Hello readers and welcome back to Blogmas! It is day 9, and today we are going to discuss my reading goals for 2021. Some of these might change over the course of the next month, but most of them are solid. One of my favorite aspects of reading is setting reading goals and tracking them through the year. I don't find it stressful to have really specific goals, I thrive with them. In 2020, I did pretty good in my goals, but not as good as 2019. I will link below a post on Goodreads where I track all my goals for the year, if you would like to see how I am doing through 2021. Here are my oddly specific reading goals for 2021!
Also, below will be a tag for all my other Blogmas posts, if you have missed any thus far. You can also subscribe and be notified via email when I post by filling out the form at the bottom of this page!
The first goal I have for 2021 is to read more new releases. I had this goal in 2020 as well, and I really enjoyed reading some new releases. I love reading backlist books, but it is fun to read, at least, some new releases as other people are getting them! I have already posted my most anticipated new released post, for the first half of the year.
Goal number 2 is my Goodreads goal. I not only set a book number for myself each year, but also a page goal and an average page count. I have done this every year since I was a teen. I usually go for 300-page average. However, in 2020, I tried to strive for 350 average, as I love big books, and I struggled all year to get to it. At this point, I still haven’t but I am really close. I think I am at around 335 average. In 2021, I will be going for 150 books. I don't know if I can do it, but I am going to try. 6 months in, I will lower it if I am failing and I am trying for 48,750 pages. As if writing this, I have read around 38,000 pages in 2020, which is already higher than last year.
The next one has two parts. In 2020, I aimed for 10 books over 500 pages. This year, I am going to strive for 15 books over 500 pages. I'm going to try to read more books over 1000 as well, but I am not putting a number on that one. I have been getting into adult fantasy in the last few months of the year, and I hope to get to a lot more next year.
The second half of this goal is to read less books under 300 pages. Statistically, I don’t love most of the books I read that are under 300 pages, except middle grade books. Either way, I really want to read more big books, and less short ones. If you guys would like to see my stats on that for 2020, let me know, and I can show you in my 2020 stats post in early January.
My next goal is one I have mentioned before. I have been trying to diversify my reading the past few years. However, I haven’t read many books by Indigenous authors. I do have a few on my TBR, but I will be keeping my eye out all year. Please let me know down below in the comments, what your favorite books by Indigenous authors are, because I don’t know of, more than, five different authors or so. I did manage to read books from authors from twenty different countries and ethnicities in 2020, and I would love to up that number in 2021.
My next goal is to finish 10 series. I focused on finishing series in 2019, and I did really well. In 2020, I kind of just let myself do as I wanted. I started 16 series in 2020, and have finished 4. I might get to one more by the end of the month. I need to get back on track, and start finishing all the series I am in the middle of. I also have a Goodreads post that you can check out where I track this through the year. I haven't posted it yet, but it will be linked in my other Goodreads post down below when I do post it. I am going to try to do a series ban in 2021, that I did in 2019. For the first half on 2019, I only let myself start a series if I finished five other series. I won't be that strict, but something similar will be set into place.
The next goal is to have less books on my TBR on December 31st than I did on January 1st. I currently have fifty-three books on my TBR. I think around five will drop off by the end of the month. No matter how many I buy, or am gifted, or receive in any way, I want to have less than the number I hit at the end of the year.
With that, I want to read all the books on my TBR that I have owned for more than two years. I own six books from before 2019, which isn’t very many, and I want to either read, DNF, or unhaul those books in 2021. I think, the newest book of those six, I bought in 2017, which was a Sophie Kinsella book called Twenties Girl. So, most of them have been on my TBR shelf for a very, very long time. I will post my updated physical TBR in January, after the Clear Ur Shit readathon is over.
The next goal is another one I did in 2020. In 2020, I tried to push myself to read more genres that I hadn't really been interested in previously. I went for historical fiction, sci-fi, and mystery/thriller. I had no idea how many sub genres existed among those genres and I had fun seeing what I do and don't like. I think every person can like every genre once they find their niche within that genre. In 2021, I want to go for some more specific genres. I want to try to read more romance, so I can find what I do and don't like in romance. I usually like 1 out of every 5 I try, so the odds are not in my favor. Also, historical fantasies and historical mysteries. I think I could find some really good books in those genres that I will like, and I am already curating a list. The last one is sci-fi horror. I do not really click with sci-fi when it comes to aliens, and space, or settings on space ships. However, I read a few sci-fi books this year that I liked. I do like time travel, any sci-fi that could be a Black Mirror or Twilight Zone episode, and sci-fi horror. I would love to delve into sci-fi horror more and I have managed to find a few for 2021. I just can't wait to get started!
The next few goals will be challenges to complete through the whole year. The first one is to read the winners of the Goodreads Choice Awards. I did do this in 2020 and I really enjoyed it. I read the winners for Mystery/Thriller, YA Fiction, Sci-Fi, Horror, and Romance and Debut author, which were the same book. I also read a ton of the runner ups. In 2021, I want to do the same thing. I'm going to read the winners for Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Horror, and YA fiction. I will read runner ups for those categories, and some others like Middle Grade.
For the first time in 2020, the Shaded Choice Awards was introduced. This is an award show similar to the Goodreads Choice Awards, but centered around new releases of POC authors only. When I found out about this, I immediately wrote in some books, and I later voted on them in every round. I not only want to read the winners for this, but the top two. I will do the same categories as for the GCA, except they didn't do historical fiction, and I want to add middle grade. I can't want to vote for 2021!
The next goal I have is one I have been doing the past two years. This one is called the Read Harder Challenge. If you don’t know, the 24 Read Harder challenges are announced every year in December by BookRiot to encourage you to diversify your reading. There is a Goodreads group to add your choice for each challenge, or to suggest books for other people. In 2019, I managed to fulfill 9 of the 24 prompts. In 2020, I set out for 12, and I managed to do 15. I don’t know if I will ever hit all 24, but I do love trying to get in as many as I can. In my 2020 goals wrap up later this month, I will show you all the books I read for what challenges I managed to complete. I also use Book Riot’s spreadsheet for the my reading log, which I have tweaked it to fit my reading a bit better.
The last one was a late add in. I am doing the Buzzwordath Readathon Challenge. This is a readathon that will take place every month during the first seven days of the month. It was created by BooksandLala on Booktube. Basically, you will need to read, at least, one book during the first seven days of the month, which fits the buzzword or theme. January's word is Dream. There will be a group book every month, and the January book is Strange the Dreamer. Every other month will be voted on, if you would like to join and vote.
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