Top Ten Tuesday – My Reading/Blogging Goals for 2020
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is actually supposed to be Bookish Discoveries I Made In 2019 (these could be books, authors, blogs, websites, apps, products, etc.). I wasn’t really feeling that topic so I decided today would be a good day to talk about my reading and blogging goals instead. Those goals are driven by things that happened (or probably more accurately, didn’t happen) in 2019, so it’s not totally off topic, right?
Anyway, I don’t have a ton of goals because I honestly just want to have fun and enjoy my reading and the bookish community in 2020, but there are still a few things I’d really like to focus on in my bookish life.
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My Reading and Blogging Goals for 2020
1) My number one goal this year is to read more of the books I own. ARCs are great of course, but I have so many unread books piling up around me that I don’t really even have room for more at this point. Something’s got to give. To that end, the only challenge I’m taking part in aside from Goodreads is the Beat the Backlist Challenge. I’ve set a goal there of reading at least 50 books from my backlist so here’s hoping I put a serious dent in my unread shelves. (Of course so that I can make room for more unread books, lol).
2) I really want to only participate in blog tours where I have already requested a review book. As of right now, I have three more blog tours on my calendar for January and February but they are specifically for books I had already been approved for and I really want to stick with this so that I don’t accidentally over commit and create stress for myself.
3) Finish or at least make major progress in the following series:
- Throne of Glass
- An Ember in the Ashes
- The Nevernight Chronicle
- Arc of a Scythe
- Red Winter
- The Wrath and the Dawn
- The Folk of the Air
- Cursebreakers
4) Aside from wrapping up those series, I actually really want to focus more on standalones this year.
5) I really want to focus more on my Bookstagram account. Right now I typically only post once, maybe twice a week so I’d like to bump that up to 2-3 times a week. I’d also like to focus more on actually interacting more with the bookstagram community. Sometimes I’m just so short for time that I just ‘like’ photos without commenting and I really want to make more time for commenting since I think it’s important.
6) Try books by at least five authors who have been on my TBR for years. My priorities are as follows:
- Martha Wells
- Becky Chambers
- Ilona Andrews
- Louise Penny
- TJ Klune
7) I’m not officially signing up for the Discussion challenge this year, but I would still like to aim for at least 12 discussion posts this year. I always feel bad because I love doing the discussion posts, but when I’m short on time, those are always the ones I kick to the curb since they take longer to do.
8) I really want to be more consistent when it comes to blog hopping. I’m still debating the best method to achieve this – devoting specific days to it vs. just trying to squeeze in a bit here and there as I have time, but I need to figure out a better system for myself. Right now I’m just consistently inconsistent.
9) Blogging ahead more is another big goal of mine. I doubt I’ll ever be one who has weeks and weeks’ worth of posts ready to go, but I’d love to at least get to a point where I get all of my posts for the upcoming week ready to go over the weekend. I get so stressed when I wait until the last minute to work on posts.
10) Finally, my overall reading goal for 2020 is to read at least 150 books. I managed to read 153 in 2019 and that was with 2 1/2 George R.R. Martin bricks thrown in the mix, so I’m hoping 150 will be doable this year, especially since I have now fully embraced audiobooks.
I’m debating about that discussion challenge as well. I’m hoping I’ll have more time to write my “literary musings” after I retire this summer.
Right? That lack of time is so frustrating.
I think these are all great goals! I have a couple new-to-me authors I wanted to try this year – I think you’ll love Louise Penny! I hear you on finding time to blog hop – trying to manage my own posts and still visit other blogs is a skill I’m still working on.
I’m pretty sure you’re the reason why Louise Penny is on my must-read list for this year. 🙂
You totally need to finish Folk of the Air series my fave book is the second one.
Bookstagram: You should separate at least 10 minutes before posting a picture to commenting and liking pictures, and then 20 minutes after that. And sometime during the day, at least 30 minutes. I’ve been doing that and it works wonders for me.
Thanks for the suggestion!
These goals all sound attainable! I do all my posts over the weekend for the coming week and preschedule them, since I really don’t have the time to blog during the week. Plus sitting down at my computer for another two hours after staring at a computer screen for eight hours at work sucks!
And I’ve found a good blog hopping method that works for me. I follow blogs by email, and I spend the first hour in the morning going through my emails and commenting. After work I spend a little time checking emails I missed during the day. Sometimes I miss posts but overall it works for me😁
That’s exactly what I’m hoping to do. Use the weekend to create and schedule. I really hope I can settle into that routine.
