2019 Blog Goals
WOW another year is upon us…and I will be honest here, blogging isn’t easy, more than 6 years of blogging isn’t easy. 2018 was a hell of a year all around, and there were good times and there were bad, but overall I am super proud of what we did in 2018 as a blog, bloggers, and overall cheerleaders for the love of books! Since Christy was new to BookCrushin in 2018, this will be her first blog goals post! I on the otherhand will recap my 2018 goals and create new ones for 2019! Of course to celebrate another year of being a part of our bookish community we have a giveaway for y’all!
Kelly’s Goals
So of course the biggest change for BookCrushin this past year was our entire blog overhaul! We redesigned our logo, and our blog theme. It was a lot of work and I am so glad we did it! I love it, and there are still some tweaks we need to make but seriously the best thing. After 6 years I definitely wanted something new to stare at! Also, I am thrilled to have Christy on board as my co-blogger, plus Shannon is getting back to reading and I look forward to having her back in the fold in 2019!
2018 Recap – 2019 Plans
Here was my summary of my goals, you can read the whole post here if you want!
- Instagram – more!
- Goodreads Challenge – 115 Books
- Beat the Backlist – at least 36 books
- Buy Less Books
- Review More
- Comment more on other blogs, build community
- Post on weekends more
- Have more fun on the blog
I can definitely quantify some of these successes and misses. However, some things are not easily defined.
I feel like I posted on instagram more, but my Best Nine tells me differently. Apparently I had 325 posts in 2017, and 291 in 2018…but I did gain more likes and followers this year. Our #SignedBookSundays challenge has been a wonderful photo challenge, and I have enjoyed getting to know new insta folks from it. Plus the bookstagram community is so relaxing comparatively to say twitter, that I prefer to hang out with beautiful photos of books! So come join me on instagram!
I completed my Goodreads Reading Challenge, and have read more than 115 books this year, 120 to be exact! Woohoo. I however did not actually read more than last year. For 2019, I hope to challenge myself by reading more, read more diversely, and read outside of my comfort zone. I also hope to read more of the books I want to read and stop reading things I am not enjoying. My completest soul has trouble DNFing books, but no one has time for bad books.
I kicked my #beatthebacklist goal’s ass. I wanted to read a third of my total goal as backlist books (anything that was released prior to 2018) and I am happy to say I read 48 backlist titles this year, 12 more than my goal! I have joined NovelKnight’s challenge again this year and we have partnered with Austine to help motivate participants to participate in Book Rewind, our backlist review feature on Thursdays!
I have no idea if I bought less books than in 2017. I tried to keep track of my bookish spending in my reading journal, and funny thing…I didn’t keep up with that either. Do I actually want to see what I spent on books? Nope…big huge nope. Some things just shouldn’t be delved into. Hard Stop. However, I do want to try and do better with my journaling this year, and I think I really should keep track, because it may be so enlightening.
It is really hard for me to cut back on books, they just bring me so much joy. However, I also acknowledge that I do not read all the books I buy! Also, I buy a lot of duplicates. I already decided I will not sub to any box but Owlcrate, and if I do buy another box it will be here and there. I also cancelled my Wizarding World Crate, so that saves me some bimonthly funds.
The dreaded blogger goal of reviewing more books. Did I succeed? Maybe. Do I feel like I failed no matter what the numbers show? Yes. Do I even want to look at the numbers? No. Will I make this a goal for 2019, of course.
I definitely tried to comment on more blogs, but this is probably my biggest failure. I can’t believe how bad I am at this. I do tend to scroll and like posts on my wordpress app & I follow every blog back that follows me (on wordpress). I will continue to try and do better & be a better blogger.
Once Christy came on board we made it a goal to deliver content on Saturdays and we are doing damn good at that IMHO. We went from rarely to semi-regularly posting on Saturdays! We did have about 22 less posts in 2019 (344) than 2018 (366), but we also took two weeks off to revamp the site and just took this holiday week off as well. We are averaging 28 posts per month.
I definitely think that Christy and I are trying to do more fun and engaging posts, and I love that we are doing personal posts now and reviewing more than just books!
2019 Goals
TL;DR – Kelly’s specific 2019 Goals
- Goodreads reading challenge goal of 120 books.
- Beat the Backlist challenge and read 30% of all books read.
- Read more of the things I want, more diverse, more branching out. Will try the A-Z challenge & maybe a varied genre challenge.
