Mid Year Check in, goals, life and other random tidbits

Hello fellow Booknerds!

I’m just going to pretend that we didn’t really have that 8 month sabbatical and that everything is fine. Actually everything is going good- I needed to take a space back to really think about what I wanted to use this space for, and what I was going to do with it.

Here’s the thing, I want to blog. I miss it honestly, I miss having a longer type conversation of what I’m reading and what I think about and stuff like that, longer conversations that insta won’t really allow you to have. But more than that, even though I do the weekly updates for how many books I read I feel that sometimes that is just so cut and dried. And sometimes the nuances that I’m feeling about a certain book, don’t really come through for a star rating. Or maybe someone doesn’t understand why I rated a book a certain way. And besides books I want to be able to write about other stuff too.

Which seems weird, like what is life outside of books? But I do have things outside of books which is odd but true.

So let’s chat for a bit about some stuff that has happened in the past 8 months, some stuff coming up and how I’m looking on my goals for the year.

In random news, I’ve been doing a lot of training at my job. Virtual and in person, travelling (thankfully not too much) but I did just get back from a trip to California- which was gorgeous though I didn’t get a chance to really see any sights.

I also got my 4th tattoo this year. It’s one that I had planned out, and somehow the execution is even better then what I was hoping.

I joined up with a friend for a summer reading challenge where I am trying to read as much as possible off of Steve my TBR and so far it’s going quite well, though I would like to read a bit more, but that’s normal for me.

And for the first time in my entire time of working (ever) I have pto and I’m going on a trip in October, for 2 whole weeks, which I’m so excited about.

Now for the bookish goals? Well I personally think that I’m doing quite well on that front, mostly. There are some things that I would like to get done and dusted that hasn’t happened yet but hopefully soon! (Especially since at the time of writing this I technically only have about 4 months left in the year) So let’s go over what my goals were for the year and what I’ve accomplished so far!

Goal One was to read 300 books: At this moment I’m at 181, so I feel rather confident on this point, hopefully I can get a few more done and dusted before the end of the month!

Goal Two was to read 85K pages, and I’m sitting at 47K right now so I should be able to complete this one (I hope so at least since it seems like I always fall just a bit short of the page counts)

Goal Three was to get 150 books off of Steve my TBR. This honestly wasn’t going as well in the beginning of the summer but now that I’ve been doing a summer reading challenge with a friend, I have bumped this number up to 84 read so far off of him. So if I keep at this pace I should have no problem to get this goal knocked off.

Goal Four was to get through 12 tomes (over 500 pages) and I made the caveat this year that they had to be books that were new to me/off of Steve for this to count. And I’m actually at 5 tomes so far, so that’s always a great thing!

Goal Five was to complete at least 3 series. *crickets* Look I’m trying but I get so distracted by new shiny’s and by trying to read other books that my series goals have really fallen by the side, well really I’ve launched them off the side of the boat without a care because I have been focused on standalones. I am trying to do better on this part though, maybe in September I can actually finish some of the half-started ones?

Goal Six was 22 books by 2022. This is also a goal that I completely forgot. I have read 2 of them, and I think that I happened to get rid of both of them, which makes me realize a lot of those books were ones that I bought because of wanting to read what everyone else was reading. Which is not a good idea for my bookish goals for sure.

And finally Goal Seven was to read at least 5 TBR vets (books that had been on Steve for at least 3 years). I have actually read 3 of them so far. And of the 3, I enjoyed one. Again, a lot of the books that have been on Steve are ones that were purchased because they were hyped or popular or someone told me that I should read it (even though they didn’t have the same taste as me).

So this is just my little bit of a catch up. I think I might start doing my weekly wrap-ups on here as well as doing them on insta, so I can give a bit more of a review for everyone.

Anyways, hope you have had a great day!

And remember, life is too short for mediocre books! Happy reading!

-Stephanie

Bookish Goals for 2022

I had a great reading year last year, I didn’t reach all my goals, but I did hit quite a few of them. And I’m sure there’s a complicated word for how I feel in almost completing the goals that I hit, because while I’m super happy that I hit some of my toughest goals, I also am slightly sad that I didn’t hit all of them.

But I have about 7 that I would like to hit with my reading this year, whether that will happen or not, well who knows. A lot depends on my lovely mood reading because half the time I’m like “yes do all these things” and then the rest of the time I’m like “or I could just reread and that would be fine right?”

Goal 1: Read 300 books. I actually hit this number last year for the first time since I’ve been really tracking my reading and I’m hoping I can do it again this year. (actually if we are being honest, I want to go past that number, but 300 is an easier goal to manage)

Goal 2: Read 85K pages. I almost hit this one last year, but missed it by about 3K, which was so close but there’s always this year!

Goal 3: Get 150 books off of Steve. I should be able to accomplish this no problem as in 2021 I got 143 off of him. The main problem comes from just making sure that I don’t replenish them immediately with new shiny’s.

Goal 4: Get through 12 tomes (over 500 pages) this year. I love reading big books but I just haven’t reached for them as often as I wanted to last year. This year, this is a priority for me. (Plus I have a ton on Steve my TBR so I might as well start knocking those down)

Goal 5: Finish at least 3 series. I say this goal every single year. And every year I laugh when the end of the year comes and I haven’t hit any new series off of Steve, and that’s slightly frustrating because I have over 20 series that I would like to get done and dusted. This year I am trying a new thing where I wrote down 20 of the series and rolled a D20 to see what series I would focus on first. Hopefully this will help me get some of them down!

Goal 6: I have a list of 22 books I would like to read for 2022, and I want to read them, but they are also slightly “self-destructive” as in I told myself that if I don’t read them by the end of the year, I have to get rid of them. Whether that will happen or not, who really knows. Honestly, I doubt it but hey I can try.

Goal 7: Read at least 5 TBR vets. So books that have been on Steve for over 3 years. I’m not sure what ones those are going to be yet but I’m sure I’ll think of a few. (Now of course that I’m thinking of it, I’m pretty sure about half of those 22 books are ones that have been on Steve for a while)

So those are my goals for this year. I do think that I will be able to complete at least some of them, and honestly even if I get just a bit done on each one (specifically the series and reading the vets) I will be most pleased. I would love to complete all of them, but being realistic with myself and my lovely mood reading ways, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m going to have fun doing it that’s for sure.

Do you set any goals? Or do you just kinda wing it each year?

Hope you get to have some reading time today, and remember, life is too short for mediocre books!

Stephanie