Hello friends and welcome to our New Year Reading Goals for 2022! Shelf Explored always has the goal of reading outside our comfort zones and exploring so we thought we would share with you guys our individual goals for reading this year and some we have every year.
Jacilyn’s Goals
I don’t like to set too many goals for myself. I just want to enjoy reading and to explore more books, authors, and genres as always.
1. Track books better and more consistently
For my 2022 reading goals, I'm trying to stay away from a certain number of books for the year, and focus instead on being more consistent with tracking what I've read.
2. Try using the Storygraph App
I try to use Goodreads, but I've never been great at remembering to update it, and I've found some aspects of it to be less than ideal for the way I read. For example, I could care less about the date I started and finished a book.... I just want to know the year I read it, and that it was read! I'm also not big into reviewing books, and that's a big part of the purpose of Goodreads. This year, I'm going to try out Storygraph and see if I find it more helpful.
Michaela's Goals
I really enjoy setting goals. I don’t always accomplish them but that’s fine because they’re goals and not missions. I like to set goals based on what I have accomplished the year before and any difficulties I had that year as well.
1. 27 Books for my 27th Year
I am turning 27 this year and recently I’ve enjoyed setting a book number goal off of either my age or the year. So if I don’t quite get to 27 books by the end of this year I’m just altering my goal to ‘22 Books for 2022’. I did the same thing for last year, my initial goal was 26 but I ended up reading 21 which was my back up goal. Reading any amount of books is good enough for me, honestly. Sometimes reading can be hard and I’m prone to reading slumps.
2. 8,000 Pages
I have never had a page number goal before. I started using the app Storygraph to keep track of my reading last year and I fell in love with it. It provides a whole lot of statistics based on your reading and it kept track of the number of pages I read. Last year I read a little over 7,000. I have never kept track of that before and I’d like to be more conscious of it, for no other reason than it just intrigues me.
3. Give Myself Permission to Enjoy Old Favorites
I am a notorious re-reader but I haven’t done much of that in a few years. There’s some old favorites of mine that I would like to revisit. I like a good comfy read and sometimes that’s really what I need. So this year I’m giving myself permission to re-read rather than just focus on reading new. No guilt and no shame for re-reading rather than reading new books this year. Sometimes re-reading at a different age actually brings you new meaning to an old favorite which is always fascinating.
4. Read from my Physical TBR
I like buying new books…but I don’t always read them. As many of us do. Some people like to do ‘no buy’ years but I know I’m not capable of that self-discipline at this point in my life. So I’m just going to try to read some of the books I already own but have never read.
5. Get a library card
I do not have a library card! Which having my best friend be an actual librarian…I am ashamed. Just kidding friends! But I would really like to get one. My husband and I moved to Minneapolis 3 years ago now and I just haven’t gotten around to doing it. I am more of a “buy the book” rather than “borrow it” kind of person because I like to own the books I enjoy but I don’t always need to do that.
6. Reading Journal
Something I have never done is keep a reading journal. I have done bullet journaling for about 8 years now and it’s something I love doing. So I’m going to take that creative project I usually do and just do it again in a new format. I’m really excited about it and have been looking at other people’s reading journals. I would like to keep track of the normal stuff like author, title, genre, etc. But I would also like to have a place to write some of my thoughts/opinions on the book. It would be nice to be able to look back and see what about the book I did or did not like, or perhaps some favorite quotes or characters.
General Goals for Reading
Here are some general ideas we like to keep in mind for reading every year. These are more permanent goals for our reading journeys rather than goals just for one year.
1. Read more books that feature protagonists who fall outside of what is considered ‘conventionally attractive’, protagonists who are differently abled, and protagonists who just don't fit into the "ideal" mold in general. It’s so important to feel represented and to read others being represented.
2. Read more queer fiction. Again representation matters so much.
3. More reading less scrolling
4. Explore new things! New genres, new authors, and new writing styles you never know what you’ll find.
5. Read books that your friends recommend (it’s okay to not like them and that’s okay. You tried
something new. But you might find they’re a new favorite. Who knows!)
6. If you don’t like it then you don’t need to read it! It’s okay to not finish something.
7. Just Read! Sometimes just reading something is enough. You don't need to always read a certain number of books, pages, genres, authors, whatever. Reading is a goal in itself. Even if you read one chapter this year, you did it! Sometimes the hardest thing is just picking something up.
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