My Top Ten Bookish Goals/Resolutions for 2015

December 30, 2014 Top Ten Tuesday 26

toptentuesday2Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Goals/Resolutions for 2015.

  1. Read more books from my TBR list. I’ve compiled a short “must-read-in-2015” list which I plan to get through this year. Beyond that, I have a TBR list a mile long to choose from! Many are books that just looked interesting, but some I really want to read.
  2. Request fewer ARCs.  In order to accomplish #1, I need to take on fewer review books, so I’ll be limiting requests to just the books I will definitely read regardless of whether I get a review copy or not. That will still give me plenty of new/forthcoming books, but will leave time for older books as well. (You can see my thinking on this in an earlier post, Blogging what you read vs. reading what you blog.)
  3. Catch up on some older ARCs. I’m embarrassed to admit I have some older ARCs I haven’t gotten to yet. If I can still open the files, I will try to get them read and reviewed this year. This goes with a secondary goal to improve my NetGalley review percentage.
  4. Write reviews closer to when I finish reading the book. Sometimes I’m good about this, but right now, I have notes for reviews of books I read months ago. (Not review copies, I hasten to point out; these were a few books I read just for myself.)
  5. Stay at least 2 to 3 weeks ahead on reviews and other posts. I’ve been erratic about this, in part because of the nature of my freelance work, but I’m going to try to be better. With the exception of Saturday’s News & Notes and the Sunday Post, I can prepare most posts well ahead of time.
  6. Find a better balance between blogging and the rest of my life. This one may require cutting back a bit on blogging, or even revising some of these goals.
  7. Find time and the discipline to write. Again, this may require cutting back on blogging somewhat, but we’ll see.
  8. Work on my blog design. I’d like a more personalized header, some social share buttons, and to get my blogroll working, for starters!
  9. Keep learning HTML and CSS.
  10. Have more fun! Not just with reading and blogging, but in life generally.  🙂

 

What are your 2015 reading/blogging goals?

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26 Responses to “My Top Ten Bookish Goals/Resolutions for 2015”

  1. Lianne @ caffeinatedlife.net

    Same here with #1 and #2 for next year. My TBR list ballooned exponentially this year and I’d love to trim it down to a reasonable number, lol. I have a few writing goals for this year, and I have a feeling that I’ll also have to scale my blogging back a bit to write more (which technically I should be doing but my reading/reviewing schedule sort of went out of control this year! Need to work on that, lol)

    Best of luck with your resolutions next year 🙂 Happy New Year! My TTT
    Lianne @ caffeinatedlife.net recently posted…Meme: Top Ten TuesdaysMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Best of luck to you, too! I can completely relate re the exponentially-expanding TBR list (see my reply to Cheryl, above.) Sounds like you and I are in a similar boat re finding some balance, making time to write, and getting at least a little control over the looming TBR.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      My TBR pile has already filled two bookcases (both taller than me) in our basement, plus a few boxes… and my Goodreads TBR lists (“to-read” and “someday”) combined have over 1200 books. I think I need to do some pruning as well as some reading!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      So far I’ve just made myself a list on paper for the must-read-in-2015 books (which all came out earlier than 2015), but a GR shelf is a good idea. And good luck to you, too! 🙂

  5. Stephanie

    I’d like to tackle number 5 as well but I just don’t think I have it in me to be that prepared so far in advance. It takes me so long to write posts so I feel like I’d have to devote the entirety of every other weekend to writing posts and I’d no longer read and therefore would have no posts – it’s a vicious circle. I did get a few days ahead a couple times in the past few months and it was so relaxing! Good luck with all your goals and have a happy new year!
    Stephanie recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday – 2015 Literary (and other) ResolutionsMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      It sometimes takes me quite a while to write posts, too, Stephanie, so I understand where you’re coming from. It will take me a month or two to build up a sufficient cushion, but I do have an advantage – since I freelance, there are occasionally days or a week when I don’t have a project in-house, and then I can concentrate on blogging. Since I’m usually behind on writing reviews, just trying to catch up on those can give me a cushion of a week or two (or three, if I only schedule 2 a week.) Add a couple of meme posts and I can end up 2 weeks ahead (except for those Saturday and Sunday posts, of course, because they’re more topical). Then all I need to do is try to keep up.

