Top Ten Tuesday | Bookish Goals for 2024

Posted January 15, 2024 by Haze in Top Ten Tuesday, Weekly Book Memes / 44 Comments

Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly bookish meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl that features a different bookish topic every week.

Today’s topic is Bookish Goals for 2024.

This topic is giving me a bit of anxiety. I’ve got bookish goals for this year, don’t get me wrong, but they’ve been mostly held loosely in a “we’ll see” way. Writing them down here and talking about them make them feel more serious, and I’m not sure I’m ready for that. On the other hand, maybe this is exactly what I need to help me achieve those goals.

Many of them are related and build on each other, so in a way, I could either easily achieve most of them, or fail at most of them!

Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2024

Read more non-fiction – Specifically self-help and reference books I bought long ago that I meant to take notes on. It’s just so easy to breeze through fiction, while putting non-fic aside because I feel like I need to put aside focused time for them.

Take notes and/or annotate books – I love annotated books, but I find it hard to read while annotating because I get so engrossed and forget to stop. I also can’t annotated borrowed books, so I’ll need some kind of notebook if I want to take notes on library books.

Read slower – I tend to rush through books and end up forgetting details, and eventually forgetting the stories. I have reread books without realizing that I’ve read them before! My whole reason for wanting to take notes is so I’ll slow down and remember the books I read.

Write reviews for books I read – Another way to help me remember the books I read, but more concise. I anticipate being very long-winded with my annotations, and the reviews will help me summarize my thoughts.

Read books I own – Related to the first goal, but not limited to nonfic. I just want to read some of the books I bought long time ago because I wanted to read them then and never did. It’s so easy to get caught up in the excitement of new books, and prioritizing library books because they have deadlines. There’s no urgency with books I own because they belong to me, but I should at least try to read some this year!

Prioritize older books on my TBR instead of new releases – I mean… LOL! Look, I know me, and I know I can’t resist new releases. We just did a TTT on anticipated new releases, ya know?! But I’m going to try to read more old books than new ones?

Finish some of the series I’ve started – So. Many. Series. So. MANY. I need to finish some of them or I’ll go crazy. I don’t know why I do this to myself.

Read more diverse books – I tend to not pay very much attention to what I read or who the authors are beyond the fact that the book’s premise interests me. I do end up reading many diverse books anyway, but I’d like to be more intentional about choosing them.

Read more in print – Physical books or ebooks. Last year more than half my books read were audiobooks, and that’s because it’s convenient for me when I’m getting chores done, and necessary for me to get to sleep, but that means I’m usually borrowing whatever audiobooks are available in the moment instead of reading physical books and ebooks I already have. I end up reading a lot of books I’d never heard of nor were interested in. On the bright side, I’ve also discovered some great books by accident because of this.

Reorganize my bookshelves – It’s a bit messy right now, ngl. And I’ve also got non-bookish stuff, random files, piles of paper, taking up space on those shelves because I have nowhere else to put them. I’d have to go through them all to clear up space.

DNF books I don’t like sooner – I’m really bad at this and I need to get better. Rationally, I have no problem DNF-ing books, but emotionally, I always hope that they get better and I keep reading to give them that chance.

I hope I’m able to achieve most of these. What are your bookish goals this year?

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44 responses to “Top Ten Tuesday | Bookish Goals for 2024

  1. I need to read more books I own, too. And writing reviews for the books I read is sometimes I try to do. We’ll see if I do read more books I own in 2024! 🙂 All the best with your goals.

    • Same! I don’t like to give up on books but sometimes I wonder if it’s better to feel bad about giving up on a book, or feel bad that I wasted my time on one I didn’t enjoy. Ugh! I prefer to read all the good books and enjoy every single one of them! Lol!

  2. A great list of goals.

    I am a very slow reader as I have to read every single word and understand what is going on before moving on. I literally can’t skim read. I’ve tried and get nowhere!!

    I have a big TBR pile that I would like to reduce. I need to stop getting distracted by Blog Tours!!

    Have a great week! And good luck with your goals!

    Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog

    My post:
    https://budgettalesblog.wordpress.com/2024/01/16/top-ten-tuesday-bookish-goals-for-2024/

  3. I can definitely identify with quite a few of these, especially writing reviews as soon as I finish a book. I have a backlog of five at the moment and I’m struggling to remember everything I thought about the books.

    • Oh, that’s hard! Sometimes when I get behind on my reviews, I’m unable to move forward with anything new because I feel like the books are unfinished until I’m done with their reviews! Good luck with your backlog!

  4. One thing I’ve started doing to help me whittle down my physical (owned) TBR is to borrow the audiobook from the library. Then, I can listen in the morning when I’m getting ready for work or making dinner and can’t find the time to read with my eyeballs. I’ve read a few this way in the past year, and it helps me feel somewhat accomplished. But I was also upset with myself because I spent the money to buy the book and didn’t read it!

    Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
    https://readbakecreate.com/goals-for-2024-book-and-blog-goals/

    • I do that too! Sometimes I struggle to start a book, but if I start on audiobook and get into it, it’s easier to transition back to print. Unfortunately, some of the books I want to read are not available as audiobooks, so I have to read the copies I have.

  5. I always take notes on books I’m reading in a handy, dandy notebook. My memory is terrible, so it helps me to remember characters, plot details, book quotes, etc. Also, when a book quote is too long for me to write down but I want to remember it, especially in a library book, I snap a photo with my phone so I have it to use in my review. Very helpful. Good luck with all your goals!

    Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!

    Susan
    http://www.blogginboutbooks.com

    • Oh, taking pictures of long quotes on your phone is such a great idea! I’m still experimenting with my notetaking process. I listen to a lot of audiobooks while doing chores so that’s not conducive to notetaking, but that’s one of the reasons I want to read more books in print. Hopefully, I’ll figure it out! Thank you!

  6. These are great goals, Haze. I tend to gravitate toward fiction over nonfiction too. Although it’s not one of my goals to read more nonfiction this year, I do want to read some. I have quite a few I haven’t yet gotten to that I would like to. Finishing or catching up with some of the series I started is definitely on my list! I am a series junkie, I think. I am always starting new ones too, which doesn’t help. I wish you the best on your goals this year!

    • I totally get being a series junkie. I feel like I keep getting excited about new series all the time, and there are so many out there! Thank you, good luck on your goals too!

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