My 2020 Reading Goals

It’s April, but I haven’t done a reading goals post for the year. Now that I’m back into reading, I have to remedy that.

I originally set my Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge at 10 books. Now, that might not seem like a lot to some of you, but last year was a disaster for me reading-wise. I actually only read 10 books for the entire year, and most of them were just “meh” books. My reading slump was insane.

To be fair, I had a lot of things going on. I moved back to Missouri from NYC. I quit my job and was stressed out looking for a new one and feeling like a loser for doing so. And, while I was living in NYC, I hated living there because of my loud neighbors who wouldn’t give me the peace I needed to read and sleep during the weekends. I was a mess. But I’ve finally hit a place in my life where I’m comfortable reading again. Plus, I’m stuck inside a lot more than usual with everything going on, so why not work my way through my TBR?

I set my 2020 Goodreads Challenge to 10 books at the start of the year. I reached that goal earlier this month, so I changed my goal to 30 books. I’m really hoping to reach 50, but 30 puts less pressure on me.

Other than my Goodreads Challenge, I have a few other personal reading goals that mostly consist of finishing specific books and series.

#1. Read 15 books I already owned physical copies of prior to 2020. So far, I’ve read three.

#2. Finish A Game of Thrones. I’ve been reading this one for a while. I started after the final season of GoT disappointed me for so many reasons, and I want to finish it before the end of 2020. I’m 42% through. I also think it’d be cool to read one A Song of Ice and Fire book per year until I catch up or the next book is released. (Ha ha.)

#3. Finish the Violet Eden series. I just finished Entice, and there are three more books. I’m going to try to finish one every few months. These books have been on my shelf for so very long, and they’re so beautiful. I’ll never get rid of them, just because of their gorgeous covers. I don’t like unread books being on my pretty shelves, though, so I HAVE to finish them.

#4. Finish last books. I have a lot of last books in series that I just need to read. United and Starfall by Melissa Landers, Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan, Allied by Amy Tintera, and Let the Wind Rise by Shannon Messenger are the primary culprits.

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Well, those are my 2020 reading goals. What are your reading goals for the year? Have you met any of them yet? Let me know in the comments below!

My 2015 Year in Review According to Goodreads

So I recently (as in a few weeks ago) discovered Goodreads’ new year-in-review feature where it shows you your year in books. I don’t know if Goodreads had this set up for the last few years and I’m just now discovering it or if this is totally new, but I am digging it.

According to Goodreads, I’ve read a total of 32,165 pages! That’s a lot of pages! I’m sure there are people out there who have read more than that this year (Heck, I used to be one of those people who could read 150+ books per year), but I felt like a book-reading failure this year, so that page number and those 102 books make me feel very proud.

Ha! So my shortest book isn’t really a book—it’s a novella. Big surprise. What is surprising is that this wasn’t one of the novellas I was reading to further my Goodreads goal. I think I just read this book randomly. As for the longest book, up until a few days ago, my longest read was actually Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas, but I snuck Winter in at the last moment. And boy is that thing hefty!

Oh, and apparently those novellas I crammed in there didn’t mess with the average length of the books I’ve read this year, because 322 pages per book (on average) is fairly normal. I guess I read some longer books this year to balance everything out.

I’m super surprised that Pride and Prejudice has been read by over two million people! I mean, I know it’s popular. It’s a classic. But two million! In comparison to my least popular read, that’s an insane difference.

My Average Rating on Goodreads is actually a lot higher than I thought it would be. I feel like I’m constantly giving books negative reviews, but I guess I’m really not. Weird. And the highest rated book I’ve read, Queen of Shadows, is definitely not the highest rated by me. I think I gave Queen of Shadows four stars? Maybe 3.5? I’m not sure.  

All in all, it’s been a pretty good reading year. I’m excited to see what awesome adventures 2016 brings! 

Oh, and let me know how your 2015 reading year went in the comments.

Catching Up to the Goodreads Goal

I’m so ashamed of myself. I’ve never been this behind on my Goodreads goal before. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been behind on a Goodreads goal. I’ve always been ridiculously ahead. As you can see by my handy screenshot down there to the right.

I’ve also always managed to get to 100, even when I set my sights lower. (I set it lower one year because it was my first year of college, but I still managed to read a lot.) I actually have to set my goal lower for next year. I’m thinking 50 books instead of 100. Maybe then I’ll really get to enjoy the books, instead of just flying through them so I can knock another one off my TBR.

But back to this year’s problem. This year, I’m just not going to be able to make it to 100 books if I don’t do something drastic. And that drastic thing is… cheating.

Okay, so it’s not cheating per se; it just depends upon your interpretation of what a book is. And right now, I have to interpret it as books and novellas, otherwise, I am not going to make it. I’ve just had a lot going on this year.

I have two jobs, both of which are Monday through Thursday, I’ve been going to the gym and losing weight (so that’s a good hour every five days that I’m losing in reading time), and then of course there’s school. I’m a senior in college and I am just ridiculously overwhelmed. I’m taking mixed-credit for my major, which means I’m taking graduate and undergraduate classes, while still taking part in several organizations and being active on my blog. Can you tell that my life has just been one big mess? 

Oh, and then there’s been Netflix. I always watch Netflix towards the end of the semester. I think it’s my way of procrastinating. I can’t read when I have homework I need to focus on because I get distracted, but boy can I watch hours upon hours of television shows with no remorse. (I’m currently watching William Moseley on The Royals via Amazon Prime. :)

In order to help me reach my goal, I’ve been binge-reading novellas and only novellas for the past week and a half or so. I think I’ll keep reading a few more until I get to the 92 or 93 books-read area. 


Then, I’ll be on winter break from college and that means my jobs won’t be open since I work on campus. And that sucks because of no pay when I come back in January, but it means almost an entire month of relaxation time for me, so I can read some books that have been on my TBR shelf for a while. I really need to do this, especially since I’ve been purchasing A TON of books lately that I haven’t even been able to pick up. Ugh…

So I guess what all of this ranting and raving is for is to ask you how you feel about Goodreads goals. Do you think only book books should count? Or are you more of a if-it-has-words-on-the-page-then-it-counts kind of reader? Let me know in the comments. And I hope you reach your Goodreads goal!