Welcome to another TTT! We’ve just begun the last quarter of the year! What bookish goals would you still like to accomplish? If you participated in TTT’s Bookish Goals for 2023 topic this past January, update us on which goals you’ve achieved, which you’ve given up on, and which ones you’re still working on! That’s what I’ve decided to do for this post. I’m copying and pasting my goals from my TTT in January, and providing a little update!
1. Read 60 books this year.
As of right now I’ve read 48 books so far this year (and I’m partway through 2 more). According to Goodreads, I’m 3 books ahead of schedule. I think I can do it!
2. Get my Netgalley feedback ratio to 80%.
HAAAAAA. I will keep trying, but my goodness this is hard! I’m in a much better place than in January, but I don’t think I’ll get it to 80% this year.
3. Request and accept fewer books for review.
I have done SO GOOD, but I’ve still accepted more than I should have. LOL
4. Read more backlist titles.
34 of the 48 books I’ve read so far were not published this year. That’s better than I thought! The oldest one I have read was published in 1975.
5. Share my thoughts on every book I read.
Wow. I forgot I endeavored to do this. lol. I’ve been very bad at this! I’m doing it on Goodreads, but not here (although, I started out great this year). I guess I need to flood my blog with reviews between now and the end of the year!
6. Read more books from my bookshelves.
Mood reader doom right here. As soon as I decided to read more from my shelves, all of those books became very uninteresting to me. I did go through and donate a bunch I’m no longer interested in, though! Does that count? My shelves are now mostly books I’ve read and loved, or books I expect to love.
7. DNF more.
I am doing AMAZINGLY with this. So far, I have DNFed 51 books. Woohoo!
8. Not try to force my mood.
This is also going great! I’m reading spooky books right now, but I think that mood will be changing soon and I will absolutely stop spooky season reading and move to Christmas books before Halloween if that’s what I’m wanting!
9. Read the books I’m excited about immediately.
I have been reminding myself of this goal all year, and I’ve had the most amazing reading year because of it. I’m not saving books for the opportune moment anymore. If I want to read it right away, I will. I’m currently reading a book that comes out next spring and oh well!
10. Find more books off the beaten path.
I’ve been reading a TON of indie romances this year! I’ll deep dive and find ones nobody has heard of. Some of my favorites this year have been off the beaten path, and I’m so happy about it. I’ve found so many new to me authors!
What reading goals do you still hope to accomplish in this final quarter of 2023?
You have some great reading goals! It’s interesting which ones we remember throughout the year, and then the ones we don’t even remember! Accepting fewer review books wasn’t one of my goals this year, but it probably should have been–that said, I’m still proud of the reviews I have done!
Thank you!
I’m on book 48/50! I’ve got similar goals to you. I’m not doing well on the backlist and keep signing up for Blog Tours. I have already started Christmas reading due to the Blog Tours and Netgalley books that I have signed up for!
Have a great week!
You’re so close to your goal of 50 books! Yay!! I haven’t done one blog tour this year, which is a major accomplishment for me. lol. I’m exciting for Christmas reading! Have you found any new or upcominig releases you love yet?
Congratulations on doing well on most of your goals! I went off topic for Banned Books Week. I had a goal of just reviewing 50% of the books I read this year and I have barely reviewed anything. It’s been a weird reading year for me. Maybe I should adopt some of your goals! I have done well with my goal to make progress on book series though! Enjoy your week!
Doing a Banned Books Week topic is a great idea! I’ll have to come see what you wrote up. A goal to read 50% of what I read is probably a more realistic goal for me, too. Reviewing every single book is hard! What series have you been catching up on? Thanks for stopping by!
So many good goals here, and I am so sympathetic. #5, Share my thoughts on every book I read. That is one I want to do but haven’t been successful for years. I keep trying though. #8 is a great goal (Not try to force my mood.) That is going to be at the top of my list next year.
I was so good at reviewing EVERYTHING when I first started out blogging, but after 14 years I guess I’ve been getting tired. LOL. I haven’t succeeded at this in quite some time now. Not forcing my mood has been such a good thing for me, so I fully support you making it your goal too!
Looks like you’ve done a great job with your goals, Jana! That’s always a great feeling. Hope you meet any other goals you want to in 2023, and congrats on those you have.
Thank you, Rissi!
I’m always requesting too much too!
It’s so easy to do!
7. DNF more.
Congratulations!
You are my DNF hero.
Hahaha Thank you!
Ooh nice! I couldn’t think of 10 myself. Some of these things I find I do anyway, or try to do…so I didn’t really think of them as goals. Lol. I’ve been trying to request less, read more from my TBR, DNF when applicable…but lately, I’ve been enjoying what I’m reading so that’s not necessary! Lol.
Here’s my Tuesday post
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower :)
Our number one goal should always be to enjoy what we’re reading, so I call this a success! Thanks for stopping by!
You are doing great with your goals! I liked this prompt because I had forgotten what some of my goals were, LOL! Have a great week!
Thank you! I had more fun with this prompt than I thought I would. It’s always nice to check in on your goals when you still have time to accomplish them. lol.
Love these goals! I also want to read more from my shelves and write more reviews.
Thank you! Both are great goals, but hard at the same time! I think the number one rule should be that we love what we read and never make it a chore. :)
wow 51 DNF, amazing! Follow your heart, that’s the word!
