2023 Reading and Bookish Goals

Hello, 2023! This will be the second full year that I’ve had this little space in which to ramble about books. So that means it’s time to make some 2023 reading goals! Many of them will be similar to last year. Regardless, I think it’s nice to make goals because they serve as an end point for reflection once the year ends. I spent a lot of reading time in 2022 devoted to ARCs. And while I obviously love reading upcoming books, I also want to focus on my own backlog. So, overall, I plan to keep a lot of my goals attainable so that I can make time for the books I already own.

I also thought about perhaps making some blog content-related goals. But I didn’t want to box myself into a self-made obligation. Especially because blogging already takes so much time and I didn’t want to make it any more difficult for myself! So most of the goals below pertain specifically to reading rather than blogging.

Read 52 Books

This is the same endgame reading goal I set last year. And I still think it’s appropriate for myself. It equates to one book per week. And given that I work full time, blog on the side, and want to get back into fitness, it’ll be great if I hit this.

Reader Voracious Book Blogger/Reader Spreadsheet

Kal @ Reader Voracious created the Ultimate Book Blogger/Reader Spreadsheet Template to help keep track of various reading statistics. I learned about this spreadsheet too late in 2022 to want to make the effort. But now that a new year is upon us it’ll be a lot easier to join and keep up with. (And yes, I still need to download it.) I don’t have MS Excel on my personal computer, so hopefully it’ll function more or less ok using Google Sheets!

#BeatTheBacklog

Lisa at Owl Be Sat Reading started the hashtag #BeatTheBacklog in 2022 to rally those who want to make a dent in their TBR list. I plan to try this again, but do a better job at it in 2023. To help me along I also joined two challenges. The first is Project Backlist, organized by Kal at Reader Voracious. The second is the TBR Tackle Challenge, hosted by Ashlee at Books Are 42, from.TBR.to.READtheartsy_bookworm88, and hplreads. Both of these challenges, as you can probably tell, aim to encourage you to read what you already own. I plan to focus on my physical book collection so that I can ultimately unhaul what I likely won’t reread. The only digital copies I’ll keep track of for these challenges are ARCs. My overall goal is for at least one third of my reads to be books I physically owned prior to 2023.

Request Less ARCs

This is a lowkey goal and ties in with my last one about reading from my physical book copy backlog. I spent the first six months of 2022 digging myself out of a NetGalley request spree. Sure, I read some great books. But it was a little stressful and, at times, frustrating because I felt like I couldn’t make time for my own books. So I plan to be more selective with my ARC requests and to make sure the ARCs I do request have publication dates spread throughout the year. That latter sub-goal might be a little difficult since it seems like certain months are popular. (Looking at you, February.) But it’s all about keeping track of everything–an ARC budget plan, so to speak.

Increase Blog Followers

I find it difficult to attract blog followers. I don’t know why, but so it is. Ideally I’d like to reach 200, but I’m not sure if that’s realistic. So I’ll set this goal for 150 in the hopes that I’ll be pleasantly surprised by the end of 2023.

Improve SEO

With Twitter going downhill, I think it’s probably best in the long term for me to focus more on search engine optimization (SEO). I started tinkering with this in late 2022 and I do receive more search engine hits now. But my primary traffic by far comes from Twitter. I want to learn how to drive more traffic via SEO and I’ve received some good starting tips from several people on Twitter already.

What are your 2023 reading goals? Feel free to link your post in a comment if you made any!

17 thoughts on “2023 Reading and Bookish Goals

    1. Ugh it is the absolute hardest thing for me with respect to blogging. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s nice to see the number go up and feel like you’re not wasting your time spewing book love out into the ether(net).

  1. HELLO HIII YOUR BLOG DESIGN IN ABSOLUTE STUNNINGNESS???? THE GREEN SHADE AND THEN THE FAIRY TALE THEME JUST GO. so well together. WILL BASICALLY 7346478% LIVE ON HERE FOREVER IF THE OUTSIDE WORLD DIDN’T OBJECT TO THAT. also i love your posts?? AND CANNOT WAIT TO READ MORE OF THEM. good luck with all the goals AND I HOPE 2023 IS A PHENOMENAL YEAR FOR YOU <33

    1. Thanks so much, Anoushka! That’s very nice of you to say. I hope you have a wonderful 2023 as well, and good luck with any reading goals you might have!

  2. I love that you’re joining so many reading challenges. I seriously admire that! The only one I’ve joined so far is the StoryGraph page challenge for the first month of the year – and it’s just a page a day haha. I never go a day without reading, so that’s not too challenging for me. I’ll have to find some other challenges to participate in. I’ll look through the ones you chose (though I only own like 4 unread books since I buy only books I’ve already read – the 4 are from publishers)! So fun to see your goals here and can’t wait to watch you slay them all!

    1. Thanks, Stephanie! 🙂 I wasn’t even aware of the StoryGraph page challenge. Honestly, I think that one would stress me out. Idk why since most days I do read, but as long as it works for you! If you have a lot of unread digital books or a large Goodreads TBR, maybe you could focus on those for either of the backlog challenges I mentioned. ^_^

  3. All the best with your goals.
    I also had to cut back on requesting ARCs. I began doing so when the pandemic began just to remove any obligations on my blogging. I need the activity to be as stress free as possible because you’re right – it does take a lot of time.

    1. Thanks! It’s nice to know I’m not the only one cutting back on ARCs recently. I love having the opportunity, but sometimes it’s time to pull back. I definitely still have some and will continue to browse, but it’s nice to read free of any obligations, too. I hope it’s boosted enjoyment of blogging for you! 🙂

  4. Make sure when you track blog followers, you track all the sources you can think of! For example, I follow exclusively on Feedly – I don’t use the wordpress system at all. I also used to use Bloglovin’ before I switched to feedly. Just wanted to throw that out there just in case 🙂 Good luck on all the goals!

    1. Thanks for reading and for the suggestions! I have no idea how I’d track who follows me via Feedly or anything like that, haha. Do Feedly followers get counted in the WP follower count? Honestly, though, the stats I have are good enough for me…I don’t really have the time to dive any deeper. 😛

  5. Good luck with the goals. I use (a cutdown variant of) Kal’s sheet in GSheets and it works just fine, although I haven’t downloaded a copy for a few years so can’t speak to any recent cleverness that may have been added!

  6. Pingback: 2024 Bookish Goals

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