Bookish Goals for 2017

Happy New Year’s Day! I thought it’d be fitting to post my 2017 Bookish Goals today since most of us are caught up in our New Year’s Resolutions and praying that we’ll actually maybe keep them this year (even though we know we’ll probably break them a little).

Also, yes, I am coming at you guys with a new time! School is starting again tomorrow (boo!), so I won’t be able to post early in the morning. I’m trying to find a new time, and I thought 4 in the afternoon would be good (at least, that’s what time it is in my timezone), so here it is!

Onto my (ambitious) 2017 goals!

I. Read 200 Books

So, as you guys know, I ended up reading a whopping total of 163 books this year (this is excluding comics – which I read a lot of, but don’t count personally because they’re pretty short – and DNFs – since I didn’t actually read them)! My goal was 75, and I actually ended up reaching it in June or early July. And since I’m so close to 200, I thought, “Why not? I’m crazy enough!” So I’m hoping to make it to 200 next year! Wish me luck!

Also, I’ve seen a lot of people say that they hate the Goodreads challenge because it pressures them too much and they feel like they’re not reading big books, etc., but keeping tracks of books is hard. I felt that struggle, and I decided to look into apps for that, and lo and behold, I found this great one called BookBuddy!

Basically, it’s almost like Goodreads without reviews and the pressure of having to read. You can create your own categories, as seen in a screenshot of my own personal profile:

Basically, all you have to do is click to the category that you want to add a book to. Press the “+” at the top right of the screen, search your book (I actually tested this out by searching for a book that had come out just a couple of days ago, so this is legit), add it, and that’s it! The category will keep the number of books you’ve read and placed in said category as seen here:

If you want to save a book to multiple categories and/or include re-reads and have them count, all you have to do is repeat the above steps for a different category, and there your book will show up! You can also give the book a star rating if you want to keep track of that as well!

And that’s pretty much it! Just wanted to include a pretty neat app for those who hate the Goodreads Challenge but have trouble keeping track of their books themselves!

II. Catch Up on 2016 + 2015 YA Releases

 

I totally failed to read 2016 releases this year, especially the ones on my most anticipated list! I was originally going to just set aside a month to catch up, but then I compiled all of them together, and I have SO MANY, that I decided I’m just going to be doing this for the entire year. For every thriller/crime/mystery I read, I’m going to read a YA 2016 release of any genre of my choosing. Hopefully, that’ll get me back on track.

III. Finish Those Damn Series

 

If you know me, you know that I suck at completing series. I left a lot of series unfinished this year, whether I read the first two and have been putting off the finale, or I’ve only read the first of six books. I’m hoping to finally complete some of these series – at least 20 – of the ones I started in 2016. Hopefully, I’ll enter 2018 less stressed out!

IV. Keep Up with Blogging and Bookstagram

I’ve said this several times, but I’m usually one to get into things, lose motivation, and then quit on them, and I really don’t want to do that with either of these things. So far, blogging has proven to be fun, and I’m hoping to work a bit more on taking pictures and getting props and setting things up before really starting my bookstagram (I probably won’t officially start it until the summer, when I have more free time). Hopefully, this won’t be something I get bored of by my first blogiversary, but I’m planning to go on a hiatus if I ever get blogger burnout.

V. Write Better Reviews

I used to write tons of reviews on my old Goodreads, but, sometimes, I found them to be of “meh” quality at times. When I hate a book, I do find it much easier to review it than when I love a book, mainly because there’s only so many positive reviews you can write before they sort of start to sound the same. So, I’m going to try to work at sounding less vague in my reviews and explaining myself much better.

And those are my 2017 Bookish Goals! I’m hoping that I’ll look back on December 31 and be proud of myself because I achieved all the things (and then some)!

What are some of your 2017 Bookish Goals? Do you share any of the same ones as mine?