This week's theme is on Reading Goals I Still Want to Accomplish This Year. So I thought I'd look back at the goals I set in January and see which ones, if any, I've finished, which I'm still working on, and which I've completely abandoned.
#1 -- Find a book from the A shelf and finish my Reading the Alphabet Challenge.
✅ Totally did this one: I read Minor Adjustments by Rachael Renee Anderson back in January.
#2 -- Dust my bookshelves. ✅ (Though it needs doing again!)
#3-- Weed my bookshelves and donate the books I know I'll never read again.
✅ I did this at the first of the year and ended up giving away about 25 books, which freed up some much needed room on my crowded bookshelves.
#4 -- Read at least one Agatha Christie and one BLCC mystery. 😐 Haven't done this one....yet.
#5 -- Delete titles from my Goodreads list that I no longer want to read.
😕 I've been working on this one, but for every title I delete from my list I seem to add three more, defeating the whole purpose.
#6 -- Participate in Susan's Bookish Books Reading Challenge.
✅ I feel like I've been rocking this challenge this year; I've read eleven books for this challenge already, and have a few more I intend to read before the end of the year.
#7 -- Read more Science Fiction. 😐 I've read eight so far, and DNFed two others, but I had originally planned to read 1-2 each month, and I haven't done that.
#8 -- Limit my book buying to 10 books or less. 👎 Big fail. I've already bought 16 books this year...and I have a feeling I'm not done.
#9 -- Stop using the phrase "fun read" or "fun character" in my reviews. 👎 I'm not going to go back and look, but I have a feeling I've failed at this one, too.
#10 -- Check my blog's spam folder daily to rescue all those legitimate comments that keep getting sent there...including mine! ✅ Yep, I've been doing this one. Everyday. (Stupid Blogger.)
So, there are the ten goals I set back in January, and how I'm doing on them. I feel like I've accomplished 6/10. I guess that's not too bad. Maybe next year I won't set any goals at all. 🙃
Happy Reading!
Well done for accomplishing so many of your goals! I have the same problem with #5.
ReplyDeleteRight? Sometimes I think books magically appear on my Goodreads list while I'm sleeping because it feels like it grows over night. ;D
DeleteI think you’re doing a good job so far!
ReplyDeleteHere is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
Lydia
Thanks, Lydia!
DeleteGood for you for checking your spam filter. So many legitimate comments end up there.
ReplyDeleteHere is our Top Ten Tuesday.
Astilbe
It's crazy how often my own comments on my own blog end up in spam! Please explain to me why that happens. ;D
DeleteI laughed at 'dust my bookshelves' - me too! I've rocked the Bookish Books challenge too, 12 read and just reading another one, it's been my favourite challenge. 'Fun read' and 'fun character' is fine by me. :-) Fun post! (Sorry.) Cath (Blogger not letting me sign in.)
ReplyDeleteHi, Cath! the Bookish Books Challenge has been so fun. I've got like 5 more books on my list that I want to read for it before the end of the year. :D
DeleteYou're doing a great job on your goals this year. I've been trying to check my spam folder more often. It's crazy sometimes what comments Blogger sends there.
ReplyDeleteIt really is! Especially when blogger designates your own comments as spam. I hate when that happens.
DeleteDust your bookshelves... I feel called out on that one. I really need to do that! And I use "fun" way too much as well. Good luck on all of these!
ReplyDeleteIt's crazy how dusty books can get! But then dust is my nemesis in life. ;D
DeleteI definitely need to dust my book shelves too! XD
ReplyDeleteSadly, I need to dust more than just my bookshelves. ;D
DeleteYou're making good progress. If you find a way to not buy books, let me know. :) Hope you have a great year end.
ReplyDeletehttps://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2023/10/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-bookish.html
I haven't found a way to stop buying books yet. Last week they had a 10 cent sale at my library and I bought 4 more just because they were so cheap.