I have DNFed a few, but I’m doing really well at your goals 3 and 4, so I focus more on what I REALLY want to read.
https://wordsandpeace.com/2023/10/03/top-ten-reading-goals-i-still-want-to-accomplish-before-the-end-of-the-year/
Thank you! I feel a little bad saying I’ve DNFed that many books, but at the same time… why waste the time on a book that doesn’t make me happy? The author definitely wouldn’t want that, so thinking of it that way has helped me a lot.
Great job tackling the backlist titles! It can be hard to do that when everyone is talking about the shiny new books, but it’s also so much fun to be the only one talking about a really great one, too!
Jana, I so agree with you! And the older we get, the more we want not to waste our time with books that we don’t really enjoy.
And yes actually, I happen to often review books few others read, lol
I feel like I am only just beginning to accept the ways in which I am a mood reader. Maybe “beginning to accept” is more optimistic than reality. Haha! I’m encouraged by what you said about mood reading though. I think next year I’d like to make more room in my life for mood reading.
I totally hear you on accepting too many books for review. My review request list has been out of control this year. On the upside, it has helped me read more, but added a LOT more stress to my reading life than is reasonable. I’m scared I’ll burn out, which would be awful.
Anyway– thanks for sharing your goals. I will revisit your list as I put together my goals for next year. I think there are a lot of smart ones on here! :)
I think coming to terms with being a mood reader is very freeing. I used to agonize over trying to read what everyone else was reading because I’d hear so much “this was soooo good!” and my FOMO would take over. lol. But if I’m not in the mood, I’m not doing anyone any favors. It’s almost a form of self care, imo, and that’s made it easier for me to not stick to a reading or review calendar like I used to. I’m writing way more 5-star reviews now, and that does everyone good. I will always encourage people to do what makes them the happiest. I hope you can make more room for mood reading next year, too! You’ll have to check in with me and let me know how it’s going for you. :)
When I was a baby blogger 14 years ago, with a brand new Netgalley account, I requested everything! I accepted everything from publishers and authors. I was a reading machine, nearly doubling the amount of books read per year that I do now. I absolutely got burned out, and I almost quit blogging when a couple years later I still had not been able to climb out from under my review pile. This is a huge reason why my Netgalley ratio still isn’t good. lol. So I’m very sympathetic of that concern of burning out. At what point does being a book blogger feel more like a chore than a hobby? I changed a lot about how I do things, and it’s really helped me love reading again. Don’t get stressed!
Good luck, especially with the Net Galley stats! I haven’t logged in in a while because I’ve missed several deadlines and am too ashamed to show my digital face..
LOL. Thank you. I feel your pain. I’m at 57% right now and the only thing that makes me feel better is that that means I’ve reviewed 1,339 books on there. That’s a huge number! I just have so many unreviewed from my early days when I was a little overzealous with the requesting. You can do it!
I can relate to #2 and 3! Since I’ve started using a calendar to track my ARCs, I’ve been better able to not bury myself.
You’re doing well with all of these though!
Yay, good on you being able to DF more! I noticed I’m doing it more easily now than everal years ago, so I think that’s part of growing as a reader :)
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2023/10/03/top-ten-tuesday-how-am-i-doing-on-my-backlist-books/
I am sure you can hit that Goodreads goal this year, Jana. Was listening a State of Children’s Publishing webinar from SCBWI, and backlist books are outperforming frontlist books in terms of market share. Sounds like we are both doing well with DNF this year.
Sounds like you’re doing great this year! I hope the end finishing strong for you.
I desperately need to work on my NG ratio, too. Mine is dismal, like 8% or something. LOL. I’m surprised they approve me for anything!
I’ve also been terrible about writing blog reviews this year. I do the same thing you do – review everything I read on GR and then sometimes expand them for a full review on my blog. It’s just SO hard to keep up sometimes.
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
These are really great goals, and you’re doing very well on most of them! I hear you on the mood reading thing, though. That gets me, too. This year, my brain decided to binge-reread a rather long series twice, which did wonders for my overall Goodreads Challenge goal for total books read, but really torpedoed a bunch of my other goals.
However, I went rogue with TTT this week and went with a banned-books theme for Banned Books Week.
Getting rid of books you’re no longer interested in totally counts. After all, one of the purposes to reading unread books is to confirm if they’re actually ones you want to keep in your home, or if they’d be better off elsewhere. You just took a shortcut that aligns with your “life’s too short for mediocre reading experiences” goals.
Very excited to hear that #4 and 10 in particular are going well for you, vive le backlist/hidden gems.
I love your thinking here! Thank you!
Everyone should DNF more. And, be honest in their reviews–nicely honest. Publishers need to hear what readers don’t like. It’s called “feedback.” Life is too short to stick with a disappointing book. I did not get to post this week.
Totally agree! DNFing more means I write less negative reviews, which helps everyone involved! I used to get so grumpy when I would try to force myself to finish a review book and then it dawned on me that the pub and the author love 4 and 5 star reviews way more than 1 or 2 star reviews. DNFing and leaving constructive feedback really makes everyone else happier.
Read more books from my actual bookshelves…that may have to be my goal for 2024! Great list!!!
Thank you!