Looking Back at my 2019 Resolutions & Setting my 2020 Reading Goals

Today I am going to be doing another post that I do every January, but this time instead of just looking back at my reading over the last 12 months, I will also be looking forward at how I hope the next twelve months of reading will look.  I am someone who despite often not sticking to them or achieving them, loves setting resolutions at the start of a new year, whether they be bookish or not.

To start, lets look at some of my resolutions that I set for 2019 and whether or not I achieved them!

I fell a huge 10 books short of my Goodreads Challenge this year, something that I was definitely not expecting myself to do but still not particularly disappointed about.  Looking back, I can definitely see why this was the case in 2019, as reading just took a little bit of a back-burner during the busier or more stressful periods of my life rather than being the hobby I turn to for relaxation during these times.  I also found myself less excited about reading and books, something I am determined to at least attempt to change in 2020.

Continuing on with the trend of falling very short of my goals, I did not read a single classic in 2019.  In fact, the oldest book I read was published in 1996, which definitely speaks to the fact that I was just not interested in reading classics last year, something which I don’t think is a problem or something I particularly want to try and change.  Due to the fact that reading is often a form of escapism and relaxation for me, the idea of picking up a classic that will likely take more effort to read isn’t particularly appealing, especially when the free time I have in which to read isn’t a lot.

Finally one that I succeeded on!  One of the best things to come out of my 2019 reading year was audiobooks, as they became a staple in my routine and allowed me to read so much more than I otherwise would have.  I now always have an audiobook on the go for when I’m travelling or cleaning, and often even look forward to my early morning bus journey’s because I know that it means returning to my audiobook.

I did slightly better on this one than with my classics goal, as I did at least reread one book, that of course being The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.  Although I would have obviously liked to have hit this goal, or at least made more progress on it, I am still very happy that I finally started my reread of The Raven Cycle after wanting to do so for a while.  Furthermore, this also means that I am more likely to reread books in 2020 as I can continue on with this series, something that may then also motivate to revisit more of my favourites as well.

Based on my success, or more accurately failure, with my reading goals last year, I have decided on four new resolutions for 2020….

For the first time in a few years, in 2020 I have decided to reduce my Goodreads challenge to 40 books rather than the usual 50 I aim for.  After missing my goal by 10 books in 2019, it seemed like the right time to change the number of books I aim to read in a year to stop myself from feeling like I am not reading enough or that I should be a better reader when those things are simply not true.  Although I do still hope to possibly surpass this number, by reducing it slightly I don’t feel like I am putting quite as much pressure on myself.

Similarly, I am also reducing my 2019 goal of rereading 5 books to 3 books, as whilst I don’t want to completely get rid of this resolutions, I do want to make it more attainable for me which will in turn hopefully motivate me more to actually make progress on it.  I have a long list of favourites that I would love to revisit, so I would love to do exactly that for at least a few of them in 2020.

This is the first new goal for 2020 that replaces my usual goal to read a said number of classics, as the fact that I have never achieved that goal nor read a single classic in 2019 suggests that I am just not drawn to reading them at the moment.  So instead I am going to aim to continue reading outside of my comfort zone every so often by trying to pick up at least five books that are not from my most read genres.  This is one that I am pretty confident that I will be able to achieve, but still one I wanted to set as a reminder that I sometimes need to read outside of my norm and that by doing so I might actually discover a new favourite.

My final goal for 2020 isn’t directly talking about what I hope to read, but rather how I hope to approach my book collection and my physical shelves.  As with alot of readers, the number of books I own has increased alot over the years, and it has now got to the point where I have completely run out of shelve space and personally have too many unread books on those shelves in comparison to read.  Therefore in 2020 I hope to combat this by both reducing my book buying and choosing to only physically buy books that I am very interested in and that I expect to love, and by regularly unhauling books that I didn’t enjoy and books on my TBR that I am no longer interested in.

Did you achieve your 2019 bookish goals?  What are some of your reading resolutions for 2020?  Are you attempting any reading challenges this year?

———–