Top Ten Tuesday – Bookish Goals for 2023

Hello my reader friends. Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Today’s topic is Bookish Goals for 2023. This is a tough one, because honestly this year I have a million lol. But I’m going to try very hard to narrow it down to just ten. 🙂

Cut Down on Blog and Social Media Tours

I’ve already started working on this actually. I have one requirement post for this Saturday and that’s it! The truth is, I needed to take a break. A break from the deadlines. A break from being told when and what to post. I love the companies that I work with, don’t get me wrong. And I want to support them. But I just needed a little time to step back and reflect on what I want this blog to be, what I want social media to be, and then go from there. And I have to admit, it’s been nice. I will start signing up for things again, maybe in a a few weeks or a month. But for now, I need to get a new rhythm going and go from there.

Read More Often, but Less Books

Sounds weird right? Let me explain. I’m a speed reader. I can read a book in a day, or two days if I’m busy. And that can be really awesome. But it doesn’t allow me time to really be involved in the story if that makes sense. The past few months I’ve had about 30 minutes of reading time here and there and that’s it. I want to read more during the day, instead of scrolling on social media. But I also want to take my time with books if I can. I haven’t quite learned how to slow down my reading yet, so this might be a struggle. And of course I want to read all the books, but having a goal of 200 shouldn’t be the case this year. In fact, I’m not even making a number goal this year (GASP!). I just want to read whatever number of books I read.

Write More Reviews

I know I’ve shared this before, but I’ll share it again. I do not write a review for every book I read. I know, I know, that’s bad lol. But honestly for the past few years I just wanted to read some books for me, with no expectations. But lately I’ve felt a conviction about writing reviews. As a VA, I know how badly authors need our reviews to help get their books into the hands of readers. And as a reader, I know how often I check to see what other’s have thought about a book before trying it out, especially a new-to-me author. And so this year I want to review every single book I read. That’s a lofty goal, but I’m striving to do it. Both on Goodreads and here on the blog.

Keep a Reading Journal

I see reading journals everywhere and they are so amazing! Now, I admit I do not have that kind of artistic bone in my body, though I wish I did. I’ve asked a couple people who have made them if they could just make the same one for me lol. But they take hours, and so I understand when they say no. My daughter got me a reading journal that I’ve started to use. And I’ve seen some cool ones on Etsy that I can download and print. The one I like is only like $4, so I might give it a try. Sure I log things on Goodreads, but it seems fun to have a tangible item to look back on at the end of the year!

Work on the TBR Shelf

I think this is probably on everyone’s list. That’s why we have different reading challenges that we’re all doing. I know a bunch of people who are doing the 23 books in 23 challenge, which is neat of course, but I wanted something a little more fun – with different prompts and maybe less books lol. So that’s why I created my own 2023 Reading Challenge. It’s just one book per month so it’s a little more of a reachable goal. I do hope to read more than 12 from my TBR shelf, but if I don’t, no worries. There’s always next year!

Interact More

It’s easy to just scroll through social media and like something, or read a blog post and think to yourself it was a good post. What about making the extra effort to comment? Yeah, that takes another minute of your time lol. But think about the community you can get from that. You can make new reading friends. You can encourage someone. You can help out an author. So many blessings can come from that. Plus, I want to show support to my fellow reading friends and authors. This is something I also feel convicted about, and therefore I need to do something about it!

Make Note of More Book Quotes

I still haven’t figured out how to share book quotes on Goodreads (why is this so hard for me!?), but I do want to start taking note of book quotes more, so I can share them here on the blog and on social media. It’s easier for me when reading a real book (thank you sticky flags!), but I need to start doing it with books on my kindle as well.

Keeping Up With New Blog Posts

In the beginning of the month I shared some posts I wanted to do on a regular basis. New Releases, Monthly Recaps, Must Get Mondays, Top Ten Tuesdays, First Line Fridays, and Tip Of the Week, along with my regular spotlight and review posts. I really want to stay on top of them this year. They take awhile to put together, but they’re so fun and it’s a way to connect with you – my readers! And if you have any book tags, or posts you would like to see me do, please feel free to put that in the comments. I love trying new things!

Read Multiple Genres

Sometimes I get in these kicks where I only want to read one genre for a long stretch of time. It’s not like there’s anything wrong with that, but I want to keep my reading diversified so to speak. Right now I’m on a historical kick, and my next 2 books are historical, so after that I need to change it up. I think it makes reading more fun this way, plus I don’t want to get bored with the genre I am in. Okay, let’s face it. I’ll never get bored with reading! It’s just good to change it up. 😜

Try A New-To-Me Author Every Month

I’m not sure if this goal is doable or not, but it’s something I want to try. There are so many authors out there I have not read, if you can believe that lol. I want to try to fix that! My hope is that I will not only expand my reading horizons, but make some new reading friends too. I’d love to hear your recommendations!

So there you have it. My condensed list of bookish goals. What are some of your bookish goals for 2023? Did you meet any of 2022? Share in the comments!