2017 Reading Goals Revisited

Happy New year friends!

I am so grateful for all the people who have supported this blog over the years. Before I share my 2018 bookish goals and projects in this post, I would like to reflect on how I did in 2017.

Read 50 books for the Goodreads Reading Challenge

Given my reading slumps,  I was still able to read 60 books by the end of the year.  I have also noticed that I was able to read quite a number of female authors so I am not all bothered by hitting that benchmark. However, these slumps have taught me that it is okay not to be a know-it-all and subsequently reduce the pressure that I have put on myself.

Reduce the number of books on my bookshelves.

Since 2016 I have been in the business of reducing the number of books that I own because an extremely large TBR makes me anxious. I made some book donations to a local children’s charity and library. Nonetheless but I would like to further cull my collection with the help of the Unread Shelf Project. Bootktuber Catriona Reads gave me the brilliant idea of touching a book once and either reading it or tossing it.

Read the whole Anne of Green Gables series.

I have already read the first book in 2015 but could not get into the flow of Anne of Avonlea so that I put it aside after a few pages. I did not make any progress and to be quite honest, I am not sure if I am keen this reading challenge anymore. It just does not spark joy for me. So do you know what I did, I chucked the whole set. All eight of them.  Hopefully, I will revisit them in the future.

Embrace slow reading.

This is still work in progress but will require much more effort

Finish my current Netgalley requests and review as promised.

I am pretty proud of myself for reaching the 80% reading threshold. Though, I have about 4 books carried over from 2017 no My greatest takeaways from being a Netgalley reviewer are the importance of balancing contentment, mood reading and keeping one’s word. More importantly, I need to be more organised by keeping an editorial calendar, which means no more book requests until I finish the ones that I have in the queue.

Reading to cover my literary blind spots.

This was based on a blog post that was indicated that I would love to read books based on around the MENA region, other parts of Africa, South America, Eastern Europe and Asia. I also included topics of Western Art, Classical Music, Kenyan History and Politics and lastly sustainability. Well, thanks to Netgalley, I have managed to nail down some interesting titles on sustainability and fiction from diverse authors. However, I plan on carrying this goal forward.

Generally, I am proud of the progress that I made as a reader in 2017. There were moments where I doubted my abilities as a reviewer because I was overwhelmed by the number of books that I had both on my physical and digital bookshelves. Then when I finally got the hang of my reading pace, I felt like my reviews were quite mechanical.  After reflecting on reading life, I was able to make peace with the fact that I should only read what makes me happy. Trying to compete with other bloggers and reviewers by reading frontlist books will only lead me to rat race.

I am curious, what were the highlights of your 2017 reading experience and what are you looking forward to in 2018?

 

Photo credit: Thanks to Pexels