Your #1 is my standing goal every year. Some years I’m more successful at it than others. It’s also the main reason I took a giant step back from requesting ARCs last year. Too many times I found myself with a bunch of ARCs that sounded good at the time or I requested on a whim, and then I was obligated to read and review, when what I really wanted to be doing was read the books I already owned and was excited about. There are a very small handful of authors that I will still request from when they have upcoming releases, but otherwise I love delving into all the backlist titles on my own shelves (and Kindle).
Blogging ahead is something I always admire in others but have never once managed to do myself.
Yeah, I’m so bad about blogging ahead. At this point I consider it a win if I’ve blogged a couple of days ahead, lol. Here’s hoping I can better that in 2020.
Good luck with your goals! They seem quite reasonable.
My TTT .
Thank you!
Love your goals! Especially reading more backlist and standalones, as those are my goals as well. And blog hopping and blogging ahead, but I haven’t found the perfect system to do that yet ether 🙂 Oh, and I definitely love that you’re planning on reading Red Winter 😉
I finally read the first book in the series right before Christmas and absolutely loved it. Can’t wait to continue the series soon.
OMG Suzanne you have great goals here!!! I hope you’ll realize them all.
Thanks Sophie!
Your goals all seem very doable Suzanne – and yes… I think I also need to knuckle down and read more of my own books – I made a start last year, but then went and got hold of a load more over Christmas *sigh*. And you’re in for a real treat with that list of authors you are planning to read this year – here’s hoping that 2020 is an awesome reading year!
Thanks, I really hope so. 🙂
I started the blog tour thing last year, and it was great! It kept me motivated to read the books I was already approved for. I always want to read more of my books too, and highlighting a weekly backlog book has helped a LOT with that. I guess last year was big for me, because I stepped away from series as well. I would love to blog ahead more and blog hopping is getting tougher with my new work schedule. BOO! Good luck with all your goals
I’m glad to hear that spotlighting a backlog book every week has been effective for you. Once I get through my January rush of ARCs, I’m really hoping to be able to read at least one backlist book a week. Fingers crossed it works out.
The Folk of the Air series is one I want to make sure I get to in 2020. And I hear you on reading more books I own too. It seems like I just keep buying new ones!
I highly recommend Becky Chambers, her stuff is awesome!
Right? I’m starting to think buying books is a whole separate hobby from actually reading them, lol.
I’m also really hoping I can focus on reading more of my own books as well. I wish you luck with the Beat the Backlist Challenge, that sounds like a good idea to be a part of! I have a lot of series that I want to catch up on with as well, haha. Blogging ahead, blog hopping, and working on the Bookstagram accoutn are also huge ones for me as well. I always feel so calm and relaxed when I have posts all ready in advance–I’ve been trying to get posts set up for the week ahead and when I achieve it feels amazing. I can’t always do reviews ahead of time, but I like getting Can’t-Wait Wednesday-type posts early since they are easy to plan.
Best of luck with all of these–I totally believe that you can achieve them! 🙂
These sound like great things to work towards, Suzanne – you’ve covered a lot of areas regarding reading & blogging, but also the goals seem doable also. I wish you the best of luck with these goals, and a happy 2020!
My TTT this week was about my goals for 2020 too, and we share several. ARCs and Bookstagram are both things I want to focus on this year. Since I started blogging I haven’t been able to keep up with Bookstagram, and I miss it a lot. I need to find a way to make them work together. It’s encouraging to know I’m not alone in these struggles. Thank you for sharing your goals!
Hopefully we’ll both be able to strike a balance between blogging and Bookstagramming in 2020. 🙂
Great goals! I wish you luck with them all!!
Thank you!
These are great goals, Suzanne, and in particular the one about blog hopping. I need to make the blog hopping count, but I also need to be able to step away from my computer some nights.
I’m exactly the same way. I just need to schedule some time in and then stick to that schedule.
I really want to focus on more of the books I already own too. I joined the Read the Alphabet challenge, and I’m hoping to mostly use books I have on my shelves. I’m officially doing the discussion challenge, but we’ll see how I do. I like discussion posts and I want to do more of them. I DEFINITELY need to blog ahead as much as I can so I’m not last minute so much, and so I can focus on other things – like actually finishing my manuscript. haha
-Lauren
Good luck making time to work on your manuscript!
I pretty much only sign up for tours for books that I’ve already got review copies for—it’s definitely helped me read the review books I already have!!
That’s great to hear. I hope it works for me too. 🙂
These are some great goals and I hope you can achieve all of them! I am also working on blogging ahead and also blog hopping more. So you’ll probably see me around your blog a lot if I manage to keep it up 😀 I also really like the sound of reading more books you own – another one I am focused on this year too. I hope you enjoy the series and trying those new authors who you’ve been meaning to get to for a long time.
Thanks, I hope so too!