goals

At the beginning of the year, I love reading about other people’s reading goals and making my own. I also sympathize with those who want to have no or very few goals. Nobody should feel that reading has to be a chore.

This year, I noticed that some people have more specific plans than I do. They aim to read a certain number of various types of books per month, for example — different genres, books from their shelves vs. new acquisitions, etc. I wondered if this might be helpful for me to try.

Since my main goals are reading more books from around the world, more nonfiction, and books from the Back to the Classics categories, I could for example aim to complete at least one around-the-world / nonfiction / classic book each month. Sometimes there would be overlap, making things easier! I also would like to read books from my own shelves, since I took the trouble to haul them all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, so I could put in one of those as well.

Four books per month seems doable, and would help me not to forget about my goals as the year progresses. What do you think? Do you have a reading plan for yourself, and how is it working?

Linked in the Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight!

Happy New Year, everyone! After my holiday break, I wanted to take a moment to look back at how I did on the blogging goals I had for myself last year, and see what I want to add this year.

Accomplishments

I added new monthly features: a Discussion post, a Wrap-up post, and a Link Love post that grew out of the wrap-up when it got too long. I’ve found all of these to be excellent ways to introduce different kinds of content and also to keep track of my own reading. I’ll definitely plan to continue them this year.
The monthly wrap-up posts encouraged me to stick with my goal of keeping records of every book I read this year. I tracked title, author, publisher, date, page count, and format. So far I’m too lazy to do spreadsheets or fancy statistics, but maybe I’ll get into that at some point. Now at least I know how many books I read in 2015! (140, in case you’re wondering.)
I completed the Back to the Classics challenge, reading one book from each of the twelve monthly categories. This added welcome scope and variety to my classics reading, and was a fun way to connect with others who love to read the classics.
This wasn’t a goal last January, but in the middle of the year I switched to self-hosted WordPress and can’t imagine doing without it now.
As the year went on I limited the ARCs I requested more and more. I’m going to try to continue to pare these down because although I like to present a mix of new and old titles on the blog, and I find it exciting to be part of the initial launch buzz for books I really love, having too many deadlines makes my reading feel like homework.

Having enjoyed the challenges on other blogs, I created my own year-long challenge for 2016, Reading New England, and now I have to keep up with it! I have so many ideas for books to read and places to visit that I know I won’t be able to fit them all into one year, but I’ll do my best. I’m also planning to do the Back to the Classics challenge and the Book Blogger Discussion challenge again.
Along with continuing to read classics, and exploring my usual favorite genres (historical fiction, fantasy, children’s books), I want to push myself into some areas that are not so congenial. I’d like to read some nonfiction about topics that scare me (like climate change, death, and the criminal justice system) and more edgy contemporary fiction, like the titles discussed at the Socratic Salon. I’ll hope to read at least three or four books from each category.
I not only want, but need to organize my blogging time better. If I blog every day it eats up all of my time because I enjoy it so much, but there are other things I ought to be doing! So I’m trying to limit my blog writing, reading, and commenting time to three days a week (to go with my usual posting schedule). Wish me luck.

What are your blogging goals for 2016? Is there anything you’re proud of achieving last year?