2021 Reading Goals

Do you like to set new goals when a new year starts?

I pick up new habits all year long and push myself to stick to them, so I don't specifically set New Years Resolutions. But I do set some goals for things I want to accomplish in the next year and one of those things is my reading goal. Because I'm a school librarian I've debated setting my goal with the beginning of the school year, but since we start on different days ever year, that makes it harder.

Last year I met my goal of reading 100 books: I read 120! I did a lot of rereading, listened to several audiobooks, and got through some of my ebooks. I however did not make a dent in my TBR collection. It actually grew. A LOT.

While I was making my 2021 plans, which include reading 100 books and listening to at least 12 audiobooks (at least once a month), I happened to be sitting on my bed across from my TBR cart which has 75 books. 75! So I decided that I would also read at least (at LEAST!) 15 books from my TBR cart.

What was interesting was that a few days after deciding, I happened to learn about The Unread Shelf Project. What I love about The Unread Shelf is that the project is about actually reading the books you haven't read yet. Well, at 75 books unread I definitely felt I needed to get on top of things! The Unread Shelf has a monthly challenge to meet (January is to read a book with high expectations) as well as a Bonus Challenge and Bingo. While this challenge may not be for everyone, I at least know that it's there to push me but if I don't follow through, it's fine! I actually started my first book of the year that perfectly hit this month's challenge...and I just couldn't finish it. I got 75 pages in. It was slow and I had little interest. And I'm not going to continue reading a book just to hit a goal. 

I'm excited to see how well reading goes this year and how things change. I used to be someone who completely planned out the books I would read in a month-because I had so many new releases I wanted to read. While I still have new releases and rereads to do (because I'm totally that reader who rereads books in a series when the newest in the series comes out), I'm not going to feel bad about buying new books I know I want to read (and will read).