Tag: reading goals

Spring TBR

Ali@abookishlife2 Comments

Spring has officially sprung so I think it’s time for a TBR. I seem to mostly do TBR posts but I promise I have actually been reading. January and February tend to be a little on the chaotic side for me work wise and this year has been worse than usual but I’ve still been trying to read where I can. Unfortunately stress does tend to lead to excessive book buying for me so while I have successfully knocked a few books off my TBR mountain they are vastly outnumbered by all the books I’ve added over the last couple of months. My TBR is a little bit out of control but hopefully if I set myself a list I’ll feel a little less overwhelmed.

Physical TBR

Sooooo…. I may have bought a few books recently. Between books subscriptions and some recent special editions that were just too pretty not to buy I am running out of shelf space. I have been reading a lot more physical books recently, I think they make up around a quarter of everything I’ve read this year, and I’ve been enjoying the break from the screen. This is probably the bit of my TBR that’s most likely to change, there are so many books to choose from, but I’m hoping to read at least some of the following.

ARCs

I’ve been terrible at posting reviews recently but I have been reading most of the ARC’s I have been lucky enough to get my hands on and my ARC TBR is not that bad. There are a few books coming out over the next few months which I have yet to read but it’s not as bad as it could be (Edit to add: I’ve just looked at my netgalley shelf and yeah it is pretty bad). These are mostly books by authors I’ve previously read and a couple of highly anticipated books (In The Lives of Puppets, The Malevolent Seven), but I have a couple of new to me authors with Olivie Blake and Lauren Asher.

Backlist / Challenge books

I have a bit of a tendency to get sucked into the hype around shiny new books and forget about those books I bought ages ago, or that I’ve always meant to read but somehow never got around to. I’m also doing a few reading challenges, some I’m doing quite well on (Popsugar), others not so much (Read Agatha Christie in 2023). I should be able to knock off a few challenge tasks with books I’m planning on reading anyway but there are a couple where I need to seek out specific books. Hopefully I can get a little bit caught up.

Most Anticipated

There are a few authors that are pretty much autobuy for me, I’ve loved just about everything they’ve written. Two of those, Mhairi McFarlane and Emily Henry, have new books coming out soon so I think I can say with some certainty I will definitely be reading those. While not quite having autobuy status yet, I really enjoyed Anna Mazzola’s previous book The Clockwork Girl so I couldn’t resist pre ordering her new book The House of Whispers which sounds like a similarly creepy historical / gothic story.

Audiobooks

Recently I’ve been steaming through the Robert Hoon thrillers by JD Kirk and absolutely loving them. The narrator, Angus King, is absolutely brilliant so if you’re not easily offended or upset by lots of swearing or violence I’d definitely recommend. Although I’d suggest that unlike me you start with the original DCI Logan series. I started the fourth Hoon book, Eastgate, a couple of days ago so it’ll be my first read, or listen I guess.

Sticking with the Scottish crime/thriller theme I’m also hoping to listen to Natural Causes by James Oswald. This will be my first time picking up any of Oswald’s books but I’ve listened to a sample so fingers crossed. As I like a bit of variety in my listens I think I’ll break up the crime spree with a little bit of fantasy and Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. There seems to be a lot of hype around this book so I’m a little nervous about whether it’ll live up to expectations.

And I think I should probably stop there. I will no doubt wander off list a bit but I think this has a nice mix of genres which will suit my mood reading tendencies and should be doable. Have you read any of these? Are there any I should prioritise or is there anything you’ve read recently that you’d recommend which isn’t on my list?

Happy reading everyone!

2023 Reading Resolutions & Goals

Ali@abookishlife8 Comments

Happy 2023 Everyone!

As is tradition at the start of a new year I’ve decided to set myself some reading targets for the year. As is also tradition these targets will be largely discarded by February but even if I don’t necessarily meet the specific “I will read x books of this type” goals I find it useful to set out what I want to focus on in 2023. This year is mostly about getting caught up and working my way through my backlist books and TBR. I still want to read diversely, venture out of my reading comfort zone and try new authors and genres but my backlist is so out of control that I feel I should really make it my priority for the year ahead.