- Instagram better. Be better at taking more pics ahead of time, try more photo challenges consistently. More commenting/liking building friends. More stories!
- Buy less everything!
- Review more!
- Track my bookish life better. Journaling, spreadsheets, apps. Whatever it takes.
- Fix old reviews on blog so they populate in review listing.
- Enjoy the blog & blogging. Have fun with it!
Christy’s Goals
I centered a lot of my 2018 goals around general reading that fit into my other (life related) goals. This is the first year since starting Goodreads Reading Challenges that I read less than the previous year and also worried a bit that I might not make my challenge of 200 books. Thanks to being down in December, I landed at 225 books for the year. I also set out to bookstagram more (2x per week) but my fitstagram became more of a priority since it was aligned with my bigger goals. I had no idea coming into 2018 that I would join BookCrushin but it’s the best thing I did this year in relation to my bookish habits. Having a supportive blog partner you can communicate with is critical for a co-blogging relationship and I am so happy to have that in Kelly.
In 2019, I plan to:
- Read 200 books
- Be an active participant in Beat the Backlist, which includes reading backlist books regularly, playing the (more simple) BINGO card, reviewing them for Book Rewind, and doing the weekly challenges on Instagram
- Review the books I love and shout about them more
- Be more choosy in the books I accept and buy
- Use the library more
- Start or join a cookbook club
- Keep up on twice monthly Comic Crush posts
Giveaway
To celebrate 2019 Blog Goals we are going to giveaway 2 prizes!! A mystery box filled with books, ARCs, and bookish stuff to one USA winner. And one international winner will be able to choose a book up to $20 (USD) from Book Depository (as long as BD ships to your country for free). Just leave a comment about your reading goals, blog goals, instagram goals, or life goals for 2019!
Open to USA/PR for the Mystery Box prize & Open INTL for second prize of one book up to $20 from Book Depository. Open until 1/14/19. Must leave a comment to be eligible to win, please be sure the email you use to leave the comment is valid, as that is how we will contact you if you win. Winner has 72 hours to respond or another winner may be chosen.
Good luck with your goals! I recently did a blog post with most of mine. I’m participating in some challenges, too. I raised my goodreads goal to 100 books this year. I usually keep in small, but I’ve read over 100 for the past few years, so it was time.
Yay for setting your goal higher! As long as it doesn’t cause stress. Remember it can be changed at any time too! lol
I don’t think it will be a problem, but if it is, I’ll definitely lower it.
Hmm…. Goals…. Well, I want to listen to lots of books on audio CDs. I’m thinking Nicholas Sansbury Smith, and I’m hoping for more mutant aliens! And other fantasy books. …I want to read the next, and I hope concluding, “Prosper Redding” book. …And I want to complete some projects!
I think your goals are awesome. My Goodreads challenge this year is to read 100 books, but some of those will be picture books (they need reviews too). Happy 2019 and may it be very bookish!
YES! All reading counts! I don’t care if it’s picture books, comics, graphic novels, audiobooks, etc! I have faith you’ll hit your goal!
I hope you reach all your goals! I also have trouble DNFing books but I’d like to make that one of my reading goals. If I don’t enjoy something, I need to put it down. Even if it kills me to not finish it… I’m hoping to also be more active on Instagram. I’m not the most talented or creative photographer but I do enjoy sharing the book love 🙂 My GR’s goal is set at 50 but I’m hoping to up that through the year. Happy 2019!!
My goals for 2019 are to lower my A1C and to keep my weight above 128lbs.
My main goal for this year to read at least 100 backlist books from my huge, out of control tbr.
Good luck with your goals!
What wonderful goals! I hope you accomplish them all!
Beat the Backlist sounds intriguing, I definitely need to do something like that. Well done on your 2018 goals and good luck for 2019!
I set reading goals last year and those worked pretty well until the last couple of months when life had some other plans for me (health stuff). Basically I want to read a few older series in full, complete or continue some of my unfinished (by the author or just unfinished by me) series, read two or three classics, and be more selective with book box reads and new releases. Since I read several genres (ya, thriller/mystery, memoirs, classics, health/diet, and a small amount of adult romance etc), I really need to narrow down which authors I want to read. It gets pretty overwhelming! So I kind of want to stick with a few favorites.
