Achieving my reading goals was easier than I thought it would be.

My Year in Books: Achieving reading Goals Happy New Year! It’s been 6 months since I updated here and I’m thinking about closing the blog down or at least re-designing the site. Just something I’m pondering in the new year.

One of my main personal achievements this year was reading more, and more broadly. I achieved my goal of reading 50 books and here’s what worked:

Book Clubs: This is a no-brainer. My book club people are super-chill and many times people don’t read the books and that’s fine with me. It gives me a deadline that I work toward and exposes me to books I may not have chosen for myself.

Pick a number: Books are things and easily countable. You could choose hours reading instead, but having a number I wanted to reach really motivated me to keep track. I use Good Reads and like the handy widgets. Other popular trackers are LibraryThing, and WorldCat. Some people use a spreadsheet or a list in a notebook.

Everything counts: It’s my personal challenge so I get to decide what “counts” toward my goal. I decided to count comic book volumes and children’s books. In doing that I found that I actually don’t read as many children’s books as I thought I did. I usually just flip through them when I’m shopping for the kiddos in my life. Those on the copleted list are the books I sat down and read through completely.

 

Here’s what my year in reading looked like:

Achieving reading goals: My year in books
Infographic by Good Reads: Click the image for more information about what I read in 2015

 For 2016 I’m stepping up my game and setting a goal of 55 books. I’m willing to give up some of my mindless TV time and will need to be watchful of getting sucked into internet surfing and I’m considering that an added bonus.

I’m also joining the BookRiot “Read Harder” challenge: A great way to stretch outside of a comfort zone. Here’s the list (pdf) and I will be looking for recommendations for these categories, so please let me know.

Read Harder Book Challenge 2016

Happy Reading!