It’s time to reflect on my goals for 2024 before setting my goals for the upcoming year.
- Read 250 books.
I did not realize until looking back at the video for last year that I set the number so low. I did acknowledge that this was a lower number than the number of books that I read the previous two years. I set a more manageable number since I did not know how much more of my time would be taken up when I transferred to the school at which I work now. I did not realize, though, that I would end diving down the audiobook rabbit hole. Since I read 450+ books (eek!) I definitely met this goal. - Catch up on NetGalley eARCs.
This goal made the list yet again. While I did not fully catch up, I did manage to bring the backlog to within five/six months. (I have one July 2024 ARC and one August 2024 ARC at the time of writing although I plan to attempt to get these read on the 31st.) - Complete year-long TBR lists.
These lists also include yearly projects like SCASL and Goodreads Choice Awards, both of which went extremely well this year. The actual year long lists included 24 in 24, Buzzwordathon, and -starting in April- r/fantasy. At the time of writing, I had a couple hours left of my last Buzzwordathon book (and managed to finish it before 2024 ended.) I did not mean to save it until this late but the original book that I chose for this prompt had no audio or ebook unless I wanted to try to read the German version so I kept prioritizing other books. I did complete 24 in 24 and read books for almost all of the spaces for r/fantasy which should set me up well to finish this before the 2025 board releases at the end of March. I also had a goal to read all of the Rick Riordan Presents imprint books. I’ll consider this completed since I did read all of the books published before last year but have not read any, save one, of the books published in 2024. - Prioritize written reviews.
I went on a journey with this goal throughout the year. I started off strong by writing the review before I moved onto the next book. Eventually that waned and then combined with how many books I read, the numbers piled up. Soon I was back to doing what I did at the end of 2023 and putting in reviews that consisted of a single sentence referring back to the specific video in which I discussed the book. Whoops. Not exactly what I had planned. Then in October I ended up shifting how I created content from video to this blog, which fits me so much better. Now I write full reviews for eery book, much more comprehensive reviews that I wrote back when I tried to maintain written reviews and video content. By the time the year finished, I surpassed the goal despite the journey I took to get there. - Complete/clear all series started pre-BookTube.
I worked steadily through the list throughout the year. A couple times when setting the next month’s TBR, I pulled out series that I had no interest in continuing. By the time December came, I realized that all of the series I had left on my TBR in this category, I had no interest in reading and chose to unhaul them. (You will see these in my 4th quarter unhaul to go up in a few weeks.) I consider this goal a success with the small caveat that the last of those series – Daughter of Smoke and Bone – I will finish in January since my Goodreads Choice Awards project took up time at the end of the year along with the fact that I chose to reread the first book to give my experience with the series a better shot at success. - Complete 1 series per month. Make progress in 1 series per month.
Since I did manage to complete the other goal about series, I believe that I met this goal. However, I did not make it a priority, after the first few months, to track this data. This is something that I can definitely improve on in 2025. - Prioritize new release fantasy.
I made this a goal to help with my Goodreads Choice Awards project. I started off the year making monthly lists of anticipated releases. Although I did not maintain this habit, I did manage to have relative success with the adult fantasy category, managing to read 10 of the 20 nominees prior to the list being announced. I did not have the same amount of success with young adult fantasy so I want to improve on that for 2025.
That brings me to my 2025 goals.
- Read 500 books.
I debated for quite a while on whether or not I would make this my goal. that number seems absolutely absurd. Okay, it doesn’t just seem absurd, it is absurd for the vast majority of people on this plant. For me, however, that means reading a little less than 50 more books than I read in 2024. I think I can do it. That being said, I am willing to downgrade this number to make it more reasonable should the situation call for it later in the year. - Increase the percentage of nonfiction books I read by a minimum of 5%.
I always want to read more nonfiction but in 2024, I read slightly less because I did not read through the memoir category of the Goodreads Choice Awards like I did in 2023. I managed to get to about 10% in 2024 which makes my minimum goal for 2025, 15%. If I wanted to put that into specific numbers of books based on my absurd goal of 500, 10% would mean 50 books and 15% would mean 75 books. I think I can manage that, especially because I’m requesting more nonfiction ARCs than fiction on NetGalley so I can double up on goals progress. I will likely need to put more than two nonfiction books onto my monthly TBRs so I will start that with February’s TBR. - Catch up on NetGalley eARCs.
As I mentioned in the first portion of this post, this is a repeated goal – third year in a row – but I am much closer this year than the previous two years. To help myself meet this goal, I plan to put a minimum of two ARCs specifically on my monthly TBRs and plan to prioritize the ARCs for my reads once I finish the set TBR. - Catch up on all book box subscription books and reevaluate those subscriptions.
Back in 2023, I spent several months evaluating my book box subscriptions which helped me maintain but not extend my backlog of those books. After I decided which subscriptions I would cancel, change, or keep, I did not focus solely on those books so the backlog extended a bit.
Throughout 2024, as I prioritized fantasy books that I thought might make the Goodreads Choice Awards list, I ended up reading several of those with less than stellar and inconsistent results. As the editions have continued to become even more stunning, my enjoyment of the picks has become a mixed bag. As much as I love pretty books, it’s time to reevaluate my subscriptions to see if they are worth continuing to spend money on. - Read or unhaul all books in my owned TBR purchased in 2023 or before.
I have several books on my TBR shelves that I got either through a couple book box subscriptions that did not survive the first round of culling or at my local used book sale in 2021 or 2022. When I go to make my TBRs, these books are always available but I am never inclined to pick them up and add them to the list. That needs to change so at least once or twice this year, I plan to sort through those books and either unhaul them or get them onto a TBR. - Complete or catch up on 10% of current series.
As an avid fantasy reader, I have quite an extensive list of currently reading series. Many, if not most, of these are series that I started because of book box subscriptions. I want to keep up with this series list so that I do not have to reread or find summaries for first books so that I can continue reading the series. At the time of writing, I have not done my series check in so I do not have a specific number. In that post, I will mention the number as well as the 10% amount that I will prioritize in 2025. - Complete all yearlong TBRs and seasonal projects. (This goal will likely make consistent appearances on my yearly goals.)
I love making lists. Making lists of books to read is no exception. These lists also help with previously mentioned goals. Each of these year long TBRs and projects will have a separate, more detailed dedicated post but I want to list them here in the goal post as well.
I plan to complete the following year long TBRs – Buzzwordathon (Kayla has two this year), 25 in 25, r/fantasy (finish 2024 and start 2025 when released) Fully Booked, and Pokethon (the year long patron readathon for Jade’s patreon) as well as the following two projects when they release their lists – SCASL Junior and Young Adult Book Award long lists and the Goodreads Choice Awards fantasy and young adult fantasy (I may choose another category but I will decide that at the time that Goodreads drops the lists in November).
I am really excited for the reading year ahead and hopefully will be able to celebrate success with these goals come December 2025.
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