Goals

My 2017 Bookish Goals

Ali@abookishlife26 Comments

Happy 2017 Everyone!!

While 2016 wasn’t really that bad a year for me, a new year means a new start and the opportunity to make a few changes and set some goals. I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions as I can never stick to them but this year I’ve decided I am going to set myself some bookish goals.

Reading Goals

Overall in 2017 my aim is to diversify and expand my reading and hopefully find some great new books so these goals are intended as a way to do that rather than set in stone rules. To that end I’ve therefore set myself the following reading goals:

  1. GoodReads Challenge  – Last year I set myself the goal of completing 150 books and successfully managed to complete 180 books which was unbelievable. This year I’d like to slow things down a little and read a few of the larger books I have on my shelves without the pressure of a high target. I’ve therefore set my GoodReads target to 120 books i.e. 10 per month. However I’m going to try not to worry too much about hitting this. This year the aim is quality not quantity 🙂
  2. New 2 U Authors – I love venturing out of my comfort zone and trying new authors so this year I’m setting myself the challenge of reading at least 20 books by authors that are new to me. These don’t need to be debut authors just authors I haven’t tried before.
  3. Classics – Every year I seem to set myself the goal of reading more classics but this year I’m putting it in writing. In 2017 I will read at least 5 classics, that’s less than one every two months so I’m hoping should be achievable. Ideally I’d like these to be books I’ve never read before (so no Austen or Bronte)
  4. TBR Reduction – As of the start of this year I have 34 books on my NetGalley shelf and a feedback ratio of 71%. My aim is therefore to exercise a bit of shelf control as far as that request button goes and work my way through the backlog. My ultimate aim is to get that ratio up to 90% and my shelf below 10 but at the moment I’m going to start small with a target of less than 20 books and a greater than 80% ratio. In addition to my NetGalley books I also want to reduce my owned but not read list. I currently own around 200 ebooks and 15 physical books I’ve yet to read so again I’d like to get this number down. No specific target here….just less.
  5. 2017 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge – Most of you have probably already come across the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge but if not it’s an annual challenge with a number of prompts to help diversify and expand your reading. I took part in this challenge a couple of years ago but got distracted by a team challenge and wandered off. This year there are 40 main book prompts and 12 advanced prompts making a total of 52 books to read (or one a week). Not sure I’ll manage all 52 but I definitely want to give it a good try and hopefully read out of my comfort zone a bit more.

Blog Goals

I Wuv Books has now been running for around 18 months and it feels like it’s been getting a little bit neglected recently. I therefore want to shake things up a little this year and have set myself the following goals.

  1. Redesign – while I love the look of my little blog I think it’s time to freshen it up a bit. I’m possibly the least creative person on the planet so no guarantee it’ll look any better but I may have a little play around over the next few months and see what I can do.
  2. Bookish Features – it seems like forever since I’ve written any discussion posts so I really need to bring these back, even if it’s just a list type post once a month.
  3. Regular review posts – I tend to be a little bit erratic in my reviews, not posting any for a couple of weeks and then doing a raft of them in the same day. I’m going to aim for at least one review a week even if I have to schedule in advance.
  4. Book Tags & Awards – I’m so behind on these it’s not even funny. Again I’m going to try to do at least one of these a month (that should be doable right???)

So that’s it. Looking at the length of this post it’s now seeming a lot but I don’t think I’ve put anything down which isn’t possible (I hope). Wish me luck!

26 thoughts on “My 2017 Bookish Goals”

  1. very ambitious goals. Good luck.
    I have a problem with Classics, especially that I am not a native speaker of English. They are a bit hard to read. An you know with books. If you do not understand, you don’t enjoy, you stop reading.
    I followed you, please check out my blog and maybe follow back if you like it.
    Thanks.
    Happy new year.

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  3. That’s quite an achievement with 180 books. Good luck reaching 120 this year and I love how you say aiming for quality over quantity. I’m hoping to achieve the same as well 🙂
    If you enjoy Bronte & Austen, I highly recommend North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell (it was one of my favourite reads this year!)
    I get what you mean with NetGalley. I really need to work hard on controlling my shelfish habits in ARCs and purchases 😉
    Best of luck with you goals! 😀

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  5. 180 books?! That’s awesome! I’m sure you can easily read 120 this year 🙂
    I’m only targeting 52 books, 1 per week because I know I’ll be busy again this year.
    Good luck with your goals!

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  6. Perhaps for Classics go for Modern Classics, I.e. early 20th century? Usually shorter and therefore not so intimidating. I have a few on my reading list for the year concentrating on women writers, e.g. Virginia Woolf, Jean Rhys, Willa Cather. Or classic detective fiction – Dorothy L Sayers, Agatha Christie.

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    • I’ve actually had a few I’ve wanted to try for a while. Dickens has been on my list for the past couple of years so I’m hoping this will be the year. I may take some of your recommendations as well though so thank you.

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  8. “I’m going to slow down and set a more modest, goal,” she says. “I’m only planning to read 120 books this year,” she says.

    Meanwhile I’m over here wondering exactly where you stash your time turner necklace, because I need it.

    Congrats on having such an incredibly bookish year! I’m looking forward to seeing your blog’s redesign, and all the new posts you’ll be sharing. Happy 2017!

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  9. Good luck with your goals!! I set my Goodreads Reading Challenge to 100 and hopefully I get to complete it. And maybe I’ll take the POPSUGAR Challenge too. It’s my first time hearing about it (can you believe that?) so I’m glad I’ve read it in your post. 🙂

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