This year I set out to read 50 books and at this very moment I’m about to complete my 66th book. No one is more shocked than me because this is the first year I have read the number of books I set out to read. There were some great books and some duds, and of course just middle of the road pics but as I’m wont to do, I have made some new book goals.
1. Read 75 books — yeah, this is a stretch goal for me but it could happen, right? We’ll see. Even though I am making a larger goal, I want to focus on quality over quantity next year.
2. Continue with Monthly Book Reviews — I had fun writing those monthly recaps this year, so next year I’ll continue and try to maybe make them better and more helpful. I just love talking books! Not sure what that will look like just yet but I’m brewing on it.
3. Talk Garrett into reviewing what he is reading — Garrett and I had fun collaborating on 30 Days of Denim last year and we spend A TON of time around our house talking about books, so I asked him if he would pop in occasionally and talk about what he is reading. Actually, it was a hilarious fake book report on The Great Gatsby that Garrett wrote while I was writing a paper in college that made me *really* fall for him. He has a good sense of humor and I think you would enjoy his thoughts on books too so we’ll see how that goes.
3. Participate in BlogHer Book Club — I got the January selection in the mail last week and I’m looking forward to diving into it. I think this will be a fun thing to participate in this year and it will require more individual book reviews and I’d like to make time for that. This should do the trick.
3. Clean My Shelves — Half of the books I read this year need to come from my own bookshelf. This year I did a major book overhaul and finally consolidated three large bookshelves into one. I got real about the old classics I was keeping around (I could always get them from the library), ditched books I felt like I “should” read (who says???) and generally reduced and de-cluttered. It felt amazing. Now I have an entirely full bookshelf of books I’m DYING to read. So I need to do that. It can’t be all library all the time! I’m going to add a page to my header of all the books on that shelf and cross the ones that I read off the list.
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And that’s it!
Do you have any reading goals this year?
I am notorious for going to Goodwill and buying a TON of books for super cheap, thinking I will get around to reading them. Reality is that I buy a ton of books and they accumulate on the bookshelves. Time to change that. I want to read through my bookshelves this year, no more buying books!
WOW! That’s awesome! I think I only read 30-40 books this year, but now you’ve inspired me to aim for 52 next year.