Happy New Year! By the time this goes live I’ll be in sunny Perth!
Perth: Image by Sam Curry from Pixabay 
Rottnest Island: Aerial shot thanks to Google 
Fremantle Markets: Image thanks to Google
I’m a big believer in celebrating your successes (even if you’re your own cheer squad), looking forward and giving yourself the best opportunity possible to succeed. I did my reflection on Wednesday, so now it’s time to look towards the future.
What are my bookish goals for 2020?
- Finish reviewing Tamora Pierce’s books
- Complete series reviews for 3 other series I began in 2019
- Kick start my book vs TV show comparisons
- Not overwhelm myself because I apparently have no self control when it come’s to Rachel’s tours!
- Finish my book database (this will help the next two goals)
- Read more sci-fi
- Read more books I already own and haven’t read yet Finish creating the new, simpler, cleaner look (all URLs for reviews will change)
- Read a book a week (or more)
I’m a massive planner and with Rachel releasing quite a few good tours over January and February I inevitably found myself signed up for more than I intended.
Luckily a friend helped me figure out how I could create a whiteboard style yearly calendar that I can reuse every year. So I can now keep track of when I have reviews and posts planned so I don’t get overwhelmed.
My normal schedule is a review for a new read on Monday, I’ve now added in the book to film comparisons on Wednesday’s and I’m doing my series review on Friday’s still. That leaves a few days for Wrap Up posts, tags and other random little things.
What book challenges am I doing in 2020?
Goodreads Reading Challenge
I’ve decided to set myself a goal of 80 books for the Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge. Since I read 102 in 2019 I thought this would be a good challenge.
I didn’t want to put it any higher since I’ll be working from home now with my business.
To try and support more Aussie author’s and to connect with more local Aussie readers and bloggers I joined the Aussie Readers group on Goodreads. They do several challenges throughout the yr so I’ve signed up for two of them. If anyone would like to join any of these, you don’t need to be an Aussie to join so feel free to follow the links and join!
Aussie Author Bingo
The Rules:
#1. Aussie Authors ONLY
#2. Read a minimum of two (2) rows – either across or down but not diagonal
#3. Where the squares overlap (if they do) you must read that square twice.
#4. Choose your rows and your LEVEL; then list (and link) your books in this challenge thread.
Make sure you check out the challenge guidelines here
There are four (4) levels of achievement:
Shelf (10 books – 2 rows)
Bookcase (15 books – 3 rows)
Library (20 books – 4 rows)
To Infinity and beyond (25 books – 5 rows)
The books I’ve chosen for this are:
Down:
a) Published 2020: The Lawson Sisters (requested on NetGalley)
b) Bright vibrant cover: The Boundary Fence (requested on NetGalley)
c) Rated 4+ by a friend: The Alchemist’s Key by Traci Harding
d) One work title: Lovestruck (requested on NetGalley)
e) Young adult: Stray
Across:
a) Rated 4+ by a friend: Thief’s Magic by Trudi Canavan
b) New author to you: Ballarat Charter, Volume 1
c) On TBR 2 years+: Thirty-Eight Reasons
d) Crime/Mystery: The Daughter of Victory Lights (requested on NetGalley)
e) Male author: The Landing
A-Z Characters
This one sounded like fun and a great way to expand my reading. I haven’t found characters for all the letters yet, I’m hoping as the yr goes by I’ll find some for the last couple of letters so I can finish the challenge.
So far I’ve selected 7 Aussie authors for my characters.
