Tag: reading goals

Let's Talk · Reading Challenges

My 2023 Goals

bookishluna5 Comments

Reading Goals

Read 6 non-fiction books, I did this one last year and I really loved it and want to do it again.

Get owned TBR under 10 books, last year I was able to get my owned TBR under 15 books. I really want to continue that trend so I can really embrace my mood reading.

Life Goals

Try or do something new, I really enjoy challenging myself my going to new places or trying something that is a bit out of my comfort zone. I don’t have a specific ideas at this time, but I know I can think of something over the course of the year.

Track my spending better, I am by no means bad with money, but I really want to get in the habit of tracking my spending. Especially when it comes to my hobbies.

Maker Goals

Knit 6 pairs of socks, this is another goal I am stealing from last year that I really enjoyed. I love my hand knit socks so I want to add to my collection.

Knit and create more from my stash, as of writing this I have yarn and patterns ready to go for 34 projects. I would really love to get that number down quite a bit over the new year. The only additions I think I am going to allow is if I sign up for a class and my yarn subscription for sock yarn.

My goals this year are pretty straightforward and I think really simple. In doing this, I feel like I am setting myself up for success. They are specific enough that I am working towards something, but not strict enough where it will be overly difficult and I just become frustrated and give up. While goals are all about pushing yourself, they should also be realistic, reasonable, and doable with a bit of effort. At least in my opinion.

What are some goals you have for yourself in the upcoming year?

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Life Style · Reading Challenges

Second Goal Check in for 2022!

bookishluna4 Comments

Hello and welcome to the second peak and check in with my goals for the year of 2022! We are now in the last third of the year, kinda wild to be typing that out already, but it is true. I have honestly have not even thought about these goals since my last post, I am hoping I made some progress organically and I won’t have to focus too much on them in the last four months of the year.

Reading Goals

Read 6 non-fiction books, I have read a total of 5 non-fiction books, I only need one more!

Read the International Booker Prize Shortlist, I have read 4 of the 6, so the progress is right on par!

Get owned TBR under 15 books, I am currently at 12 books! I am really thrilled to get my Owned TBR down to this number. I hope to continue in this manner and get it down even more so I can pick up a book and read it while the excitement is there.

Life Goals

See a new place, I ended up visiting about 4 new yarn shops this year. Not quite what I had in mind for this goal, but technically I did do it.

Teach myself something new, In my last post on the topic I talked about learning color work, cables, and bobbles in knitting. In addition to taking a genealogy research class.

Maker Goals

Knit a sweater, achieved! In my last post and I have knitted another since then!

Knit 6 pairs of socks, so far I have created 5 pairs and I have one that is missing its partner! So, I am super close!

Crochet a sweater, I have yet to do this one, but I have knitted two and am in the middle of three so I am kinda alternating this one to knitting. Crocheting garments is just not for me, I enjoy crocheting toys, bags, and those types of things.

Create 10 things with my hands, as of writing this I have created 13 items!

Goal Count

Completed: 6

Not Completed: 3

I have successfully achieved 6 of my 9 goals for this year. Kinda funny how it lines up with a third being left to accomplish and a third of the year is left! I am glad the ones I have not achieved I have made progress in and am close to being able to check it off my list. I am glad my past self put me in such a good position to meet my goals.

All I need to do is finish one sock, read one more nonfiction book, and read 2 more books from the International Booker Prize Shortlist. All very manageable and I am confident that I will do these before the year is through!

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Let's Talk · Reading Challenges

First Goal Check in for 2022!

bookishluna6 Comments

Hello and welcome to my first check in with my 2022 goals! I was planning on doing this check in a bit earlier, but time got away from me. I must also admit I have not looked at any of these goals since writing this post back in December, so this should be interesting!

Reading Goals

Read 6 non-fiction books, I have read a total of 4 non-fiction books! I am well on my way to achieve this goal

Read the International Booker Prize Shortlist, I have read 2 of the 6, so I feel like I am doing well with this goal as well.

Get owned TBR under 15 books, I am currently at about 20 books, so I am getting close!

Life Goals

See a new place, I ended up visiting about 4 new yarn shops this year. Not quite what I had in mind for this goal, but technically I did do it.

Teach myself something new, this year I have learned how to do color work, cables, and bobbles! I also took a class relating to researching genealogy and learned a lot in regards to that as well!

Maker Goals

Knit a sweater, achieved! I ended up knitting a Ranunculus which you can see a picture of in my post entitled, Monthly Digest | April 2022. I am really happy with how it came out!

Knit 6 pairs of socks, so far I have created 2 pairs of socks. I am in the middle of my third so I feel like I am making good time with this goal.

