Mundie Moms

Thursday, January 3, 2019

2019 Reading Challenges + Bookish Goals



Reading challenge or no reading challenge? This is a question I've seen floating around on social media lately. At first I wasn't going to do a reading challenge this year. I've done a Goodreads reading challenge every single year since 2009. I'm getting a little burnt out. Than I realized part of my burn out is that I focus too much on the number vs what I'm reading. I get so caught up with how many books I should be reading to hit my challenge. Often I don't even finish the TBR pile of books I wanted to complete. Okay that also has to do with the fact my TBR piles feel like they're never ending.

This last year was the first time since 2009 that I didn't read a single book on NYE to try and hit my goal. I lowered my goal this last year to 225 books. That  number is a mix of books read for both Mundie Moms & Mundie Kids. I hit my reading challenge goal the week before Christmas. It was so nice not stressing myself out trying to finish my reading goal before the end of the year. I'm a person who once they commit to a goal, has to finish that goal when I set it for (or at least by the set date). Which is why every year on NYE I was trying to cram in my last book to hit my goal. 

This year I decided I'm going to focus on the quality of books I'm reading vs the quantity of books I'm reading. I'm tired of wasting time on books I don't want to spend time reading/promoting etc. This year if I'm spending time reading a book, it's because I want to read it. If I don't like a few pages in, I'm putting it down, and moving to the next book. I'm looking forward to this goal. So with that in mind, my reading goal this year is currently at 75 books. That is the lowest it's ever been, and it may be go up. 

One of my personal goals this year to be present. In order to accomplish this goal, my reading goal is going to strict. Meaning, I'm no longer spending time on books I; a) have no desire to read, b) are unsolicited books, and c) are books I feel obligated to read. For the most part I stopped doing these three things last year. To go along with these goals, I'm not feeling guilty about it either. That in itself is a goal I worked on last year, and it was totally worth it too. 

My 2019 Bookish Goals
  1. 75 book reading challenge (mix it up with YA, MG, and any other books I want to read). Quantity vs quality. 
  2. Don't spend time on books that take away from my personal goal of being present
  3. Catch up on my Netgalley reviews (I swear it's out of site, out of mind for me when it comes to Netgalley).
  4. Embrace not knowing what I'm doing on Bookstagram, and continue having fun doing it. haha 
  5. When it comes to books on my shelves, unless it has meaning, if I've not read it in the last one to two years, it's being donated. 
One of the things I do every year is write out each month's releases. This year when I did that, I created a schedule of books I plan on reading each month. This list includes pre-orders, arcs I have, and e-books. I'm looking forward to sticking with this schedule. Having it written down definitely makes a huge difference for me in planning out my reviews/book features, and monthly reading goals.

One of the things I want to do better at this year is Bookstagram. Over the last couple of months I've loved following the challenges on there. One of the things I love about it, is the book features. You don't have to just review a book to help promote it. I've discovered numerous books from bookstagram challenges and features that I otherwise wouldn't have found. Don't get caught up with the numbers. It's hard not to, but once you don't worry about it, it becomes that much more fun. 

What are some of your 2019 book goals? Are you doing a reading challenge this year?

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