Top Ten Goals/Resolutions for 2015- Bookish, Blogging, and Otherwise!

Posted December 29, 2014 by Cristina (Girl in the Pages) in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Features/Memes / 37 Comments

TTTcustombannerAs usual, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the fantastic blog The Broke and The Bookish. This last week of 2015 is all about reflecting, so below are some goals I’m hoping to implement in my reading and blogging life for 2015!

1) Read 70 books! This will be the highest reading challenge I’ve set for myself yet, but since I finished 67 this year (when my goal was 50) I’m confident I can do it!

2) Establish relationships with publishers. As this was my first year blogging, I was focused more on building my blog, integrating myself into the reading community, and figuring out my reviewing and posting style. This next year I’d love to develop relationships with publishers as I’m seriously committed to continue blogging and I’d love to be considered for more ARCs!

3) Attend a YA book festival. Not the easiest to do since I don’t live on the East Coast where a lot of the events are, but I’m determined to find my way to one!

4) Thoroughly organize my Goodreads shelves. I’ve been good at keeping up with my reviews, but I need to sort my books into more specific shelves based on taste/themes/genre/etc

5) Catch up on at least half of the books I own and haven’t read yet. Last time I checked this situation wasn’t too dire (under 30) but with my recent holiday additions and buying more books due to blogging, I really need to read more that I already own!

6) Keep reading classics/books out of my comfort zone even though I’m not in school anymore. As an English major I was exposed to such a wide range of books (some I loved and some I didn’t) but I want to keep reading at least a few books every year that I might not normally pick up, because that’s how I discover great new things!

7) Post at least 3-4 times a week. I was able to do this pretty well this year, and I’d like to keep up the momentum!

8) Post more on Twitter.

9) Balance new releases with older reads. There are so many good YA books published long before I started blogging that I’d love to read or reread and write my thoughts on!

10) Reformat old posts. I’ve gone through a lot of cosmetic changes on my blog until settling on this one toward the end of the year, which is clean and features my favorite color! I need to streamline older posts to match my tweaked and improved posting styles.

Have you set any bookish/blogging goals for 2015? Let me know in the comments, and good luck on tackling and achieving them!

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37 responses to “Top Ten Goals/Resolutions for 2015- Bookish, Blogging, and Otherwise!

  1. you have some great goals set for the coming year, and I’m sure you will achieve them! I hope you make it down to SoCal for YallWest of the LA Times Festival of Books. If you’re interested, you can stay in my spare room to save money for gas, books and traveling expenses (I realize it’s odd to invite someone you’ve never met irl into your home… and probably more odd to be the one invited to stay with a stranger… but I live near the festival and I know how costly these festivals get. I won’t take it personally if you would rather stay in a hotel! Just thought I would offer since I’ll be attending).

    • Thank you so much for the offer, that’s so sweet! I’m hoping to go with my boyfriend and make a mini-vacation out of it (I lived in OC for a few years so I have a lot of friends down there I’m hoping to see!) but I am DETERMINED to go to YallWest (do you have to like reserve tickets? I haven’t been to one before!) I’d really love to meet up though!

      • Oh, you lived in OC?! Thats awesome! I hope you get to catch up with all your friends! I’m not sure if you need to reserve tickets for Yallwest. For the LA Times book festival there were tickets sold for conversations but the signing are usually free after the conversations so anyone can get in line. I think it’s probably a lot more laid back since it’s hosted at a high school (and I believe the tublr page for yallwest says it’s a free event). But I’m just waiting for them to post more info as the date approaches. Did you see the line up? It’s so amazing. I’m super excited to see V. Roth again since last time I was only able to get one book signed.

        • I saw the line up and it looked great! (There are so many authors who are going to be there!) Did you end up buying books there for the authors to sign or bringing them with you? And do you know if the books at the festival will be to purchase, ARCs, or both?

