Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Resolutions/Hopes for 2021.
I’m not a big fan of making resolutions. I’ve been around enough years to know that most don’t stick. But I’m not opposed to setting a few goals, so…
Here are some low-key bookish goals for 2021:
Read whatever I feel like. Okay, I say this every year… and every year it’s worth repeating. It’s easy to get caught up in ARCs and reading schedules, and that’s fine — but I know what makes me happiest is to read whatever I want, whenever I want. And reading is for happiness, right?
Resist the urge to over-request. I’m looking at you, NetGalley request button! I love NetGalley, and I so appreciate how wonderful it is to have access to all these amazing early review copies! But I need to keep better perspective, and not allow myself to overwhelm my to-read plans with nothing but ARCs.
Organize my bookshelves — again! — and donate the never-gonna-read books and the read-’em-but-don’t-need-to-keep-’em books to the library (once their donation center reopens).
Stick to my series reading plans for 2021! Subject to change, of course, but I do want to get to the books and series that I set as my priorities.
Updated to add: After this post was already up and published, I realized I forgot one goal! So, my late addition is… Tackle one or two of the heftier non-fiction books on my shelves (mostly a variety of history books) by reading them in small bites, just a few chapters per week. Slow and steady, so I get to enjoy them without feeling like I’m missing out on reading fiction too.
And a couple of blogging goals too:
Update my Book Blog Meme Directory page. It’s been a while since I’ve gone through and checked all the links, made sure all the listed memes are still current, etc. It’s clean-up time!
Go through old posts to make sure that images and links still work. This is a big, tedious job, but if I do it in little bites over the course of the year, it should be okay.
What are your bookish, non-bookish, or blogging resolutions for this year? Whatever you’re resolving or hoping for, I’m wishing you all a happy and healthy year. It can only get better, right?
Bookshelf Fantasies 
The fear of over-requesting is the #1 reason why I haven’t signed up for Netgalley. I know my fingers would want to request far more than my brain could actually read in a reasonable amount of time. LOL.
My post.
I try to keep it to a reasonable level, but it’s easy to get carried away! (I rely on a spreadsheet to keep track and make sure I don’t fall too far behind…)
Definitely nap more, maybe not so much conquer anything other than my TBR!!!
Napping more sounds perfect to me…
Ha! Ha! I wish I could sneak more in, as well.
Oh wow, I feel so called out. xD That second goal, though. Yup, I need to work on that one, also. It’s sooo easy to hit request on all the good books coming out. It’s right there. In a bright color. Calling your name in a “come hither” tone. Gahhh!
Oh gosh, going through old posts sounds like a fabulous idea and one that I definitely should do and don’t want to. xD But now that you’ve said it, I can’t unsee it, and now it’s in my brain! Good luck with your 2021 goals!
Here’s my TTT post.
Oh no, didn’t intend to create more work for anyone!! 🙂 Hope you have a great 2021.
Good luck on your goals!
My post!
Thanks! We’ll see how well I stick to them…
Netgalley has a lot to answer for doesn’t it?!!!!! Good luck with your goals.
Ha, NG is sooooo tempting… and so responsible for my reading stress!
Oh me too!!!
Great list! I need to work on getting my TBR down (theres definitely some that’s been there for more than two year! Oops.) and good luck with not over requesting haha! I’d already done this prompt in another post so I had a go at my top ten favourite albums lol. You seem like you’d have good taste in music, what are yours? Here are mine 😊 https://hundredsandthousandsofbooks.blog/2021/01/12/ttt-12-1-top-ten-albums/
Oh boy, I haven’t actually been keeping up with music at all lately! I blame my obsession with audiobooks — now instead of music, I always have a book playing!
These are great goals. I also need to rearrange my bookshelves and donate old books. I got rid of some over Christmas but I still have to reorganize everything.
Unfortunately, our donation center is closed for now due to COVID, so my bags of donation books are stacking up! I need to do some serious reorganizing still. I used to more or less shelve books by genre/author, but now it’s more about where I can find space. 🙂
I can understand that. It can quickly get out of hand.
I plan on reading more of the books I own and buy this year too. Good luck with you goals.
Thank you -you too! I have a stack of books staring me in the face right now — my purchased books that I really, really need to read!
I’m keeping things low key as well. Ugh NetGalley! Every year I try to figure out a way to request less books but I can never do it. Good luck with your goals!
Thanks, you too! I keep saying that I’m going to really limit my NG requests, and then there’s always one more exciting shiny book that I just can’t resist!
Good luck with your goals! I really need to clean up my shelves, donating the ones I know I’m not going to read again. I don’t know why I just can’t let them go!
It’s hard! I hold onto books for years and years, and there are some that I love so much that I’ll never part with them — but there are others that I really don’t need occupying space on my shelves anymore! It’s either donate or get more bookshelves, but I’d have nowhere to put them!
Good luck with your reading goals! It’s amazing how hard it is sometimes to just read what you want to. Last year I stopped doing quarterly TBR lists and I keep reminding myself to read what I want instead of what I feel I should.
It is really hard! I used to include my weekly reading plans in my Monday posts, and I stopped doing that — too much pressure! Now I mostly just try to focus on what’s right in front of me and not plan too far ahead.
I’ve been sending a lot of my books to the goodwill because I have way too many. Once I put them in a box I try not to look at them again so I don’t get second thoughts.
Oh, I’ve fallen victim to second thoughts for sure! Right now, all my books to be donated are in bags near my bookshelves, and I have to force myself to leave them alone. 🙂
I only read for fun these days. My days of requesting ARC’s are past. Good luck with your goals! I hope you can stop by:
https://collettaskitchensink.blogspot.com/2021/01/2021-goals-update-1.html
Colletta
Thanks! I don’t think I’ll ever give up ARCs completely, but I am trying to be much more selective about what I request.
I definitely need to request less books – but it’s so tempting.
Lynn 😀
So hard to resist!