It’s time for some reflection on my reading life. How was 2018 as a bookish year? But more importantly; what is 2019 going to be?

Balance in 2019

My keyword for the new year will be ‘balance’. This is a personal goal for me as well, but it’s especially present in my reading goals.

• Balance in reading frontlist and backlist books. Since I work in a bookstore I made my peace with buying new books every so often. I like keeping up with new books and getting excited for anticipated releases. But I also love discovering backlists to authors. Discovering a new author to me comes with the excitement of discovering what this author has released before. Not to mention that most of my TBR shelves are filled with backlist releases that I’m still excited for. In 2019 the goal is to read and discover new books, but definitely not forget to look back.
• Balance in reading English books and Dutch books. And reviewing them.In 2018 I read 56 english books to 14 Dutch books. This is not balanced whatsoever. I only really started focussing on Dutch books towards the end of the year. (Again, that’s what working with books in a Dutch bookstore will do to you!) But in 2019 I really want to read an equal amount of Dutch and English books every month. This is also in preparation for a Master’s degree I’m planning on doing in 2019. This master’s degree will focus on Dutch Literature so it’s important for me to get familiar again with Dutch books. And writing about books in Dutch is also quite important for that too ha!
• Balance in buying books and getting them from the library. This goal is quite simple; I want to support my local library in 2019. I want to browse those shelves and discover books that have been read by many before me. Such a magic place that I will want to visit more in the upcoming year.

Trust my own opinion

Secondly, this one is not really a goal but more of a mindset. I want to trust my own opinion again. I’ve never DNF’ed more books than I did in 2018 and I’ve never had my average rating drop this low before (3,2 average for 2018).

Obviously with reading more books comes a different average rating but this wasn’t my best reading year whatsoever. I didn’t have a lot of stand-out reads for a good reason, most of those moments being for books I really didn’t enjoy.

I don’t mind following hypes to get interested in a book, I love to discover new reads. But what I do mind is that I got persuaded to read books that I really didn’t want to pick up. For example The Secret History, I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be my cup of tea but still finished reading it. Finishing a book that isn’t your cup of tea gives you absolutely nothing but a feeling of a waste of time.

So again, balance comes into place here. I want to pick up books that others recommend highly, but also trust my own gut-feeling. Let’s get that average rating higher up again!

The 2019 goodreads goal

In the beginning of 2018 my goodreads reading goal for the year was 41 books, 1 more than I struggled to read in the previous read. Thanks to bookstagram being a very inspiring place to up your reading game and some months of unemployment, I ended up hitting this goal in August. I upped my goal to 52 – because one book per week sounds quite cool right? – and ended up hitting this one not too long after.

When I hit my goal the second time, I started wondering, will I look back on this year and think only of that number? Or will I look back on this year and think about about starting bookstagram account, having great chats with people about the books I’ve read and the year that I’ve started to love writing reviews?

In my bookstagram post today I motivate my decision to put my 2019 goodreads reading goal at 1 book only. Do check it out if you’re curious!

My 2019 reading year will be measured in experiences and memories. In everything but in numbers.

What’s your reading goal?

I’d love to know any of your reading goals! Do you have any goals similar to mine or do you have a completely different mindset when it comes to reading? Leave a comment and let me know! I’d love to hear it.