It is time once more for me to discuss my reading challenges and resolutions. I don’t like making actual New Year resolutions, I never have. I know I won’t stick to them and I hate to be disappointed in myself. This is what happened to me in 2016. I set my sights too high and ended up disappointed when I didn’t manage to do the resolution I most cared about, cutting my TBR. I know now I went about it in the wrong way. I am not good at saying no to things, ever. I like to think after another year I know where my bookish weaknesses are and I’m getting better at targeting them. As such, here is my new breakdown of resolutions and a few of the bookish/blogging challenges I want to attempt this year.
Reading Resolutions
- I want to cut my unread books – I always want to do this but this year I am going to be smarter about it. No 3 to 1 buying or whatever, I am implementing a book budget. I am allowed to spend £20 on books (not including book boxes). I looked back on my expenditure and can see I spent way too much on books. I am going to try and read used and borrowed books more. Gift cards are not included in my budget.
- I want to review more books on Goodreads – I always post a few words (if possible) for the books I read on Goodreads but I want to get full reviews on there if possible. And get better at putting them on Amazon as well. It’ll be a work in progress.
- I want to read 100 books – This is always a goal of mine. I normally always achieve it. Although my reading has gone down of late I do still think it’s possible. this is always my least stressful aim each year.
- Read more diverse books - I have realised I don't always read that many books which are probably classed as diverse. If they are it's those which feature characters with a mental illness, there are less with physical disabilities or racial diversity. I will be reading more diverse books this year (hopefully).
As you can see, I don’t have many goals for this year. I don’t have much I want to change. There are probably smaller things which I may do but as a whole, I am happy with just these small things. I may add more in my first quarterly round up, why just make goals at the beginning of each year?
Reading/Blogging Challenges 2017
This year I am doing only a couple of challenges. I don’t want to do too much and I don’t want to aim so far out of reach I will never succeed. As such I will be doing three. That isn’t to say I won’t do shorter ones throughout the year (if I find any which take my fancy) but these are my main ones.
2017 Discussion Challenge
Once more, I am participating in the discussion challenge hosted by Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon at It Starts at Midnight. I participated throughout this year and aim to do so again next year. I want to have at least one discussion a month up so aim for the category Creative Conversationalist. If I get more than 20 posts up I will be immensely proud but that may be optimistic considering there isn't a single discussion in my drafts right now.
Modern Mrs Darcy Reading Challenge – Reading For Fun
There were two options for the Modern Mrs Darcy reading challenge: reading for fun or reading for growth. I tried to read books which would push me out of my comfort zone last year and wasn’t that successful so in 2017 I want to bring a bit of fun back into my reading life. This is especially true because I have been slowing in my reading of late and I’m not seeking out books to read as much as I used to. Below are the categories I’ll be reading in and as you can see there are only a few. I think this year I may get to read them all.
Shelf Love Challenge 2017
And finally, I am participating in the Shelf Love Challenge hosted by Terri at Second Run Reviews and the ladies over at Chapter Break. This is a challenge I’m doing because my TBR needs to be conquered and I need some restraint when it comes to getting new books. This challenge will help me do this because it’s all about reading what you have and growing your TBR responsibly. I can still borrow books from the library but I am choosing to implement a budget upon myself to stop my spending.
Ideally, I’d like to reach the top of their scale and read 51+ books on my shelves but I’m being realistic. I hope to read 21-30 books and being giving my shelves a warm friendly hug. If I can read more than 30 I’ll be ecstatic. I really want to read 40 but I thought that was me getting a bit crazy.
What are your goals and resolutions for 2017? Do you keep things calm and realistic or do you like to aim big and screw disappointing yourself? What challenges are you choosing to participate in or do you prefer to do your won things when it comes to reading?
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