Twelve Posts of Christmas (and New Year): Eleven - 2014 Reading Goals

I am not going to set any reading goals for 2014. I will not be joining any reading challenges.

It's not there aren't reading-related things that I'd like to do. I'd love to demolish half of my TBR and discover dozens of new authors. I'd like to read more classics and more literary fiction and more of everything I already love and read regularly.

It's not that there aren't challenges that I could probably complete with little effort. The New Author challenge is quite easy, and I could take part in multiple YA challenges, I'm sure!

And it's not that I haven't enjoyed taking part in challenges in the past. I think that reading challenges are a great way to push yourself to read more and to share what you're reading. I was even thinking of hosting a new challenge this year.

But I did not do very well on my 2013 reading challenges. I haven't finished any of them, and I'm not going to. I think I need a break. I think I need to make it easy on myself and to let myself read more for pleasure, without a target in mind.

I am setting goals for other areas of my life, and I want to really focus and get lots done. I don't want to have lots of goals for my career and blogs and hobbies all jostling around in my brain, competing for attention.

So 2014 will be the year without reading goals! I'm nervous and excited. Mostly excited. And I expect that by the end of the year I'll be looking forward to 2015's challenges!

Are you setting yourself any reading goals for 2014?

Twelve Posts of Christmas (and New Year): Ten - Blog Plans for 2014

It's the fourth day of Christmas, and we're moving on to New Yearish themes! Today I'm going to be sharing my hopes and plans for this blog in 2014.

Reviews

I didn't read very many books this year, which really helped me make sure I reviewed everything I liked! I want to read a lot more next year, but I'm hoping to stay on track and post my reviews as soon as possible after I read the book.

Memes

I want to get back into the Top Ten Tuesday habit in 2014, but I might experiment with some other memes too. I don't think haul post are my thing but there are some other question-and-answer theme posts that I like reading on other people's blogs.

Personal/discussion posts

These are my favourite kind of posts to read on other people's blogs, but I've always been shy about writing my own. I definitely resolve to try to write more of these in 2014! 

Vlogging

Of course I'll continue to be part of the Bookish Brits channel, but I'd like to post a video once in a while on my own channel, Better Than Dreams (because books are...). When I first started making videos, it took me hours to film and edit them - I think my first video took over five hours to produce! I'm pleased to say that I've gotten a lot faster - depending on the length of the original recording, it can take me as little as an hour and a half to film and edit now. So hopefully, now that the process is getting faster, I'll be able to make more videos.

What are your plans for your blog in 2014? Are you going to keep going with your favourite topics and tried-and-tested memes? Do you want to try something new?

Monday Amusements 24: Christmas vs New Year

  I'm really enjoying all the Bookish Brits year end videos. I just watched Michelle's latest, above.   Even though I'm really busy with Christmas preparations, I'm desperately trying to read as many books as I can to try to get at least a little bit closer to reaching my 2013 reading challenge goals. I know I won't reach any of them, but I'd like to have a better overall total! This year I was a bit boring and picked things I thought would be achievable or that would get the most of my TBR down, and I really want to get excited about reading again, so I think that next year I need to be easier on myself and simply pick the challenges that sound the most fun! As always I'll be turning to the A Novel Challenge blog for ideas. I'm feeling drawn towards the Jumble Your Genres Reading Challenge and I'd love to do the Arthurian Literature Challenge, but we'll see how I feel at the start of January!

I've also been thinking about my blogging plans for next year (I really enjoyed Jamie's post at The Perpetual Page-Turner about her blogging plans and ideas) - I'm longing to try to plan out the whole year in advance, but I'm not sure I'm quite capable of that yet! Maybe six months? Three?

One thing I definitely must do next year is re-read or watch Cold Comfort Farm - this piece reminded me how much I love it.

Back to the here and now - I loved Faye's post 'Watch Out, It’s the Grinch!' - I love Christmas for all the reasons she mentions. I especially love the decorations - every time I'm out I find myself grinning in delight and exclaiming over all the lights I see on buildings, even ordinary houses. I also adored From My Bookshelves / Books for Winter at prettybooks. I would be requesting as many of those books as I could from the library right now, had I not already picked out my reading for the month. Oh well, January and February are winter months too, right?

My favourite review this week is by Debbie at Snuggling on the Sofa (I've been catching up on the other Bookish Brits' blogs, can you tell?). The Naturals sounds so exciting!

Have you thrown yourself into New Year preparations already, or are you like me, determined to squeeze as much as you can into 2013?