DeleteI'm impressed that you've done so well on your 2023 goals, especially considering that some of them require a definite change of what are probably longtime habits. I think that 16 purchases for the year is very reasonable, really. I'd definitely settle for that.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to keep my book buying down, but it is really hard. By the end of the year that number will probably be a lot higher. ;D
DeleteCongratulations on your achievements.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dorothy. I'm not perfect at any of these goals by any means, but I have made some progress this year. :D
DeleteI am the same with #5, delete one, add three, delete another, add two, LOL! It's a never ending cycle!! It doesn't help that new books are constantly coming out. It's not our fault, it's other authors and bloggers that bring these great books to our attention, LOL!!! You are doing great with your goals!
ReplyDeleteThe other thing that adds books to my Goodreads list is those Goodreads giveaways! They really start to add up. And my list just grows and grows and grows.... ;D
DeleteLark, so true!!
DeleteHi Lark, Congratulations, you did very well on your challenge. I ambitiously told myself I in January that I would buy no books in 2023 but rather read what I already had. What was I thinking? But it is important to set goals because we may not do them perfectly but we can get closer to our goals than if we never set any goals in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThat is so true! Setting goals at least gives us something to work towards. And I didn't completely fail at them this year.
DeleteOh my gosh dusting the bookshelves! I couldn't believe the other day how dusty mine were! And I need to read more SF too even though I consider myself an SF reader!
ReplyDeleteBooks do seem to collect dust. And why is it so hard to read the books we like? I love good science fiction, too, and yet I hardly ever read it any more. I did a little better this year, but still didn't get to most of the books on my list. Sigh. Maybe next year.
DeleteI know, I've been reading so many thrillers lately... /
DeleteYou did very well, and the year isn't over yet. I wanted to limit my book buying, but even if we totally ignore the many books I bought at the book sale, my buying has been out of control all year. But I have pretty much made peace with myself on buying books; we don't spend a lot of money on other things and I get a lot of pleasure out of it.
ReplyDeleteI also feel like I overuse "fun read" or "a fun book" in the last year or so, and I don't like to be so repetitive. But I think I am reading a lot more books just for fun, and that is a good thing. I have to check my blog's spam folder regularly also; I share your pain.
I have not done as well as you on the Bookish Books reading challenge, but I have enjoyed the challenge very much.
Buying books makes me happy, too. And it is one of the few things I indulge in these days. I just don't have the room for tons of new books, so that's another reason to try and limit my book buying.
DeleteYou're doing awesome on your goals! I particularly like #6 :) I need to work on #9 as well. I feel like I'm constantly using the word "fun" - surely there are some better descriptors out there. LOL.
ReplyDeleteHappy TTT!
I feel like all my book reviews are all the same lately--I don't just overuse the word fun, but also compelling and entertaining. I need a new thesaurus, or something. ;D
DeleteHa ha. Those are all among my favorite adjectives, which I constantly overuse! At least I'm not alone :)
DeleteI'm curious which Agathe Christie you would pick!
ReplyDeleteThanks for #10! I haven't done that for a while, and when I checked my spam folder, I've found some of my missing comments! So there they were, and I've thought I'm getting forgetful! (-_-)'
It's crazy when your own comments get sent to spam! And I've been working my way through Agatha Christie's mysteries, and still have like 20 I need to read, both of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, so it'd be one of those...I'm just not sure which one I'd pick to read first.
DeleteYikes...going through blog comments can be quite a nightmare, especially if you keep getting lots of spam comments. Let's hope we both succeed in our goals this year!
ReplyDeleteHere’s my TTT
Rabbit Ears Book Blog: WORLD’S WEIRDEST BOOK BLOG!
It's really funny because I actually don't get a lot of spam comments. Blogger just keeps sending real unspammy comments there. Which is annoying.
DeleteWeeding bookshelves and donating books we're likely to never read again is such a great feeling. It's nice to know someone else will enjoy them!
ReplyDeleteHere's my TTT list.
It is good to free up space on your bookshelves, and to donate the books you know you'll never read again. I try to do a big weeding every year.
DeleteMy biggest challenge will be weeding my bookshelves! I've weeded some but still not enough to make space for the piles which are left piling on the floor, sigh. I tell myself I'll have to cut down on buying more books and borrow more from the library.
ReplyDeleteThat is one of the plusses of library books...you don't have to find room on your shelves for them. And I have limited shelf space in my house, which is why I'm trying to be more careful about how many books I buy in a year.
