2015 was all about “read[ing] lots of great new releases, but keeping things calmer and more thoughtful.” I accomplished most of my 2015 goals…and have carried over the ones I missed (and still care) about to 2016.
Over the past year, I occasionally found myself overwhelmed with trying to fit in all aspects of blogging with all the aspects of mothering (my full-time “job”). So, 2016 will be about efficiency (in blogging) and being present (in mothering) for me. By being present, I mean keeping my mind present in the moment when it’s time to be with my kids (i.e. less phone scrolling, etc).
Reading
- Leave Time for More Free Range Reading – A carry-over goal from last year that I still need to work on.
- Read More Backlist Books – I only read 10 backlist books in 2015, but half of them were 4.5 or 5 star reads. I want to spend more time on this high percentage reading.
- Read More Nonfiction Throughout the Year – The past two years, I seemed to “save” all the nonfiction books I wanted to read for Nonfiction November. I need to make an effort to read more nonfiction earlier in the year!
- Analyze Imprint Success and Use it to Select Books – Thanks to Shannon’s post, I started paying more attention to imprints partway through last year. I tracked which imprints were most successful for me and want to continue using this information to choose my 2016 books.
- Participate in a Readathon – Can you believe I’ve never participated in a single readathon?! I always feel like I won’t be able to really dig in since I have young kids running around, but end up having serious FOMO. This year, I’d like to participate and just give it whatever I can. Hopefully, Dewey’s 24 Hour will be the one!
- Achieve my Goodreads Goal of 75 Books – I fell 6 books short of my 2015 goal of 80 books. I also thought I was 3 books shy with two weeks to go, until I realized I had multiple duplicates in my Goodreads account.
Blogging
- Find Creative Ways to Monetize My Blog – …while maintaining my blog’s feel and my own credibility and love for reading/blogging.
- Write More Creative Features and Recommendation Lists – I already have some ideas for some recommendation lists and want to work on more discussions and features.
- Improve my Pinterest Presence – By organizing my Sarah’s Book Shelves Pinterest account and using Boardbooster.
- Put Together Recommendations for Coed Book Clubs List – My neighbor is in a coed book club and occasionally asks me for recommendations…cue inspiration for a new list!
- Participate in Armchair BEA – I attended BEA in person last year, but sadly won’t be able to make Chicago this year. So, I’m looking forward to joining the Armchair version for the first time!
Tuesday Intro
Every Tuesday, fellow blogger Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where bloggers share the first paragraph of the book they are currently reading or thinking about reading soon.
I’ve already finished this book, but wanted to share it anyway because I feel like the blurb completely undersells it. It’s quiet, but gorgeous and touched an emotional chord with me.
Plot Summary from Amazon (adapted for length)
Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable.
Here’s the first paragraph (from an uncorrected proof):
There was a time, and it was many years ago now, when I had to stay in a hospital for almost nine weeks. This was in New York City, and at night a view of the Chrysler Building, with its geometric brilliance of lights, was directly visible from my bed. During the day, the building’s beauty receded, and gradually it became simply one more large structure against a blue sky, and all the city’s buildings seemed remote, silent, far away. It was May, and then June, and I remember how I would stand and look out the window at the sidewalk below and watch the young women – my age – in their spring clothes, out on their lunch breaks; I could see their heads moving in conversation, their blouses rippling in the breeze. I thought how when I got out of the hospital I would never again walk down the sidewalk without giving thanks for being one of those people, and for many years I did that – I would remember the view from the hospital window and be glad for the sidewalk I was walking on.
Would you keep reading?
Great list of goals here. You’ve given me many ideas to consider for my blog. Good luck with all of your goals. I will keep my eye out for your review of My Name Is Lucy Barton. The first paragraph certainly grabbed my attention.
I am now considering Pinterest and checked out your page. Very nice!
Thank you! There were a couple posts I used to help me get organized: http://www.asilvertwig.com/increased-pinterest-impressions-by-200-in-30-days/
http://www.thesepaperhearts.com/2015/12/can-book-bloggers-successful-pinterest-yes/
Thanks! I will check these links out!
It looks like you have some great goals! It would be great to have you hop in on a Readathon. They’re super fun, even if you can’t read the entire time.
They seem like so much fun – I’ll just have to let go of the fact that I can’t devote the entire 24 hours to it!
Loved the intro – hope to read this one soon. I also was inspired by your goals for 2016. I need to read more backlist books.
So much easier said than done, right?! I found that out last year!
This is SOOOOO high on my list! I know I’m going to love it!
It’s so, so great – quiet gorgeousness and full of life lessons and hard truths!
Blogging can take over every aspect of your life if you let it. I’ve had to pull away from my blog in the last few years because, as much as I’d like to, I can’t do it all.
