I made a reading goals post last year, and this year I’d like to review how I did and make some adjustments for this year. What was too ambitious? How have my tastes changed over the year? I’d like to go over these things and set some new goals, then make some new ones for 2020. And hopefully this serves as some inspiration for your reading goals, too.
2019 Reading Goals: In Review
If you’re interested, on the old version of my blog I wrote a post here about all of my bookish plans for 2020. Let’s see what I did (and didn’t) do:
1. Read 100 books.
I am so, so close on this one! I do genuinely think I’ll hit 100 books this year, but I was right about this being a bit of a challenge. I said I knew I would be taking on bigger and more challenging books, so this definitely was a challenging goal to hit. I’d like to lower my goal next year to give me even more leeway for big books. But overall, I’m impressed with what I’ve accomplished this year – that’s quite a few books!
2. Knock books off my TBR.
So I technically did this, I just…acquired many more.
To introduce some more numbers here, I read 36 books from my TBR, and the rest were library loans or the occassional ebook or borrowed book. I was doing really well with this, then library sales happened, and while I definitely want to keep visiting those, I want to keep my TBR low. The library sales happen twice a year (and otherwise my book buying throughout the year is surprisingly low) so I’d like to set myself mini “deadlines” for how many books I should have read off my TBR before I go.
3. Read more classics.
I have definitely been doing this, and have found so many new favorites along the way! So far this year I’ve read 14 literary classics, and just as many modern classics. I’d like to continue at this rate (or greater) next year. This wasn’t really much of a challenge for me to do as I’ve really been enjoying these books.
4. Make more progress in the Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge.
I’ve made quite a dent in the challenge this year! And although I didn’t mark where I was last year (I wish I did), many of the ~30 books listed above did count towards the challenge. At the most recent library sale I went to I picked up quite a few books that are also on that list – looking forward to reading them!
5. Attempt the PopSugar Reading Challenge.
Well, you could say that I attempted this one…as in I read a few books from my PopSugar TBR.
I really loved the concept and how these year-long challenges help you branch out, but I stopped tracking a couple months in as the time frame was just too long for me. And committing to roughly half of my TBR for the year at the beginning of the year is a lot of commitment for a mood reader. I’m all up for shorter challenges that have diverse reading prompts (which is why I’d like to take on shorter readathons in 2020), but what I’ve learned here is that massive reading challenges like this are not as sustainable for me.
6. Read more critically.
I can officially say that I would be horrified to read the reviews that I wrote in 2018, so I guess that’s progress! I’ve also brought this blog back to post in-depth reviews, which I can say in such a short period I’ve been thinking a lot more about the fine details of what I’m reading. This will likely always be room for improvement on this one as I continue to read more challenging books and reflect on them, as well as write reviews and share my opinions.
2020 Reading Goals
With the above said, I’d like to change up my reading goals a little bit this year. My reading tastes have been evolving, and I want my reading goals to reflect that. Here’s what I’m planning for 2020:
1. Read 80 Books.
Technically, 100 books is still doable. If I hadn’t read so little at certain times of this year, I would have surpassed 100. But, with the bigger books (and more difficult) ones I plan on reading, I don’t want to stress out over a goal to the point where it impacts what books I’m choosing, as well as the quality of my reading time. I have a feeling I’ll surpass this without issue, but I still want the flexibility. Of course, 80 books is still a big deal! But for me, I think it’ll hit a good balance between continuing to read longer, challenging books, and being motivivated to pursue a goal.
2. Set some time in the morning to read.
One of the big habits I’m working on now is waking up earlier. When I do wake up earlier, I have so much time to clean, eat a proper breakfast, drink tea, work on side projects, whatever. Waking up early also gives me plently of time to read.
Originally, I felt iffy about reading in the morning. I like reading at night because I can stay up as long as I need to, but in the morning, I have to stop on time for work. But as I’ve been waking up earlier, I’m finding that reading a few chapters in the morning is a nice part of the routine that I’d like to have. I’ll still do most of my reading in the evening, but there’s something about reading in the morning that puts me in a good headspace before work.
