To be perfectly honest, there were only a handful of standout books I read in 2018. I see my progress on Goodreads and looking back on the year doesn’t bring me much satisfaction or joy. With precious little time to spend reading for pleasure, I hope my goals in 2019 will help curate a great reading list on which to reflect and be proud.
Major Goals
READ 45 BOOKS || I’ve had to come to terms within the last year that challenging myself to fifty books really is, um, quite the challenge. Which is both good and bad. It means I’m spending more time dedicated to reading great manuscripts, but it also means finding the time to read for fun is getting limited. A friend suggested not setting a Goodreads goal, or feeling obligated to stick to it, and the mentality of it would change. Even still, I’ll shoot for forty-five great books this year! (I’ve already accepted there may be lots of DNFing.)
READ 10 LIBRARY BOOKS || That won’t be hard, to be honest. I’ve been reading more and more from the library recently — I have a feeling I may surpass ten library books!
READ MARILLIER AND GABALDON || Like I said last year (and failed) and the year before (and also failed), I want to read more Marillier and Gabaldon. It’s almost necessary now for Gabaldon, since Outlander season five will be out in 2019, and I haven’t finished that book yet! And for Marillier, I own so many of her books and left them unread, and really need to get through that pile.
Bonus Goals
READ MORE FROM TBR || Last year my goal was to read more from my TBR and less from ARCs. And I think overall an aspect of that went really well — I did read fewer ARCs! But I haven’t been very good with my TBR. Just take a look at my bookshelves, shaming me here in the living room as I type this…
READ MORE GENRE FICTION || Part of my job at the library is to expand my readers advisory knowledge, and one genre I’m lacking in is mystery. I think I can dive into the genre with something more familiar to me — like historical fiction. There are a few historical mysteries on my TBR so I’ll start with those and go from there!
What are your reading goals in 2019?
Scribbles & Wanderlust 
6 thoughts on “2019 Bookish Resolutions and Reading Challenges”
Jan M. Flynn
Lofty goals indeed! And inspiring. I too would like to whittle down my TBR list and branch out into some genres that I think are “not me,” like mysteries, thrillers and hard sci-fi (I draw the line at military sci-fi, at least until I can be persuaded otherwise). And I want to try some Bernard Cornwell. I think 🙂 Most of all, I’d love to find a real live book group to join. Started one in my small town a couple of years ago but it just didn’t gel between our varying tastes and haphazard schedules. Wishing you a year of literary delights!
Laura
Gosh, I draw the line at military sci-fi too. It’s just too much. But those are great goals! I hope you’re able to expand your reading this year too.
tasya @ the literary huntress
Good luck with your reading goals! I really want to read Marillier books this year (it’s 2019 already as I typed this), I’ve been hearing so many amazing things about them and it will also help me doing the retellings challenge!
Laura
Good luck in your goals as well!
Morgan @ The Bookish Beagle
I love these goals! They’re manageable but still challenging which is the best kind. My mom has just started the 6th Outlander book- soon she will be caught up to me and maybe I’ll finally read the 8th one haha! I’ve been reading a lot more library books (especially of the kindle variety) and it’s been so enjoyable, definitely need to continue. Good luck with your bookish goals!!! You can do it!!
Laura
You can do it too!!! (Also, props to your mom as well — I need to read book 5 before the 5th season comes out, eek!)