Rules:
For something different, we will have an A-Z CHARACTER challenge for 2020. To complete this challenge, read a book in which a main character‘s first or last name begins with the corresponding letter. For the hard letters Q, X, Y and Z, you may use a name in which the letter appears somewhere in the main character’s first or last name – it does not have to be the first letter. One book per letter – 26 books in total
There’s to be a minimum of 6 Aussie Authors for this challenge 🙂
And don’t forget our challenge guidelines here
A – AJ in Fateful Coincidence by Lasairiona E. McMaster
B – Evelyn Bell in The Daughter of Victory Lights by Kerri Turner AA (requested on NetGalley)
C – Coco Lauren in Getting Dirty by Rachael Stewart
D – Cassandra Devlin in Stray by Andrea K. Höst AA
E – Eskil in The Landing by Colin Taber AA
F – Lillian Fairclough in Lilian and the Irresistible Duke by Virginia Heath
G – Gavin Thompson in Dance of the Heart by Lisa Kessler
H – Henry in The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
I – Isobel in A Crown of Time by Jennifer Macaire
J – Carter Jackson in Crazy for Your Love by Lexi Ryan
K – Winter Knowles in From Thailand with Love: A Fun, Adventurous Romantic Comedy by Camilla Isley
L – Amy Lowery in Lovestruck by Bronwyn Sell AA (requested from NetGalley)
M – Mikolas Leandros in Song of the Soul by Lisa Kessler
N – Nolan Parker in Thirty-Eight Reasons by Len Webster AA
O – Olly in When Polly Met Olly by Zoe May
P – Sir Pelleas in A Shape on the Air by Julia Ibbotson
Q – Ella Quinliven in The Boundary Fence by Alissa Callen AA (requested from NetGalley)
R – Rune Jenkins in Magic Unleashed by Devri Walls
S – Shayleigh Jackson in If It’s Only Love by Lexi Ryan
T – Terran in Rise of Gaia by Kristin Ward
U – TBC
V – Valentine Pierce in Of Night and Dark Obscurity by Nicola Italia
W – Beth Williams in New Beginnings At Glendale Hall: A gorgeously uplifting, romantic read – guaranteed to bring you sunshine! by Victoria Walters
X – TBC
Y – Gwyn Drake in The Bachelor by Sabrina Jeffries
Z – Zara Edginway in Ballarat Charter, Volume 1 by Lila Rose AA
Stats tracking
I’m wanting to get a bit nerdier when it comes to my reading now that I’m in the swing of blogging, the various challenges and things that I can do. Since I wanted to track a few different things, I’ve decided to merge Kal from Reader Voracious’ template with someone that I stupidly didn’t save the link for.
The graphs that have stuff filled in isn’t actually accurate since I’ve yet to fill anything in but you can get an idea of the types of stats I’m going to be tracking. Over the yr I may add more graphs and stuff if I feel like I want to know more about my reading habits. The main thing is I’ve entered as much info into the data collection tabs as I think is relevant so I can then draw that data to see more info.
That’s me done for my bookish stuff. If you’re interested in knowing about some of my personal goals keep reading!
What are my personal goals for 2020?
Maybe not quite as exciting for you, but I might as well tell someone so I have a chance of doing them. There are studies that show by telling someone, or writing them down you’re much more (can’t remember the specific number) likely to achieve those goals. I’ve also decided weight isn’t a good measurement of fitness so I’ve made a change to that one.
- Fit comfortably into a size 6 (US size 2) which is my body’s natural size
- Bench press 30kg for minimum 10 times in one minute
- Run 5km in 30 mins
- Get my first client for my business
- Go to the Maldives for a week for my 30th (been keeping my eye out for a good deal!)
- Give a rescue dog a new home with me (this has been 20 years in the making!)
- Make Vlogs using Premier Pro
In anticipation of people being all like “a size 6 is too small!” I’d like to point out that I’m not even 5 foot 2. So a size 8 on me, although not huge, does mean I’m carrying around some extra fat all over my body. If I can get rid of the excess fat then I’ll easily fit into a size 6, on a skinny day I’d even fit into a size 4.
So please, no mean comments about eating disorders. I love my food and alcohol so need to work to not blow out to a size 12!
I hope you’re looking forward to what’s coming up this year! I’m super excited to keep myself organised with my new calendar. Since I’ll be working from home this yr I won’t have an excuse to know what’s going on!
