With the start of the new year, it’s time for me to look back at the reading goals I set at the beginning of 2019 and see how I did. Plus, 2020 means setting new goals for myself to reach for. Without further ado, let’s just get into the post!
Goals from 2019
Read 100 books ✅
I upped my goal of 80 books midway through the year and…
…yeah, I think I did okay.
Finish/catch up on five series ✅
I caught up on MORE than five, so I’d say this was a success.
- Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
- The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
- The Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan
- Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
- Mistborn Alloy Era by Brandon Sanderson
Read ten books on my Kindle ✅
Easy! Again, read plenty more than ten. Probably could have pushed myself more on this one lol.
- Dangerous by Shannon Hale
- Ten Women by Marcela Serrano
- The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig
- I Hate Everyone But You by Gaby Dunn & Alison Raskin
- This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
- Damsel by Elana K. Arnold
- You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour & David Levithan
- Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne
- If I Loved You Less by Tamsen Parker
- The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken
Read three nonfiction books ✅
I actually got pretty into nonfiction audiobooks in the second half of the year, so I read even more than three!
- Bygone Badass Broads by Mackenzi Lee
- Real Queer America by Samantha Allen
- The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Bottoms of Goodreads categories ❌
I set this challenge for myself last year to read books at the bottom of certain categories on my Goodreads TBR. And, well, I got four of the five, so that counts for something, right?
- Average rating: If I Loved You Less by Tamsen Parker
- Date published: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Number of pages: Bygone Badass Broads by Mackenzi Lee
- Number of ratings: ❌
- Date added: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Reread on audio ✅
I wanted to do most of my rereads on audiobook…and I succeeded! I reread a lot of books in 2019, but only TWO were physical rereads.
Five books by authors from and set in countries I’ve never been ❌
Yeah, I didn’t do great on this one. I didn’t read any since my mid-year goals update. Oops.
- My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Nigeria)
- Ten Women by Marcela Serrano (Chile)
- Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal (Pakistan)
- ❌
- ❌
Don’t buy books from Amazon ✅
Yes! I didn’t buy a single book from Amazon this year! It helped that I started working at an independent bookstore early in the year. This is definitely something I want to continue going forward as well.
So all in all, I completed 6 out of 8 goals. Not perfect, but not too bad! I’m glad that I was able to get to some books that I might not have otherwise picked up and push myself out of my comfort zone.
2020 Reading Goals
In 2020, I’m not going to have as many concrete goals as 2019. Even though it’s nice to push myself in my reading, I think I’m going to have so many life changes in the upcoming year that I don’t want to stress myself out with arbitrary reading goals.
That said, I would like to carry over some goals from last year that I succeeded on, since I know that I can complete them! So my goals for 2020 are…
Read 52 books
I know that I read over 100 books in 2019 and I can almost definitely hit this goal, but hey, it’s nice to lowball and then do even better than expected. 😉 And again, I don’t want to stress myself out. One book a week seems doable for sure.
Read six nonfiction books
Now that I’ve discovered how fun nonfiction audiobooks can be, I want to read a lot more, and therefore I’m doubling my 2019 goal. I already have a couple on my radar that I’m excited to get to soon!
Read a random book from my TBR every month
The idea: each month, use a number randomizer to choose a number between 1 and however many books there are on my TBR at that time. Starting from the beginning of my TBR, count to the book that corresponds to that number. Read that book in the next month.
There are lots of books on my TBR that I obviously want to read, but don’t have the incentive right now to do so. I think this will give me an extra little push to pick some up that might sit there for a long time otherwise. I’ve already picked the one for January, which is Geekerella by Ashley Poston, so I’m excited to see how this goes!
Read the books from my 5 star TBR predictions
Back in September, I wrote a post about five books that I think I’ll rate five stars. And surprise surprise, I still haven’t read any of them! So I would like to read them all in 2020 so I can do a follow-up post. And also because I obviously think I’ll like them.
The books are:
- My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
- The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell
- Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake
- The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
Read some other books that I’m excited about
Obviously, I wish I could read every book on my TBR in 2020, but that’s obviously not going to happen. So here are some books that I want to make priorities in the next year, either because I’ve been putting them off for too long or because I’m just excited about them in general.
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Timekeeper by Tara Sim
- The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
- Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee
- The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Reread some great books
I’m leaving my rereading guilt behind in 2019! I love rereading books, and even if it can take away from reading new ones, I still want to be able to reread when I want to. Audiobooks are a great way to do this. There are a couple books in particular that I want to reread at some point in 2020, including…
- The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins (in preparation for the prequel book! I haven’t read these since high school, so I’m definitely curious to see what I think of them now)
- Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo (in preparation for the Netflix show…even though we probably won’t get to the SoC storyline until a few seasons in)
- Gentleman’s Guide and Lady’s Guide by Mackenzi Lee (in preparation for the third book in the series! I hear the audiobooks are great for these so I think I’ll go that route)
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (because who wouldn’t want to read this at every opportunity)
- Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (let’s be real…I’m probably going to be stress-reading this multiple times in the lead-up to the election)
Don’t buy books from Amazon
Once again. No offense to Amazon, but…yeah, maybe a little offense. I work at an indie bookstore and I see all the time the damage that Amazon does on the book industry. Even if my dollars don’t make a huge difference to them, it’s also the principle of the thing.