Crochet a sweater, I have yet to do this one, but I have plans to crochet one in May 2022. I am crossing my fingers that I actually get the time to do this.

Create 10 things with my hands, as of writing this I have created 6 items. These include; shawls, socks, cowls, and a sweater.

Goal Count

Completed: 3

Not Completed: 6

I have successfully achieved 3 of my 9 goals for this year. This is actually great in my eyes due to the fact we are 1/3 of the way through the year and I completed 1/3 of my goals. As for the goals I have not achieved I seemed to be making good progress to where I don’t feel like I am behind on any of them just yet.

I really hope your 2022 is going well and you are working towards all of your goals!

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Reading Challenges

2021 Reading Goals Revisited

bookishluna17 Comments

Hello and welcome to my reflection on my 2021 reading goals. I feel like the first half of the year went really, really slow and then the second half ended up going way too fast. Funny how time seems to do that. Anyway, as I do with other years, I wanted to take a moment to look at the goals I set for myself a year ago and see how I faired.

Achieved

Use the library once a month-I did this for sure! I used the library for audiobooks constantly this year and I am so thankful they have the digital resources that they do between those audiobooks and ebooks.

Read 12 nonfiction books-As of writing this post I have read a total of 19 nonfiction books!

Read 50 books – As of writing this post I have read a total of 73 books, so I accomplished this!

Reread The Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring Trilogy – I did it! I reread The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy over again. It was a lot of fun to dive back into these books the last few months of 2021.

Not Achieved

Read the International Booker Prize – I read 4 of the 6 books from the shortlist this year. I do have the other two on my kobo and I still plan to read them, but I am such a mood reader I didn’t want to read these great books when I was not in the mood.

Read The Farseer Trilogy and The Liveship Traders Trilogy by Robin Hobb – This one I half did. I read the entire Farseer Trilogy, but I ended up DNFing The Liveship Traders Trilogy for now.

Keep my owned TBR under 10 books – I have it in the 20s, so not too far off, but not the goal I set for myself.

How did you do with your 2021 goals?

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Bullet Journal Jottings, Writing & More

Bullet Journal | 2021 Reading Bujo Set Up

bookishluna22 Comments

Hello and welcome to a post where I share some of my spreads from my new reading bullet journal for 2021. In the past I had my life and reading in one place, but this year I decided to use a planner for my life, but I wanted to continue to use a bullet journal for my reading. I really find it a ton of fun and I can’t wait to see what books I will be adding to it this year!

The Spreads

This time around I wanted my year long or bullet journal long pages to be pretty neutral for the most part so I used a black pen, torn up tan paper, and a few blank tags and cut outs to decorate the pages. I also wanted to tie all the pages together so I decided to put a black boarder on every page. The first page on the left is 10 books I want to read in 2021. I putt bullet points to add the books later on. On the right I put a place for random book recommendations I might get. I decided to add a little bee because these books will most likely have some buzz around them.

On this pages I continued to use the tan paper and boarder to just have some type of continuity. On the left I have a space for a favorite book of each month. I need to measure so I can properly print the covers as the months pass. On the right side I decided to list the three series I want to read in 2021. I want to read The Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders Trilogy and The Hobbit and Lord of the Ring Series. I just listed the books under their series title and I can put a check when I have read them.

Continuing with the same theme I made a page to track more of my 2021 reading goals. On the left I listed my use the library monthly goal and placed 12 circles to color in, twelve non-fictions with 12 circles as well and lastly for this page read 50 books and I added 50 circles to color in. On the right I made 6 rectangles for each book of the International Booker Prize where I have the title listed and I can add my rating and date read later on. I also added a ticket that was mostly blank and put the title on that.

I wanted to continue to track quite a few stats that I tracked last year so I made a single place for all of them on this page called monthly stats. I am going to track number of books, number of pages, fiction/nonfiction, library/owned, DNFs, 5 star reads, hard cover and soft cover. I left the page on the right empty incase I end up wanting to add more or I end up needing more room.

This year I really want to keep my TBR in check, last year I actually got my TBR down to 0 at one point and I really want to keep it reasonable from now on. I decided each month I am going to keep track of the books I have at the start of the month that are unread, how many I hauled, how many unhauled, and then what I have at the end of the month. Somewhat similar to the series Balancing the Books by Drinking By My Shelf on youtube. Each month has a rectangle and then within that each stat has their own box.

Last and one of my favorites is my Someone Picks My Books spread. Last year I just kept a simple list, but since I love this series I have been doing over a year now so much I wanted to give it a really awesome spread. I decided that I would make a bookshelf for each month and doodle a book on each of those shelves and then label the book spine with the book I am reading that month. I also drew some doodle arrows from the month and name of the person who picked my books to the book. I have the first half of the year already set, huge thank you to those who helped me! I will probably look into getting more help around may of this year.

