Considering I am not sure I achieved all my set goals from last year, I’m not sure about the wisdom of making new ones, but it wouldn’t be a new blogging year if I didn’t try to make some reading goals. Secretly I’ll also employ last year’s goals as well because they were actually very useful.
AWW Challenge
I plan to meet and exceed my goal of 25 Aussie Women books. I want to make a large chunk of my reading this year from Aussie women, but I think this is a great starting point.
More focus on Aussie writers
This is tied into the AWW Challenge, but it also applies to the men as well. I want to explore more local talent. We have a whole Australian Author section at work and while I have certainly read a lot more over the past few years, there are so many more books to discover.
Top Ten Tuesday
I love doing TTT but I always forget about it. I may need to plan ahead, and even if I don’t do them all it is a great challenge. Some of the topics really make you think and it’s great to challenge yourself to try to meet the criteria.
Book Bingo
While I normally love creating a new bingo card each year, this year I am reusing last year’s card. The main reason is I loved the categories and would love to explore them all again. Since I’m limiting myself to two challenges this year in the hope I can focus on them and give them proper attention, I want to try and fill the whole card, not just get one line. I have been quite close before so it will be exciting to see how long it takes.
5th Blogiversary
The thing about starting a blog in January is that the anniversaries come around very quickly when the new year begins. I’m not sure what I’m going to do just yet but I’m sure I will think of something a bit special. Maybe reflective, who knows. The whole thing seems sort of surreal really, where has the time gone.
So those are the goals, what I wish to achieve with my blogging this year. There are other, less concrete goals as well that I want to work on, but I think this is a great starting point. When I look at it in list form it doesn’t seem like a lot but at the same time seems very busy. But I’m hoping it won’t be. I also want to bring back some features I’ve used in the past but they are less regimented and just as I remember to do them. Things like showing off good things I find at book sales and from the library. It’s an occupational hazard working in a library, you keep bringing home books even when you have 15 already sitting on your shelves you got the day before. It does, however, stop me buying books. In theory.
What I am hoping for is that this year shouldn’t be nearly as chaotic as the last couple of years. No moving, no loss of internet, no uni, no dramas that get in the way and make things incredibly complicated. There is a holiday later in the year, but I’m hoping I will be on top of all my reading goals to have it interrupted for a little while. But that seems a very long way away right now as I sit safely in January. I will save any real worry for November.
As I was tallying up my reads/reviews I realised I am one review short of meeting the goal! I am so annoyed with myself, I should have paid more attention, I could have written a quick review if I noticed earlier, I could have won! But alas, twas not meant to be. I will try again for 2018. I would have loved to have read more Aussie women, I read less than I did last year which is also annoying. I read 142 books this year so surely I could muster up more than 25 but apparently not. Shame on me. Again, goal for next year. It was productive nevertheless, I finally got around to starting some books I’d had on my TBR list for a while, I also finally started reading Liane Moriarty and I’m working my way through her back catalogue, I’m also actively reading more books on my own bookshelves that are crying out to be read.
