Wrapping Up and Looking Forward: A 2019 Recap and 2020 Goal List

We made it guys! We made it through 2019. And so, at last, we come to the year-end extravaganza, one last look at what worked and didn’t work for 2019, and some goal setting for 2020.

First off, congrats to me, I survived a full calendar year of blogging!  I celebrated my one-year anniversary in August, and am admittedly astonished that I have built this into a steady hobby, instead of one that has fallen to the wayside within two weeks.  I truly love having an outlet to flail about everything amazing I’m reading, and delighted to have found so many people to discuss books with!

A reminder that if you want to read my individual reviews for books, I have them all listed and alphabetized by author last name on this page!

So How Did I Do in 2019?

Stats time!

Goodreads Goal

Goodreads Goal: 50 Books
Actually Read: 78
This is something I’m really proud of!  I read 43 books in 2018, having started blogging in August of that year.  Blogging helped me focus on reading again, and I demolished my goal of 50 books!  Since you never know what life is going to throw at you, I’m keeping my goal for 2020 at 50 books again.

Backlist vs. New Releases

Screen Shot 2019-12-26 at 9.32.42 AM

Okay, this graphic is one I wish looked a liiiittle different.  At the sixth month mark of the this year, it was 50/50 between backlist and new releases.  Then I let myself get waaay too distracted by shiny new books and, well, you can see the result. I definitely want to continue making an effort to tackle backlist books, so we’ll see if next year I can hold myself to a nice even split a little better.  Probably not though. 😅

Genre Breakdown

Screen Shot 2019-12-26 at 9.38.41 AM.png

Totally unsurprisingly, fantasy dominated my list this year. And it will probably continue to do so next year.  There is ONE thing I’d like to change about this chart in 2020 – you’ll find it below in my goals for next year!

Ratings

Screen Shot 2019-12-26 at 9.41.46 AM

Screen Shot 2019-12-26 at 9.44.10 AM

A nice healthy spread of books I enjoyed! Because Goodreads doesn’t allow half stars, the chart of books is a rough approximation of where my ratings fell. (For more in-depth reviews, go to my alphabetical page here.)  Only 6 books out of 78 (less than 10%) got a coveted 5 Star from me, which just goes to show I am VERY stingy with them. A whopping 38 (half of my reading for 2019!) fell in the 4 and 4.5 section, so I have both a great eye for what I’m going to enjoy, and excellent recommendations from the blogging community!!

2020 Reading Goals

So now that I’ve seen how my 2019 shaped up, what do I want to change about my reading going into 2020?

Make Actually Reasonable Monthly TBRs

2019 was the first year I started making monthly TBRs to organize my review commitments and prioritize certain backlist reads. Problem is, as the months went on, I found it harder and harder to cut books from my rough draft list, and I went from having 6 goal books to 12, and I’ve never read more than 8 in a month. This meant there were more and more books left “hanging” from my TBR, creating more guilt than sense of accomplishment. I want to limit my monthly TBR to 6 books, and make actually achievable goals. If I have time for more, great! But this way I don’t have an increasing overflow of things I was “supposed” to have read.

Read A Self-Published Book A Month

Last year I started dabbling in the world of self-published fantasy, and found some fantastic books. I’ve bought several more with the intent to read them, but they keep falling to the bottom of the stack for one reason or another. So next year my goal is to read at least one self-published book a month! Again, if I have time for more, great! But this will hopefully keep me on track.

Continue the Great Series Read Project

I actually devoted a whole post to my Great Series Read Project, so the short version is that this year I want to focus on completed backlist series that I haven’t started yet. I have so many on my list I hardly know where to start!

Read More Contemporary YA

Fantasy and sci-fi are obviously my preferred genres, but I’ve seen more and more in the non-genre YA space that’s piqued my interest. I’ve enjoyed such books as ANGER IS A GIFT and WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI and would love to read others like WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH, MATCH MADE IN MEHNDI, and SLAY. There’s a lot of wonderful-looking diverse books out there, and I’d love to make a little more time for them.

Tackle My Con Haul Pile

Between San Diego Comic Con and YALLWest, I hauled a ton of great books the last few years.  Problem is, because they don’t have the same “weight” as review obligations, I keep putting off actually reading them.  I really want to start reading and catching up with these so they stop staring at me forlornly from my shelves.

And that’s a wrap on 2019 and my hopes and dreams for 2020!  What are you hoping to accomplish in the new year?

17 thoughts on “Wrapping Up and Looking Forward: A 2019 Recap and 2020 Goal List

Add yours

  1. Love seeing all the stats! There’s tons of SFF books I’m planning on reading in 2020 and I can’t wait!! Also, A Match Made In Mehendi is an awesome YA Contemporary (one of my favorites) and I definitely recommend it! Have a great 2020 and good luck with all your bookish goals! 😍💖🎊

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Loved the graphs and charts in this post ❤️ My major goal is to read more new stuff; I have the opposite problem to you and mainly read older books, to the detriment of the cool new books that are always being released.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Congrats on your first full year blogging! It’s a delight having you in the community – best wishes for 2020, and I look forward to hearing about your reading as we make our way through it 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Feels good to demolish one’s goal. I see Jade City getting five stars from you. I need to pick that one up soon. I used to go monthly TBRs, but ended up feeling too constricted and then guilty about not getting to everything, so I did away with them. I wish you better luck. Hope you have a wonderful New Year!

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Great goals! Some of mine including wanting to try and request fewer books in 2020, and also to try and read at least one backlist book each month. Every year I also tell myself to get over my OCD tendencies and start DNFing books, but that’s probably one leap I’m still not prepared to take yet, lol!

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Great year, Caitlin! I am really feeling you on the ‘make reasonable tbr lists’ because I have a tendency to bite off more than I can chew when it comes to reading. I’m also hoping to focus on series this year, more than last year when things seemed to fall by the wayside. Hope you have a fantastic 2020!

    Liked by 1 person

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