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Reading Challenges

Reading Challenge | 2021 Reading Goals

bookishluna16 Comments

Hello and welcome to a quick post to showcase the reading goals I have for myself this upcoming year. This year I am keeping some of the same I have had for year and others are new. I feel like it is a good mixture to challenge myself, but keeping in mind the unexpected nature 2021 will most likely have.

The Goals

Use the library once a month – I plan on using the digital resources that are part of my library membership this year. I want to use it at least once a month, but I hope to use it more.

Read 12 nonfiction books – I love reading non-fiction and I want to ensure it stays part of my reading rotation because I know as 2020 went on I read less and less of it because I wanted a bit of escapism.

Read 50 books – I do this goal every year, this is just to ensure that I read a book a week, but also some leeway if life gets in the way.

Read the International Booker Prize – I read a shortlist every year and this year I decided to read this one. I dedicated an entire post to it, Reading Challenge | Reading a Shortlist 2021, where I went over all the books that I plan on reading for this one.

I want to read 2 trilogies by Robin Hobb – I want to read both The Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders Trilogy this year because I hear such wonderful things about her works. Thanks to my wonderful boyfriend, I have the first two books of The Farseer Trilogy in the illustrated editions!

Reread The Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring Trilogy – I love these books and it has been quite a while since I last read them and I feel like I have forgotten so much. It is time to remedy that!

Lastly, keep my owned TBR under 10 books – in 2020 I was able to get my owned TBR to 0 and I want to keep it under 20 books. I will give myself exceptions to this around gift giving holidays and my birthday because I always get books as gifts.

What reading goals do you have for yourself in 2021?

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Reading Challenges

Reflection | 2020 Goals, 9 Month Check In

bookishluna7 Comments

Reflection

Hello and welcome to a post where I check in with my 2020 reading goals. I cannot believe that we are already in the final quarter of the year so it really is go time to get these goals finished. So, I am really hoping I have done a good job keeping up and getting some things done!

The List

  1. Read a shortlist: Man Booker 2019 (4/6)
          • The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
          • ✔️Ducks, Newburyport  by Lucy Ellmann
          • ✔️Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
          • An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma (Owned)
          • ✔️Quichotte by Salman Rushdie
          • ✔️10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
  2. ✔️Read 50 books, 91 books read. 
  3. ✔️Read all backlisted books, 46 books in all.
  4. ✔️ Read 30,000 pages.
  5. ✔️ Read 16 nonfiction books.
  6. Read 16 books from the library. Read 9 so far. 
  7. ✔️  Read a book from each continent 
          • ✔️North America: The Dutch Houseby Ann Patchett
          • ✔️South America Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
          • ✔️ Europe: Crime And Punishmentby Fyodor Dostoyevsky
          • ✔️Asia Before the Coffee Gets Coldby Toshikazu Kawaguchi
          • ✔️ Australia: The Secret River by Kate Grenville
          • ✔️Antarctica: The Magicians by Lev Grossman 
          • ✔️Africa Don’t Touch My Hair byEmma Dabiri
  8. ✔️Read a book recommended by Joe Hill or Stephen King
          • ✔️Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
  9. Read a Shakespeare play a month, (9/12)
          • January: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
          • February: Othello
          • March: Hamlet
          • April: Macbeth
          • May: The Taming of the Shrew
          • June: Twelfth Night
          • July: The Tempest
          • August: A Comedy of Errors
          • September: Much Ado About Nothing
          • October: Julius Caesar
          • November: The Merchant of Venice
          • December: King Lear

Reflection

Overall, I am doing pretty well with the goals. I am a bit worried about my reading a shortlist one because I really do not want to read The Testaments, but I am still on the fence about doing it because I set out to finish the shortlist. We shall see what happens! Another goal I am a little iffy about is reading books from the library. My library is still limited when it comes to browsing and such and I have holds for digital stuff, but since everyone is using the digital resources currently I have not gotten a ton in. This one might be out of my hands, but I am still going to try.

As for all of the other goals I have already achieved or I am well on my way. I am surprised that I have kept up with my Shakespeare challenge this year that there are only 3 more plays left.

How are your goals going?

Have you decided to change any of yours or introduce new ones?

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Reading Challenges

Reading Goals | 2020 Edition

bookishluna22 Comments

Reading Goals NEW

Hello and welcome to my 2020 reading goals. I am so excited about writing this blog post.  I am not sure why, but I feel like 2020 is going to be an amazing reading year. Like last year, I am going to be keeping my goals pretty general, but also challenging. Some will be repeats, but I also changed a few up as well.

