Let’s do this!
2017 Recap
So 2017 was a year in which I had a lot of free time, due to this, I was able to reinvigorate my love for both reading, and writing about/discussing books. It was the year that I decided to restart Afternoon Literature and make it a key part of my life. In 2017 I came out of my bookish self and did things I wouldn’t usually do and now I’m starting to see that paying off.
In all, 2017 was a year of new beginnings so 2018 will be a year for ensuring that I remain passionate, on track, and make progress towards my goals.
2018!
So now on to 2018. I will have far less time this year than I had last year, but I’m determined to keep up with the projects I have set myself to complete. These are very important to me, and to things, I want to do in the future, and so it is vital that I dedicate time to them. While I can’t mention most of them at the moment, the most important one right now is to keep this blog up to date and full of bookish content.
Blog
I aim to post 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesdays and Saturdays and will post a mixture of content like reviews, discussions, lifestyle posts and detailed essays on books. You should see more content coming here soon, and more of the things that I love to write.
Reading
This year I will be using Goodreads to track my general reading updates and write my mini-reviews, but I will also be using the book spreadsheet created by Portal in the Pages to get some good statistics about my reading! A link to my spreadsheet can be found in this post, and in my To Be Read section of this site. You can follow along with my general reading and my personal reading challenges.
I have set myself 55 reading challenges, if you’re interested in saying these they are in the spreadsheet on a challenge tab. These are kind of generic but have been set to help me to make different choices when picking my books. I know I won’t achieve all of them, and I’m totally fine with that, but I’d like to achieve as many as possible!
I am also aiming to ensure that I have read any arcs I get at least 1 month in advance of publication. In some instances this means reading more, in other instances, it means requesting less. But I want to be better about reading and reviewing them.
TBR Shelves
I will also be taking part in Beat the Backlist by NovelKnight this year. I am really eager to decrease my already owned TBR, and so this challenge seems like a really good, fun way for me to do so. If you would like to join up and be part of a team of readers who are trying to decrease their pre-2018 reads, sign up! Who knows, we may be on the same team.
With decreasing my TBR in mind, I have also made a resolution that for every 1 book I buy, I must read/get rid of 2 on my TBR shelves before I can buy more. Now, there are some conditions here. I don’t have to include the books I buy for YA book club, and I don’t have to include arcs/e-arcs that I get, but other than those books, if I buy 2, then I have to decrease my existing shelves by 4 before I’m allowed another shopping trip! This idea has been inspired by the Balancing the Books series from Drinking By My Shelf and Books and LaLa’s Closet Unhaul series. Hopefully, I can start to get this TBR under control.
In order to keep myself on track, I will update at least quarterly about how all these goals are going. I haven’t given myself lots of specific number challenges because I am focusing on other aspects this year, and I don’t want to feel like I’m ‘behind’. I’d rather just read and see how far I get!
So these are my bookish goals for 2018. I am really excited to get started on these, and in fact, I will be getting started straight away!
Happy reading!
Afternoon Literature 
Thanks for joining Beat the Backlist! And those are some great goals! I’d love to challenge myself to read ARCs a month in advance but I know I wouldn’t be able to do that (not yet, at least, maybe if I ever get caught up lol). Good luck with your challenges and goals, and happy reading!
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Hallo, Hallo I’m travelling through the blog route for #Commenting365!
I think it’s brilliant you have your goals outlined – I started to make changes to how I approach my own blog approx. two years ago – this is the first year, on the fringes of starting my 5th Year where I feel I can see how those changes are taking root. It’s wonderfully blissful, as it allows me to re-hone in on what I want to focus on whilst re-affirming a few things – such as my personal #70AuthorsChallenge (for INSPY Fiction), commenting more in the book blogosphere (something I did regularly prior to being a blogger) and finding ways to reconnect whilst pulling back from scheduled commitments. We all have to find a mindful balance of being able to do what we love but in a healthy way which works better for our overall wellness and state of being.