      That’s the bugaboo, though – the downside of the freelancing is that sometimes I have more than one project, or a tight deadline, and no time to blog at all. And poof, there goes my cushion. But it’s sure nice to have one when I can manage it! I also try to keep a few non-time-sensitive reviews or posts in the can – stuff I can pull out when I have literally no time: reviews of books that have been out for years, thoughtful posts, eye candy (no, not the guy kind, the book kind – or the book cake kind!), that sort of thing. I keep them in draft format and date them six months ahead, so they don’t get lost or post without my realizing it. I used up three last fall, and now I’m down to only one, so I’ll be working to build those back up as well.

      The “comment as guest” thingy still isn’t working for me (sorry! I’m sure it’s my computer, not yours!), so here’s what I wanted to say on your post:
      Terrific goals, Stephanie, and I can so relate to numbers 5 through 9 in particular! I love the library, but before I went on winter vacation I took back at least 10 books I hadn’t read. I need to read more of what I already own, plus be more discerning in what I take home from the library. (Plus request fewer ARCs, but I mentioned that in my TTT.) And I love the list of books you want to reread. Best of luck with all your goals, and Happy New Year!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      2014 was the first year I really worked at getting and staying ahead. With mixed results, but when I was ahead, it felt really good, so I’m going to try to stay ahead more of the time in 2015.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Oh, I do hope so – that we get caught up this year, that is! Well… in some areas, anyway. I despair of ever catching up on my TBR list. There are more books I’m interested in reading than I can possibly fit in! I love your goals, too. Happy New Year and thanks for stopping by!

  8. Angie @Angela's Anxious Life

    The dreaded blog goals!! Ughh.. getting the template to work can be a nightmare. I haven’t messed with mine for a while but I should. I need to make more time for blogging. I’ve been busy this holiday season and really need to sit down and read some.. reading is what my blog is all about and if I don’t make time for that I don’t have anything to post about!!!
    Angie @Angela’s Anxious Life recently posted…Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2015My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I agree that reading has to come first! I’ve had a few glitches with my blog that I need to sort out (for instance, the UBB plugin for Goodreads isn’t working because GR apparently doesn’t like GoDaddy, so I have to see if I can work with GR on that.) After that, I’ll tackle personalizing the header and design. Good luck with your goals, Angie!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Thanks, Cheryl! I’ve actually already signed up for the TBR Pile Challenge, here. I hope to use it to spur myself to read more of the books I own, as well as books I’ve put on my Goodreads to-read list but haven’t gotten around to yet. I’ll be pruning the Goodreads list, as well – it’s gotten way out of hand. Good luck with your whacking! 😉

  11. anna (herding cats & burning soup)

    Oh man. Me too. My list of goals goes up tonight I think. I’m going to work hard on old reviews I never got to. With three years behind me they’ve turned into a pile which is just awful. I’d love to get those all cleaned up this year but likely it’ll be part of next year too. Gulp! Good luck this year Lark. I hope you find that perfect balance between e-life and every day life 🙂
    anna (herding cats & burning soup) recently posted…Randomly Random–It’s okay to NOT love a book. It’s okay to REVIEW it too!My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I’ve got books I’ve read but not reviewed (a fair number, though thankfully only about 3 review books and those are recent.) I hope to get some of those written up this year; others I may just give up on. And I’ve got review books I requested and should have reviewed and didn’t, and those I feel guilty about, so I’m going to try to get to them this year.

      Good luck on your goals – I’ll look forward to seeing them! And I hope you find balance and joy in this new year, too!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I’m hoping it will help me cut down. So far, I’m not quite as swamped for January and February releases as I was during most months of 2014. We’ll see how it goes!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Well, I certainly don’t want to cut back on blogging! It just depends whether I can figure out ways to be more efficient, both in blogging and in “real life”, in order to fit in some writing time (and some time to take physical care of myself as well.)