Challenges & Goals for 2019

2018 Blogging & Reading Drought

2018 was a whirlwind of a year for me with incredible highs and some of my worst lows. Looking back, there’s a lot to be grateful for but also a lot I wish I had dealt with differently. It’s because of these that this blog took quite a hit.

I published significantly fewer posts last year compared to 2017, 2016, 2015 and possibly even 2014. I didn’t feel much like reading for over 6 months, and didn’t update my reading spreadsheet during that time. It’s sheer habit that drove me to finish at least one book a week, mainly on audio. So yep, I’m still filling in the gaps, and hope to post my 2018 reading statistics anyway.

Despite my near disappearance, however, a lot of you stuck around. In fact, my readership maintained compared to the two years prior, so thank you for not giving up and being patent with me! I intend to post a lot more in 2019!

Staying Motivated in 2019

On the personal front, I’m excited about a number of projects, events and travels this year. This in turn makes me a feel a lot more motivated to get back into the swing of things over here as well. However, I’m under no delusions that my mood will stay this way throughout the year. To keep myself motivated, I’m joining a couple of challenges and am setting some goals as well.

Blogging Challenges & Goals

2019 Discussion Challenge

Discussions are some of my favourite blogposts to read! Sadly, I hardly posted any of these last year. Truth be told, I didn’t have much to say because I felt like every topic related to books has been beaten to death. But who cares? I love books, and I love talking about books. So long as one or two people humour me to initiate a discussion based on what’s been on my mind, I’ve achieved my goal. With that, I’m aiming for 21–30 posts (Chatty Kathy). You can sign up too at Feed Your Fiction Addiction or at It Starts at Midnight.

Reviving Bookstagram 101 & Photography

Besides getting back in to discussions, I also want to write tutorials again. Even though I didn’t write a single tutorial since November 2017, Bookstagram 101 and Photography still draws a lot of readers. Some even reached out personally to me to tell me my posts encouraged them to join bookstagram. It gives me so much joy to see the community grow, so I want to expand my library of posts.

Do you have any questions or topics you want me to address? Feel free to comment below or fill out my contact form!

Reading Challenges & Goals

2019 Goodreads Reading Challenge

As usual, I’m joining the Goodreads Reading Challenge. The past five years, my goal was always to read 100 books that year. If I cut out mindlessly refreshing my social media feeds, I’m sure I can easily outdo that, which is why my goal is to read 120 books this year.

2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge

Joining the Popsugar Reading Challenge has basically become tradition. A bunch of blogger friends and I tried it in 2015 when Popsugar first came up with those prompts. Back then, we tweaked them to be more relevant to us. Each year we’ve tweaked the prompts less and less, till last year we stuck to the original, save for two acceptable variations. This year, we’re in to the deep end, following it to a T.

My goal is to complete all 50 prompts. I think they’re pretty doable compared to the 2018 challenge, for which I read true crime and nordic noir — both of which I had pointedly avoided before. The hardest prompts I foresee are “Two books that share the same title (1) & (2)” and “A book with no chapters, unusual chapter headings, or unconventionally numbered chapters.”

TBR Reduction

Here we go with my yearly resolution: read books I own. Last year I coupled that with limiting the number of books I was allowed to buy. Turns out that it did help to reduce the damage to my TBR pile. My TBR pile reduction tally for 2018 is -6, bringing my total number of books to read to 393. That’s hardly a reduction, of course, but it’s a start. For the first time in years, my TBR pile didn’t increase through the end of the year. Part of the reason I didn’t make a dent either is that I listened to a lot of audiobooks that I had borrowed instead of turning to my bookshelves.

My goal this year is to reduce my TBR by 53 books, down to 340.

Around the World

This one’s not an official challenge anymore. Crini used to host it, challenging participants to visit as many places through books as possible. The more obscure the places, the better. I enjoy tracking places because I love seeing why world map covered in pins at the end of the year.

My goal is to read a book for each continent. The majority of the books I read are set in North America and Europe. I hope this challenge will remind me to explore different settings more. Besides that, I’m just curious to see where the books I read this year will take me.

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What are your goals for 2019? And what are you looking forward to this year?