Tag: Resolutions

2022 Reading Goals!

Happy New Year! With a new year comes new things to read and new goals about those new things.

This is what I’d like to accomplish this year:

  • Read a total of 80 books
    • 35 novels/books
    • 45 manga/graphic novels
  • Complete my 10 in 2022 list
  • Complete the 12 Friend Recommendations Challenge (post about it coming later)
  • Reduce physical fiction TBR to 115 (currently 157)
  • Reduce physical manga TBR to 100 (currently 146)

I’ve also started a reading bullet journal so I’d like to keep that up too, but I don’t want to make it an official goal, as I’m still playing with what “keeping it up” will actually look like.

If you have any similar goals for the year, do let me know. Happy reading!

Reading Resolutions 2021!

It’s a new year! New year means new goals!

My goals this year are going to be similar to last year’s, with a few modifications and additions. I nailed last year’s goals, so I’m confident I can do this year’s as well!

  • Read 100 books – I set this goal about four months into the year last year. Originally it was 50 but with my manga reading I shot past that real quick. So I’m just going with 100 right off the bat this time.
  • Reduce physical fiction tbr to 185 – My goal in 2020 was 200, which I hit. So this year I want to knock it down more. My ultimate goal is about 20-25 books, but that’s obviously a few years off still.
  • Reduce manga tbr to 50 – This is the first time I’ve had a goal for manga. This past year I’ve read a ton of it but honestly I bought more than I read. So I’d like to knock it down to 50. As of today, not including Christmas gifts (which is about 5 volumes) my manga tbr sits at 156. So I gotta read 100 volumes to get it that low. I can totally do it, I read manga like nobody’s business.
  • Maintain blog schedule – This is an adjustment from last year in that I’m changing how often I post. In 2020, I started with three posts to week and actually increased to four. Blogmas is obviously its own thing, but otherwise, I was really feeling it after a while, posting four times per week. Honestly I spent more time on my blog than I did on reading, which kinda defeats the purpose. So for 2021, I want to post twice a week, except for special occasions.
  • Finish my 10 in 2021 list – I’ve made a list like this every year since 2015, but I’ve never completed one. The books I picked this year are really exciting, and a lot of them I have buddy reads lined up for, so I think (I hope) it’ll go well.

And that’s it for reading goals. I set some personal goals too this year, which is the first time I’ve done so in about three years. I don’t think I’m going to post them here though. I did write them down in my journal, so I hope to keep that updated every month.

Wish me luck, everyone! Lemme know what your goals are.

Reading Goals 2020! | Mid-year check-in

2020Goals (2).png

It’s officially the time of year where does their mid-year posts: check-ins, best/work books so far, etc, and I’m rather pumped for it. I love these kinds of posts, I get so many good recommendations! (PS so if you post these kinds of these and you don’t see me in there in your posts already, please link them and I’ll go lookie)

So, January 2nd of this year, I posted a bunch Reading Goals. This is my progress on them so far:

  • Read 50 books

I’ve actually increased this to 100 books, since I hit it really fast. I’ve been on a manga kick and that really helped. Currently I’m at 132 books read (the majority manga) so I can say both this goal and the updated one are complete.

  • Maintain a consistent posting schedule

At the time of posting, my schedule was Saturday-Sunday-Wednesday. Right now it’s Saturday-Sunday-Tuesday, and I keep it up most of the time. I tend to miss one or two posts per month, but overall I think I’m doing okay, mostly consistent. So considering I still have six months to crash and burn, I’ll say this one is in progress.

  • Keep track of reading statistics

So… I’ve noticed a trend. My goal was to keep track of statistics as I read the books, but I tend to just binge-add fifty or sixty books at a time. So right now, it’s been a while since I’ve updated my stats. But I will do so by the time I post about them. So this also gets a solid in progress.

