2021 Reading Goals

I’ll probably be saying this a lot in the coming weeks but I don’t make New Years resolutions. That said, I do like the whole ‘new’ feel to this time of year and because of that I like to set goals. My aim is to always make sure that those goals don’t cause too much stress though. This is especially important when it comes to reading.

I always set my reading challenge to 52. The average number of books I read each year is about 120 so I like setting a comfortable reading challenge. I mostly like to do the challenges for the stats at the end of each year. I have typically used Goodreads for this but this year I’m also going to use The Story Graph because their statistics are just gorgeous and Goodreads hasn’t improved their website or app in years so I’d really like an alternative. It’s early days for The Story Graph, they’ve just come out of beta, but I’m actually really excited about it.

At the moment I’m only planning on participating in one reading group. I read with a group called the Bookstorians last year and I’m continuing on with them in 2020. Our goal is to read a historical fiction every two months. We originally did one book a month but last year was last year so there were definite focus issues so this year we decided to go for less pressure (a 2021 theme perhaps) and giving ourselves two months to finish each book. The first two books are:

The Library of Legends by Janie Chang (January/February)

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (March/April)

One of my big goals for the year is to read books I already own. I’m pretty sure this is a vow we all make each year and one that we never stick to. There is a meme going around at the moment that rightly highlights the fact that reading and buying books are two very different hobbies. I for one tend to buy books when I’m feeling stressed or anxious so as you can imagine 2020 was not kind to my bookshelves or my wallet. I do have a huge amount of unread books to read though, so for now, I’m not buying any books in January. The plan after this is to make a list of releases I’ll be interested in this year and allow myself to buy one book a month for the rest of the year. I’m not including my pre-orders or Goldsboro Books subscriptions though. This is probably cheating but these are my goals so I get to set the rules and Goldsboro is my monthly treat. I do love a first edition!

There are a few reading challenges on Bookstagram that I like the look of and might partake if I have the time and the resources but for now I don’t want to overwhelm myself so I’m going to look at those in February.

So tell me, what is your most important reading goal is this year?