At the beginning of the year, I wrote about how I was keeping my reading goal the same as last year, despite completely obliterating it in 2019. My usual goal is 52, and I typically reach it with maybe one or two moments of panic — nothing too bad, though. I wanted to keep that goal the same because I had other goals for the year outside of just reading, too.
For example, this blog. Goals to go out with and visit friends more often (many live far away or in other states). Goals to find a way to get a dog, which inevitably entails moving, which somehow ended up looking like buying a house…
Well just about all of those other goals are now on hold since I can’t go out, visit friends, move, or buy a pet. But I can blog, and I can certainly read! So I find myself in an unprecedented state of having nearly completed my yearly reading goal before it’s even June.
now what?
The way I see it, there’s still no reason to change that reading goal. That’s what I wanted, and I smashed it! Yay! Upping it now and telling myself I have to read 75, 100, or 150 books… I feel like that will actually detract from my motivation and love of reading right now. Ultimately I read for myself, so there’s really no set amount I have to read in a year.
My plan is to instead push myself in what I read, instead. For example, I have nonfiction in my usual set when something interests me, but I want to make a conscious effort to read more. I also want to do more reviews on Booksirens and for new or lesser-known authors. They often get the biggest boost from it, it gives me a chance to find fantastic new books I might otherwise have missed, and connect with some really friendly amazing people. What’s not to love?
And, of course, blog stuff. Honestly, thank goodness I started this last year and had it ready to go because it’s what held me together the first shaky week or two. Not having a job meant not having a focus, and for me that could only result in bad things. So instead, I kept the same schedule and mimicked the way we control and plan our projects at work, but replaced things with reading and blog-based items.
(Research the MacMillan ban status, look into virtual book events, find 3 new blogs I like and follow them, read Book Riot articles to get a feel for different kinds of writing style…)
stay the course
That is likely the pattern I’ll continue to follow until everything changes again. Then I’ll figure out how to deal with those changes, and so on. In the end that’s all I can do, anyway, right? 😊 So we’ll see how many books I end up reading by the end of 2020. Maybe I’ll come out of quarantine and reading will take a backseat as other things open up as options. But regardless, I’m sticking to my goals. 👏
My Book Joy 
Wonderful post, and I agree with keeping the motivation behind the reading goal. There were years when I would have loved to up the goal if I reached it early, but I’m over that. At the moment, like you, I concentrate on other reading goals, reading outside my comfort zone etc. But in the end, all we can do is our best and go from there.
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Ah, thank you! ^.^ Yes, now everything above the goal will just feel like icing on the cake!
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