2018 READING GOALS

When it comes to reading goals the most I ever think about it is my goodreads reading challenge, however this year I have decided to work on my reading a bit more beyond the 'I MUST READ THIS MANY BOOKS OR I HAVE FAILED'

I know that once I tell someone my goals I'm accountable and therefore I try harder to follow through so here I am, telling you all about the few things I aim to achieve with my reading in 2018!

First of all, I thought about not taking part in the goodreads reading challenge, or at the very least setting a lower goal - such as 10 books. But after thinking about my other goals - that we'll disscuss in a moment - I realised I'm actually in a good position this year to set myself a goal I once thought impossible.
100 books.
I've increased my challenge by around 25 books each year, starting with 30 in 2015, 50 last year, and 75 this year. I can't not set my reading challenge this year when it's clearly supposed to be 100! I find it motivating to read so I'm feeling good about the coming year and also thrilled to look at how quickly my reading has improved.

This leads me to my second goal which is to work on my habits. Back in 2015 I was only just getting back into reading and had barely discovered book tube. I was less than 6 months into my bookselling job and still hadn't heard of Cassandra Clare... I didn't even realise YA was a thing. I read sparsely and found it hard to just sit and stare at a page for hours, yet just two years later I've doubled the amount I read and then some. I never actually realised how much more I was reading and I want to continue building this by making reading more of a habit and just to generally read more and the only way I can do that is to read.

I need to get my TBR down. I have 424 books on my goodreads 'want to read' shelf, which is books I own and still have to read. I'm not even sure if all of my books are on it so that number could be bigger! By this time next year I want that number down to 350, if not 300. I am placing myself on a book buying ban, so if I read 100 books I should make it to 324. I might also have an unhaul. I'm actually considering cancelling my owlcrate but that's more for budgeting than book buying ban purposes! I do have a Paris trip in February and an NYC trip in the works for October so I have a feeling a lot of new books will be in my possession come then and I've already agreed with myself that the ban doesn't count on holiday! 
I'm not banning myself 100% from the purchase of books but I will only allow myself to buy second hand books and they must be ones I am actually interested in, not 'oh this sounds ok I'll just get it because it's cheap and I want to buy something.' The only time I will allow myself to buy a book that is not on my wishlist is if it is in a multi-buy deal as often those are like 3 for £1 but if you only want one it's still a pound! 

Finally, my last goal for 2018 is all to do with netgalley. I don't think I request a ridiculous amount of books, however, as someone who suffers migraines and reads about 50 words a minute on my iPad compared to about 400 on paper, I request too many. I can't keep up - I was so bad and didn't organise when I first signed up and thus have too many January releases and also a couple mid series books and just nope. It's a mess. I like netgalley for what it is and I think it's a great resource for a lot of bloggers but, whilst I have enjoyed my brief 2 months with it, come 2018 I am only requesting titles I desperately want - not those I've heard other people mention. I'd rather not have ARCs than have ones that make me ill reading and then feel guilty for not reviewing! Plus, I'm a big fan of seeing reviews for older, lesser known books so perhaps I should start doing that!

Well, that was a lot more wordy than planned and well done to anyone who stuck by for it all. Thank you! Do you have any goals for the coming year? Let me know in the comments!