Hi all,
My postings lately have been erratic and frankly, non-existent. I apologise for my lack of discipline, I really do. I guess I am (was?) the sort of person who believes that I can only do something if I really feel like it, you know what I mean? That if I were to do something, I had to be in the mood. But that mentality only proved that I was not in the mood 95% of the time, and when I was feelin’ the 5%, I was nowhere near my laptop.
So here I am, finally setting goals for this blog so I can be as productive as possible, even when I’m not in the mood– because let’s face it, the real world won’t wait for you to be in the mood. 😉
1. Goodread’s 35 Book Challenge!
I can’t dedicate myself to read more than this, mostly because I’m planning to make a move to the USA this fall and also because I have way too many extra curricular activities and interests to be reading one book a day. Hopefully, by committing myself to this goal, I’ll be able to cut my TBR in half, read books I’ve been saving since 2011 and 2012 (Tiger Lily, Stolen), which brings me to my next point…
2. Reading and buying ratio, 3:1
I am a self-proclaimed compulsive buyer. I literally bought a book at the beginning of the month, read a quarter of it, chucked it aside and then bought another book. I’m going to try my hardest not to do this again. My TBR pile has racked up to almost 70 books, and I’m going to dedicate myself in reducing this pile to at least half the size, as well as minimising my purchases to 1 book for every 3 books I cut down from my TBR. Crap, just typing that is breaking my shopaholic heart.
3. Reading a diverse range of books
This blog, and my reading life has always been centred around YA. Recently, however, I’ve been more complacent in my reading life, as you can tell by the amount of reviews I’ve done in the past few months 😉 I’ve blamed my reading slump on the magnificent ‘The Night Circus’, but honestly, being in such awe of Morgenstern’s masterpiece was not the sole reason for my inactiveness. I was perusing my shelf and I just felt so… disappointed. Is that the right word? Although I am a young adult, I had come to realize that I didn’t want my reading experience to be confined to that particular genre and honestly, after reading and watching many opinions on Youtube (#BeCritical etc.) and blogs, I’ve also come to realize that I was cheating myself by reading primarily YA (and of course the odd adult books–which were only read for school): reading the same plot, the same tropes and the same style. Not to say all YA books are the same, but the ones I was reading were essentially reminiscent of each other. I fell into that trap of YA love triangles, dystopian hyped up crap. Of course I won’t stop reading YA. YA is pretty much my life! (And also 90% of my TBR are YA books). I’m simply going to just make more time to read more classics (voluntarily), adult books and memoirs!
4. A review for every book I read?
This is a goal that, I feel, precedes every other goal. Not only does it increase my blogging , but it turns my consuming hobby (reading is essentially consuming something) into something productive. I’ll be practising stringing words together rather than just seeing words being strung together. Is that a weird thing to say? Perhaps. However, I feel that my reviews will still be as inconsistent as heck, because while I may have an essay to write on one book, I may only ever sum up my feelings on one book in just one paragraph! It’s got to do less with my laziness and more with the amount of feelings–positive or negative, I have on a book.
So these are the goals I can think of, off the top of my head; goals I hope to commit to in the year 2015! 🙂 Fingers crossed!
reviews & rambles 