This is one reason I liked the commenting challenge this year – it’s a way to keep this personal goal of mine to reconnect to the bloggers I already follow whilst attempting to make new connections to the bloggers in the challenge itself. I also want to re-explore ways in which I can off-set my print readings with more audiobooks – so far, I’ve started off by placing myself in the #ReadDUNE RAL which gave me the joy of finding an audio CD version and a print edition at my local library. I’ll be listening/reading in tandem this January – whilst knowing, soon after, in February I want to re-queue “Heartless” on CD audio as my library blessed me with purchasing it but I never had the chance to listen to it this past Autumn.
Similar to you – I want to read the books on my shelves in better balance with my book blogger adventures – whilst upping the queue of focus on the stories I love to borrow through my local library – both print and audio respectively, as libraries are helpful in allowing us all to read dynamically and diversely irregardless of our purchasing budget.
With my INSPY authors challenge, I’ll be moving in/out of backlist and frontlist – navigating between the few books and/or anthologies I have on hand for the authors I’m concentrating on with the ones which are available to borrow through my library. I’m not going to join the challenge for the backlist though as I’m not strictly reading backlist titles – but rather, doing a personal journey into each author’s collective works to root out which of their stories I love best in their personal canon.
I paired down my challenges this year – I thought I had done this last year, but oyy vie. I never even had the chance to address them! 😦 I do better with monthly goals I think vs yearly ones. Sometimes I do better if I set the goal per year or if it’s based on genre like the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge – that’s up my alley because I’m passionately addicted to those stories and devour a high volume per year.
May each of us find our rhythm and newfound synergy this year… whilst we read and keenly enjoy the hours all the lovely stories shall be bringing us!
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Wow, I think the #Commenting365 is a really great way to keep blogs connected and alive and make people feel like a real part of the community, I need to find some time of my own to dedicate to doign this, as I’m sure ti will also help me to find some really great blogs which I will enjoy continuing to read. So thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment, and thank you for taking the time to make it such an in-depth one!
I have always loved physically reading books and find that this is the best way for me to fully absorb the stories; however, in recent years audiobooks have become an invaluable way for me to add more books to my reading lists. In some instances the voice has just been perfect for this to work (for example, Stephen Fry’s biographies are great ones to listen to and so is World War Z), and it has allowed me to read things like classics, which I find harder to read in print, then to just listen to. If I really adore an audiobook though, I always find myself buying a physical copy too.
My main challenges are just about getting rid of my current TBR. I love having my books, but it is just starting to get on my nerves that I have so many of these books that I own but have not read. I’ll probably be switching constantly between old reads and new reads, but wanted t ogive myself some kind of incentive.
I completley agree with you in terms of the library though. I am lucky that I am able to buy my books now, but I still use the library when my book budget is gone, I still support my library by utilising it as a study space, and it was an absolutely god send when I was a child.
I hope all goes well for you this year and that you enjoy your reading!
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Working is pretty much kicking my butt this year.. As well as the husband, kids, their school, the hubs school and numerous other things that are trying to stack against me having some ME time. But like you, I am determined to make some time for this blogging that I love so much 🙂
I think picking certain days of the week is a fantastic idea. While in my head I want to post EVERY day of the week, I know with my schedule that it’s not going to be possible. I just may have to take a page from your book!
I have set myself some reading challenges as well. I feel like this will help me keep up with the reading I want to do – all while helping me branch off to other genres and actually finish up some series I have started!
I wish you luck on everything this year! ❤ I found this blog on the Commenting365 challenge, but I will be checking back in tons!
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I found my greatest challenge to posting is actually just sitting down in front of the computer. I tend to come home, sit with my other half and a cuppa, and then rant at him for an hour about the books that I’m reading. By that point, I’m too tired to write the post that I’ve been talking about! I should just come home, write it up, and then get him to read it. That may be something I start employing?
I hope that your reading challenges go well also. I don’t think I’ve ever done reading challenges before properly, but the idea of getting to tick off lists always makes me so happy! I’m hoping it’ll have that effect on my tbr. Hehe, I’ll update on how it’s going periodically, as a check-in will keep on on track. So let me know how you’re doing!
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These are some solid goals. I have always used Goodreads, but I just started using a spreadsheet last year, and it was easier to analyze my reading that way. Good luck with all of these goals!
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I’m trying the spreadsheet out for the first time this year. Goodreads is really easy for me to keep up, especially with the app, but I’m hoping I can keep the spreadsheet go to date as well.
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