2021 Goals

11 Jan 2021 Leave a comment

by Amy in General Tags: ,

As I poke my toe tentatively into the new year I am reigning in any grand plans for my blog and aiming for something simple this year. I did think I was doing something simple last year, and while I met a couple of my goals in a roundabout, unplanned way, I am not going to put any pressure on myself. This blog is about sharing my love of books and reading and having a pressure to do it in a certain way is not something I want hanging over me right now. Instead, I am going to share my goals that I have some confidence I can achieve.

Get more AWW read

I have been doing the Australian Women Writers Challenge for a few years now and have seen my reading/reviewing numbers grow a lot. This year I aim to increase my numbers from last year and to match that with reviews since that was where I faltered last year. I will start with my initial goal but hopefully through the year I can bump that up and see where I end up come December.

Review more

This is a strange one given I tend to put up three reviews a week (when everything in my life goes to plan) but there were a few bumps last year and even when I was putting out consistent reviews I have a huge backlog from last year that I would love to get written up. 2020 was a huge year of reading for me and even if it means I am posting reviews months after when I read them I will be incredibly happy. For example I read all 30 Agatha Raisin books this past year and have Opinions about them which I would love to write about so hopefully they get up at some point this year, I also read some truly amazing books I need to shout from the rooftops about.

Read more YA

This was on the last year goals but I didn’t read as many as I liked, and it is an always goal because there’re so many out there I have yet to read and that have been on my TBR list for far too long. This is also including #LoveOzYa books, I’m looking at doing their bingo in October if they offer it up again to help me along, or I will redo a previous card in the meantime to help widen my reading.

These are super simple but I think it is a great way to keep doing what I love without becoming too chaotic and stressed with expectations and the inevitable let down come December when I realise I haven’t done anything from my bright eyed optimism in January. I know last year is not the year to hold as the standard or the norm but I have also been a tad notorious of being a bit neglectful in my goals so this might be my best chance at success. It’s also a chance to challenge myself and my reading in different ways. Fingers crossed anyway.

Do you have any reading goals for 2021? Are you doing any challenges to change up your reading or are you taking chances in different ways?

2020 Goals

01 Jan 2020 4 Comments

by Amy in Rambles Tags: , ,

2020 has arrived and so the start of a new year of blogging goals commences. I’ve already looked back at the poor attempt I made with last year’s goals and instead of learning from that I am going to be bolder and reach wider because I have learnt nothing.

Some of these goals are ones I have thought about through the year and am going to strive and make them part of my reading habits. They aren’t completely extravagant, but even a small achievement in these areas is a win because at least I’m doing something good for myself and for the reading community.

All of these are my attempt to read more widely, more diversely, to spread the love, discover new reads and read the books, genres, and authors I love. Because reading and blogging isn’t just about making goals it is about reading good books, these are just the tools I am using to find and experience these good books. As long as I give it my best these goals can’t really be failed (some can but that is a whole other thing). As I enter my seventh year of this blog (what even is happening about that!) I am growing and evolving once more like a little blogging Pokémon and that can only be a good thing.

Read More Young Adult

There always seems to be more and more published every week while I am still catching up on those published in 2015. I want to try and read more of the YA books I’ve heard so much about, seen on my shelves every day, and bought with speed to own upon release only to never read it.

Read More #LoveOzYA

Adjacent category of the above is to hone in on our Aussie YA corner. Not only am I super keen to see if the #LoveOzYA team release another bingo (hopefully not waiting until October to do so), but in the meantime I want to discover all the Aussie writers have to offer.

Finish series

I will admit, this is my evergreen goal, but imagining the satisfaction of finishing a series is something I need to dream about to achieve this goal.

Finish a whole Bingo Game

I have done it once, I failed last year but if I remind myself I have done it once, it will also make me read these genres and stories I don’t read often which is usually how a card gets unfinished. Hopefully mixing up my card this year and doing more challenges will help as well.

Be more active on other blogs to share the love.

Despite being online and not actually face to face I still get a lot of anxiety interacting with people online but sharing a love of books and reading should hopefully push me out of my silently stalking mode into commenting and sharing the love a bit more around the blogging community.