  • Reduce physical TBR to 200

This one took a bit of an interesting turn: When I made this goal, I had 252 books on my physical TBR. That included fiction and nonfiction. The problem is, I read nonfiction…. sometimes. So I decided to split my nonfiction books to its own TBR. So remaining, I have 236 unread fiction books. Nonfiction honestly I’m not too worried about, because I own so little of it and I read it so seldom. So from this point I’m going to focus on getting my unread fiction down to under 200 books. Cheating? Yes. Pbtbtbt. In progress

And that’s it! So far I haven’t horrendously failed any so I’m doing pretty well I think. Lemme know how you’re doing! And like I said if you post mid-year-y posts, do link me, I wanna see.

Happy reading!

2020 Reading Goals

2020Goals (2).png

Happy New Year!

These are the goals I hope to achieve reading-wise this year. I have an iffy track record with goals – I tend to only complete two out of every three or so, so hopefully I’ll do better this year:

  • Read 50 books

I make this goal every year, and some years I struggle and others I fly past 50 books in 3 months. Really just depends.

  • Maintain a consistent posting schedule

Right now my schedule is Sunday-Wednesday-Saturday, but I’m thinking about switching it up. I’m going to keep it at two to three times per week, but I might change the days. To be decided. As long as I’m continuously posting though, I’ll be happy.

  • Keep track of reading statistics

Same goal as last year. Yesterday, I posted a 2019 reading statistics post, and I thought it turned out really neat. So I wanna do the same thing this year. To keep track of everything, I use the reading spreadsheet made by Brock @Let’s Read, and then I go into it and fiddle with the formulas a bit to handle quarter stars and extra stuff that I want to track that’s not in there already. But the base spread sheet is pretty in-depth as it is, so if you’re looking for something neat to track your reading, I recommend this one.

  • Reduce physical TBR to 200

Right now, while writing this, my physical TBR is 252. I did have it down to 249 on Christmas, but then Christmas happened, soooo.

Last year, I started at 280 and wanted to get it to 250… this year, I’m starting at 252 and want to get it to 200. Why the change? Well if you notice on last year’s goals post, I made additional resolutions like ‘go on a buying ban’ and ‘keep buying limited’ and stuff like that. This year, I’m not making either of those goals, but I am increasing how much I wanna cut my TBR by. Basically, I’m telling myself to have self-control and to use my best judgement when it comes to buying and self-banning to hit this goal. Do purges count? Yes! I can purge, too.

But basically the over-arching goal is 200 TBR books, and I wanna have the freedom to use buying/not-buying/banning as I see fit, instead of finding myself locked into numbers every month. This way sometimes I can get 0 books and other times I can get 12 books and just go with the flow, as long as the end result is good. We’ll see how it goes: If it fails terribly, the 2021 goals will be similar to 2019’s, haha. But 2020 is my year to show my self-discipline. Wish me luck!

And that’s it! What are your goals for this year? Lemme know, and if you have little mental things you do to keep yourself from over-purchasing, lemme know those too! Happy reading!

New Year’s Book Tag 2019!

Blogmas 2019

Hello, happy Sunday! Today’s post will be one I post every year, the New Year’s Book Tag! This will be one of many end-of-year related posts, and I’m rather pumped about it. I’ve been reading everyone’s favorites lists and all sorts of stuff and I just love it. Keep it comin’.

This tag was created by Heather @bookables and updated to reflect the end of 2019.

1. How many books are you planning to read in 2020?

Like last year… probably 50. That’s the goal every year. Sometimes I barely make it, other times I double it. But 50 is a good, solid number.

2. Name 5 books that you didn’t get to this year but want to make a priority in 2020.

I just made a post about this on Thursday! Check it out.

3. What genre do you want to read more of?

Same answer as last year: fantasy. It’s already my top genre but I have so many unread fantasies… I gotta read more fantasy.

4. Name 3 non book related goals for 2020.

I’m doing what I did last year and setting only one: Don’t set any new year’s resolutions aside from this one. I don’t know what it is with defining solid goals but I tend to do worse when I do than if I don’t and just naturally make my way in that direction. Who knows.

