My Bookish New Year’s Resolutions 2017

First of all, a big Happy New Year to my readers! Thank you to everyone for sticking around, whether you’ve been reading my blog since it started, or have just joined us. As has become a bit of a tradition in the New Year, I like to start by sharing my bookish New Year’s Resolutions on the blog – so here they are for 2017.

• 2017 will be the year that I finally conquer Netgalley! In 2016, I vowed that I’d get my rating to 80%. It’s currently at 81%. I need to read 36 more books – or at least be honest whether or not I am going to read them – to reach 100%. After that, I will feel happy using Netgalley again, but right now I don’t feel I can request anything from there, and haven’t in about a year.
• Make more use of my local library system. As I started doing towards the end of 2016. Even if my local library doesn’t have much, I can order books in from around the county and pick them up from down the road, which is really handy.
• But also read from my own shelves. At my last count, I owned 190 unread books, many of which I was desperate to read at time of purchase, yet still haven’t touched. Oops.
• Write more reviews. I think part of my problem with reviews is that I’ve only been reviewing review copies – so I have this association with deadlines, time pressure etc. I have occasionally reviewed books when I’ve really wanted to express how they’ve made me feel, but not that often. So from now on, I’m trying to review books that make me feel strongly – whether positive or negative – no matter where they’ve come from.
• Continue to be decisive about which books I accept for review. Maybe a contrast to the above point – but I don’t want to read and review everything. I simply don’t have time, especially when there’s so much out there that appeals to me. Over the past year I’ve become more and more confident about turning down books for review that just don’t appeal to me, or if I’m just not feeling in the mood, or if I’m feeling a little pressured. My blog, my time, my decision.
• Bring Fantasy Friday back! I miss that feature.
• Become more active within the blogosphere again. I think I probably say this every year, but I used to be so good at commenting on other people’s blogs. Now, not so much. I’d like to be able to do that again.

Do you have any resolutions for 2017, whether bookish or non-bookish? 🙂

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My Bookish New Year’s Resolutions 2016

Last year I shared my bookish New Year’s Resolutions for 2015, so I thought I’d do the same this year! Let me know if you have any resolutions, bookish or not, in the comments below.

• Finally get round to the books I’ve been meaning to re-read. I’ve already taken a step towards this by announcing some planned read-alongs.
• Get my Netgalley ratio over 80% – or even to 100%… It’s currently sat at 77%, so I’m close!
• Do not worry about quantity of books read, but focus on quality. I always aim to read at least 100 books a year, but that shouldn’t be the most important thing. Instead, I should aim to read books that truly appeal, rather than picking up shorter/quicker reads just to up the number.
• Although… I would also like to reach 1000 books marked as ‘read’ on Goodreads. However, this should be pretty easy as I’ve only got 20 or so to go.
• Make more use of the Goodreads recommendations feature. Because, you know, I already don’t have ENOUGH books to read. But I’ve noticed that Goodreads chooses some really fantastic books for me based on my shelves, so why not use it more?
• Make some progress with my Classics Challenge. This is a lifelong challenge so there’s no rush, but I’ve barely made a dent in it since starting.
• Get back into the swing of commenting on other blogs. I was really dedicated during Sci-Fi Month, but other than that I’ve been slacking on comments.
• Keep blogging!

What are your resolutions for 2016?

My Bookish New Year Resolutions 2015

Last year I set myself some Bookish New Year’s Resolutions, and I thought I’d do the same for 2015!

• Try not to feel guilty when reading for pleasure. I had this during my Bachelors, and I have it again now that I’m studying once more. If I read a book purely for pleasure, I feel guilty that I’m using that reading time for something other than books relevant to my course. I can play video games or watch films without feeling guilty, but for some reason reading makes me feel bad!
• Try to complete the DC vs. Marvel Challenge. In 2014, Michael, one of the moderators of my book group on Goodreads, hosted a really wonderful Avengers vs. X-Men Challenge, and for 2015 he is hosting another great reading challenge! I can’t wait to start that one and have already planned some books for it.
• Stop requesting on Netgalley. For real this time. Yeah, I always say this. I thought being abroad and having most of my books on my Kindle, the large majority of which are from Netgalley, would do wonders for my review ratio. Nope. Instead, I’ve mostly read the books that I BOUGHT for my Kindle, whilst still requesting more from Netgalley. I’m still stuck at 55% or something…
• Make a little more time for blogging and commenting. So this one might be more difficult, since right now I really have to be in the right mood for it, but I know I can do better.
• Set my yearly goal at 50 books, but don’t be disappointed if I don’t achieve it. I’m studying for a Masters degree. I’m reading less than before – but we’ll see what happens.