Yep – it certainly can…especially trying to comment on everyone’s blogs and answer all your own comments. I’ll be letting go of some of that in 2016.
Great goals! I’m hoping to read more nonfiction this year as well. It’s one of my favorite genres but I sadly neglected it last year. Good luck with all these. They’re fantastic goals!
I’ve heard so many people say the same thing! Me included, obviously!
One of my goals last year was to live more in the moment with my daughter, and I hope to continue with that this year–and hopefully continue to improve on it. It’s so rewarding, isn’t it? When we are able to do that. I would like to read more nonfiction this year as well.
Elizabeth Strout’s new book sounds so-oo good. I love the intro you shared, Sarah. It’s on my wish list.
It is…but I need to keep reminding myself to do it and just let go of the other stuff. Letting go is hard!
I have been wanting to read this one, and the excerpt piqued my interest even more. Thanks for sharing…and here is mine: “FLYING SHOES”
Sarah,
I truly enjoy your blog every day! Keep up the great work and happy reading! 🙂
Thank you so much and thanks for leaving a note! Happy reading to you as well!
Good list! I agree with the nonfiction, I realized I needed to spread it out last year. Otherwise November becomes far too overwhelming.
Ha – yep, I found myself needing some fiction halfway through nonfiction november!
what fantastic goals! and I’ve been wanting to read Strout’s new book ~ that beginning is stunning!
The end is even more stunning – I finished the second half in one sitting 🙂
We need more Nonfiction Novembers, don’t we? Like 12 of them. LOL
I hope Dewey’s is the one! I’m biased, but I am rather partial to it. 😛
Oh my gosh – yes!! I had a Nonfiction Nov TBR pile of like 7 books this past year. And also found I needed a fiction break partway through.
As long as the date works, Dewey’s it will be! I won’t be able to devote the entire 24 hours to it, but I’ll just have to get over that.
Lucy Barton sounds like a good story that I’d enjoy. I’m curious about why she was in the hospital and how that stay affected her, so I’d definitely keep reading.
Sounds like you have a lot of worthy goals for 2016, some of which I share. About backlists: A friend of mine has been culling books from her library, and she has given many of them to me, so I’ve been reading a lot of backlist books lately. So far, I’ve enjoyed every single one of them. In fact, I’m featuring one — JEWEL — on my blog today.
Good for you! I’m sad I’ve been ignoring them for the past few years…all the shiny new things!
You have sold me on the Strout novel!
WOW! I love the intro on this one, Sarah! Sheesh…another one to add to the list, right?? I really hope that you are able to participate in a readathon; even if you can’t commit the ENTIRE time, it’s fun for the community and an excuse to put everything else aside for as long as you can – ha!
Yes, definitely add this one to your list…esp if you can get into quiet books that are gorgeously written. Plus, it’s super short! Actually, you’re readathon last time around inspired me…you did some other things during those 24 hours, but still participated!
I’m a fan of Elizabeth Strout so I put my name on the waiting list at the library as soon as I heard she had a new book out. I’m still waiting. It seems there are lots of other Strout fans in town. I’m so glad to hear it struck an emotional cord with you. I’m really looking forward to reading it.
I like your goals. And participating in a readathon should be fun. Good luck with that! I also like the teaser you shared above. I’ve not read Elizabeth Strout, but I’m pretty sure I have more than one of her books around here. Time to get to them!
Loving the vibe of your goals! Readathoning is a good goal! They’re so fun, and even if you can’t whole hog it (which I usually can’t) I tend to get a bit more reading done that I would otherwise… which is good enough for me… plus just enjoy the chatty camaraderie between bloggers.
I’ve basically been lurking around all the fun conversations and wishing I was participating…leading to this year’s goal!
Those are great goals to have. So many people frequent (and stay on) Pinterest, and I’m so guilty of not posting there except every month or so, when there is so much content to share there. I hope to do Dewey’s 24hr Readathon again this year; I had a blast with it last year, and it was my first attempt at a readathon but certainly not my last.
So many of my real life friends spend an inordinate amount of time on Pinterest and I feel like a lot of bloggers don’t focus on it, so thought I’d give it a go. We’ll see.
Great goals. Especially the one about not saving up the non-fiction. Half my keeper library is non-fiction.
I would keep reading. Best of success on your goals.
These are all great goals, and I agree I keep an eye on the imprints/publishers too especially if the author is new to me and always with YA.
I wish I’d started doing it sooner!
Free range reading, loving it!
OMG I have been waiting for ever for BEA to come to Chicago, and I was going to forget!!! thanks for reminding me.
I’m curious also to see what ways you’ll find to monetize your blog
I hope you get to attend in person!
I hope I’m able to figure out a creative way to monetize…no earth shattering ideas have struck me yet!
Great list! I haven’t participated in a readathon either but they do look like lots of fun! I hope you achieve all of your goals!