5. What’s a book you’ve had forever that you still need to read?

The War of the Flowers

The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams. I can’t remember what year I bought this but I remember distinctly getting it from Borders… so it’s been a while. I put it on my 10 in 2020 list for this year, so I’m hoping to like, actually get to it, y’know.

6. One word that you’re hoping 2020 will be:

Slimming. Physically, mentally, emotionally, socially. There’s just too much of everything and I need to streamline.

7. Tag a friend!

Katy! DO IT.

2019 Reading Goals

2018 Reading Resolutions.png

Welcome to the future! Time for goals! This also happens to be today’s Top 5 Wednesday topic, so if you’d like to participate in that, you can do so here! I have… way more than five. We’re just gonna roll with it.

Book and blog related:

  • Read 50 books

I say fifty, but that’s really just a minimum. Ideally I’d like to read 80 or 100, but I’ll definitely be satisfied with 50 as well. Goodreads’ color this year is a dark purple and it’s nice and weird. If you’d like to add me on goodreads, do it!

I’ve made one of these lists every year since 2016 – I’ve never finished it. I WANNA. AUGH.

  • Keep book purchases around 4-5 books per month

I figure if I do this and then read 80, then I’ll knock my TBR down. I set my goal to 50, but I feel like 80 is attainable.

  • Go on a 2 to 3 month buying ban

I’ve done this the last two years in a row, for more like 4 or so months, successfully, and it has really helped with the physical TBR count. I want to do it again this year, but do it in the late winter or spring, instead of doing it in fall, because all the good books come out in fall 😛

  • Reduce physical TBR to 250 books. It currently sits at 283.

I hit my 270 goal… and then I added in all the books from my haul and popped it back up, ahahahaha. As stated above, this one really depends on me keeping my buying in check. Purging will also help out here, as will the buying ban!

There are three months left in this – right now I’m reaaaaally close to a bingo. So, I think this one will end well.

  • Post monthly book hauls

I did seasonal book hauls last year, and I feel like I got them lined up wrong. So this month it’ll go back to monthly, but hopefully will only contain 4-5 books each time.

  • Maintain a S-W-S posting schedule

I did this goal last year as well and succeeded in it. There will be slight changes, like during November if I do Nanowrimo or in December during Blogmas, but overall it should be roughly this pattern.

  • Keep track of statistics

In wrap ups and stuff, I really like seeing stats that people will talk about – page count, genre count, author stuff, etc. I wanna keep track of it, too.

Personal related:

  • Make no personal resolutions except this resolution

For some reason, I do really well on reading goals, but listing things as personal goals ends up as self-sabotage. So, this year I’m not setting any. Sure, I have things I wanna do, but if I don’t make it ‘official’, the likelihood of me actually accomplishing it is, well, higher. Haha.

There’s also the general goal of ‘stay alive’ but y’know, that’s kind of a given. Wish me luck! Happy reading!

2018: Reading Year in Review

2017 Reading Review

Happy New Year!

This year, I set quite a few challenges for myself, both reading and personal. I’ll go over the reading first, and then the personal at the end so you can back away if you’re not interested. Next year, I plan to do a similar thing with reading goals, but not so much with personal ones. I’ll get to that in a different post, though. But here! We’ll start with stats:

Reading Stats:

Overview

ReadingReview1Readingreview2

readingreview3

Reading by Genre:

  • Nonfiction: 2
  • Graphic novel/manga: 55 (wow)
  • Fantasy: 23
  • Sci-fi: 3
  • Horror/thriller/contemporary: 5

Books DNF’d: 1

Reading Resolutions

(As declared in my resolutions post last year)

Book Related:

  • Complete my Goodreads Challenge of 40 books – Success!
  • Complete my 10 in 2018 list of books – Failed (3/10)
  • Keep book buying low – no more than 6-8 books every three months – Failed (More like 11ish)
  • Get my physical TBR down to 270 books. It currently sits at 301. – Success!
  • Finish the r/Fantasy Book Bingo Challenge by Mar 31, 2018 – Success!
  • Participate in the Beat the Backlist Challenge – Failed (ending up quitting this one)

