2024 Reflection & 2025 Plans

Posted on December 31, 2024 by ashareads

As the year winds down, I find myself reflecting on the lessons of 2024 and setting intentions for the year ahead.

2024 Highlights & Reflections

This past year was about reflection and letting go of what no longer served me. After the burnout of 2023, I started 2024 with a slower pace, prioritizing joy and intention in my reading and personal life.

Personal Milestones

Reviewed every book I read on Goodreads for another year.
Cleared my NetGalley shelf of 2024 releases, reaching a 96% feedback ratio.

Letting Go

This year I released some commitments and habits that no longer aligned with my goals:

Canceled BOTM Subscription: I realized the selections weren’t appealing to me anymore and I could find the books I wanted elsewhere.
Disbanded My Book Club: After five years of OC Books and Brunch, organizing meetings and selecting books became more of a chore than a joy. Stepping away allowed me to reclaim reading for myself.
Embraced Mood Reading & DNF’ing: Without book club obligations, I could read purely for pleasure. This shift helped me refine my tastes and let go of the pressure to finish books that didn’t resonate.

Looking Ahead to 2025

In 2025, my reading goals remain the same: focusing on quality over quantity. This approach has served me well over the years, and I plan to carry it forward. Here’s to another year of growth, discovery, and leaning into what truly brings joy!

2023 Year in Review & 2024 Reading Goals

Posted on January 2, 2024 by ashareads

2023 marked a distinctive chapter in my reading journey. It was a year filled with bookish events and meeting my favorite authors which was a highlight. I’m hopeful to continue this trend in 2024. One significant change I noticed is that my preferred reading genres have refined in 2023, gravitating towards romance, thrillers, and fantasy. This shift in my reading tastes isn’t necessarily negative, but it shows my evolution of what I prefer to read.

Reflecting on my 2023 reading goals:

1. GoodReads Challenge: Set at 1 for fifth consecutive year to prioritize reading what I enjoy. This was a success in terms of quantity as this was the second best reading year.

2. South Asian Authors: This goal led me to discover new authors which was great.

2023 Accomplishments

• Successfully finished all the 2023 releases on my NetGalley shelf and reaching 94% NetGalley ratio by year-end.

• Finished all my BOTM selections without carrying over to next year.

• Participated in the 23 for 23 challenge, focusing on BIPOC authors and voices, a challenging but rewarding experience.

• Wrote a GoodReads review for every book I read in 2023.

2024 Goals

I’ve decided not to set specific reading goals this year. Instead, I plan to continue and deepen the intentions I’m already engaging in:

• Keeping my GoodReads goal at 1 for the sixth consecutive year, focusing on quality over quantity.

• Allowing myself the freedom to not finish books that don’t captivate me.

Cheers to a year filled with stories that inspire and connect us!

Reflecting on Reading Goals

Posted on November 21, 2023 by ashareads

I want to focus on reading goals. At the beginning of this year, I had two reading goals I wanted to focus on:

1. GoodReads Challenge: Put at 1 for fifth year in a row to continue to enjoy what I read. <—I love that I kept this goal because I don’t have the pressure of reading a specific number of books for the year.

2. Continue to read more books from South Asian authors.<— This has been an interesting goal. I’ve been more intentional in the books I’m reading and who is writing them. I’ve found it difficult to find books I truly enjoy but I’m still trying and I’m currently at 14 books.

Here are some other loose goals I decided to follow before the end of the year.

23 for 23 Challenge: In August, I decided to join the #23for23 that amplifies BIPOC voices from BIPOC authors. since the challenge since that only books in August onwards count, I’m only at 13 books so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to complete this by the end of the year.

NetGalley: I’d like to try to finish my 2023 NetGalley books before the end of the year so they don’t carry over. I have ten 2023 NetGalley books. I’m not sure if I can get to all of them, but I know most of them are on my TBR for this month and next month.

Book of the Month: I want to finish all the BOTM books I purchased this year. I only have two left but one is over 500 pages which I’m not sure if I’ll get to it or not. This year I haven’t been as impressed with the BOTM selections as I have the previous year. I’m still debating whether I want to renew or not. I think my annual renewal is in March or something.

That’s all I got for now. If I’m able to accomplish these, that’s great and if not, that’s fine too.

