#ReadingGoals2022 and 2021 Recap

So last year I set myself a couple of simple goals but how did I do?

I set my Goodreads challenge at 100.

I managed to surpass this by reading 104. I’m going to be honest it was a bit of a struggle to get there, especially as I DNF the highest number of books I ever have last year. I can’t give you an accurate amount but it was between ten to fifteen.

Clear eleven books from my NetGalley shelf that have been on there since 2018.

Yeah, I failed on this one. I did however manage to read three. (Click the links to take you to my reviews). 

You Let Me In by Lucy Clarke

The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz

Don’t You Cry by Cass Green

The only bright spark is I did manage to get my NetGalley ratio up to 78% just 2% off the coveted 80%

This wasn’t a goal but I thought I’d mention the fact I managed to get 50k all time views for my blog. 

A huge thank you to everyone who has read these bookish rambles of mine these past four years!

So on to my goals this year:

Set my Goodreads goal at 75.

Trying to ease a bit of the pressure on myself and just enjoy reading. 

Get my NetGalley feedback ratio up to 80%.

As I mentioned earlier I’m currently at 78% and as long as I can control myself it’s doable.

Try and read all my outstanding arcs from NetGalley.

Bit of a harder one. I’ve currently got 62 books gathering dust on my shelf. Some of them are for blog tours but still. 

Read more of my physical books.

I haven’t counted but I must have at least 100 unread physical books on my shelves. To help with my backlog of books I’m taking part with Owl Be Sat Reading’s hashtag #beatthebacklog over on twitter.

And finally: cut down on blog tours.

Much as I love taking part in them, it can be quite draining. I went through a couple of health issues in 2021 which made it difficult to keep up with everything (my own fault), so I want to go a little easier on myself this year.

So that’s everything. What about you, what are your reading goals for 2022?

Reading Goals 2021 #BookBlogger #amreading

Hello lovelies! Usually this time of year I do some resolutions or some such for writing and reading but frankly I looked at my 2020 goals and well I achieved bugger all of them. Okay it was mainly because I forgot about them completely but still it wasn’t a great feeling reading them back. So for 2021 I’m doing things a bit different and keeping it simple with some reading goals.

First I’m setting my Goodreads goal at 100. I set it at 120 last year and that was a struggle and a half!

Second I’m going to try and clear that pesky NetGalley back list, in particular reviewing all the eleven books I’ve had on my shelf since 2018. Yes they’ve been gathering dust on there for three whole years.

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And that’s it! Have you read any of these? I’d love to know! Also if you’ve reviewed them, leave the links below xx

Thank you for reading and I hope 2021 is better for everyone xx

New Year’s Resolutions and 2019 recap #Goals #Blogger

Hello lovelies! I know I’m a little late with these resolutions but better late than never as they always say. So I’m just going to give you a quick recap of 2019’s resolutions and how I did before I set myself some for 2020:

2019’s resolutions were:

Write a little every day. 

Hmm, I sort of failed at this. I did write a lot more last year, and I also took part in NaNoWriMo for the first time since 2018 but I can’t say it paid off that much. The only thing I can say is, finally, at the very end of the year, I wrote something that I’m excited about. I’ve even started working on a sequel.

Try more genre that I don’t usually read like:

Historical Fiction,

Non Fiction,

Romance,

Fantasy,

Fairytales,

Classics

Paranormal romance.

I did pretty well with this one. I discovered my new favourite rom-com writer Rich Amooi. I also read a few books like Bonnie & Stan, The Fathers, The Sons and The Anxious Ghost and The Ten Thousand Doors of January, all of which were out of my comfort zone.

Cut down on blog tours.

Ha ha. I have no idea why I put this one down. I think I’ve taken part in more blog tours than the previous year.

Set my Goodreads goal for 100 books. The reason I only picked 100 is because I got to a certain point last year where I stopped enjoying reading, I want to take my time a little more this year.

Okay, so the final count was 135 books. I didn’t slow down but what can I say? I’m addicted to reading!

Get my NetGalley feedback ratio up to 80%.

A fail on this but last time I checked I was up to 73%, not too shabby I’d say.

Attempt my first read along.

Do you know I forgot I even did this one! I participated in a read along over on Instagram to read Pet Semetary by Stephen King.

So here are my 2020 resolutions:

Get a handle on my FOMO.

So FOMO, or fear of missing out, is the bane of my existence. There were a couple of books this year I probably would never have picked up if I hadn’t been so caught up with not missing out. I have to remind myself, I can always buy them later.

Read more books from my shelves.

I own over two hundred physical books, of which I’ve read less than half. I’m not even going to count how many unread ones I have on my kindle.

Start editing my first cosy mystery.

I’m awful at editing (if you’ve read my reviews you may have seen the amount of typos that slip through the net). It’s something I’m really dreading but if I ever want to be published, I know I need to try harder.