Blog Related:

  • Post seasonal (not monthly) book hauls – Success!
  • Maintain a S-W-S posting schedule (with the occasional extra post if I’ve got neat things goin’ on) – Success!
  • Keep my To Do list of pending tags under five items at any one time – Success!
  • Update my T5W, Blabber and Tag lists monthly – Success!
  • Write blabbers for at least 1/3 of the books I read – Failed (Haven’t written one since… I don’t even know, man)

So, looks like I did much better in keeping my blog goals than my book goals. The reading goal I found most important was the one where I wanted to decrease my physical TBR to 270. That one, I succeeded in, so woot. For the ‘reading books on the 10 in 2018’ list one, I actually wrote a post on that, going into a bit of blabbering on why I feel like this goal failed.

Personal goals

(As also detailed on the same resolutions post)

So, instead of listing all of the personal goals with a big, fat ‘fail’ next to them, I’m going to say: I failed literally all of them except one. The one I succeeded in was ‘take care of health issues as they arrive’. I’ve been very pro-active in my healthcare this year, getting checkups and whatnot, and tackling health issues as soon as I notice them. So yay, hopefully will live to old age so I can get nice and old and moldy.

But lolololol, totally failed everything else. I’ve noticed a pattern here, and it’ll be mentioned further in my 2019 goals post. Hehe I’m so bad at this.

And that is it! Tomorrow’s post will either be a Top 5 Wednesday post or my 2019 resolutions post (or both, if the topic lines up. The topic hasn’t been posted as of writing this, so right now I’m standing at the edge of the void, waaaaaiting).

I hope you had a good reading year! I can’t wait to see what the new reading goal color is on goodreads, heheh.

Happy reading!

New Year’s Book Tag

Book Tag

Hello, a tag today! This tag was created by Heather @bookables and updated to reflect the end of 2018. I wasn’t tagged, but whatevs!

1. How many books are you planning to read in 2019?

Probably 50. I tend to do 50, but this past year I set my goal to 40, anticipating a slower reading year. Then surprised myself by reading 80-something books. So… 50. Hopefully more, but that’ll be the min.

2. Name 5 books that you didn’t get to this year but want to make a priority in 2019.

Hey hey, I just made a post about this on Wednesday. Go look at that. :”D

3. What genre do you want to read more of?

Fantasy! It’s already my most-read genre, but I want MOAR.

4. Name 3 non book related goals for 2019.

I only have one: Don’t set any new year’s resolutions. Sure I have reading goals, and I do have personal goals, but I find if I take one of these goals and make it specifically a new year’s resolution, I tend to fail it miserably. I’d rather just keep everything to myself and not associate it with the new year. They’ll be more likely to succeed that way.

5. What’s a book you’ve had forever that you still need to read?

Hood by Stephen Lawhead. I’ve probably had this book for ten years. I don’t even remember when I bought it. I have the second book as well, so… hopefully this year? Maybe? We’ll see.

Hood (King Raven, #1)

6. One word that you’re hoping 2019 will be:

Happy

7. Tag a friend!

Katy! DO IT.

2018 Reading Resolutions Check In

2018 Reading Resolutions

Today I determine which reading goals I’ve achieved, which I’m on the track to, and which to call it quits on and abandon. I know I’m not doing terribly, but I’m not doing as well as I had hoped, either. Here goes nothin’.

At the beginning of this year, I made two posts, one entitled 2018 Reading Resolutions and the other called 10 in 2018. The first is exactly as it sounds, in addition to personal and blog goals as well. The second is a list of books I want to read this year. I’ll review my progress on both posts.

2018 Reading Resolutions

Book Related:

  • Complete my Goodreads Challenge of 40 books – Complete!

Currently sitting at 43!

  • Complete my 10 in 2018 list of books – In Progress

List will be shown below!

  • Keep book buying low – no more than 6-8 books every three months – Kinda failed

I’ve been averaging about 10 books per three months, not 8. So not crazy, but a bit higher than I’ve wanted.

