Let’s Talk: 2022 Reading Goals, Content Goals, and Tracking

Hello little sprouts and seedlings! Happy Friday! I hope you’ve been having a lovely 2022 so far, and I hope the rest of 2022 is kind to you. If you’ve been around for a while — or if you just know me in any capacity — you might know that I’m very Type-A, and a big fan of tracking. I made a post last year about my 2021 Reading Goals, Notion & Reading Journal Set Up, and wanted to take some time today to reflect on how that went, as well as share my 2022 goals with you all! 

My goals last year were: 

• Read at least two non-fiction books a month
• Read at least one book a month related to WIP research
• Read at least one book from your physical TBR a month
• Read over 100 books
• Read a book you’ve been putting off each month
• Declutter/unhaul shelves every three months
• Remain above 80% on Netgalley each month

While I surpassed some of these goals, I also failed miserably at some of them! Which is totally fine; reading is supposed to be a hobby, not a job, and sometimes I think I forget that. I read an abysmal amount of non-fiction books last year, nor did I even touch my WIP, but I did read 277 books last year, remain above 80% on Netgalley every month, and declutter/unhaul my shelves periodically. I also started a reading journal last year, and kept trying to make it stick, and completely failed at maintaining it. When you read so much, there are books that you’re bound to not love, and books you might not want to either make a spread for. Halfway through the year, I decided to only make spreads for my 5-star reads, but then ended up just not having the creative juice to do so. I really just stopped being creative last year, and fell into a bit of a funk. 

This year, I’m trying to make my goals a little more realistic, and to also expand on them a little bit more:

• Read at least one non-fiction book a month: I really do enjoy reading non-fiction, but I haven’t made much progress with my non-fiction physical TBR in the last couple of years. I’m hoping to actually stick to this goal this time! 
• Annotate at least two books a month: Something that I started doing last year was annotating books for my friends, whether they were their favorites, or one of my own, and I’m hoping to do at least two a month. I spend so much time reading ARCs, or new releases, that sometimes it just takes me a while to read my friends’ favorites, so I figured this would be a good way for me to read some of their favorites! 
• Read at least one book from physical TBR a month: Like I mentioned above, I spend so much time reading ARCs on my Kindle, that I don’t always touch my physical TBR. I keep amassing more books, and leaving them on my TBR cart, so I’m excited to actively work on reading some physical books this year! 
• Read over 150 books: Since I read 277 books last year, I feel like reading 150 books isn’t too much of a stretch! 
• Remain above 80% on NetGalley each month: With my reading slump near the end of the year, I’ve let my ARCs pile up, and so I’m hoping to read at least an ARC a week. I’m hoping that this will allow me to stay above 80% all year! 
• Complete a Readathon: The only thing I have to say about this is — Not a lot going on at the moment. 
• Listen to more audiobooks, including the Les Miserables audiobook: So maybe, starting your year off with a 65+ hour audiobook is not the way to listen to more audiobooks, but I am having the most wonderful time listening to Les Miserables. It’s such a great audiobook, and it’s one of my favorite stories. In fact, it’s made me even more excited for what other stories I’ll get to listen to this year. 

Near the end of the year, I also stopped posting on Instagram as much. This year, I’m hoping to rekindle my love for Bookstagram, post more rec lists, change up my style, learn new ways to edit photos in Lightroom, and be more active. I might even try to make more reels! I’m also notoriously bad at cross-promotion, so a personal goal for me is to share more reviews and posts on Instagram and Twitter.

In terms of my reading journal, I’m hoping to use it more for spreads, but I won’t set specific qualifications for when I need to make spreads. The ultimate goal for me is to fall back in love with being creative, and so I’m not going to place any restrictions or try to force creativity. I also stopped using Tumblr and making edits last year, and I’ve decided that I’ll try to make an edit for every 5-star read, and any other books that I love. I also want to explore new things in Photoshop, whether that’s text placement (my behated), different coloring styles, or different textures.

I’ve moved away from tracking my reading on Notion, and have gone back to my roots — a trusty Google Sheets document. I’ve got several tabs, including Books Read in 2022, ARCs to Request, ARCs on Hand, 2022 Preorders, Books to Preorder, and then various reading challenges, including the Popsugar one. I wanted to track which ARCs I’ve requested and when, what ARCs I still have to make my way through, what I’ve preordered (including if I’ve submitted preorder campaign forms), as well as what books I want to preorder.  I’ve also got columns for representation, content warnings, date started and finished, if I read it for a buddy read, or if it was for a book club. 

So there you have it! My 2022 goals, and the way I’m tracking my reading this year. How are you tracking your reads? Do you have any reading goals? Let me know in the comments below! 

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