I made bookish goals for the first time in 2023. With one more year under my belt, it seems only prudent to make some 2024 bookish goals. They’re similar to the ones I made last year, with a few exceptions. New notable topics to my 2024 bookish goals are to complete ongoing series reads and track my bookish spending. Kal at Reader Voracious has a lovely spreadsheet system that is great if you like numbers.
I nixed SEO improvement from my 2024 goals because I feel like I more or less figured it out. I considered adding a goal about writing timely reviews. But I don’t usually have an issue with that and tend to write them within a week of finishing a book.
Anyway, keep reading to learn more about my 2024 bookish goals.
Read 52 Books
This is the same reading goal I set for the past two years. I plan to keep it the same because I don’t want to inadvertently stress myself out by setting a stretch goal. Fifty-two books is one book per week, which I feel is a good and achievable pace for me. Anything extra will be icing on top of the cake.
Track My Reading
I mentioned earlier that Kal at Reader Voracious created the Ultimate Book Blogger/Reader Spreadsheet Template. It is amazing if you like to keep track of reading statistics. I used the free version in 2023, but plan to upgrade to one of the Elite versions this year. The Elite version offers the ability to track subgenres and author identity, which I’m curious about.
Track My Spending
The free version of the Ultimate Book Blogger/Reader Spreadsheet allows one to also track spending. I didn’t do that in 2023, but I plan to in 2024. Maybe this will help curb my book-buying habit. The fact that I have so many unread books should do it, but apparently I keep buying!
#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 didn’t do a great job with this in 2023. But I really do want to make a dent in my physical backlog, so I will try harder this year. I keep track of my backlog reads here, though it sorely needs an update. Historically I included books that I didn’t own, but were on my TBR just the same. In 2024 I plan to only include books I own on that #BeatTheBacklog page. The underlying goal is this will hopefully help me cull any books that I likely won’t reread.
Series Completion Challenge
I came up with my own challenge to complete series I already started. You can read about it here. Caitlin at Realms of My Mind does something similar. But I didn’t realize it until after I’d drafted my own version. Regardless, our goal is the same: make a dent on started series! If you want to do something similar, please feel free to join in one or both of our challenges.
Request Less ARCs
I feel I did a much better job at this in 2023 than in 2022. Although I’m still behind, my current ARC pile feels manageable. I would like to be even more selective with the ARCs I request because I want to make a dent in my owned, physical backlog of books. This means I probably will request less books that are part of a series. The exceptions to this are if I already started the series or if I think I’ll really, really like it. Ideally, though, I want to focus more on standalone ARCs.
Increase Blog Followers
This is the hardest goal for me. I would like to hit at least 200 followers in 2024. However, despite receiving improved viewership, my following growth is slow in comparison. I’m not sure why that is. I sometimes wonder if it’s because I self-host my WordPress blog and maybe their WP Reader algorithm favors WP-hosted blogs.
What are your 2024 bookish goals?
I love these goals, and they seem very doable. Ever since I started self hosting, I’ve noticed a big change in followers, so I think you’re right about being left out of the WordPress algorithms. My feeling is that people just don’t follow blogs as much anymore. They dip in and out or wait for someone to comment on their blog before doing a return visit. Sigh.
Thanks, Tammy! I’m all about goals for hobbies staying relatively stress free. Also, I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels like it’s hard to get followers as a self-hosted WP blog! And it looks like you have experience from both sides: WP-hosted and self-hosted. I wonder if there’s a web page or something that can confirm or talks about whether our suspicions are true.
I will also be working on completing some series this year. I don’t have a set number of books I want to read, I am mostly just reading as much as I can from my owned books. Oh, I should keep track of my bookish spending, because last year I went a bit overboard with it.
Excellent! I feel like I’ve seen a lot of bloggers say they really want to focus on completing series this year. It’s a nice feeling of accomplishment to finally close out a series and move on. Good luck with your bookish goals!
Great, realistic goals here! I want to track my reading with a spreadsheet this year and pay attention to spending, as well. I’m also trying to get over my shyness and comment on fellow book bloggers posts more often 🙂 Best of luck with your 2024 reading goals!
Thank you! I like to keep my hobby-related goals relatively stress free. I think it’s a great goal to blog hop and leave comments! When I focused on this more, it not only helped with stats, but I felt like it built more of a community, if that makes sense. Everyone appreciates comments. 🙂
I do have very similar goals as well! I started tracking my expenses last year but I didn’t do that well so I am still trying to figure that one out! But tracking my series and completing them is always something I try to do 🙂 Good luck with that!
It’s always a struggle about ARCs so I hope you do well. My main goal related to ARCs is to read them sooner and post the reviews. I have just opened my blog so hopefully that helps.
I’m excited to see your challenge and goals updates!
Welcome to blogging, by the way! I think tracking expenses will be one of those things I’ll really have to stay on top of because it’s not like I can just look it up in Goodreads. Good luck with your ARC-reviewing goal. I think it’s a good one–I know I always feel better when I write my reviews sooner than later. It’s like a brain purge and lets me feel “free” to move on to the next one.
Good luck with your 2024 goals. I’m going with requesting less ARCs this year too. I’ve done much better at this in the last part of the year and I’m much happier not feeling as though I have to read a certain number of books before they are published. Have a great reading year in 2024
Yay, more power to requesting less ARCs!! I agree that it makes me happier to feel like I don’t have as many books I’m obligated to read, especially before the pub date, even though I do want to read them. I hope you succeed in that endeavor this year!