TTT | Reading Goals I Still Want to Accomplish Before the End of the Year

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly topic hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week she provides a topic, and you are free to use that topic and/or variations of that topic to make your top ten list. A full list of the weekly themes can be found here.

A lot of the year has flown by, while at the same time moving as slow as molasses. I actually didn’t set up any bookish goals this year, except for the amount of books I’d read in the year. So, here’s what I had thought up at the time, plus some goals from previous years that I’m still working on (don’t look at me like that).

Read 130 Books: The goal I set up for this year was based on the fact that in 2021 I set out to read 60 books and in 2022 I set out to read 100 books. Both of these I accomplished. Since I added an extra 30 books, I decided to do the same this year. I’ve so far read 92 books and am 6 books behind schedule (according to both Goodreads and The Storygraph). I’m excited for Thanksgiving break when I’ll be able to take time to catch up on my reading as work gets in the way.

Read Books I Own: This has been a goal for the past few years and am slowly making my way through this. I haven’t read as much of the books I own as I would like, plus our new indie bookstore in town is not helping in this manner. Yes, I’m completely blaming them! But seriously, I’ve been getting distracted with book club picks and Kindle unlimited books and books that come through the library that I keep pushing back on reading the books I already own.

Get My Netgalley Ratio Above 80%: I’ve actually managed to get this up there earlier in the year and have pretty much kept it there. I set up a new system for myself were I only allow myself one request at a time and to finish that one before I request another. The “your lists” feature that I finally noticed (I can be dense at times) has been a huge help with this.

Share/Post More on the Blog: This one has just been difficult because of life circumstances. As I continue job hunting, my confidence lowers and my frustration heightens where I don’t want to do anything. I have a few leads so hopefully it goes somewhere. I’m hoping the rest of the year and the coming year I’ll be able to spend more time sharing my thoughts on each book I read, and therefore, posting more regularly.

Not Force Books: I usually have this as a goal each year. Growing up I was always someone who had to finish anything I started reading. But as an adult who is working full time and doesn’t have as many hours in the days that you think there are as a child, I’m much better at DNFing books. I have only DNFed 3 books this year, I’ve read many Kindle romance books that looking back I wish I had DNF them. I kept hoping they would get better, which they didn’t.

Work on My Own Writing: I’ve always considered myself a writer and have been working on a poetry book that I hope I can get published. However, it will not be until I leave my current job as the poetry collection is about growing up queer in a small, deeply religious, town in Texas, which the place I work at is highly against. Plus, I also tear into the place I work at with one of my poems, so there’s that too. I have in the past month started writing a fantasy purely due to the recent fantasy books I’ve read that were not to my liking and thinking I could do better (we shall see). My friend and I also have come up with an idea of a romance story between a human and a vampire (I know it’s old hat but this is different).