increase my fitness: I used to be a lot fitter but thanks to depression + fibromyalgia flare ups I’ve spend a less time doing physical exercise. Not only does this make me feel pretty crappy but it also increases my pain. I’m planning to hit the gym for the next 3-4 months and work my way up to park runs
☄️ Write more articles: I loved writing my articles for POMEmag and Sidequest this year, and want to write a lot more next year. I’m super excited about contributing more to Sidequest as one of their contributor and am looking forward to seeing what other opportunities 2019 might bring
Those are my goals for 2019 and it’s now only 2 hours 45 minutes until the New Year! I’m sending you all the best vibes for your 2019’s and am looking forward to seeing all of your posts ❤
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