So that’s it for my reading goals! I also have some fun things planned on the blog this year that I’ll be announcing eventually, so stay tuned for that. And good luck to anyone else with reading goals in 2020!
What are your reading goals in the next year? Did you set goals for yourself in 2019? How did you do?
x Margaret
Weird Zeal 
These are excellent goals! I may have to incorporate the not buying from Amazon one myself. They really treat the books like crap and don’t mail them safely.
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Thanks! Yep, Amazon isn’t my favorite place to buy books 😬 I like to support other places when possible!
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Crikey, 135 books is amazing! Good on reaching most of your goals and I hope this continues for 2020!
I agree with you about Amazon and not buying from them in order to support indie bookstores and authors, the trouble is Amazon is so ingrained that I’d definitely struggle with that one!
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Thanks so much! Good luck with any goals you have in 2020 as well! 😀
Yep, Amazon certainly is everywhere. It took me a while to cut myself off completely, but I’m glad I did, because I love supporting indies!
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135 books is amazing!! Good luck with your goals this year 🙂
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Thanks! It certainly was a great reading year 😀
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Bottoms of goodreads is such a good idea! I tried to do a down the TBR hole but all my first TBRs are the same kinda book & I want variety! I do want to get to them but they just don’t make me feel very inspired right now 😂
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Yes, it’s a great way to get some of those older books from the TBR! Haha I know the feeling – it can be hard to be inspired to pick up something that’s been there for a while 😉
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Good luck on your goals!
I’ve also not been buying from Amazon for the last couple years, which I *much* prefer. The one exception I do make is on the Reddit gift exchange, just because shipping is so much easier/faster/cheaper.
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Thanks! Yep, I’m a big proponent of not buying from Amazon whenever possible. There are exceptions, of course!
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Ah you did SO great on your goals last year, this is amazing I’m so proud of you ❤ I wish I had other alternatives than Amazon to get my books from, but as an intl reader it's sometimes complicated 😦 I'm doing my best to find alternatives though, I hope I can this year 🙂
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Thanks so much, Marie! ❤ Yeah, that's definitely understandable…I wish there were more alternatives to Amazon easily available for international readers!
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Nice job!! That’s a lot of books, I usually average around 25 a year haha! And yessss you HAVE to read The Secret History! I just finished it this past autumn and it was worth it 100%. Also, I’m planning on rereading The Hunger Games too in prep for the prequel coming out 😀 Happy new year and good luck on all your goals!!!
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I’m so excited to read The Secret History after all the amazing things I’ve heard about it! And I’m definitely looking forward to rereading The Hunger Games and the new prequel. Thanks so much, and happy new year to you too! 😀
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These are brilliant goals! I’m sure you’ll love The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet – it’s so different but so good! I’m hoping to get to the rest of the series this year. 😄
I’m totally with you on the Amazon thing, I stopped buying from them this year and I don’t regret it one bit. I also avoid Book Depository who are just Amazon under a different name. (Yet I still have a Kindle, oops! 🙈)
I really need to do one of these posts, it seems like such a good exercise to set everything out and having something to refer back to throughout the year! 😊
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I can’t WAIT for The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet! And yep, Amazon is not the best, and it’s so frustrating that they also own Book Depository. I also have a kindle (oops) though I mostly just use it for ARCs…but still. Wish there were more alternatives!
Good luck with any 2020 goals, whether you make a post about it or not! 😀
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Those sound like some pretty solid goals and it’s always nice to have specific goals for the year–I always go in with no clue what I’m going to do 😬 All of your rereads are some solid books and I feel stress reading RWRB before the election (or you know … the whole of this year). I hope you enjoy The Secret History, it’s an amazing book!
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Setting goals is nice, but going in with no clue can also be great! Whatever works for you 😊 Definitely going to be escaping into the RWRB universe whenever possible. It’s going to be a stressful year 😬 And I feel like I almost certainly will enjoy The Secret History! Thanks so much!
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You did so well with your 2019 goals and even exceeded them which is amazing!! You read so many books and I love how many goals you set involving books!! I need to get better at finishing series and it is one of my goals for this year so fingers crossed I can do it!!
I think not buying books from amazon is a great idea. And I only recently found out book depository is ran by amazon so I’m going to try to not use that too!!
I love all your new goals and I wish you best of luck with them all!!
I am actually going to be reading more non-fiction this year too!! I also am hoping to get to Not Your Sidekick and City of Brass!!
Happy New Year!! 🙂
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Finishing series is always a great (and hard!) goal, so I wish you the best of luck with that. And yep, finding out that book depository is Amazon was so frustrating and makes it even harder not to buy from them!
Good luck with reading more nonfiction, as well as all of your goals! And hopefully we both love Not Your Sidekick and City of Brass 😀 Thanks so much, Sophie!!
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A huge congrats on reaching nearly all your goals, Margaret! That’s such an incredible accomplishment! And I can’t believe you were able to read so much! Absolutely amazing! ❤ I hope you have a fantastic 2020, and that you enjoy all those rereads! I need to tackle The Hunger Games and Six of Crows, myself, before the new book and tv series release for those! Haha.
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Thank you so much! 😀 I hope your 2020 is full of wonderful things as well. I’m definitely excited to reread those series sometime soon!!
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Wow- you smashed your reading goal- congrats! And awesome goals for 2020- good luck! 😀
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Thanks! 😀 Good luck for your reading in 2020 as well!
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