Bookish Goals: 2021 Final Stats and New Goals for 2022

Happy New Year! 2021 was a great reading year for me. I read more books than I ever have. I started my blog. And I joined NetGalley and started reading ARCs. It’s been a great year but I had no blog in mind when I started the year and definitely never thought anyone would grant me an ARC, so those things aren’t in my goals at all. So did I meet my 2021 goals? Kind of….here’s the breakdown. Plus new 2022 goals are at the end.

Goal #1 – Read 100 Books

Goal Met! I met this goal at the end of October and finished out 2021 reading 114 books (115 if I count the book I DNF’d after about 75 pages). My pace at the beginning of the year was definitely faster than I ended but travel and holidays made that inevitable. I’m very happy where I ended up. (Link to source of cool graphs in 2022 goals section)

Goal #2 – Read Diverse Genres

I say I met this one. It’s a little hard to judge this one since I didn’t track it in 2020 but I definitely think I read more genres, just from the way the year went. I had been reading almost exclusively fantasy in 2020 (or at least it felt that way) and felt I really needed to branch out. This year I read across 12 different genres. Fantasy was still the highest at about 30% but look at all those genres! I’m especially proud of braving a novel in verse (and loving it so I read 3 more) and finding some graphic novels I really enjoyed.

Goal #3 – Read at least One Book by a BIPOC Author Each Month

Goal Met! I met this goal and then some, reading 33 books by BIPOC authors. I actually found that most months, I did this without trying. That said, I’m glad I set the goal and started paying more attention to the authors. Almost 30% of my books were by a BIPOC author which I think is pretty good. I definitely enjoy reading from diverse authors so this is something I plan to continue doing, regardless of whether I make it a goal every year.

Goal #4 – Participate in 2 Readathons

Goal Met! I participated in 4 readathons this year. I did two rounds of the Trope-ical Readathon, Whatever-you-want-athon, and the Reindeer Readathon. I had a blast doing these readathons and will continue to join readathons when they peak my interest. Apparently I don’t need a goal for this, I just like readathons….well, team-based competitive readathons.

Goal #5 – Join a Book Club

I attempted but failed to meet this goal. OK, I blame this one on COVID. I’d really like to eventually join an actual book club with real people and discussions rather than just watching people talk about the books. I tried joining a virtual book club and it just didn’t work for me and then fell apart anyway. One year this will be possible, but that year just wasn’t 2021.

Goal #6 – Finish 4 Series

I sort of met this goal if I stretch the rules. Officially, I finished four series: The Cursebreakers by Brigid Kemmerer, The Illuminae Files by Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff, The Firebird Trilogy by Claudia Gray, and Harry Potter. But two of these were rereads (Firebird and Harry Potter). So I think the other two count even though I only had one book of Cursebreakers left, but it’s a definite stretch to say I did it. I ended up starting way more series than I finished, some I intend to continue but haven’t gotten to yet, some that I’ve read everything that’s published and I’m anxiously awaiting the remaining books, and others that I don’t intend to finish. Oh well, I’m in good company in the bookish community of having way too many series I’m currently reading.

2022 Goals

Here are my goals for 2022 which almost entirely different than those above. I’m hoping these will challenge me in 2022 and lead to another great year of books.

• Read 100 Books – This is a no-brainer, this will be my 4th year with this goal and hopefully the 3rd year that I complete it. 100 books seems to be a good pace for me.
• Achieve and Maintain an 80% Feedback Ratio on NetGalley – I’m so close to this but I really want to not just earn the stupid badge, but keep it. I’m hoping that this will help me get approved for more ARCs.
• Review All ARCs by Publication Date – I’m really trying not to be one of the many reviewers saying their behind on ARCs. I’ve done it so far and I’m going to try my best to keep it up.
• Rate Books Consistently – This is a bit of a weird one but I noticed when I was reviewing my 2021 that my ratings are all over the place. Some books were rated too high and others too low, I just go by my gut at the end so a good or bad ending sways me way too much. I’ve decided to start using CAWPILE. If you’re not familiar with CAWPILE, it’s a rating system created by Book Roast over on YouTube that allows you to rate a book on 7 different categories on a 1 to 10 scale and converts it into a Goodreads rating out of 5 stars. There’s also an awesome spreadsheet that is where I got the nifty graphs I included above.
• Read Diverse Genres, Authors, and Topics – This is a little more broad than my 2021 goals that focused on genre and BIPOC authors. I just want to read diversely in general. The CAWPILE spreadsheet tracks authors that are BIPOC (and the breakdown of BIPOC authors), author gender, author nationality, reading format, genre, and LGBTQ+ rep. I want to increase diversity in all of these (who knew I read almost exclusively female American authors?). It just gives a better reading experience (not to mention prettier graphs).
• Grow Blog – I started my blog on a whim and never really thought anyone would read it. I still don’t have a huge following (but thanks a million if you’re actually reading this) but I love writing posts and each like, comment and new subscriber makes me so happy. I plan to write at least 200 blog posts in 2022 and hope that grows my blog while being a realistic number since I do two weekly blog posts which will account for about half. I’m not setting a goal for number of followers because I honestly have no idea what to expect. I’m currently at 72 so I guess I’ll say >72.
• Participate in the Bookish Community – I read so many blog posts and watch so many booktubers but I rarely interact. I had this goal in mind already but then I stumbled on a new challenge that fell right in line with my thoughts. So rather than writing my own goals, I plan to participate in the 2022 Support Book Bloggers Challenge. Check it out and join us in spreading the love of book blogs. I also want to be more active on booktube. I never plan to make content but I’d like to like and comment more to support the booktubers I watch.

I’ll give some updates throughout the year on my goals and we’ll see how it goes. What are your 2022 goals? Happy reading!