I will liiiikely not achieve this one by the end of the year though, who am I kidding.

Did it! I even won some books from it, too!

I really love the idea of this challenge, but I was a bit discouraged by how you can only submit so many books before it’ll only let you submit retail reviews you’ve written. So I kinda stopped participating in this one after I started consistently getting passed the allotted number of books it’ll let you put in.

Blog Related:

  • Post seasonal (not monthly) book hauls – In Progress

Good so far!

  • Maintain a S-W-S posting schedule – In Progress

I’ve actually upped it to a S-T-W-S schedule recently.

  • Keep my To Do list of pending tags under five items at any one time – In Progress

Good!

This one I actually doing need to do anymore. I changed the layout of my blog to automatically keep a list so I don’t have to.

  • Write blabbers for at least 1/3 of the books I read – In Progress

I’m not sure what the ratio is off the top of my head, but I’m pretty sure I’m close.

Personal Resolutions:

  • Exercise two times per week – In Progress

Was iffy there for a while but I’m solidly doing well on this now. 😀

  • Log all meals in MyFitnessPal – In Progress

Same as above, I tend to fluctuate, but currently am doing pretty good.

  • Make a wedding/honeymoon scrapbook – Not started

ONE DAY.

  • Make a budget – Not started

ONE DAY

  • Start saving for a house – Not started

ONE DAY

  • Take care of my health as issues arise – In Progress

I’d like to say I’m totally on top of it, but I was also carted to the hospital in an ambulance a week and a half ago, so. But! Now I have an official diagnosis, so am ‘on top of it’ again, woo. MY HEART IS AN ASSHOLE

  • Learn Python and R – Not started.

ONE DAY

  • Maintain a Duolingo streak – Kinda failed

I broke it, but have been meaning to pick it back up again. If I have a good streak going by Christmas I’ll consider this one a success

10 in 2018

 

Need to pick up the pace a bit me thinks.

And that’s it! How are you doing on your goals, if you set any? Happy reading!

2018 Reading Resolutions

2018 Reading Resolutions

Typing an ‘8’ at the end of the year is weird.

Hello! Welcome to the future! Today’s post is technically a Top 5 Wednesday post, but considering I have more than five and don’t want to limit them or make a separate post for the rest, they’re all going in here and that’s just how it’s goin’ down. I’m also going to post my non-book related resolutions, but I’ll separate that out into a different chunk so you don’t have to read it if you don’t wanna.

So without further blabbering:

2018 Reading Resolutions

Book Related:

  • Complete my Goodreads Challenge of 40 books

Last year, I set a goal of fifty books, which I achieved, but at this point in my life I don’t actually have too much time to read, which is a bummer. So to reach my goal this year, I found myself gravitating towards shorter books, just to hit the goal. I have so many huge, juicy fantasy novels I wanna read, so lowering my goal will allow me to mentally handle it better, hawhaw.

  • Complete my 10 in 2018 list of books (will be posted Jan 7th and retroactively linked here)

Last year, I made a 17 in 2017 list, which I finished about half of them. So, I’m going to transfer all the ones I didn’t finish onto this year’s list and add a couple more that are really speaking to me at the moment.

  • Keep book buying low – no more than 6-8 books every three months
    • Gifts do not count towards this.

This past year, I put myself on a buying ban for three months, cold turkey. So at this point I’m kind of used to having no new books, I guess. So now that I’m off the ban, I want to focus on lowering my TBR. This will only be helped by limiting how many books I buy. No more 10, 11, 12 books-per-month hauls!

  • Get my physical TBR down to 270 books. It currently sits at 301.

Yeah yeah I know. 270 is still a lot. At least if the apocalypse happens, I’ll have plenty to read while zombies swarm the streets.

I started this last year on April 1st. It’s part of reddit’s fantasy subreddit activities. It’s been lots of fun so far! 😀 And I hope to finish it up and start the next one as well.