One of my life goals, ironically, is to read a little less. I am super far behind on movies, tv, and music. I find it really difficult to be a reader and have other hobbies. So I may indulge a bit more in those things. But I really just need to get out a little more, and get more fresh air, sunshine, and exercise. I don’t feel like I’m living my best life, as they say. Happy New Year!
I love this! First off, kudos to you both for pulling off the redesign of the site! I used to blog and omg it takes so much work just to organize and format the styling. Everything looks like it turned out great!
My 2019 goals are pretty simple. I mainly wanna read more diverse books and I’d like to get better at taking IG pics. That’s about it for me! Thanks for the giveaway. You all are super sweet!! ?
Why thank you so much Sierra! Great goals!
I usually just meet around 40 a year. I feel even silly typing it, but it is a lot for me, as I work full time. I set it for 75 this year. I am thinking of reading the Cruel Prince first!
My 2019 bookish goals are pretty typical for the most part. I want to read more (of course), blog more, and meet more bookish people in the blogosphere. I would also like to read more for pleasure and lay off on the ARC commitments and guilt. I also intend to reread more of my favorite books this year. I am usually the kind of person that hardly ever rereads a book since there are so many more than I will probably never get to reading in this lifetime, but I have discovered that rereading is a good thing when you love a book. =)
my goal is definitely to make more time for reading ?
My goal is to read as many YA books as possible to help support my student readers. Whenever I read/book talk a book, I can’t keep it on my shelf for the rest of the year. I have been able to get non-readers to finally finish a book… My goal it to continue creating life readers.
My goal is to engage my YA students into reading more. I want to do weekly read alouds and sharing of YA books I have read.
I set my goals lower this year, but I am hoping to read more YA books. I have been neglecting the books I own (paperbacks/hardcovers) for new release ebooks. So I will try to stay away from new releases, and try to read the ones that have been on my TBR list longer.
Betul
Having both of you working together on this blog has been a breath of fresh air for this community. I love your positivity and enthusiasm for all things bookish and your sharing of things in your lives – good and not-so-good.
I love your goals and your plan. One thing my yoga instructor is always saying: What do you want? What do you really want? What are you going to do about it? This has been really resonating with me this year.
So easy to have resolutions and/or goals but without a plan to achieve them, they are rarely achieved.
My GR reading goals is 500. I also want to work more on reading more series that I started and never finished plus work on reading more off my shelf. (I’m not dealing with my Kindle just yet, baby steps =) )
Plus I really need to buy fewer books. Or at least set a budget and stick to it.
You are a reading monster (in a good way!). One day I’ll be able to read 200 books hopefully, but 500!! WOW! Buying less books is always so hard for me as even just the purchase brings me joy…supporting authors and the books. So I hear you on that one. Also, thank you, having Christy as a co-blogger has been great & I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish together.
Good luck with those goals! I try to keep mine less specific, because otherwise I get fixated on the numbers and it stresses me out; for example, I only count the books I’ve read during the year on December 31st. Though then it leaves me in situations like getting ’79’ as a result and getting itchy about it, all ‘arrghh why couldn’t it have been 80’.
But similarly to you guys, I’m trying to read more and comment more instead of perpetually lurking. We’ll see how that goes, I follow too many blogs!
Well thank you for sharing and commenting on this one! I enjoy working towards something and I’m clearly pretty ok with failure because I know it’s just my own ideas and no harm was inflicted (other than on my wallet…when I can’t restrict my book buying!). We are all stronger for our individualities and learning to accept ourselves. I wish you all the reading success no matter the final result.
I’ve really been wanting to get my ARC/Review reads under control. I miss being able to just pick up a book and read what I want, when I want.
Agreed. I really will step back from requesting this year because I don’t find myself liking most of the requests either. Could be the thought of being ‘required’ to take action afterwards.
Plus I was just sick with the flu the past 2 weeks and didn’t read as much as I normally do because I was so sick. Then of course things got backed up and having a couple review books that just did not interest me when I started reading didn’t help. I also find myself having a hard time writing what I think of some of them. I would really just like to star them but I do try to at least list what I liked and what I didn’t like.
Congratulations on over six years of blogging and on making your Goodreads challenge! Good luck to the both of you on trying to use Instagram more this year!
I forgot to mention my goals, oops! I am hoping to read some of my older TBR books that have been sitting on my Goodreads list for years.
My reading goal for 2019 is to read more non-fiction.
My goals are always the same “I want to read more books.”