          • you can usually bring books from home to have signed (i did). Some of the signings are hosted by vendor booths and they may require that you purchase at least one book from them to get into the signing line. When the authors are giving a keynote speech or in conversations they normally have a signing table set up after the pannel/discussion ends and you don;t have to purchase any books you just have to wait in line (or sometimes you can only be in the line if you attended the pannel/discussion)… the rules vary based on the ammount of vendors and sponsors they have but for the most part it’s like this: bring all your books from home and plan to buy a few at the event as well, check out the schedule when it goes live and make yourself an itenerary so you know which booths/pannels you plan to be at and when, and you’ll most likely leave the event with 90% of your books signed and boatload of author selfies and great memories. It can be overwhelming at first, but it’s a lot of fun.

  2. I am glad you decided to take an attempt in establishing relationships with publishers.It’s a scary step for a blogger to take,and it’s wonderful that you decided to.
    I am planning to sort my Goodreads shelves too! My tastes have changed,and I really need to do a bit of spring cleaning to my GR book shelf.
    Twitter is amazing right!I love it,but I just don’t get enough time to post more.Well,maybe I’ll be able to in 2015.

    Great goals Cristina!Good luck with them!

    Here’s my goals for 2015

    • Thank you so much! I really hope to be able to show publishers how dedicated I am to this blog and community and would love to work more closely with them to promote the books and authors that I love! Thanks for stopping by 🙂

  3. I seriously need to organize my Goodreads shelves aswell. I started a couple of days ago but got bored pretty quickly ha. I also did English in Uni and I really need to start reading more classics. I have barely read any since finishing school!
    Good luck with your goals.

    • It’s a really tedious task but I figure I need to do it before I keep adding even more books to my Goodreads shelves! I just obtained a bunch of Jane Austen books so I’m hoping to read those!

    • I wish there were more opportunities to see YA authors, but I still feel like in a lot of ways it’s not taken as seriously as other genres and it’s harder to find those authors at festivals and bookstores for signings. I hope that will change within the next few years!

  4. My one regret with regards to blogging is that I’ve read so many great books before blogging and don’t have the reviews to show for it. This is where rereading comes into play. I love rereading books and I can finally post reviews of books I love.

  5. Great post! I’ve got some similar goals myself (organising Goodreads and reading more classics). I would love to attend a book festival as well but I’ve never heard of one from where I’m from, Perth in Australia. Hopefully I’ll a be able to participate in one some day! Good luck for 2015 xx PS: Love your blog theme! And here’s My TTT if you wanted to have a read.

  6. shannyreads

    Sorry if this is a double post, WordPress was acting up a bit on my computer! Here it is again if it didn’t go through the first time – Great post! I’ve got some similar goals myself (organising Goodreads and reading more classics). I would love to attend a book festival as well but I’ve never heard of one from where I’m from, Perth in Australia. Hopefully I’ll a be able to participate in one some day! Good luck for 2015 xx PS: Love your blog theme! And here’s My TTT if you wanted to have a read.

  7. Looks like you have a great collection of resolutions! I think the whole “focus more on books you already own” thing is something all bloggers struggle with. It’s hard when you’re in this community and you hear about all these awesome books to not constantly want more, more, more! It just sucks when you look at your bookcase and don’t know what to read next because they all look so good >.< It's something I definitely want to do better with this year!

    Hope you have an awesome 2015! 🙂

  8. Congrats on reading 67 books! I sort of made my goal. I’d love to get more arcs too and go to a book festival! (though I live in the middle of nowhere) I think reading books that we already own is on everyone’s list this week. 30 is nothing! Mine is up to 215 and that’s not including kindle lol! Good luck with your goals! Yours was pretty close to mine. (though I haven’t posted mine yet)

    • I’m excited to see your goals! I was proud of myself with 67, since it’s the most I’ve managed to read since I started keeping track on Goodreads, and it averages out to more than a book per week while still being able to balance school/work/social commitments. I’d love to save up and eventually go to BEA in New York as well!

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