Top Ten Tuesday – My Reading and Blogging Goals for 2023

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 Bookish Goals for 2023.  I think most of these are repeats of goals I had for 2022, either because I failed at them last year or because I did okay and really want to continue to work on that same goal in the coming year.

via GIPHY

My Reading and Blogging Goals for 2023

1)  My number one goal this year is a repeat goal from the past three years and that is to read more of the books I own.  I love ARCs of course, but I hate feeling like I’m neglecting books I’ve purchased.  I lost track of how many I read last year, but I know I put a pretty good dent in the oldest unread books I own. I’m not taking part in any challenges aside from Goodreads this year but I am setting a personal goal for myself of reading 70 books I already own.  I’ve already read 4 books I own in January so hopefully that bodes well for another good year.

2)  This is also a repeat goal from 2022 and 2021.  I really want to continue to only participate in blog tours where I have already requested a review book.  I did really well with this last year, but it’s always so tempting when someone reaches out with a tour opportunity.

3)  This is also an ongoing goal since my struggle to finish series continues.  In 2022, I had a list of 3 series I wanted to finish or get caught up in and another list of 7 series that I wanted to start.  I finished none of the series from the first list and started (and finished!) one from the second list. For this year, I have 6 series on my shelf that I want to finish and 6 sitting on my shelf that I want to start.

Series I Want to Finish or Get Caught Up On: 

• Lifelike by Jay Kristoff (2 books left)
• The Aurora Cycle (2 books left)
• The Inheritance Games (2 books left)
• City of Brass (2 books left)
• Crescent City (Re-read book 1, then read book 2)
• Bridgerton (5 books left)

Series I Want to Start:

• The Consortium Rebellion
• Six Crimson Cranes
• The Celestial Kingdom
• The Great Library
• The Invisible Library
• The Bloodsworn Saga

4)  This is also a repeat goal from the past two years.  I really want to continue to grow my Bookstagram account.  Last year was my most consistent year since I started the account so I really want to build on that. Posting more and engaging more with other accounts are my two hot items this year.  If you have a bookstagram account and are not already following me, you can give me a follow at https://instagram.com/thebookishlibra

5)  Re-reading more.  This is also a repeat goal and one I failed at in 2022.  To keep it low pressure, I’m setting a personal goal of 1 re-read a month.  Below are the books I’m hoping to re-read.  Some are old favorites, while others are series books I need to re-read in order to facilitate goal #3 above.

• House of Earth and Blood
• Aurora Rising
• Ninth House
• The Handmaid’s Tale
• The Invisible Life of Addie Larue
• The Chronicles of Narnia (5 books) – I did manage to re-read the second book in the series in 2022.
• Pride and Prejudice
• Jane Eyre

6) I am aiming to keep my Netgalley percentage at 85% or above in 2022.  I did very well with this goal in 2022, finishing the year at 95%.  I know I can’t keep it that high, but if I could maintain 85, I’d consider that a success.

7)  I say this every year, but in 2023, I want to read more Nonfiction.  Most years I only read maybe 1 or 2 nonfiction books.  I’m setting a personal goal of 1 nonfiction book every two months. Here’s a list of some of the titles I’m hoping to read:

• What Unites Us by Dan Rather
• The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
• We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win WWII by Liza Mundy
• D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win WWII by Sarah Rose
• Spare by Prince Harry
• Untamed by Glennon Doyle
• Where the Light Enters, Building a Family, Discovering Myself by Jill Biden

8)  This is a forever goal, haha.  In 2023, I really want to work on being better organized, particularly when it comes to blogging ahead.  I’m usually frantically writing posts the night before I want to post them and I would love to be able to get most, if not all, of my posts for the week done the weekend before.

9)  Revisit Shakespeare.  This is yet another repeat from last year because honestly I forgot about it and my son’s class put minimal effort into reading Romeo and Juliet.  I don’t know if Shakespeare just isn’t being taught as much these days as it was when I was in high school or if his class was the exception, but it surprised me how quckly they breezed past it.  So yeah, if I revisit the Bard this year, it will just be for me rather than to have any meaningful conversations with the kid about him, haha.

10) I am doing the Goodreads Challenge and have set my goal at 175 books.  I read 233 books in 2022 and could probably replicate that this year since we have cancelled our cable TV.  I stream a few shows here and there, but for the most part, I spend almost all of my downtime reading.  But to keep it from being too stressful, although still challenging, I’m aiming for 175.

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Do we share any bookish goals this year?