Wow! I can't believe it's already time to do another New Year's post! 2019 whizzed by so fast!!
My reading goals for 2019: Read books off my own shelves. Read books I have always wanted to read, but haven't yet. And, pare down my pending review book list to 10 and keep it there.
Let's see how I did....
First some stats:
In 2019, I read a total of 352 books.
It breaks down like this:
145 books I read were backlist, or published before 2019.
191 were new release books I read for review (ARC copies from publishers).
16 were new release books I bought or checked out from the library.
I read 191 digital or physical ARCs in 2019.
I listened to 81 audio books.
I read 42 books on my kindle app.
I checked out 17 physical books from my local library.
I read 17 out of print books through OpenLibrary.org
And, I read 4 miscellaneous books off my own shelves.
Now, at first look, those stats look bad for my "read books off my own shelves'' goal....but....the numbers are a bit misleading. I didn't just read 4 books from my own collection. I used my local & regional libraries to pare down my collection this year. Books that I owned, but could check out in digital format from area libraries, I donated to charity to free up shelf space. More than 100 of them! I traded or donated those physical books, then listened to them in audio format, or read them as ebooks on Libby or my Kindle app. This has been one of my main goals for the past 3 years. I love books -- but I own way too many. Thousands of them. Just too many. I have whittled down my personal collection over the past 3 years. It now fills one floor-to-ceiling set of built in bookshelves in my office plus five 5-shelf bookcases and one smaller 3-shelf bookcase. That's down by about half. Making progress! In 2020, I want to further whittle this down until I have only 3 bookcases and the built-in shelves. The ultimate goal? My book collection fitting entirely into one large bookshelf for my physical TBR, and my keeper collection displayed in the built-in bookshelves. It won't happen in 2020....but I can get closer! I think I can make it during 2021 if I keep working at it!
I think I did pretty good this year at balancing my personal reading and review reading. In prior years, I read so much for review that I didn't really get to books I owned or just wanted to read for enjoyment. This year, I managed to squeeze in a lot of backlist reading and books from my personal library. I'm quite happy with the end-of-year totals. In 2020, I want to cut back further on my ARC choices to 10 or less on the pending list..just three or four a month. Keeps me from ever getting behind....and I can be much more selective in my reading. With 3 library cards available to me, I can get new releases relatively quickly. I don't have to read everything before publication date. Gotta keep some zen, especially since the plan is for me to return to full-time employment this year. I will not have time to read 191 ARCs in 2020!
Movin' on down the goal list --
I have to be honest and say my pending review reading list is not at 10. I did, however, whittle it down from 70 to 25. And those 25 have publication dates ranging from January to July 2020. 11 of them have January publication dates. After January, each month has 4 or fewer titles pending review. So....I have made good headway! I will continue this goal into 2020. I should have the list down to 10 or fewer by March. And I plan to keep it there! I am setting a limit -- if I'm sitting at 10 books pending review, I can't request any more until I've read one off the list and reviewed it. Then I'm never behind or rushed. It also frees up my reading time so I can concentrate more on reading books off my own shelves, rather than always ARCs for review. New release titles are great, but backlist is awesome too! Then I can work full-time, still review on a regular basis and ENJOY reading rather than make myself nuts keeping up with publication dates.
And my last goal -- read books I've always wanted to read, but haven't. I scrolled through my "read'' list for the year on Goodreads to see if I accomplished this goal. I wanted to catch up with the Dresden series by Jim Butcher. I finally accomplished that in 2019! I'm all caught up and just waiting for the new book, Peace Talks, to release in July 2020! I wanted to read the Longmire series -- started it in 2019. I wanted to read the Pendergast series (by Lincoln & Child) after reading the first two books years ago....working on that one too. Up to book 14! I caught up with several mystery series I had been meaning to read for years....now I can just look forward to each new book! I also re-read some favorites...Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie! So, I think I managed this goal! It's one I need to continue though!
Reading wise, 2019 was a good year! I made progress on each of my goals, and I'm ending the year knowing what my reading goals for 2020 will be.
I'm going to have limited reading time in 2020. So my goals look like this:
1. Read more books off my shelves and pare down my personal book collection to 3 bookshelves and built in shelves. No messy stacking or unsorted shelves. By the end of the year, I want books shelved properly (no weird stacks to fit in extra books) and 2 fewer bookshelves in the house! All read non-keeper shelf books will be donated to free up shelf space. My restriction on buying new books will continue....I can have books that are gifted to me, ARC copies, and occasionally something new. But my ultimate goal is to read what I have!
2. Limit review requests/ARC copies pending on NetGalley, Edelweiss and direct publisher contacts to 10. Only 3-4 ARC reviews per month.
3. Series or authors prioritized in 2020: Jean Plaidy. I have multiple shelves of Plaidy books -- some I have owned for 10 years -- waiting to get full sets of a series before reading. I now have several of her series complete....it's time to read them and free up the shelf space! Star Trek books. My husband bought me a large number of paperback Star Trek books. I love them! But I actually need to READ them! My goal is to read at least one Star Trek novel a month. It does me no good to have awesome sci-fi books if I never actually get around to reading the books! I have a huge collection of cozy mystery novels. My goal is to read at least one a week and start whittling down my collection. They are quick, easy reads -- no reason for me to hang on to 300+ paperback books if I'm never going to read any of them. Goals! Get them read, get them donated....free up space! Then I can release myself from my self-imposed book buying ban and bring in some new reading material! Also, I want to catch up with several series I'm currently reading -- Walt Longmire, the Agent Pendergast series, and a couple others. Plus I will continue reading through Agatha Christie's novels in publication order. Christie has been my favorite author since I was 9, so I'm slowly reading my way back through her books just because it makes me happy! :)
I'm setting a lower Goodreads challenge for myself this year. Heading back to work is going to cut my reading time, so I'm going to set my challenge at 100 books in 2020. If I get close to that before the end of the year, I will bump it up a bit. :)
Looking forward to 2020!
No comments:
Post a Comment