I find myself saying this every year, but wow, 2019 really seemed to fly by! I can’t belive it’s that time of year again where I’m having to do a bunch of end of year posts, haha. I have A LOT of plans for my 2020 reading, but before I get into my 2020 reading plans, let’s take a look at how I’ve done with 2019’s goals first.
2019 Goals
Goodreads Reading Challenge
- Goal: Read 100 books.
- Actual: Right now I’m sitting at 182 books read.
Last year I actually made 200 so I’m hoping I can binge read some manga and graphic novels and get to 200 again but we’ll see.
r/Fantasy Bingo Challenge
- Goal: Fill out the card between April 1st, 2019 and March 31st, 2020, added goal of an ‘All Vampire Book’ themed card.
- Actual: This one’s still in progress.
I think I’ll be cutting it closer this year than ever before, but I still think I can accomplish it! I think I have something like 10 or 11 squares left but most of the books I have left should be pretty fast reads for the most part.
Catching Up On Series
- Goal: Read a lot of sequels and finish off some series I’ve started.
- Actual: I did pretty bad at this one.
Well, I managed to complete about four or five series, and I did read a lot of sequels but I also started a bunch of new books again and didn’t really get to any ‘back list’ series I have going on. Sigh.
Discworld Marathon
- Goal: Get through 15-20 books in the Discworld series.
- Actual: Well, I read one.
Whomp whomp.
2020 Goals
My reading goals for 2020 are pretty much going to be a repeat of last year, however I do have some additions and slight changes.
- I’ll still be setting my GR challenge at 100 books
- I’ll being doing r/fantasy bingo but probably with an added caveat of ‘must be a book you already have in you TBR pile’
- I’ll still be catching up on series I’ve started, but the plan is to focus hard on this goal in 2020 instead of it being a ‘passive’ goal
In addition to the above, I’m going on a kind of book buying ban. I’m calling it a ‘kind of book buying ban’ because I want to allow myself to purchase books to series I’ve already started since ‘getting caught up and staying caught up on series’ is one of my goals. The reason I’m doing this ‘ban’ is because I need to get caught up on my TBR. The amount of books I own that are sitting around unread is becoming unreasonable. I may also allow myself a couple of other purchases if they are books I plan to read right away, but I’m going to be pretty strict with myself.
TL;DR: My main goal for 2020 will be to work on making my TBR pile smaller and more manageable! That’s right–I’ll be concentrating on reading books I already own.
To be honest, I have SO many unread books, this will take more than one year of buckling down. But if I can at least make a dent, I’ll feel pretty good. I mean, if I can at least clear out most of this TBR pile in my living room then I’ll feel great! And then maybe I’ll let myself splurge again. 😉
Other Bookish Plans
- Reorganizing/Catalogue update of Bookshelves! Before I can even get to my ‘read my TBR’ goal I need to do an inventory and see exactly what I have that is unread so I can make a massive TBR list and go from there. I’m pretty organized when it comes to my shelves, but I haven’t gone through and done a full matching up with my online catalog vs my shelves in a while and my catalog is wonky when it comes to genre because I didn’t tag everything correctly, so….inventory it is. I‘ve already been working on this and hopefully will finish up later today. So far I’m up to over 600 unread books in speculative fiction alone. YIKES.
- Readathons! I had a great time doing them in 2019 and I want to do them again. Off The Grid has been especially great when I’ve been able to participate. Anything that helps me to get through more books, wee!
- Conventions! Had such a fun time this past year. I’ll definitely be going to Capclave again, the line up of authors is looking great. May also do Balticon again, and most likely Baltimore Book Fest as this has become a yearly event for me. It’s been great making some friends with local authors and becoming a bigger part of fandom, other than just online and I want to continue that.
- Blog maintenance! I did wind up giving my blog a bit of a makeover (as per one of my goals from last year), but I still want to make some more upgrades. Possibly get rid of ads as well as make a new banner/header and some other graphics. I don’t think I’ll go self-hosted just yet, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about so we’ll see how things go!
Those are my goals for next year, phew! Does anyone else have any goals or bookish plans for next year? Leave me a note in the comments, I’d love to hear from you!
Way Too Fantasy 
Sounds like your home is basically a library!! If you’re willing I’d love to see a photo of your shelves or rooms of shelves because I can’t even understand where 600 books in one genre alone would stay. Good luck getting through the tbr backlog! 🎉
Ha, well every room has books of some sort so yeah lol. My Speculative Fiction books live in a room that is specifically ‘the library’ a very small spare bedroom.
Some of the 600 are digital, I think about 150 are ebook/audiobook editions. But yeah I have a ton of books, it’s a bit ridiculous lol.
Ahhhh, okay, so I was definitely picturing a minimum of 600 physical books stashed away around the house. ~450 is still a ton, but at least it’s the mix!
Oh I have like over 2000 lol but not all.of them are spec fiction. They take up a lot of room lol.
I think there are only 2 responses to this:
1. 😵
2. Open a library xD
Lol
These are some amazing goals. I, too, need to read some sequels in 2020! I’ve started way too many series and I take the longest time reading the sequels. All the best for your goals btw!
Yeah I do the same thing. Years ago I used to just binge series but I read so many more books now I usually don’t do that anymore. Thanks, good luck with yours as well!
I hope you can accomplish them all!
