I've been trying to come up with a good list of resolutions and reading goals this year and I can't seem to actually put anything on paper (or screen). It's not that I don't have ideas or goals, I have plenty, but I think it's the fear of failing at completing my goals/resolutions that is making me prevent myself from aiming as high as I want to, because, simply put, I don't want to set myself up for failure. So here's a few resolutions that I've had bouncing around in my head that I want to do this year, but a few of them are ones that I'm not sure I want to keep just yet.
Bookish Resolutions:
1. Read 150 Books this year. I so desperately want to move past my past years of sticking to 100 books, I always want to read more and maybe setting a higher goal will motivate me to do just that. What's scaring me about this is seeing Goodreads potentially tell me that I'm behind this # of books. However I want to challenge myself and my reading habits this year and I think this is a good start to that.
2. Read The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This is a trilogy that I've been wanting to read for AGES. This year, I'm reading it.
3. Re-read the Harry Potter series. I rarely re-read books but the Harry Potter series is an all-time favorite and I want to fall into the world of Harry Potter all over again this year.
4. Complete a bookish challenge list. A friend of mine shared a reading challenge with me that has about 50 different descriptions of a book to read this year. Some of the easier ones for me would be reading a book that's become a movie, reading a trilogy, a book published this year, a book by a female author. Some fun ones are read a book from a favorite author that you haven't read yet, read a book at the bottom of your to-read list, read a book that you were supposed to read in school but didn't, and read a book that came out the year you were born. Some of the harder/more unique challenges include reading a book that is over 100 years old, reading a book with an author that has my same initials, read a book that takes place in my hometown.
5. Successfully complete a readathon. This is a rather lenient goal. I participate in a few readathons throughout the year, but I never feel like I read as much as I wanted to. I want to change that this year. I want to feel like I've successfully completed a readathon, either by reading as much as I wanted to or reading the whole tbr that I set for myself. My first attempt is for the Bout of Books readathon coming up next week!
6. Be okay with the days that I don't get around to reading. This past year I've felt a bit guilty on those days that slipped by without a chance for me to get a few pages in. While I miss reading on these days, I don't want to feel that guilt. Reading isn't a job to me, it's something I should enjoy doing. Feeling guilty makes me think of it like I forgot to do a chore that should have gotten done and I need to move back to reading because I love it, and not thinking of it as a chore.
7. Rediscovering my love for reading. I kind of introduced this in my previous resolution, but I want to enjoy reading. This is partly why I'm hesitant to make goals because I don't want to read just to complete my goals. I want to read because I love it. I want to discover new worlds, live in them and find new book boyfriends. Maybe I can work on finding a balance of loving reading while completing my goals/resolutions at the same time.
These are all the goals that I can really think of. As I mentioned, I kind of want to keep things pretty low-key for reasons explained above. I'm sure I'll think of some more goals and resolutions and if any of them stick in my head I'll write a post.
I also want to focus on some blog resolutions. This past month I've taken an impromptu hiatus from blogging. I just couldn't find any passion for it or any words that I wanted to say. It tore me a little bit, because I love blogging and the blogging community. I missed it, so here I want to make the changes that drove me away from it in the first place.
Blogging Resolutions:
1. Blog with no pressure. I feel like part of my hiatus was driven by the pressure I put on myself to blog and it became overwhelming. I felt like I was failing at blogging.. A story for a different post. I want to blog because I love it, because I love talking about books. I want to be myself and I'm really looking forward to it.
2. Comment more on other blogs. I read other posts mostly on my phone through the Bloglovin' app which is rather hard to make a comment on. I want to make an effort to comment and make connections with other bloggers.
3. Change the look of my blog. I think my blog needs a revamp. I like the way it looks but I would like to do a little bit more, just not sure quite how or what I want it to look like yet.
4. Get more involved in social media. I've been rather inconsistent on social media, mainly twitter, and I want that to change in this year. I just created an instagram for the blog as my first step towards getting more involved...and now I have an excuse to exclusively post book pictures :)
5. Be consistently organized with my blog. I have a specific notebook for the blog where I write ideas, lists, books I need to review, etc. This year I bought a planner specifically for blog stuff, readathons, challenges, book releases, etc. I'm really excited to have more space for writing and I want to utilize it for more than just a couple months.
6. Go out somewhere and blog. I've been wanting to do this idea for awhile but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I want to go to my local bookstore which is also a coffee shop and do some blogging while nursing a cup of coffee. I'd like to go to my library and knock out a few reviews. I'd also like to go to a coffee shop and write out a couple posts with a wonderful cup of something hot. I think this would add some excitement to writing posts/reviews for me!