My Reading Goals for 2023

1. Books/Pages/Hours

For me quality is always more important than quantity so I try not to get too caught up in how many books or pages I’m reading. I don’t necessarily want to read more books this year so I’ve set my target at 100 books and 35,000 pages. This is the same target I’ve used for the past few years and should be pretty achievable for me. Given I’ve been listening to a lot more audiobooks over the last year I’ve set a target of 90 hours. It takes me a while to get through a book on audio so this is probably equivalent to around 9 or 10 books over the year.

2. Translated Fiction

I love translated fiction and some of my all time favourite reads (Travelling Cat Chronicles) have been translated from another language. It gives you a real insight into other cultures and often different writing styles. I didn’t do very well in terms of reading translated fiction during 2022 (I don’t think I read any) so I’d like to pick up at least 6 books during the year. I currently have the following sitting on my tbr so hopefully these will be part of my 6.

3. Non Fiction

One thing I did do better than usual in 2022 was reading (or listening to) non fiction. I listened to a couple of absolutely brilliant memoirs, a travel book and a science/self help book. I’m therefore setting myself the goal or reading at least 6 non fiction books during the year. I have a few ideas (below) but if you have any suggestions for a truly fascinating or inspiring book let me know in the comments. I haven’t read much non fic so chances are I won’t have read whatever you have.

4. Debut/New to Me Authors

I’m always on the lookout for a new favourite author and am keen to support debut authors in particular, it’s a crowded market out there so I’m aiming to read one book by either a debut author or an author who is new to me each month. I have a couple of ideas for books to include on the list and one of my book subscriptions (next goal) is mostly debut fiction so I think it should be easy enough to achieve.

5. Book Subscription books

I currently have 3 book subscriptions on the go at the moment, Illumicrates monthly book only subscription, their Afterlight Romance box which is bi-monthly and a signed fiction subscription from Bert’s Books. Basically I get a lot of books through my letterbox which I am not always great at reading. I still have 20 books from 2022 I have yet to read. I also discovered when moving my bookcase a few months ago that I have half a dozen unread books from a Fairyloot subscription in 2016. As I could really do with a bit more shelf space I need to read and unhaul some of those backlist books and get better at reading new books as they come in. I also need to start skipping months so that I’m not receiving books I have no interest in reading. I’m therefore aiming to read 12 books received last year (or earlier) and read each new book I receive within a month. I’ll also skip at least 6 books.

6. Popsugar 2023 Reading Challenge

Every year I have a bash at the Popsugar Reading Challenge and I have not completed it yet. I’m actually okay with that as I use the prompts more as inspiration rather than anything else. It’s led to me venturing out of my comfort zone and discovering books and genres that weren’t even on my radar. This year’s theme is nostalgia so there are a lot of great prompts that should be easy to meet without a whole lot of searching and a few that are a little more challenging but sound fun. There are as always a few that I’m less keen on, ones requiring a specific publication year or something on the cover but I’m happy to skip those.

7. Owned TBR / Backlist Books

I counted the unread books in my bookcase a few months ago and had over 100, and this is just my physical TBR. I’m too scared to look at my ebook TBR. I’m starting to run out of shelf space and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify buying new books when I have so many books already that I’ve yet to read. I therefore want to knock at least 2 books that I own and bought last year (or earlier) off my TBR each month. So of the 100 books I hope to read this year I want a quarter of those to be backlist books.

8. Stop Buying Books

Just kidding, this is never going to happen particularly as I have vouchers to spend and I literally bought 6 books today (first day of the month means new deals). What I think I’m going to try is being a little less click happy on that buy now button. I’m going to pause to consider if I will actually read the book. I’m also going to try and resist those pretty covers and sprayed edges on special edition books. A pretty cover and a sprayed edge does not mean the story is one I will enjoy. I’m also considering introducing a new book fund, I saw this on Facebook, where for every owned book I finish I add some money to the pot and use that to fund my book buying addiction. Not sure if it’ll work but anything is worth a try.