2022 Year In Review & 2023 Reading Goals

Posted on December 31, 2022 by ashareads

2022 has been my best reading year yet! This is the most number of books I’ve read in a year since I started keeping track in 2017. Here were my goals in 2022 and what I learned:

1. GoodReads Challenge: Put at 1 for fourth year in a row to continue to enjoy what I read. <— I love this goal and plan to carry this goal over to next year. It really puts into perspective on my initial reason for reading. It’s also given me the power to DNF more than I used to.

2. Read more books from South Asian authors. <— Some of my favorite books from this year were written by South Asian authors. I read 27 books from South Asian authors this year! I loved that I was able to read authors I loved along with discovering new ones. I’m definitely carrying this goal over to next year.

3. Finish the rest of Jane Austen novels this year. <— Back in September, I decided to only count the six completed novels from Jane Austen which doesn’t include Love & Friendship. I loved the first 3 Jane Austen books I read. However, I realized that making it as a goal didn’t make it enjoyable for me and also classics in general aren’t really my cup of tea.

Though those were my reading goals this year, I had some other reading accomplishments that I was anticipating as well:

1. I wrote a review on GoodReads on every single book I read this year.

2. I kept my NetGalley % ratio above 80% throughout the year.

After reflecting my reading habits this past year, I had quite a few thoughts on whether I should keep my goals the same or change it up. Should I add a goal to keep my NetGalley at 90%? Should I start to have a goal that I should review every book I’ve read for the year in GoodReads? Is there a particular social media platform I want to focus on – Instagram, TikTok, my blog? I do some of these things now, but sometimes they are difficult to maintain and don’t want it to feel like a burden. I decided to go with two goals I know for sure that I can stick with and these are going to be my 2023 reading goals:

1. GoodReads Challenge: Put at 1 for fifth year in a row to continue to enjoy what I read.

2. Continue to read more books from South Asian authors.

What are your 2023 reading goals?

Q3 Wrap Up

Posted on October 11, 2022 by ashareads

Time is flying by and I can’t believe we only have a few more months until 2023! Q3 just wrapped up so now it’s time to see how I’ve been doing with my reading goals. This quarter I took a look at my goals and decided to modify one of my goals so it would fit more with my reading tastes/mood.

GoodReads Challenge: Put at 1 for fourth year in a row to continue to enjoy what I read.

I’ve read 137 books this year so far. I surpassed books I read from 2017-2021 with the exception of 2019. I’m not going to pressure myself to surpass 2019, In terms of next year, I’m kind of debating putting a goal number, but at the same time, I like this pressure of not having to hit a specific number of books to read and that I can focus on reading whatever I like instead. Not giving myself a specific number has been freeing in a sense that I allow myself to DNF more and be more intentional with what I read.

Read more books from South Asian authors.

I’ve continued to average reading one book from a South Asian author each month. I love that I’ve been more intentional with this goal and I’ve discovered some great South Asian authors that I may not have went out of my way to look for. I’m thinking of continuing this goal for next year but we’ll see as I get closer to the end of the year.

Finish the rest of Jane Austen novels this year.

As of 9/2, I decided to only count the six completed novels from Jane Austen which does not include Love & Friendship. Because of the modification, I’m done with this goal. I learned my lesson about putting goal on reading classics. Classics are great, but they’re just not for me.

Q2 2022 Wrap Up

Posted on July 5, 2022 by ashareads

I can’t believe we’re already half way through 2022! That means it’s check-in time to see how I’m doing with my goals.

GoodReads Challenge: Put at 1 for fourth year in a row to continue to enjoy what I read.

I’ve currently read 94 books so far. My best month has been June so far with the amount I was able to read and enjoy!

Read more books from South Asian authors.

I’ve been averaging out reading one book from a South Asian author each month which as been great.

Finish the rest of Jane Austen novels this year.

I still have Love & Friendship to finish. I won’t lie…I’m dreading to read this one because I heard it’s the least popular one. But once I do, I will be done with this goal and I will NEVER do another classics goals again.

2021 Year In Review & 2022 Reading Goals

Posted on January 1, 2022 by ashareads

2021 has been another strong reading year! I may not have read as many books as last year, but that’s okay. Life happens. Here were my goals for 2021:

Continue to enjoy what I read and embrace the mood reader in me!
Be more selective and mindful of the books I receive/request that I will be reviewing.
Buy less books and use the resources I have to attain books, e.x. library, current book subscriptions I’m actively using.

