Top Ten Tuesday – December 30, 2014: Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2015

TTT

TOP TEN TUESDAY
December 30, 2014

It’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the wonderful blog at The Broke and the Bookish! This week’s topic: Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2015

challenges

  • LAST YEAR: I am signing up for ZERO challenges. I have a tendency to take on a LOT of different things because it’s so fun to participate in everything! But you know what? It’s really hard and time consuming to try to do it all! I actually ended up giving up on keeping tracking of both the Debut Author Challenge and YA Contemporary Challenge less than halfway through the year. Updating and maintaining my Goodreads, designated blog page, and staying on track for the challenges became overwhelming. I also decided the United States of YA was fun but also not something I really wanted to update and maintain all the time.”
    • HOW’D I DO? Good! I didn’t pick up any more challenges in 2014
  • THIS YEAR: I’m okay with taking on a couple challenge this year… Mostly because they’re ones I know I can accomplish easily and I’m not going overboard. In 2015, I will be taking part in my own challenge (of course) — the Book Blogger Organization Challenge — along with Flights of Fantasy, the Re-Read Challenge, and the Debut Author Challenge!

readalongs

  • LAST YEAR: “I’m not saying no to read alongs, but I’m going to be a lot choosier about what I sign up for. Read alongs are really a lot of fun, but that’s also time that I have to designate to a book while reading another book for my own personal reading time. Alyssa, Amy and I will be doing our “On the Same Page” read alongs this year which is really less for a formal read along and more for us just reading some really good books together and enjoying them all at the same time. I’m REALLY looking forward to this because it’s so much fun to read the same books at the same time and this will definitely be much less pressure than a formal read along and then I also wouldn’t have to read multiple books at once. I already know that it will also push me to read books that are maybe a little bit out of my comfort zone (whether it be genre, content or adult/MG vs my usual YA) and expand my horizons to new things!
    • HOW’D I DO? That’s pretty accurate. I didn’t do many official read alongs and just stuck to some buddy reads and On the Same Page reads!
  • THIS YEAR: I’m sticking to the same thing. Happy to read books with my friends but with how busy things have gotten, I’m less likely to do read alongs.

arcs

  • LAST YEAR: “This year I’m going to try to request WAY less egalleys and really pick and choose the books that I want to read. I’m going to try to stay on track with the ARCs I currently have and start working on the ARCs I had requested and work on reviewing those as well. I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to work on catching up on the books I already have/own/have downloaded and I also really want to start cleaning up my shelves and reading what I’ve already purchased.
    I plan on going back to BEA this year and while grabbing books was a certain thrill, I really want to pick up only the ones I’m really interested in. I thought I did a good job of this in 2013 but at the same time, I still have a lot of unread books at home that I knew I probably wasn’t going to get to. I feel bad that I have so many books that I took because I felt like they had potential but really in the back of my head, I knew I was going to push them aside for my “must-reads”. (Sadly, some of which are STILL sitting on my shelf unread. See??)
    I’m also going to try to do better at reading ARCs around their pub dates. Some have really gotten lost in the mix because I just requested to many and there are so many egalleys and physical ARCs that I need to get to still that I’ve actually been dying to read!”

    • HOW’D I DO: Haaaaa hahaha. Not so great. I did do better at BEA, grabbing more books for On the Same Page ARC tours but I couldn’t stop myself from requesting egalleys. I did request a smaller amount but I still grabbed the ones that looked really good!
  • THIS YEAR: Oh, brother, who knows. I really do want to try to catch up on ARCs this year but I also say that every year. Maybe I will actually find the time… but those new books are always coming out!!!

shelves

  • LAST YEAR: “Although unofficially, I’m going to try to read more of a mix. It’s hard to read a variety of old and new when there are so many new releases at my fingertips via ARCs from publishers, Netgalley, Edelweiss, and whatever I’ll haul from BEA this year, but I really do want to read some of the books I already have! I finally read LEGEND by Marie Lu this year and I don’t know why I waited so long! I know there are hidden treasures hanging out there and I want to be able to get to them!”
    • HOW’D I DO? Well… I DID read some more books from my shelves. It was kind of all over the place! It’s hard to say exactly how many that was. I probably could have done a better job.
  • THIS YEAR: I should try to do this again! Maybe reading more ARCs and reading more books from my shelves count as one thing this year? Haha.