These are such great goals! I also started paying more attention to imprints in light of Shannon’s post, and that helped me pick the limited number of ARCs I requested (so far) for this year. So far that’s been a big improvement in the pre-publication books I’m reading. My backlist are always far more successful for me than new books, so I’ll, of course, be trying to read my TBR and the backlist books I feel committed to. Good luck with all of it! We’d LOVE to have you for Dewey’s!
So far, my 2016 has been a vast improvement over the start of my 2015 (when I didn’t find a book I really loved into well into February!), so hopefully this imprint thing is paying off!
Good luck with your backlist reading and I’m going to try my best to make Dewey’s! Explaining this whole thing to my husband will be interesting. “You want to do what for 24 hours and have me handle the kids?!!”
Great goals, Sarah! I have all but fallen down completely on the Pinterest front. I have been using it mostly for recipes lately. I think I need to weed out some of the people I’m following and use it more for people I know or “know”. That way I won’t feel so overwhelmed by it hopefully.
This was said in such a wonderful way – “Find Creative Ways to Monetize My Blog – …while maintaining my blog’s feel and my own credibility and love for reading/blogging.” I think sometimes book bloggers get scared about monetizing because we see what has happened to mommy blogs and education blogs and lifestyle blogs where the ads and the product placement have all but taken over many of the blogs that used to captivate us. The way you put it makes me have more faith in the whole process.
Publishers and imprints was one thing I noticed that I seem not to have much overlap on, at least this past year I didn’t. I wonder if it will still hold true this year as I read more of my own books and backlist books.
Thank you! If I can’t figure out how to do it without killing the feel of my blog or my passion for reading/blogging, then I’m not going to do it. But, I feel like there must be some creative way out there. I’m kicking around something involving personalized book recommendations, but the idea needs a lot of work. So, don’t worry, this blog isn’t going to become an overload of sponsored posts or anything!
I put my posts on Pinterest, but don’t spend a ton of time perusing other pins, repinning, etc. I did just organize my account into different boards (book discussions, lists, reviews by genre, etc). Thanks for following me, by the way!
You need to add ‘Convert Hardcore Print Lover to E-Arcs’ to your list of goals and then cross it off because I now have 11 books to read on my ipad. Last year, ALL year, I had 3. You’re good, lady, you’re good.
I’m still mulling Lucy Barton. It left me conflicted. Maybe it was a It’s Not You It’s Me book for me? I’m not sure!
I know how I’m going to convert you….get you a Kindle Paperwhite instead of that ipad!!! I can’t read on the ipad and much prefer my Paperwhite!
I can see how Lucy Barton is going to get mixed reviews…not much actually happens. But, I really really liked The Guest Room! Twinness still mostly intact!
I’ve got a copy of the Elizabeth Stout book in my short pile. I’ve seen mixed reviews, but I want to decide for myself.
Not much actually happens, so I’m sure that will turn some people off. But, I really loved the writing and life lessons/observations. It’s so short…you should definitely give it a shot for yourself!
Good luck with all of your 2016 goals!
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/05/top-ten-tuesday-38/
Yeah I’d like to read more backlist books but also read at least one newly released book each month too.
Loooove these goals. Paying attention to imprints has been super valuable to me, especially considering my very specific taste in books haha. I’d love to maybe up my spreadsheet game and keep track of it in the way Shannon does. Also you should do the #24in48 readathon on the 16th-17th! I find it more manageable than Dewey’s just because you don’t feel any pressure to not sleep haha.
Sad you won’t be in Chicago for BEA!! Maybe one day we’ll meet.
Ooooh – #24in48 is perfect!! My husband and I are doing a night away that weekend, which means I’ll have zero kids and time to read! I probably won’t be on the Internet much, but will certainly be reading! Thanks for the suggestion!
Yup, I need to be more present as well when it comes to mothering. I am guilty as well of the incessant phone scrolling and the reading by the side. I read a lot of backlist books. Maybe only 10% are actually 2015 releases. I would like to do the opposite – focus more on new releases, without actually signing up for review books.
Be careful what goals you set! You’re going to end up with 90% new releases before you know it! It’s so hard to resist the shiny new things!
I’m looking forward to those recommendation lists – they’re always good for reminding me of the good books I haven’t read yet! It’ll be interesting to see which books you choose for the coed book list, too.
I’m kind of obsessed with lists! And other people’s blow up my TBR as well!
I’m completely with you on reading more nonfiction books. I have several on hold already so that helps and did start with one. As for goals, it’s okay to fall short. As my wife keeps reminding me some people don’t read ONE book a year. I try to keep that in mind with whatever I read and also don’t set a goal in Goodreads for that very reason…or at least among the reasons.
Ha – it’s all about perspective, right?!