Read more off my own shelf

A small part of me actually thinks I’ll achieve this where I have failed every other year because I keep adding books to my shelves and seeing these titles I’ve also wanted to read for years. I only need to pick them up. Maybe if I start, it will be a habit I won’t easily break. That or guilt myself into keep going. The key is to connect the books on my shelves to those in challenges or other goals because if I only used my shelves I have no doubt I’d fill every box and every goal and every genre required.

Looking at the list I think that is a decent approach to this 2020 year. If I use these as guidelines to other things I will hopefully be able to achieve them in a small way. I am already looking forward to seeing how far I can go. Do you have any reading goals you want to achieve this year?

Happy New Year and 2019 Goals

01 Jan 2019 4 Comments

by Amy in Rambles Tags: , , , , , , ,

The first day of 2019 has almost come to an end here in Australia. I had been trying to think of an end of year post like I usually do for the past few days but I got myself a tad distracted by the celebrations and never got around to it. All is good though, it was a great year, I really feel like I have found my feet so to speak and I am really proud of what I managed to achieve. I posted more content and more consistently than in previous years, I read over 160 books which is the highest I’ve done on a Goodreads challenge before, I completed my Book Bingo card for the first time, exceeded my AWW 2018 Challenge, and looking at my stats the number of visitors to my blog is steadily growing which is amazing. Another fun little achievement was that I hit 500 reviews on Goodreads after setting myself to reach the goal in August when I noticed it was 407, just 93 away.

With the new year comes all the reading and blogging goals I try and lay out that I want to achieve this year. Today I’ve been thinking about what I would like to achieve, what would be fun, rewarding, and looking at what I have tried (and often failed) to do in the past. For 2019 I am aiming for goals that are simple and (hopefully) manageable because while they are not a grand challenge, they will tick off boxes and give great satisfaction.

I have three main ones, and then a few minor ones that I am aiming for.

Finishing Series

I am in the middle of all of these because I am a Bad Reader. I do want to finish these series but for one reason or another I have been held up, distracted, or just never had a real desire to keep going. This year I am going to aim to finish most of these. There’s probably so many more but these ones I want to finish so it’s a good starting point.

Charlie Parker
I have read a couple of these and I loved them but then I kept reading other things and I’m so far behind because Connolly Keeps. Adding. More. Books. If I get going with a few hopefully I will be so invested again I will keep up the momentum.

Cinder
I own this entire series and yet I still have not finished it. I enjoyed Cinder and I want to keep going but something has stopped me one way or another. This year though I will endeavour to keep going because everyone raves about it and I love a good fairytale retelling.

A Court of Thorns and Roses
I will admit I got a bit bored reading the first book and so I may have put it down and never picked it back up, but I might not have been paying enough attention. I will try again and see if I can finish the series this year.

Obernewtyn
I trailed away from book two cause it was a teeny bit dull but I will push through because I said I’d give the series a chance and I will. But I don’t think I could make myself read all 7 if they are really not enjoyable.

Parasol Protectorate
I adored book one and I have tracked down a copy of book two so I am ready to go. I tried a few times through the previous year to get book two and start reading but it just never happened. I love these characters and need to see the next adventure so I will find a way.

Nursery Rhyme Crimes
Fforde is a genius and all of his books are divine masterpieces and the first book in this series was no exception. I so often praise the first books yet don’t pick up the second.  There are only three in the series (for now) I don’t know how I resisted the charms of nursery rhyme crime for so long. I certainly must finish the set.

The Four Kingdoms
I have read 2 of these and Cellier is brilliant in her fairytale retellings and I am definitely tracking down the others to finish this series.

Miss Peregrine
I got the latest book in the series for Chrissy so with that motivation I am going to finish the rest of the books so I can read my new copy. Whatever motivation works, right?

Rereading 

I am always up for a reread of books but then the little voice pops into my head telling me to read the books I haven’t read first. But that desire is always there, itching to revisit some of my favourite worlds, characters, and stories. These are just some of the books I want to reread but I am also open to any stand alones that come across my path.