I just found out about this today! It’s a challenge that has you focus on books that were not published in 2018… meaning literally everything on my shelves right now. For full details, click that linky I’ve put in the bullet point! Otherwise, as stated, I’ll post my ‘official’ participation thingy on Jan 6th. 😀

Blog Related:

  • Post seasonal (not monthly) book hauls

As stated earlier, I just can’t maintain the vast amount of books I was buying every month. Can’t do it.

  • Maintain a S-W-S posting schedule (with the occasional extra post if I’ve got neat things goin’ on)

I started this schedule mid way through 2017 and it has suited me well so far, minus November when I was doing nanowrimo. I like it.

  • Keep my To Do list of pending tags under five items at any one time

Currently it’s at zero (I think), which is good. I’m all caught up!

This is one I’ve had trouble with in the past. I’ll just let this list build up for like, six months without updating it, then I have to go through months of posts to do it. 😛 So doing this will help with my santiy, hawhaw.

  • Write blabbers for at least 1/3 of the books I read

I feel like I don’t write enough blabbers. This past year, my average rating of a book was 3.9. So like… meh to it was good. The books that really stuck out did get blabbers. There were just a lot that didn’t speak to me, though. -_- So I’m hoping to pick books that give me a lot to talk about.

And that’s it I think! This is a pretty good list, but it should be attainable with a little bit of self-discipline. I don’t think I’ve named anything too strenuous, which is the point: My goals should be realistic, otherwise I’m just gonna get discouraged. 😛

So if you’re just here for the books, this is where you pop out – I’m gonna switch to more personal resolutions now. 😀 Happy reading!

Personal Resolutions:

  • Exercise two times per week

This one is probably my most needed goal. Anyone who has met me knows that I could stand to exercise more. Currently, I’m lucky if I do once a week. So I figured picking a solid times-per-week to exercise will grow a habit if I can stick with it, and then I can increase from there. But I wanted to start slow so I’m not overwhelmed.

  • Log all meals in MyFitnessPal

I’m actually fairly decent at doing this already. I have a 700-something day streak going on at the moment, but I just need to get to actually logging all meals more consistently.

  • Make a wedding/honeymoon scrapbook

I bought the stuff to make this scrap book shortly after returning home from my honeymoon mid-August, but I have yet to actually put anything in it. I feel future-me will really appreciate it thirty years down the line.

  • Make a budget

With my husband’s and my paychecks coming in every month, at the moment we’re just kinda paying things as they come up. So far, with just the two of us, it’s going ok. But, we’ll need to do financial planning at some point in our future, so making a budget to start now will only help us. My student loans have just started coming in, too, so I need to look at how much money we actually have left every month now.

  • Start saving for a house

This one kinda goes hand in hand with the previous one. We’re renting, currently three months into an 18 month lease. I’d like to be able to put a down payment on a house by the time this lease is over… So that’ll be a 2019 thing. But I want to start saving now, if possible.

  • Take care of my health as issues arise

I recently was able to get health insurance again when I started my job, and as of Jan 1, I’ve switched onto my husband’s (his is decidedly better and cheaper), so I want to handle health issues as soon as they pop up, maybe even do preventative physicals and stuff. I’m definitely the ‘ignore it and hope it goes away’ kind of person, and I know that will eventually come to bite me in the butt. So I want to be more uh… on top of it, I guess.

  • Learn Python and R

This is a career-oriented goal. I’m a software developer, currently working in C# and .NET. I also know SQL, Java and C++. I’d really like to learn Python and R, though. I feel like the direction I want my career to go would benefit from those. Ideally this goal will go hand in hand with creating an online portfolio of projects and spiffing up my resume.

  • Maintain a Duolingo streak

Currently, I’m around a 50 day streak, I think. I’m refreshing my German, which I know a roughly tourist-level amount of. I’d like to be able to speak it conversationally though. Once I finish the Duo tree again (I’ve done it before but they added extra lessons) I want to branch into the translation side of the site and further my vocabulary.

And that’s it! I’m going to include little updates on all resolutions, booky and personal, in my monthly wrap-ups to keep myself accountable and let me know where to focus.

Happy reading!