9. And Finally

Read the books I want to read without guilt and don’t be afraid to DNF. It’s too easy to get sucked into reading the books you think you should be reading (the literary ones, the award winning books, the ones everyone is raving about) rather than reading the books you actually want to read. I also have a bit of a tendency to keep plugging away at a book long beyond the point when I should have given up on it as it’s clearly not for me. 2023 shall be the year of guilt free reading and yeeting the books I’m finding a struggle.

So that’s my bookish goals for the year. Hopefully these will be challenging but achievable for me. If you have any recommendations for books I should read for any of these categories, non fic in particular let me know below.

Do you set yourself reading goals or do you prefer to just read what you want when you want?

Summer TBR

Ali@abookishlife6 Comments

Hello all,

I hope you’re all doing well, or as well as can be expected. I know I’ve been MIA yet again but work got busy and I’ve been finding it really difficult to balance everything. Add to that a laptop that’s probably nearing the end of its life and yep, blogging has definitely fallen by the wayside.

Anyway, I’ve had a week off work (a rare occurrence), so am determined to do this thang, starting with a Summer TBR. I do love a TBR post as it fills me with the optimism that I have some goals and a plan. My full TBR list is significantly bigger than this but I’ve tried to pull out a nice mix of genres and authors from the books at the top of my list. I will no doubt deviate (what can I say, I’m a mood reader) but this gives me a good starting point.

Book Club Books

I’ve somehow ended up in about four different book clubs which I have to confess is not going great in terms of me actually getting to all of the books I’m supposed to be reading for them. I do try however to prioritise the books for my RL work book club. This month’s read is Scabby Queen which I started around a week ago but parked because I wasn’t in the right mood and was losing focus. I will however pick it up again soon as I think it may turn out to be one I love. The Midnight Library and The End of Men are on our list of future picks and are ones I’ve been looking forward to reading so I may try to get a head start on them.

ARCS

I have soooo many ARCs, someone seriously needs to shut off my request button on Netgalley. I’ve not done too badly in terms of reading a lot of them but I am very behind in reviews. I think I probably need to make an effort to read as many as possible (and get those reviews written) over the next few months and I suspect I’ll pick up whichever appeals at that particular moment but the following are some recent approvals that I’m pretty excited about.

Bookshelf/Backlist

As there’s not a huge amount to spend money on at the moment I have been doing quite a bit of book shopping. All those special/signed editions have been calling to me. As a result I’ve got a little bit of a backlog of books I’ve bought but not had a chance to read as yet. I also have a few books I’ve been putting off reading till the full series is available (I’m looking at you King of Scars) so hoping to pick them up too.

Audiobooks

Finally, I have a few audio books lined up on audible. The inclusion of Project Hail Mary is possibly a bit of a cheat as I’ve already started it but it’s pretty long so will probably take me till the end of the month to finish it. I do love sci fi stories on audio for some reason.

So that’s my list. I’m pretty excited about it. There are soooo many good books around at the moment, I just hope I manage to read them all.

Have you read any of these? Any recommendations on where I should start? Let me know in the comments.

Happy Reading

Ax

Happy New Year & 2021 Reading Resolutions

Ali@abookishlife12 Comments

Happy 2021 Everyone!!! I hope you’re all keeping safe and well.

I think we can all agree that 2020 was not great but I’m trying to be hopeful that 2021 will be better. I have to confess that I didn’t do very well with my reading (or blogging) goals last year. I found it difficult to focus for any length of time and counted pretty much any time spent reading as a win. I also sort of gave up tracking my reads and writing reviews so I have no idea how many books I actually managed to read and my NetGalley shelf got completely out of control.

