2020 Reading Goals

Hello everyone,

Here we are in a new year (and a new decade!) how crazy is that. Anyway, I figured this year I might try and set myself a few reading goals to see if I can become more consistent in my reading. As not only do I enjoy it 9 times out of 10 (often the other 10% is reading for work etc) but I find it a really good form of self-care which I am trying to focus more on this year as I have defiantly let it fall to the side recently. So, not only do I have a few personal reading goals this year, but I am also going to try and follow along with a few challenges as well.

Personal Goals:

• Read 25 books in 2020 – I have set this same goal over the past few years and never quite made it, so I figured I am just going to stick with this number until I hit it and then I can see about increasing it after that.
• Read every day in 2020 – I often struggle to settle at the end of the day and I remember back when I was at school, I would read every night before bed without fail. Even if it was only a few pages. I find I sleep better when I read before bed and I also find it relaxing, so it is definably something I would like to reintroduce into my routine in 2020.
• Get my tbr pile down. Last year I focused on not adding to the tbr list too drastically and this year I would like to work on getting it down. I look at the books I have in my flat and think aw about 50, that’s not too many. Then I remember that I still have all the books left at home too and that number just scares me. However, as I don’t go home too often it’s not something I have to think about. So, this year I am going to try and make sure every time I go home, I pick up another unread book from there and see how it goes. I might mean I only get through 3 or 4 of those books at home, but that’s something.

Reading Challenges:

Reading Challenges aren’t something I have ever taken part in before, but I figured they could be a good motivator for me. Especially if they come with checklists where I can tick things off as they happen. So, I think I have 3 challenges I would like to take part in across the year, they are:

• A to Z Challenge – this is quite simple, read a book beginning with every letter in the alphabet. So, this is slightly more than my 25 books goal, however, I am going to try and fill it with all the books on my tbr. I might not complete the alphabet, but I think it will be a fun little way of choosing and varying what I read. The template I am using over on my bookstagram comes from @littleinklingdesign.
• 20 reads in 2020 by @evavstheworld and @iirasbooks. This is one of those challenges I came across while browsing bookstagram. I often struggle to read books and so I figured maybe having prompts to work off might make life a little easier? Anyway, this is a list of 20 prompts, and you pick a book based on the prompt, also I like that one book can be used for more than one prompt.
• Finally, what I think may influence most of my reading this year: The Unread Shelf Project. I am working on a separate blog post for this, as I am super invested in trying this one. But it offers a prompt each month for you to read one book off your tbr. If you don’t finish it in the month you give it away. I like this (and hate it at the same time) as I feel it will motivate me to read my book of choice, but I also have the fear about not finishing a book and giving it away. However, I have a feeling it is probably the thing I need to keep me on track with my reading this year.

So, there we have it. Along with my reading goals I also the goal of better self-care this year, and I am hoping reading each day will form a small part of that. I do have several other goals regarding this, but I am going to keep them for a sperate blog post if you are interested? Do you have any personal or reading goals in 2020? If so let me know in the comments.

Love,

Alanna x