I think those are all the resolutions I have for blogging. Putting no pressure on blogging prevents me from making the dedication to a certain amount of posts a week even though I want to aim for that - but I believe I need to try this blogging freedom first.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes about this year. It's refreshing to look forward to a blank year and see it full of potential. Here's a new year of endless possibilities :))
Bookish Resolutions:
1. Read 150 Books this year. I so desperately want to move past my past years of sticking to 100 books, I always want to read more and maybe setting a higher goal will motivate me to do just that. What's scaring me about this is seeing Goodreads potentially tell me that I'm behind this # of books. However I want to challenge myself and my reading habits this year and I think this is a good start to that.
2. Read The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This is a trilogy that I've been wanting to read for AGES. This year, I'm reading it.
3. Re-read the Harry Potter series. I rarely re-read books but the Harry Potter series is an all-time favorite and I want to fall into the world of Harry Potter all over again this year.
4. Complete a bookish challenge list. A friend of mine shared a reading challenge with me that has about 50 different descriptions of a book to read this year. Some of the easier ones for me would be reading a book that's become a movie, reading a trilogy, a book published this year, a book by a female author. Some fun ones are read a book from a favorite author that you haven't read yet, read a book at the bottom of your to-read list, read a book that you were supposed to read in school but didn't, and read a book that came out the year you were born. Some of the harder/more unique challenges include reading a book that is over 100 years old, reading a book with an author that has my same initials, read a book that takes place in my hometown.
5. Successfully complete a readathon. This is a rather lenient goal. I participate in a few readathons throughout the year, but I never feel like I read as much as I wanted to. I want to change that this year. I want to feel like I've successfully completed a readathon, either by reading as much as I wanted to or reading the whole tbr that I set for myself. My first attempt is for the Bout of Books readathon coming up next week!
6. Be okay with the days that I don't get around to reading. This past year I've felt a bit guilty on those days that slipped by without a chance for me to get a few pages in. While I miss reading on these days, I don't want to feel that guilt. Reading isn't a job to me, it's something I should enjoy doing. Feeling guilty makes me think of it like I forgot to do a chore that should have gotten done and I need to move back to reading because I love it, and not thinking of it as a chore.
7. Rediscovering my love for reading. I kind of introduced this in my previous resolution, but I want to enjoy reading. This is partly why I'm hesitant to make goals because I don't want to read just to complete my goals. I want to read because I love it. I want to discover new worlds, live in them and find new book boyfriends. Maybe I can work on finding a balance of loving reading while completing my goals/resolutions at the same time.
These are all the goals that I can really think of. As I mentioned, I kind of want to keep things pretty low-key for reasons explained above. I'm sure I'll think of some more goals and resolutions and if any of them stick in my head I'll write a post.
I also want to focus on some blog resolutions. This past month I've taken an impromptu hiatus from blogging. I just couldn't find any passion for it or any words that I wanted to say. It tore me a little bit, because I love blogging and the blogging community. I missed it, so here I want to make the changes that drove me away from it in the first place.
Blogging Resolutions:
1. Blog with no pressure. I feel like part of my hiatus was driven by the pressure I put on myself to blog and it became overwhelming. I felt like I was failing at blogging.. A story for a different post. I want to blog because I love it, because I love talking about books. I want to be myself and I'm really looking forward to it.
2. Comment more on other blogs. I read other posts mostly on my phone through the Bloglovin' app which is rather hard to make a comment on. I want to make an effort to comment and make connections with other bloggers.
3. Change the look of my blog. I think my blog needs a revamp. I like the way it looks but I would like to do a little bit more, just not sure quite how or what I want it to look like yet.
4. Get more involved in social media. I've been rather inconsistent on social media, mainly twitter, and I want that to change in this year. I just created an instagram for the blog as my first step towards getting more involved...and now I have an excuse to exclusively post book pictures :)
5. Be consistently organized with my blog. I have a specific notebook for the blog where I write ideas, lists, books I need to review, etc. This year I bought a planner specifically for blog stuff, readathons, challenges, book releases, etc. I'm really excited to have more space for writing and I want to utilize it for more than just a couple months.
6. Go out somewhere and blog. I've been wanting to do this idea for awhile but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I want to go to my local bookstore which is also a coffee shop and do some blogging while nursing a cup of coffee. I'd like to go to my library and knock out a few reviews. I'd also like to go to a coffee shop and write out a couple posts with a wonderful cup of something hot. I think this would add some excitement to writing posts/reviews for me!
I think those are all the resolutions I have for blogging. Putting no pressure on blogging prevents me from making the dedication to a certain amount of posts a week even though I want to aim for that - but I believe I need to try this blogging freedom first.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes about this year. It's refreshing to look forward to a blank year and see it full of potential. Here's a new year of endless possibilities :))
Good luck with all your resolutions!! I used to re read Harry Potter all the time, it's one of my favorites :)
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