Top Ten Tuesdays #438: Bookish Goals

Bookish Goals for 2024

Top Ten Tuesdays were started by The Broke and the Bookish and are now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, where we make lists of our top ten books (or something else!) based on that week’s prompt. The topics are provided ahead of time and can be found here. Book links bring you to Goodreads or my review.

I wrote my usual bookish resolutions and goals post a few weeks ago but thought I’d highlight five major categories and two specific goals in each. Some may be repetitive from that post but I hope (for the most part) to share a few things I really hope to accomplish this year!

General Reading

Read 100 books // I had some down years from 2020-2022 and read less than I have in a long time. I finally felt rejuvenated in 2023 and managed to read 115 books (my goal was 80 books). I decided to challenge myself this year to reading 100 books, since I managed to exceed that last year, but also didn’t want to make it too much of a stretch.

Focus on Netgalley books and get my ratio up to 75% // I’m currently at 69% and am being incredibly picky about what books I request on there. They really have to be top, highly anticipated reads! I want to, as always, try to read books in the same month they come out (or well before!). I know that there are a lot of backlist reads on there that I should try to get to as well, but it gets so hard to balance it all once I get behind. As of right this second, I would need to read 49 books in order to get to 80% lol.

Series

Finish more series than I start // There are a number of series I hope to finish this year, as well as plenty I want to start! I know that there are some binge-reads in my future (see next goal) so there will be a net zero impact if I manage to both start AND finish them in 2024. I really enjoyed reading all of THE NATURALS, ONCE UPON A BROKEN HEART, and SHADY HOLLOW last year, as well as finally rereading and then finishing THRONE OF GLASS. This year, I would love to complete open-ended series that I’ve started and/or catch up on those with new/recent releases.

Read, reread, or complete a few specific series // I have big series plans this year because of how much I enjoyed reading the aforementioned books above last year. I’d love to read entire series back-to-back when I have the time to, as well a reread an old favorite or two. Here are some specific series I hope to read:

     

Crescent City – I will probably be reading these around the time this post goes live. The third book comes out at the end of January and in a perfect world, I can read it alongside all of my pals! These books are super long and I have both audiobooks/ebooks for them. I’d love to start reading CC1 around the 17th/18th and then CC2 one week later, so I can give myself 5-7 days to read each of them before the third one arrives.

Veronica Speedwell – There are 8 books in this series as of now and the 9th installment comes in March. It seems like a lofty goal to try to read all of these before March but honestly who knows?? Maybe I can. I know a lot of people really love these books but I think the release day fanfare will be less intense than it is for CC3. I don’t feel like I NEED to catch up by the 9th book. It would be really cool to read the first 4 books in February and the next 4 books in March but honestly not sure about that.

The Program (reread) – I wasn’t planning to reread these necessarily this soon but the box set (pictured) with new covers arrived finally! The first one came damaged so I had to get a replacement. I adore this series and really would love to reread them all in a row like I did with JLB’s NATURALS series last year. This series is 6 books so I think I’d focus on this one in the second half of the year. Clearly I’m booking up the first quarter with the series above!

Genres & Book Types

Read less than 70% mystery/thrillers and contemporary // I managed to achieve the goal of 75% or less in 2023 so definitely trying to keep reducing it. Yes, these are my favorite genres so yes, I read them a lot! I’m okay with focusing energy on my favorite things. However, there are a lot of books I hope to read within other genres this year. I want to continue my fantasy era, get back into some science fiction maybe, and continue to explore historical fiction (when there’s another genre mixed in like mystery or fantasy!). Kind of wild because at the time of writing this post, my book genre breakdown this year has been 2 fantasy, 1 contemporary, 1 historical fiction, and 1 mystery/thriller.

Read big books! // I have been putting off the CRESCENT CITY series for long because obviously SJM writes bricks now. I know I’ll likely enjoy them and it’ll be fun to be fully caught up on her books, so I’m not going to delay anymore. I always thought it would take me so long to read big books (especially fantasy ones) but honestly the TOG reread last year did not take as long as I expected it to. I know my reading goal is up to 100 this year but I think it’s a small enough number that will allow me to prioritize long books too. I’ll be aiming for 9 books per month, which will bring me above 100 for the year. So it’ll be more than fine to read 7-8 for a month or two!

Challenges

Complete at least one of my year-long challenges (and join more readathons) // I usually participate in the PopSugar Reading Challenge and the 52 Book Club, but I never intend on completing them. My goal is usually 40-45 of the 50-52 prompts. I’m also doing a Book Cover challenge that should be relatively easy to complete. I guess I’d also include my 24 in 24 here as a challenge. I’m trying to keep it simple this year so I really hope that between all four of these, I’ll complete ONE full challenge. I also added in a little extra that I’d love to join and complete more readathons. I always have the best intentions and “sign up” for things like Summerween or whatever Patreon readathons are happening… but never focus on them or give them fair attention. I hope to change that this year!

Read my 24 in 24 // I was planning on writing a post about this challenge but I don’t think I’ll bother until I need a check-in at some point this year! I know many people use this for only backlist books but I decided to add a few anticipated releases on here as well. These are the books I need to read in 2024.

Social Media

Continue to post more / better on social media // I haven’t been amazing at taking book photos because my house has terrible lighting. However, I have a new office setup with multiple bookshelves so I’m really hoping I can post better photos on my main feed. I also love posting on my stories so I hope to keep up with that this year like I did last year.

Join some new video medium // I have been wanting to start a booktube channel but work has been a bit intense and I feel like I keep putting it off. I love the idea of it but I think I’ll likely soft launch myself on Tiktok a bit more for now. I did some posting there last year and had fun but ran out of steam. I’d like to at least do some more work there in 2024!

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