2021 is however a new year and the chance for a fresh start so I’m setting myself some gentle reading and blogging goals yet again.

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November TBR: All About ARCs

Ali@abookishlife2 Comments

Hello all,

And Happy November! I really don’t know where this year has gone.

A new month means a new TBR and hopefully a chance to do better than I did in October when I only managed to read 4 of the 10 books on my list. I’ve been working a lot of long hours so it’s been more a case of me not having the time than wandering off list. I’m actually counting the books I did manage to read as a win as there were some brilliant reads amongst them and they managed to shift me out of the reading rut I’d gotten stuck in.

Over the last few days I’ve actually been thinking about what books I’d like to read in December and over the Festive period (when I may finally get some time off) and I think I’m going to pick up some older books that have been sitting on my bookshelves for years (yes I may at long last read ACOTAR or Mistborn – more on this coming soon). With that in mind, I’ve decided November is going to be all about ARCs. My NetGalley shelf has been getting a little out of control, and there are some fantastic sounding books sitting on it waiting to be read so that’s what I’m going to focus on. I’m hoping if I can make a dent in my shelf and get a little ahead I can make December a read whatever the heck I like month. All the books on my November TBR are therefore advance copies I received via NetGalley.

November TBR

There is one book that I’m going to carry over from my October list, Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco. I’ve had it on my Reading Next list for weeks and fully intend on getting to it soon. I also have the latest in the Stillhouse Lake series, Heartbreak Bay, and Namesake the final book in the Fable duology. I read Fable earlier this year and very much enjoyed it so I’m very excited to read the conclusion, there was something of a cliff hanger. It will also be good to finish a series.

The Betrayals by Bridget Collins is actually one of my most anticipated books of the year. I loved The Binding, it was so different and had such wonderful writing, that I’ve been eagerly anticipating the next book by the author. With me finally starting to enjoy fantasy and sci fi again (I didn’t read any for months) I’m also hoping to finally read Seven Devils and The Court of Miracles. I’m very late in picking up both but I thought it was better to read them when I was in the right frame of mind rather than forcing myself through.

As someone with a weird obsession with Japanese fiction I’m also very excited about Lonely Castle in the Mirror. It just sounds so different from anything I’ve read before. Finally, to round out my list I have The Game by Luca Veste and The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean. I loved Luca Veste’s previous book so have high hopes for The Game. This will be my first book by Will Dean but I’ve heard loads of good things about his writing so I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.

So that’s my November TBR, it is looking a little light on rom coms and contemporaries so I’m fairly certain there will be some deviation, no doubt for the latest Bromance Bookclub but fingers crossed I make it through the majority of this list.

Have you read any of these books? Any I should be particularly excited about or that I should be moving to the top of my list? Let me know in the comments below.

Happy reading ❤

My 2019 Bookish (and personal) Goals

Ali@abookishlife12 Comments

So we’re well into 2019 and these are long overdue but I decided that rather than post some overly optimistic goals at the very start of the year I’d wait a week or two and see which ones stuck 🙂

2018 was a fantastic bookish year for me but I have to confess I failed miserably with pretty much every goal I set for myself last year. Given this, there’s arguably not much point in setting new goals (I don’t exactly beat myself up if I don’t achieve them) but I do find it useful to reflect on what I have achieved and think about what I want to do. I might fail again but it does at least give me a little bit of motivation for the next few weeks 12 months.

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Summer TBR Wipeout – Update (1)

Ali@abookishlife4 Comments

Doesn’t time fly when you’re taking part in a reading challenge 🙂 It seems like only yesterday I posted my introductory post for Candid Cover’s Summer TBR Wipeout  but it seems we’re already more than two weeks into the 7 week challenge so it’s time for a progress update.

Wipeout

Read / Currently Reading

Time does seem to have gotten away from me a bit so I haven’t finished as many books as I’d hoped by this stage (note to self: don’t sign up for a reading challenge when you’re trying to sell & buy a house) but on the positive side I have at least managed to stick to the list. The following books I’ve either finished or have made a good start on.