GRCHALLENGE

  • LAST YEAR: “I’m hoping to beat 2013 but I guess we’ll see how the year goes! I have so many things going on that I hope I have time for that much reading but we’ll see what the year holds. I read 131 books in 2013 so my goal in 2014? Starting at 132 haha!!”
    • HOW’D I DO: I aimed way too high with my wedding being this year. I eventually lowered my goal twice to 120 books.
  • THIS YEAR: I actually think I’m going to aim LOWER. Sounds weird, right? I usually try to beat myself from last year. But I’m doing things differently in 2015. I really want to keep up with my reading challenge and not always feel so far behind. I think I’ll start my goal off at maybe 100 or 110.

I guess I don’t really have too many NEW resolutions. I’m just always trying to constantly stay organized and to get my reading habits straightened out. I’m trying to commit to less time-consuming things that I may not enjoy as much and focusing on some simpler things like just keeping up with my TBR! (Although that’s always a task in itself.)

Hi, I'm Brittany!
Hi, I'm Brittany!

I'm an avid reader, candle-maker, and audiobook lover! Here you'll find book reviews, fun blog posts, and my other loves of photography & craft beer!

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9 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday – December 30, 2014: Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2015

  1. Rebecca @ The Library Canary

    The ARCs… that was a resolution for me last year and I think I may have done worse with the egalleys this year. I did okay at BEA I feel like, but I do still have a lot of BEA books I haven’t read so maybe not so much… ALA MW was my first big bookish event with tons of free books and I went really overboard, so I tried not to get too crazy at BEA. Hopefully I’ll have most of them read before May… But yeah, I definitely want to clear some of my egalleys out this year and not request/download so many. But it’s so hard not to click that shiny “download review copy” on EW!!! *sigh* at least I know I’m not alone in my utter lack of self-control. Good luck with your resolutions for this year!

    Reply
  2. Ashley @The Quiet Concert

    120 books with a wedding… I am so impressed. Wedding planning and wedding things CRUSHED my free time. I did a lot myself and had a ton of crafts to work on and it just ate up my reading. Last year I read 100 books, this year… a whopping 60 🙁 I will try for more in 2015! You did well in your resolutions from last year though 🙂

    Reply
  3. Amber Elise

    I’m terrible at read alongs, I just don’t have teh patience or the will to read what I don’t want to read.

    Trying not to request galleys is soo hard, I understand the struggle, but hey, you didn’t pretty good in all other areas! 🙂

    Reply
  4. Candice @ The Grown-Up YA

    I like looking back at last year’s goals. This morning on the radio they were talking about resolutions and giving hints on how to keep them. One of the hints said if you didn’t keep the resolution last year, don’t make it one this year. You’re only setting yourself up for disappointment. Obvs I didn’t mind that suggestion, but thought it was a good idea! I like looking at last year and seeing what worked, what didn’t, what I need to improve, etc. It looks like you kind of did the same thing! Here’s to 2015 being awesome for you B! 🙂

    Reply
  5. Quinn @ Quinn's Book Nook

    These are great goals for next year. It’s okay to not read as many books as the year before. No matter what, you’re still reading a ton. And I really think there is something to be said about the quality of the reading experience. If you’re just reading books to make your goal, well, it’s not as awesome is it?

    I think I’m going to participate in some challenges this year too. I haven’t really before, but I’m feeling it this year.

    Reply
  6. Kristen@My Friends Are Fiction

    I love that you put last year’s resolution on there. I think we are all trying to get a handle on our ARC requesting but there are just so many great books being released all the time. So hard to pick and choose what to request…so much easier to just say…ALL of them, haha. Great list of goals and happy New Year!

    Reply

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