Here’s what I learned:

Reading my favorite genres help me enjoy reading. I found that sticking with my favorite genres (romance and thrillers) actually gave me comfort and helped me get out of reading slumps.
Stepping up my audiobook game! Audiobooks have been a wonderful option during those times where I want to read but I don’t have the time to sit down and read a book, need to multitask or my eyes are tired from staring at screens all day.
Mood reading is ok. I’ve noticed that whenever I’ve forced myself to read a book because of a deadline or whatnot, I don’t appreciate it as much. That isn’t to say that I’m going to throw deadlines out the door but to give myself a better mix of books I need to read and ones I feel like picking up.

After reflecting my reading habits this past year, I decided to focus on these 3 goals for 2022:

GoodReads Challenge: Put at 1 for fourth year in a row to continue to enjoy what I read.
Read more books from South Asian authors.
Finish the rest of Jane Austen novels this year.

How was your 2021 reading year? What are your 2022 reading goals?

2021 Reading Check In: October

Posted on October 12, 2021 by ashareads

This year has seriously been flying by! With only a couple of months and some days left of 2021, I thought I would do a reading check in to see how my reading this year is going.

Overall, I’m reading way less than I did the previous years which is totally okay with me. One main factor has been raising my pup.

In terms of my goals, I originally had 3 goals.

1. Continue to enjoy what I read and embrace the mood reader in me!

I think I’ve been pretty good about this one so far! Even though my quantity of books has gone down, I like that I’ve been trying to embrace being a mood reader. Also if I’m not enjoying a book, I DNF or get back to it if I feel like I just can’t read it at the moment.

2. Be more selective and mindful of the books I receive/request that I will be reviewing.

I think I’ve been okay about this, but definitely need to get better about being more selective.

3. Buy less books and use the resources I have to attain books, e.x. library, current book subscriptions I’m actively using.

Oh boy! Over the summer, I did buy a few books beyond my book subscriptions, but overall, I’ve been pretty good at reading books I own and books I receive for subscriptions.

How are your reading goals going? Are you adjusting any of them?

2020 Year In Review & 2021 Reading Goals

Posted on December 29, 2020 by ashareads

2020 has been a wild year! I’m a bit surprised that I didn’t read as many book as I did last year since we had a pandemic and needed to be home, but I did attain my goal in enjoying the books I read rather than the number.

My 2020 reading goal was simply to enjoy what I read. Here is what I learned this year:

1. Reading outside of my comfort zone: I’m proud of myself for stepping it of my comfort zone and exploring genres that I typically wouldn’t read like fantasy, horror, and sci-fi. Fantasy has become one of my go-to comforts besides contemporary, romance, and thrillers.
2. Mental Health: If there was one thing I had to take away from this year, it is definitely the importance of mental health. This also correlates with reading because sometimes I would pick up a book and I may not enjoy it as much because I wasn’t in the right headspace. There were a few times this year where I picked up a book, started reading, and then put it aside because I wasn’t emotionally ready for the book. Then a few days or a few weeks later, I would pick up that same book I put down and would enjoy it so much more.
3. DNF books: This year I noticed I DNF’ed way more books than I have last year or the year before. I’m glad that I’ve been more selective on what I read especially since I’ve been wanting to focus on reading what I enjoy instead of being forced to read something.

After taking a step back, I figured that I’m going to have two goals in 2021:
1. Continue to enjoy what I read and embrace the mood reader in me!
2. Be more selective and mindful of the books I receive/request that I will be reviewing.
3. Buy less books and use the resources I have to attain books, e.x. library, current book subscriptions I’m actively using.

What are your 2021 read goals?

2018 Wrap Up & 2019 Goals

Posted on December 30, 2018 by ashareads

2018 was a wonderful reading year for me! Here are some positive things that happened:

Not only did I surpass my original goal of reading 50 books, but I surpassed my revised goal of reading over 100 books (I netted out to 105 books)
I met some really great people on bookstagram both online and in person
I received my first physical ARC book this year (It was An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen)

Some things I learned this past year:

It’s okay to DNF a book so I can read something else that’s better.
Be picky about the books I decide to read and put on my TBR list
It’s more of quality of books I’ve read versus the quantity

Going into 2019, here are my reading goals:

GoodReads Reading Goal: Putting the goal at zero so I focus on books I truly want to read and not stress about getting to a specific number (updated as 1/8/19)
Join a book club I will enjoy and to meet new friends
Buy less books for myself – buy books for book swaps and utilize the library more

How was your 2018 reading year? What are your goals for 2019?

Asha Reads

Tag Archives: Reading Goals