And that’s it! I don’t want to set too many goals, especially since I have other things to concentrate on… like a thesis.

What are your reading resolutions for 2015?

Thoughts #23: Looking Back On My Bookish Resolutions

At the beginning of the year, I shared my Bookish Resolutions with you all. I wanted to take a look and review them, and perhaps look at them again at the end of the year or the beginning of the next!

I aimed to:

• Read at least one book per week: definitely managed. I seem to be averaging between twelve and fourteen books a month at the moment, mostly thanks to all the Marvel comics.
• Get my Netgalley ratio up to AT LEAST 50%: at time of writing, it’s 54.4% – and it has fluctuated a LOT between 50% and 60%. 60% has been my highest so far, but I always seem to end up requesting more after reviewing. However, apparently it was 21.3% at the beginning of the year, so I’m pretty happy with that progress. Maybe 70% for the end of December?
• Finish my 2013 TBR Pile: ummm… nope. I’ve made some progress, but I definitely still haven’t conquered that pile – and won’t be able to for a while now.
• Achieve my Re-read January goal: definitely not – I was a rubbish host and only managed to re-read one of the books I set out to read! I have re-read another since though.
• Contribute points towards the Avengers vs. X-Men Challenge: I think I’ve done pretty well with this one so far! There are a couple of villains I didn’t manage to beat, but several that I have – and still time to recruit more X-Men.
• Schedule posts ahead of time and on time: yep, I’ve been pretty good at this. I’m getting even better at scheduling weeks ahead (I even had all of July planned out by the first week of the month which has NEVER happened before!)
• Overall goal of 50 books for the year: I’ve almost doubled this goal so… yep, good!
• Comment regularly on other blogs: I’ve gone through periods of commenting like crazy and not commenting for a bit. So I guess it kind of balances out…?
• Don’t get distracted by video games: I did. I’ve completed more video games in the past year than ever in my life. I’m suddenly able to finish games! I don’t know why I set this goal to be honest, if I want to play games instead of read then I can.
• And I’m still enjoying blogging!

Thanks Bernard.

Did you set yourself any bookish resolutions? How have you done so far?

My Bookish New Year Resolutions 2014

I don’t normally bother making New Year’s resolutions because I generally don’t keep them – but I think I can keep some bookish ones! This year I aim to:

• Read at least one book a week – my standard is normally two or three, but it’s been slipping lately and I hope I’ll be able to keep this up when I’m back at uni too.
• Stop requesting a crazy amount of books from Netgalley and get my review ratio up to AT LEAST 50%. It’s currently sat at 21.3%, and that’s a vast improvement from a few months ago when it was 8%…
• Finish my 2013 TBR Pile. These books have been waiting to be read for a while, so it would be nice to actually finish off this challenge!
• Achieve my Re-read January goal, a challenge that Kelley and I are hosting together.
• Also contribute as many points as possible towards the X-Men team for the Avengers Vs. X-Men Challenge, and make some progress towards the Dragons & Jetpacks Ultimate Booklist Challenge.
• Make sure I actually schedule posts ahead of time, and post my regular features on the right days!
• My overall goal for the year is 50 books.
• Comment regularly on my friends’ blogs.
• Finish tidying up the blog after the migration! I think I’ve got about 75 posts or so left to sort out. I’m hoping this will be done before the end of January.
• It would be nice to not get completely distracted from reading by video games, as I have for these past few weeks… damn you, Steam sales.
• And finally: carry on blogging and enjoying it!
• Plus one non-bookish resolution: carry on learning Dutch for September.

What are your bookish (or non-bookish!) resolutions for 2014?