Set my Goodreads target at 120 and carry on reading out of my comfort zone.

Finally get my feedback ratio up to 80% on NetGalley.

Sounds simple but I need to curb the urge to request books, they all look so good!

Give my blog a much needed makeover.

Yep, it’s something I’ve been meaning to do for months. Maybe even a change of blog name, so people stop confusing me for other bloggers.

Take better care of myself.

My health, including my mental health, took a nosedive at the second half of the year but as usual I just pushed through it and tried to ignore it, eating my feelings and gaining almost a stone in weight along the way. I can’t do this to myself any more, especially with the risk of diabetes having over me and I need to get a handle on it.

Thank you for reading! 

Have you got any resolutions for this year? If you’ve got any blog posts about your resolutions for 2020 please feel free to link them in the comments, I’d love to read them.

Happy New Year! #NewYearsResolutions #BookBlogger #Blogger #Resolutions2019 #amreading #amwriting #Goals

Happy New Year lovelies! As is tradition I’ll be making some new year’s resolutions today but first a quick recap of 2018’s resolutions and how I did:

Reading:

Do my first Goodreads challenge, I’m thinking of setting my goal at 60 books. (manageable I think). I actually set it at 75 but I surpassed that by reading 163 books! I’m stunned I read so many.

Read outside my comfort zone. Again I was successful with this one too! I read paranormal romance (a genre I hadn’t even heard of before). I also rediscovered my love of horror and ghost stories. I even read a book all about death and grief!

Read books that have been on my tbr list for more than a year. This one wasn’t quite so successful, I think I managed one or two.

Writing:

Take part in both Camp NaNoWriMo (the one in April not July) and NaNoWriMo again. I actually did Camp NaNoWriMo in April but I didn’t do the proper NaNo just because I was going through a lot with my dad being ill and lots of other stress. One out of two ain’t bad!

See if I can edit The Taken into something readable. Oh god I blocked my monstrosity of a manuscript from my 2017 NaNoWriMo out. It’s currently gathering dust on my hard drive! Fail on that one.

Post a short story/flash fiction on my blog once a month. Another fail. I started out with such good intentions but only to do four short stories throughout the year.

Carry on blogging! I definitely did that lol!

So I didn’t do too badly but I thought long and hard about this years resolutions. I decided to keep it simple.

So my 2019 resolutions are:

Write a little every day.

Try more genre that I don’t usually read like:

Historical Fiction,

Non Fiction,

Romance,

Fantasy,

Fairytales,

Classics

Paranormal romance

(any suggestions within these genres are welcome especially fantasy or romance)

Cut down on blog tours.

Set my Goodreads goal for 100 books. The reason I only picked 100 is because I got to a certain point last year where I stopped enjoying reading, I want to take my time a little more this year.

Get my NetGalley feedback ratio up to 80%.

Attempt my first read along.

And that’s it! Wishing you all the best for the year to come!

Do you have any resolutions this year, let me know in the comments section!

New Year’s Resolutions #writing and #reading #goals #newyearsresolutions

I thought I’d share my New Year’s reading and writing Resolutions with you all (a day early but I don’t think it matters!)

First I want to go back to resolutions I made at the beginning of 2017:

1. Edit my entry for last year’s NaNoWriMo Anya.

I did it! It took me about eight or nine months and I still feel it needs work but I’m quite proud I actually did it as this was the first novel I’ve finished and edited.

2. Start a blog.

Another success but again it took me a while to get started, in fact it was the end of May before I posted for the first time.  But now I have over a hundred followers (I have no idea how that happened!) and I post regularly on a Tuesday, Friday and sometimes a Sunday too!

3. Write another novel.

Another sort of success.  I completed NaNoWriMo for the second year running but I absolutely hate the story I wrote called The Taken but at least it’s out of my head so I can get on with new ideas.

4. Have a novel published.

This was an out there one even if I say so myself.  I was very naive when it came to the world of agents and publishers (not any more).  I currently have two rejections under my belt and several no replies.

5. Lose seven pounds.

Another out there one but surprisingly I almost did it.  I started last year at 11 stone 9 pounds and I’ve ended at 11 stone and 3 pounds.  Little bit proud to be honest.

Okay so my resolutions for 2018 are:

Reading:

1. Do my first Goodreads challenge, I’m thinking of setting my goal at 60 books. (manageable I think)
2. Read outside my comfort zone.  I have several books on my tbr list that fit the bill (pics are below).
3. Read books that have been on my tbr list for more than a year.

 

Writing:

1. Take part in both Camp NaNoWriMo (the one in April not July) and NaNoWriMo again.
2. See if I can edit The Taken into something readable.
3. Post a short story/flash fiction on my blog once a month.
4. Carry on blogging!

 

So they are my resolutions 2018, I will post again the end of next year to see how many I actually stuck to!  What are your resolutions for the coming year?