  1. Read a shortlist: Man Booker 2019
    • The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
    • Ducks, Newburyport  by Lucy Ellmann
    • Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
    • An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma
    • Quichotte by Salman Rushdie
    • 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
  2. Read 50 books
  3. Read all backlisted books, 46 books in all
  4. Read 30,000 pages
  5. Read 16 nonfiction books
  6. Read 16 books from the library
  7. Read a book from each continent
    • North America
    • South America
    • Europe
    • Asia
    • Australia
    • Antartica
    • Africa
  8. Read a book recommended by Joe Hill or Stephen King
    • The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard
    • Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
    • Brutal Youth by Anthony Breznican
    • Frankenstorm by Ray Garton
  9. Read a Shakespeare play a month, you can join the fun by going to the goodreads group 2020 Shakespeare Challenge Group.

So these are my goals reading wise for the upcoming year. I am excited to jump in and I am very much motivated. I feel like this year I might have the hardest time with my continent challenge because of needing to find another book that takes place in Antartica. If you have any suggestions let me know!

What are the goals you have for yourself in 2019?

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Reading Challenges

Year in Review | 2019 Final Check-In

bookishluna4 Comments

Year in Review!

Hello and welcome to my little review of 2019. I love these types of posts, being able to reflect and look back on what you have accomplished. This post will be broken down into two parts, the first being reviewing my goals and the second will be my yearly stats, which will be taken from the data given on December 29th. So, with all of that information being packed into this post, lets jump right into it.

Goals

  1. ✔️Read all of the short listed books for the 2018 Man Booker Prize
  2. ✔️Read a book set in each of the 7 continents
  3. ✔️Read 50 books
  4. ✔️Read 30,000 pages
  5. ✔️Read at least one book per month from the library
  6. ✔️Read 12 non-fiction books
  7. ✔️Read a book recommended by someone I look up to
  8. ✔️Read my classic of 2019, War and Peace
  9. ✔️Take part in 2019 Beat the Backlist

Yearly Reading Stats

Books Read: 106

Pages Read: 38, 421

Nonfiction: 17

Fiction: 89

Money Saved Using Library:

Average Rating: 4.0

Shortest Book: Quidditch Through the Ages

Longest Book: Death Note All-in-One

Most Popular:Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Least Popular: Independence Haul and the Liberty Bell

Highest Rated on Goodreads: Good Omens

If you would like to see all of the books I read in 2019, you can find all that information over on goodreads here: Bookish Luna’s Year in Review.

Yearly Blog Stats

Views: 13,872

Comments:1,226

Followers: 783

Likes: 3,724

Posts: 148

 

How did you do with your 2019 goals?

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Reading Challenges

Blogmas | Goals | 2020 Shakespeare Challenge

bookishluna31 Comments

Reading Goals NEW

Hello and welcome to a little my little chat about one of my goals for 2020. In the past I have been adamant about hating Shakespeare. I never enjoyed any of his plays that I read, I found them dull and just boring honestly. But, the last time I read one of his works, any of this works honestly, I was always told to read them.

Now, I don’t know about you, but even though I am a book lover and avid reader, the fastest way to not get me to read a book is to make it required. I hate being told what to read. In fact, I didn’t read this much until I went to college, high school made me hate reading because they were never anything that interested me. Now, that is an entire other discussion I can get into another time. For now, let’s get back to Shakespeare.

So, I am not sure why, but I want to give Ol’ Shakespeare  another go and see if my tastes have either changed or simply not making his work required changed me view.

While going to my local indie bookstore I was looking at the classics, my go to there for some reason and I saw a bunch of Shakespeare’s plays. For some reason the idea for this challenge hit me. Currently, I think this is a wonderful idea. In the future, past me might be a huge jerk. Only time will tell. So, this is my plan, every month I will read 1 Shakespeare and review it. Nice and simple right? Wrong, I honestly have no idea what plays might be interesting. I picked up the ones pictured above because A Midsummers Night Dream was one I was able to tolerate reading all those moons ago and the second, Twelfth Night I have never even heard of and I thought I would give it a go.

So, there is my year long classics challenge for myself. If you have a favorite play or work by him please comment below the name and why you liked it. I could really use the help!

Also, I will be starting off with reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream, thanks to those who voted for the first month! Also, please feel free to join me in this challenge. It would be a ton of fun to read along with you! In fact, I created a goodreads group so we can all connect and you can see which plays are coming up, you can find that group here: 2020 Shakespeare Challenge Group.

Which one of Shakespeare works did you enjoy reading?

Which one did you detest?

Have you read any of his works?

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