I’ve been making these posts ALMOST every year since starting my blog (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023). I’ll do a quick check-in on how I did for 2023’s goals at the bottom but dive into my plans for 2024 first.
- Stay on track or ahead of my Goodreads challenge | I like to keep this one for obvious reasons. I’m still debating about what I want my Goodreads goal to be for the year though. I easily surpassed 80 books this year and will be finishing around 116. Do I move it up to 100? Based on another goal you’ll see in a second, I’m on the fence about increasing quantity.
- Keep up Instagram stories about TBRs and completed reads | I did a good job of this in 2023 and want to also keep it up. I adjusted the verbiage because I like to share monthly TBRs and reviews but only occasionally share current reads.
- Read my 24 in 24 | I pulled together the 24 books I want to read in 2024, which I’ll be sharing on the blog soon. It’s heavily backlist titles I wanted to read this year but I gave myself a few “freebies” of anticipated 2024 releases as well.
- Read bigger books | One of the main reasons I don’t know if I want to majorly increase my Goodreads goal is because I really want to read big books I’ve been putting off. I plan to start the Crescent City series (hopefully in January) and I know those are incredibly large. I don’t want to focus too much on quantity instead of quality!
- Utilize some kind of video medium for bookish things | I’ve been wanting to start a booktube channel for a while but I’m still on the fence about doing it soon. I’ve been thinking of waiting until we move and have more space in our house but I don’t know. If not booktube, I really want to use my Tiktok.
- Try to balance reading and other hobbies better | As usual, this stays here. The Pokemon game I got addicted to has gone away 🙁 so this year involved more reading and booktube watching than game playing! Chris and I also didn’t watch a ton of TV together and I got really behind on my own shows he doesn’t watch, so hopefully that “hobby” picks up in 2024.
- Read less than 70% contemporary and mystery/thrillers | Stretching this goal for 2024! I aimed to have less than 75% of my books for 2023 be contemporary or mystery/thrillers and I came in juuuust under. I hope to reduce it to 70% this year because I think fantasy will get its time to shine.
- Intentionally read more diverse books instead of accidentally | Gotta leave this one on here too. I’m trying to find the right reading challenge to achieve this goal but haven’t seen any good options yet.
- Focus on getting my Netgalley ratio above 80% | I know this is another repeat but oh my god I have to do this. I should be coming up with a Netgalley challenge for 2024 and/or only allowing myself to request a certain number of books in the year.
2023 Check-In
- Stay on track or ahead of my Goodreads challenge ✅ I definitely did this! I set my goal for 80 books because I was really feeling good about reading and luckily that feeling continued throughout the year. I crushed my Goodreads goal for the first time in quite a few years.
- Keep up Instagram stories about current and completed reads ✅ This was another win. I reviewed all books (minus novellas, cookbooks, and graphic novels) in my Instagram stories. I shared current reads etc. sometimes but not always, which is fine. I did monthly TBRs on there too!
- Read 1-3 owned (physical) books per month ✅ This seemed like a lofty goal when I was reading 75 books in a year and trying to balance all my review copies, but definitely got easier because I read nearly 120 and had more to choose from. According to my current stats (with a few books left to finish probably), I read 18 books strictly listed as “owned.” I also read 33 books with a mixed format, meaning an audiobook coupled with either an ebook, egalley, or physical book in some form… so I can guarantee I read more than 18 physical owned books.
- Try to balance reading and other hobbies better ❎ I really went wild with my reading again this year, which was nice. I think in 2023 I was thinking I would need to read MORE compared to doing other things… which is what happened. I’m really behind on my TV shows now lol. I don’t know if this counts as a pass or fail but I’m calling it a fail for that reason.
- Read less than 75% contemporary and mystery/thrillers ✅ This truthfully could turn into a fail. I’m currently reading one romance and one mystery at the time of writing this post, and I think my final book will be a fantasy or historical fiction… I’m currently at * 71% * between contemporaries and mysteries… those final two books could push it up but I really don’t care to do the math. I’ll call it a win for now 😉
- Intentionally read more diverse books instead of accidentally ❎ I actually did a good job of this in the first few months of the year but I don’t think I paid enough attention in the second half of the year.
- Focus on getting my Netgalley ratio above 80% ❎ LOL UGH. I reallllly should try to focus on this for next year and/or put myself on a Netgalley ban. I honestly didn’t even request as many books this year!
- Finish a few book series ✅ Yes, definitely did this. I even took the time to binge-read multiple series to finish them all at once! I have to update my series tracker before EOY so I can make a post and check on true progress, but I did a good job with this.
- Post more consistently on the blog, beyond TTTs and wrap-ups ❎ I don’t really think I did this well enough. I didn’t have a lot of blogging mojo but it’s okay.
Leave a Reply