Updated reading goals for 2018!

When 2018 was still fresh and new, I had a few goals in mind but nothing that would absolutely crush me if I failed. I also wanted to keep things with reading and the blog kind of relaxed. In fact, I haven’t really revisited my goals for the year in a few months! That’s how little I cared about it. There was one, however, that I strived for more than others! I’ll get to that in a minute. In preparation for this post though, I realized just how much I actually did accomplish! Let’s see what I did well or failed miserably lol!

GOAL #1 – READ 100 BOOKS!!!! = SUCCESS!!

THIS was the only goal in 2018 that I absolutely HAD to hit! And I’m elated to say – I’m only 1.5 books away!!  It’s been YEARS since I hit triple digits. As soon as I got a full time job and had kids, I was reading less and less. A few years ago it was a huge success to hit 20 books in a year….. my how things have changed! I did feel the pressure this year though. In a way it was good – it was motivation to keep a dreaded slump away (which I didn’t hit a slump at all this year!). But at the same time I would feel guilty for just relaxing and taking a break. I’m going to slow things down for 2019 and see what happens.

GOAL #2 – MAINTAIN 33,333 PAGES – SUCCESS!

Random number, I know. I don’t know where I came up with this number and why I’ve stuck with it….. but for some reason it has latched onto me and won’t let go! In 2017 it was my goal to read a high number of pages and not a high number of BOOKS. I was choosing books because they were short and not because they sounded interesting just so I could get a higher Goodreads count. I realized that I LOVE big books and wanted to set a page goal instead. Not only did I meet this goal……… I SMASHED IT! I am SO proud of my page count this year! There were so many books over 500 pages this year and I liked them all….. I guess this is where I say “I like big books and I cannot lie” This year I actually read a total of almost 40,000 pages! I’m posting this before the end of December, so there’s still some pages to be read, so I can’t get the final number just yet

GOAL #3 – REREAD HARRY POTTER = FAIL!!

………. ummmmmmm, well………. so this didn’t happen! I started with my reread and finished the first 2 books. I was about to start with book 3 and then someone mentioned a group reread starting at the end of this year so I held off. Unfortunately I don’t think that the group reread is happening, so it looks like I will continue on my own in 2019. And that’s what I plan on doing!

GOAL #4 – READING MY OWN DAMN BOOKS = SUCCESS!

To make sure that I did this one, I created the TBR Unhaul Challenge where each month, two books would be chosen, and I would either have to read them or get rid of them. It really helped knock down my physical TBR! I ended up getting rid of a couple but, for the most part, it pushed me to read some books that I had been wanting to read for the longest time. I did find that it was difficult when it came to my mood reading though. If I wasn’t in the mood for it, I didn’t like that I was forcing myself to read something. So I don’t think I’ll continue in 2019.

GOAL #5 – MEET A FELLOW BLOGGER = SUCCESS!!!

I totally forgot that I had this as a goal! This summer I attended a book launch for the third and final book to the Frostblood Saga by Elly Blake. While I was there I got to meet Hailey from the YouTube channel Hailey in Bookland! She is super sweet and is the same in person as she is in her videos. I also got to meet Zoe from the YouTube channel YerABookNerdZoe! She was also super sweet and we talked for a really long time! It was nice to talk to someone that had such a huge passion for fantasy! She’s actually the one who recommended the Iron Druid series to me and I will be forever grateful!!!

GOAL #6 – CREATE/PARTICIPATE IN A READING CHALLENGE = SUCCESS!

I had completely forgotten about this one actually! This was the one that I was most likely to fail at….. but apparently it was written in the stars. This year, me and my cohost Justine, created the Off The Grid Readathon, which is a quarterly readathon that lasts 3 days, and the whole goal is to stay away from your phone and other distractions and just READ!

I did also have an unofficial goal for myself this year and that was to participate in a blog tour for a publisher. I never announced it and made it an official goal because I didn’t think it was attainable. In 2018 I actually participated in TWO blog tours and accepted a spot for January 2019!!! I am still in shock about how well this year went for reading! I felt it towards the end of the year and felt really worn down, so I might take it a little bit easier in 2019….. who am I kidding?? I can’t slow down! LOL!

What were your goals for 2018? Did you meet them? Are there any that you wished you could have done but didn’t manage to complete? I hope you had as much success as I did!

Until next time, happy reading!