DeleteOMG, Blogger's spam system is so dumb. It blocks real comments and lets in all those "Find sexy escorts " comments. I don't understand. Anyway, good luck with your goals!
ReplyDeleteTheir spam system is dumb! Even when I tell them a certain person's comments aren't spam, they keep sending them there over and over. It's annoying.
DeleteI'm so bad; I can't remember the goals I set at the beginning of the year. For as fast as this year feels like it is going, the beginning of the year when I set my goals seems so long ago. These all continue to be great goals. Dusting bookshelves never ends, does it?
ReplyDeleteNo, the dusting never ends! It's my personal nemesis. ;D
DeleteAnd I only remember these 10 goals because I wrote a post about them back in January.
Well done. Regine
ReplyDeleteThanks, Regine! :D
DeleteGreat list! I'm wanting to read an Agatha Christie novel too as well, and I think I'm going to do Hallowe'en Party later this month. Feel free to join in if you'd like!
ReplyDeleteAs for the shelves, I feel like I'm constantly dusting mine, and I definitely need to cull some titles again. The piles are starting to take over my house!
I sometimes feel like the piles in my house multiply when I'm not looking. ;D And Christie's Hallowe'en Party is one I haven't read...I just have so many books checked out of the library right now there's no way I can add another. I probably won't be able to finish the ones sitting on my bedroom floor as it is. I really need to stop putting so many books on hold at one time!
DeleteI'd say overall you accomplished a lot. Weeding out those Goodreads shelves sometimes feels like an exercise in futility.
ReplyDeleteIt really does! I keep deleting titles and my list never shrinks. I'll never get caught up with it. ;D
DeleteI check my spam folder every morning too. There's always a few comments stuck in there. I tried not to buy too many books this year with all the books I get from NetGalley I didn't need to buy a bunch but I did go over the goal I set as well. There's just too many good books to read.
ReplyDeleteThere are too many goodbooks out there to read....but think how much worse it would be if we didn't have any good books to read at all!
DeleteThese are great goals, Lark and you are doing so well! I need to dust my shelves again, too. I cleaned out my TBR on GRs like 2 years ago, but I should go through it again. It felt good, but it's time consuming. I should donate more books. I save them for giveaways but it's expensive to ship them off to winners, even using Media Mail. Oh, I hate to think how many times I use "fun read" or fun in a review in general. I'm sure it's a lot too! Oh, well. Lol! :)
ReplyDeleteI like to donate my books because it's free, but sometimes they sit forever in my house waiting for me to take them to the donation box. And I'm about to give up on ever lowering the # of titles on my Goodreads want to read list. It seems to be a losing battle for me. ;D
DeleteYou've done awesome in terms of meeting goals. I have the same problems with my GoodReads list and book-buying habits. Luckily, I have never made a goal to read more sci-fi :) October is a perfect month for an Agatha Christie...just saying...
ReplyDeleteOctober is the perfect month for Agatha Christie! And there are lots of her books still on my list to read. :D
DeleteLooks like you've been doing great and I totally relate on the Goodreads goal. I got mine down to 500 but now it's growing by leaps and bounds. Also, the "fun" thing - though that is a tough one! It's hard to come up with just the right adjective.
ReplyDeleteI keep trying to get under 400 on my Goodreads list, and I sometimes manage it for a day or two, but then it snowballs upward again. I've decided it's a losing battle. ;D
DeleteI think that you have done a great job with your goals! I need to go through my shelves and get them sorted soon.
ReplyDeleteIt's something I try to do every year because otherwise my house would be overrun with books.
DeleteThere are a bunch of these I really need to do! Dusting my bookshelves... oh, I feel guilty just thinking about when the last time I did this was. :) I need to do some sorting and donating too. And it really never occurs to me to check the spam folder for my blog, but now that you mentioned it, I should look into it. Congrats on doing so well with your goals!
ReplyDeleteYou might be surprised at what comments show up in your spam folder. And I'm thinking I should probably go through my books again and see if there's any others I can give away before I ask for more books for Christmas. ;D
DeleteNice goals! I need to dust my bookshelves too. Sadly, limiting my book buying hasn't worked for me EVER!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it didn't work for me this year either.
Delete