3. Cut down my physical TBR.
This past fall I was introduced to the wonderful world of library sales. It’s great! There are so many second-hand books you can get for cheap, and it’s a great way to support local libraries. Sadly though, that means my physical TBR is suffering at the highest point it’s ever been!
Realistically, I’d love to keep my TBR in the 20-30 range. That gives a ton of flexibility when I’m unsure what to pick up next (especially as a mood reader). But now my TBR is in the 60’s, which is enough to stress me in a not so good way.
So, before the next library sale (which I believe is in May), I’m going to try to cut this number in half. It means that most of my TBR for the first few months of this year are going to be physical TBR books, but I’m perfectly fine with that. That will definitely also mean that I won’t be getting new books for a while (unless I read them right away). I’d also like to not go and buy 15 books at the next library sale, but…we’ll see. 
4. Start reviewing more ARCs.
After the physical TBR cleanse, I’d like to start reviewing NetGalley ARCs. After almost two years of reviewing backlist books on Goodreads, I’m feeling more comfortable with writing reviews, and with the introduction of this blog, I’ve been writing more in-depth reviews that I’d like to continue writing. I’ll be starting with the “Read Now” titles that NetGalley provides until I have more reviews under my belt and start requesting, but in the meantime, I’d still like to browse what’s available for request. Although I still have a fairly large backlist that I want to cover, in the past year I’ve had a growing interest in reading new releases, and I think this will be a good way to discover them and plan to borrow them from the library at the time of release.
5. Participate in at least one readathon.
I think a year long readathon was too ambitious for me as my TBR changes so much throughout the year, but for this year I’d like to participate in some kind of week-long readathon. With the prompts given, I can combine reading books from my TBR and going out of my comfort zone to read something that I wouldn’t normally pick up. I also think readathons are a fun way to be a part of the bookish community, and I want to be more involved in that.
6. Maintain an Excel sheet of books read.
I started doing this last year, but it was a bit of a hassle for me as my computer wasn’t handling the sheet so well. But now that I’m more able to handle that, I’d like to get a new version of the sheet I made (along with all of the formulas). I love stats and numbers, and I like being able to build reports on what I’ve been reading. I can include whatever I want, including graphs of genres, ratings, page count, whether I borrowed it, representation of different groups. debut authors, and more. One of my favorite types of BookTube videos is watching readers share their own stats, and I think that there are so many interesting things you can track this way that I want to make sure I keep using my sheets in 2020.
7. Prioritize some sci-fi classics.
Although I’m a big lover of sci-fi, for whatever reason, my physical TBR has so many sci-fi classics on it still, and I really want that to change! Many of these books are compilations by sci-fi authors, so I have so many to choose from. I’m not sure which one I’ll pick up first just yet, but I think I’d like to read at least one story from my H.G. Wells book each month.
8. Start finishing series (or at least make some progress!)
I have this really bad habit of not finishing series, trilogies, duologies, you name it. And I’ve already started working on this by continuing The Grisha Trilogy, but I want to make sure that I keep going with other series, too. Just a few that come to mind include Hitchhiker’s Guide, Deanna Madden, and The Expanse. When I put this all into perspective it also tells me that I should probably stop picking up new series until I finish one.
9. Read more translated books.
I enjoy the diversity that books can bring, and I find that one of the best ways to find that are with translated works. I have a few in mind (such as Confessions), but I also thing this will be a great opportunity for me to search for more diverse books and pick up books that don’t get as much attention.
In sum, 9 reading goals for this year sounds like a lot, but broken down, I don’t think it will be too bad. I’d love to keep returning to my goals each year and set new ones based on the progress – I’m finding it very insightful to how my tastes have changes and what my habits are.
What about you? Have you set any reading goals? Let me know in the comments.
– Julie Anna