Thursday Next Series
I need to revisit the Thursday Next series because it is possible one of my favourite series up there with HDM, Artemis Fowl and Harry Potter. I don’t think I could emotionally go through HDM again so soon and I did a Harry Potter reread last year so it was a tossup between Thursday Next and Artemis. My desire to read about Thursday is stronger than Artemis. Maybe I can prompt the universe to get Fforde to finish book eight because I have a mighty need for the next book which I’ve been waiting for since 2013 which will no doubt be mightier by the time I finish them again. I can see another 14 year wait like Pullman’s The Book of Dust. I might be ok with that if I know it is going to come for certain.

Mary Poppins Series
I recently saw the new film Mary Poppins Returns which was incredible. This prompted me to watch the original again which is also incredible. This is turn now makes me want to revisit the books because they were a delight and were so brash and unforgiving at times but also filled with magic and fun. I can never have too much Mary Poppins in my life right now.

Recapping Book Events

I have finally (after five years of working it out) found a rhythm in terms of reviewing, scheduling, content and all things blog. And yet, I still keep forgetting to do posts about book events I go to and so a lot gets left out, but that is one of the things I want to work on because I used to be very good at it so I want to return to sharing my experiences. Things like the Newcastle and Sydney Writer’s Events that I take page after page of notes for yet never put out there for others to enjoy. Or the book launches and author talks that I always plan to recap and yet never get around to it and then weeks have past and it feels too late. I am aiming to improve my neglect and share some of these experiences I have been fortunate enough to attend.

 

These three things are my very basic and easy to achieve goals. On top of that I have my usual Book Bingo and AWW Challenge which I’m counting separately. I also want to try and read more books when they first come out, review current titles while they are still relevant. This will be a footnote kind of goal that I’ll keep in mind on the side.

I look forward to revisiting this post in December to see just how much I have achieved and how I may have strayed from my path, or, I might have created a newer, better one, I just don’t know. Do you have any blogging or reading goals you would like to achieve in 2019? Let me know in the comments.

Goals and the Year Ahead

03 Jan 2018 Leave a comment

by Amy in Rambles Tags:

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.

2017 Goals

01 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Amy in Rambles Tags: ,

Review policyA new year means time for new yearly goals. I have only a few this year, some will be more easily achieved than others I have no doubt, but I am going to try my best. These are, of course, on top of other goals I have pledged to achieve this year like finishing my numerous reading challenges and trying to absorb every new awesome books that will come out this year that I will probably not get to read until next year or the year after. But it’s a starting point.

 

Read more books from my own shelf

I definitely keep accumulating books faster than I am reading them so I am making an effort to source form my own shelves more frequently. I started last year but this year I am stepping it up another notch.

Finish half finished series

I am partway through so many series, four at least off the top of my head. I am aiming to finish those and stop leaving characters and moments hanging unread.

Read books by authors with the surname starting with E, Q, X, and Z

I realised last year while looking through my review list I hadn’t read anything by authors with those surname letters. I plan to fix that this year and finish my alphabet collection.

Reread Harry Potter

Because why not, really. I didn’t actually get to complete my reread last year, but I am going to go back to book one work my way through happily and uninterrupted.

Finish reading all the requests I didn’t get to last year

Overwhelmed with shame and guilt I am about not having read these yet, but I am going to work through them one by one and get it done! Sorry, every one!

Start using new blog features I’ve developed

They really aren’t anything special but I have a couple of little features I am going to start including with books and reviews. I’ve had the little logos done for months but never gotten around to implementing them yet.

Don’t stress so much about blogging

Sigh. Let’s only hope. I have already embraced the idea that I don’t need to review everything I read, now I need to stop looking at when I last posted and just focusing on posting something. Always better than nothing at all. Never give up, never surrender and all that.

So that’s the plan. I’m looking forward to a great year of blogging and reading, and judging how past years have turned out blog wise, I know how this year will go, but I am going to keep on doing it any way because I love it. As per usual, thank you all for coming on this ride with me, it’s always a blast. May 2017 be marvellous on all fronts and you read something spectacular!

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