(www.evelynreads.com)
Thanks, Evelyn!
These are some amazing goals! Good luck with them. I want to do some blog maintenance next year too.
Thanks, Merline! Blog maintenance is always a goal for me, I feel like there are things I always can improve on lol. Good luck with yours!
I haven’t really thought about my goals for next year, but I know I fail miserably at reading challenges so I may only do one other than Goodreads. I was thinking of making some changes to my blog design too, just small ones. I rarely go on my blog as a reader, but when I did the other day I was unhappy with the way some of it looked! And speaking of self hosted, I’m glad I went that route, it gives you a lot more freedom. And also those ads! It seems WordPress has been sticking random ads on non self hosted blogs a lot more lately, or is it my imagination?😁
For the most part these are reading challenges that I’m used to doing anyway so I don’t feel too much pressure. I am definitely going to be more careful about setting other challenges throughout the year like I did this past year….I really spread myself too thin at times lol.
I really am leaning towards going self hosted. One of the reasons I have been waiting to decide is because I can often be so fickle with hobbies and I thought ‘well Lisa if you can stick with this for a year or two then maybe invest in it some and keep going’ and I’m around that 2 year mark now and am still super into it so don’t mind the upgrade lol.
Yeah, wordpress has been weird with ads for sure. Either way I’m planning on doing away with those soon. I might do a monthly ad free plan at least until I get myself together about the self hosting thing.
Great goals, and congrats on doing so well this year! Good luck with going self-hosted, it worked pretty well for us (those ads were a nightmare!) 🙂
Thank you! It’s something I’m strongly considering, so sometime next year I will probably make the move. Maybe. I really want to get rid of the ads.
I’m still making plans for next year but so far I plan to join in the Discworld readathon (I forgot the name of the blog hosting it but I have it written down somewhere) and hopefully attending some conventions too. I keep planning to but not being able to follow through.
I really want to go through Discworld but idk if I will make that a priority next year. Maybe I’ll read a couple of them though!
If you can make it to Capclave in the fall they are going to have a fantastic line up of authors since it’s their 10th anniversary. I’ll definitely be going again.
Thanks for telling me that!! I’m gonna put it on my calendar so I don’t forget. It is a great lineup. Michael Dirda will be there too. I enjoy reading his book reviews in the Washington Post.
Oh nice, I didn’t even realize. Also, as it gets closer you’ll see more guests signed up on their page and a lot of them are authors and other industry folks as well so definitely check back to their page when it gets closer. 🙂
182 books, you go girl! Kicking ass at Bingo too, I see – you’ll be able to get a few more squares filled in for sure from now til the end of the year. That’s on challenge I’d like to try next year too. And I am also very bad at catching up with series 😛
Thanks! I made it extra hard by doing a themed card for bingo this year otherwise I’d mostly be done by now I think. Definitely not doing that agai haha. But still doing pretty good! Hope you can try it next year, it’s pretty fun. 🙂
Trying to do the r/Fantasy Bingo with only books you own can be tough; I couldn’t do it with the vampire square because I rarely pick up vampire books!
Active goals definitely work better than passive–I meant to finish reading one author’s bibliography this year, and instead I read *none*.
I’m doing a similar book-buying ban, though with the added element that I prepicked 6 “must-read” books for 2020 and I can’t reconsider these books until July.
Looking forward to you coming down to Capclave next year!
Well I’m not cancelling my audible subscription so I will probably technically acquire some new books so maybe some bingo reads that way? I have 800 some books to pull from for bingo otherwise….I have to have most potential squares covered somehow lol.
Yeah, active definitely works better but sometimes I still ignore them ie my Discworld read through whoops! Lol
Thanks! I’m looking forward to hanging out again, should be fun. 🙂
I have managed pretty well with getting through my TBR pile this year, so I’m hoping to discover a lot of new authors in 2020… so I can start making a new one!
That’s fantastic! I’ve done pretty good keeping up with new releases but I definitely buy more than I read still and I already had a ton so I haven’t made a dent in my previous pile…so I need to get started on that LOL. 🙂
The series one is a big one for me! Like you, I caught up on some series, but they’re mostly on-going and not completed ones sitting in my backlist. And I’d really like to tackle all the ARCs I got at various festivals and then…just didn’t read because I’m terrible. #ReaderProblems
Some of my ongoing series just have a ton of books, the curse of reading urban fantasy lol. It’s hard to keep up especially when something new and shiny comes out! Lol
You’re doing so well – I don’t set myself many challenges these days as I don’t seem to do too well with them.
Lynn 😀
Thanks, Lynn! I try to stay low key with my challenges not to put too much pressure on myself but I don’t know what I was thinking doing an all Vampire card for bingo this year, that’s been a real challenge lol. I think I only set some goals to keep myself motivated some days…lol. 🙂
I love reading people’s goals, it’s motivating and gives me inspiration. You’ve done well this year!
Thank you so much! I feel the same way, I like to read others goals too! 🙂
Wonderful bookish goals! I also want to read through my unread TBR books and focus on not buying too many! I also have a readathon planned for 2020 (about underrated/backlist books) if your looking for a new readathon!! Best of luck with your 2020 reading goals/bookish plans!! 😁💖📚🎉
Thank you! Oh I will keep an eye out, always on the lookout for new marathons. Thanks for the heads up! 🙂