2020 Reading Challenges

First of all, my Goodreads goal is set at 70 books. That's pretty achievable for me. Ultimately though I do hope to get to 100, but I know that I will be reading longer fantasy books this year that will take more time so I won't be able to finish as many books in a year. Last year I got to 96 books, so I thought that maybe this year I could get to 100, but last year I read a ton of short stories and graphic novels and also a ton of longer books, so that number is more inflated that it will likely be this year, when I'm planning to read fewer short stories and graphic novels, so 70 is this year's goal.

Next, my series goal. I had good luck with bingeing series last year, managing to complete five series from start to finish, and this year I again hope to do this. My goal is to complete at least six series this year, although there are a couple that I'm currently in the middle of, so I do hope to finish those as well.

Also, my neverending TBR goal. I currently have 350 books on my TBR at the start of 2020. I've noticed that I tend to gravitate toward newer books or books that I've acquired more recently, so this year I want to focus on reading as many books as possible that I've owned since high school since they've been on my TBR the longest. I currently have 36 books on my shelf from 2013 or years prior, and ideally, I'd like to get that number down to zero. Seven or more years or longer is too long to still have books on my TBR. So this year my goal is to give each of those books a chance and either complete them or DNF them, depending on if I like them or not. I know I realistically won't get to all of them, but that is still the goal because it's ridiculous to own unread books for so many years. Here is my list of unread books from high school:

• Delirium
• Pandemonium
• Requiem
• Eon
• Eona
• The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
• The Evolution of Mara Dyer
• Switched
• Torn
• Ascend
• Ship Breaker
• The Drowning Cities
• The Pledge
• Looking for Alaska
• Will Grayson, Will Grayson
• Between Shades of Grey
• Eldest
• Brisingr
• Inheritance
• Wuthering Heights
• Sense and Sensibility
• Fahrenheit 451
• The Picture of Dorian Grey
• Anne of Green Gables
• Paradise Lost
• Don Quixote
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• The Girl Who Played with Fire
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
• Gone Girl
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• The Da Vinci Code
• The Blind Assassin
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• Pop Kids
• Diary of Anne Frank

I can tell you right now there are some books on that list that I have no intention of reading this year, such as most of the classics and adult fiction titles, ones that if I do get to them I will be truly surprised. But I specifically do want to read all of the young adult titles, which I have bolded above. The older I get, the more distanced I become from young adult stories and their protagonists, and I want to read them while I still have some hope of enjoying them. 

The last couple of years I have constructed a read-your-own-books challenge to help me read books from my TBR. This year I'm not doing that as I don't care what challenges I fulfill as long as I read any of my unread books. That is the main goal: read books from my TBR. Last year, 47% of the books I read were from my TBR. My goal this year is to have that number be 70% or higher. 

Last year, working at a bookstore and a library, I acquired more books than I've ever acquired during any years prior, and thus my TBR grew exponentially. I unhauled many books I didn't want to read anymore, yet my TBR was still larger at the end of last year than at the beginning of the year. This year I hope to buy fewer books, read more of my own books, and commit to DNFing books if I don't like them.