It’s the first day of 2019, and the first thing I did when I got out of bed this morning was grab a new book to start reading. This isn’t all that different from how I start most days, but once I read a couple chapters, I realized that I hadn’t set any reading goals for 2019 yet. So, here we go!

Reflecting on the past year

Planning reading goals is always stressful for me. I’m the type of person that can only read one book at a time, and I tend to pick new books based on my mood, or the time of year. There are few things I enjoy more than curling up with a 600+ page fantasy story in the middle of winter (and yes, there needs to be snow on the ground for this).

My strange habits, paired with ARCs I receive from publishers, makes it hard to read everything I want to in a given year. Plus, I have plenty of other hobbies, and life in general, that takes up time as well.

According to Goodreads, I finished 2018 with 11,243 pages read across 46 books. This does not include any of the books that I did not finish (two).

I’m proud of myself for reading more books this year than I have in previous years, and I’m even prouder of the fact that I now get books from publishers to review! That being said, I’m not proud of the fact that I amassed such a large (physical) TBR pile in my living room. I got so caught up in new books that I spent more time acquiring them than I did reading.

As of today, I have 274 unread books at home (not including titles on my Kobo), which, I’ll admit, is a bit much. And this, my fellow bookworms, is why I am setting out a very strict reading goals for the upcoming year.

2019 Reading Challenge goals

My goals for 2019 are:

• Read 50 books
  • Sub-goal: At least 30 of these books must be ones I already own.
• Adhere to a strict book buying ban: There are a couple titles that I will be purchasing in 2019, but other than those select few and whatever book club picks come up, I will not allow myself to purchase any new books.
• Read more library books: If there are any new titles that I really feel the need to read, I’m going to utilize my local library.
• Write a review for every book I read: I need to find more time for this. End of story.

These goals sound easy, but we all know they’ll be harder and harder to stick to as the year progresses. I’m already coming up with ideas on how to trick myself into tackling my TBR, and ignoring all the beautiful new books that I’ll inevitably see on Instagram and other blogs.

Either way, I know that at the end of it all, the only thing that matters is finding time to read good books. Reading is reading is reading, and we should all make more time for that!

What’s everyone else hoping to read this year? Maybe if we band together, we’ll all reach our reading goals!