Grey Sister (Book of the Ancestor, #2)The Kiss Quotient (The Kiss Quotient, #1)The End We Start FromReasons to Stay AliveThe Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1)

  • Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence – 4.75 Stars – I absolutely loved this sequel to Red Sister. There’s lots of action, a few unexpected twists and some fantastic character development. I especially love the relationships between the characters in this story, they’re just wonderful. Not sure what’s holding me back from giving it the full five stars but there’s something I can’t quite put my finger on (maybe just that the author keeps killing off my fave characters or that I’m going to have to wait almost a year for the next book even though it’s already written)
  • The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang – 4.5 Stars – A funny and wonderfully sweet romance with a main character who has autism. It’s kind of a gender switched Pretty Woman with our MC hiring an escort to teach her how to be in a relationship. I loved both leads and the relationship between them but did get a little frustrated with the lack of communication at times. For a debut though it’s pretty impressive and I certainly learned a lot about autism.
  • The End We Start From by Megan Hunter – 4 Stars – This was a very short but completely unique read about a woman trying to keep herself and her newborn baby alive when the southern parts of the UK flood. It has a very quirky style to it, it’s very much inside the head of the MC, with very little in the way of descriptions, detail or dialogue (the other characters are referred to by their initials only) but there’s something about it that made it difficult to put down.
  • The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers – In Progress – I’m currently around half way through as I’m writing this post and really enjoying this story of a mixed species spaceship crew making a long and dangerous journey. The characters are incredibly likeable and even though there’s not much in the way of story it’s pretty addictive reading.
  • Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig – In Progress – I started this about a week ago and am currently about a quarter of the way through. Haig’s a great writer but this real story of his battle against depression and anxiety is a challenging read for me so I’m dipping in and out.

Books Added/Removed

I know it’s not been long but yep, I think I need to switch some books around on the list.

A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2)The PowerZenith (The Androma Saga #1)Surprise Me

  • A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers #2) by Becky Chambers – Added – Given I’m going to see Becky Chambers on the 24th July for the launch of the third book in the Wayfarers series I think it’s probably a good idea for me to read the second book. Plus I’m really enjoying the first book 🙂
  • The Power by Naomi Alderman – Removed – I was planning on reading this as part of a buddy read starting today but as I’m midway through another couple of books and have quite a few others to read in the next 9 days I don’t think I’ll have time. It’s staying on my TBR but probably won’t be read as part of this challenge.
  • Zenith by Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings – Removed – The negative reviews for this are really putting me off reading it so with all of the other books on my TBR I’m really excited about I’m going to knock it off the list. I may change my mind if loads of people tell me it’s brilliant but that seems unlikely.
  • Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella – Added – I meant to include this in my original list but felt like the 21 books I already had on it were more than enough. Kinsella is however one of my fave authors and I managed to snag a copy from the library so I’ll definitely be reading this at some point. And I need a bit more romance on this list 😉

So that’s my progress to date, it’s actually kind of freaking me out that I haven’t read more (I blame the weather). Hopefully I’ll have made a bit more progress by my next update around the end of the month.

Have you read any of the books on the list? What did you think of them? Have I made the right decisions to drop a couple off the list or would you recommend I keep them on there? Feel free to leave comments and links to your summer TBR below.

Happy reading everyone ❤

Summer TBR Wipeout – Update 1

Ali@abookishlife11 Comments

For the first time ever I’ve decided to make an attempt at planning my reading so I’m participating in the second annual Summer TBR Wipeout hosted by Candid Cover. The challenge started on the 1st July and runs until the 13th August and I’m hoping will motivate me to finally make a dent in my ever increasing TBR.

I posted an introductory post at the start of the month and today it’s time for my first progress update. So how have I done…..Read More »

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. Read More »