Wrapping Up 2019, Looking Forward 2020

Welcome to my tenth (!) annual ‘Wrapping Up, Looking Forward’ post. In this post, I take a general look back at how I did with my goals in 2019, and set some new goals for 2020.

Posting and Reading Overview

I posted 63 times in 2019. This fell well below my goal of 88 posts. That goal accounted for one month off, but I ended up taking two (April and June). April was the month I anticipated not posting. June fell apart as I juggled being on-call in two different library systems. I almost got back into the swing of things in July, but I started a new full time position in August. Adjusting to that took a lot of energy, as my sparse posting August through October shows. I am a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to pull myself together in the fall – but I’m not beating myself up about it; I know what I was going through. I’m happy with the posts I did write.

Towards the end of November, I found renewed strength and blogged well for the last six weeks of the year. Who knows how long I can keep up three posts/week, but that’s the goal I’m going to set in 2020 👀

I read 93 books, just sliding past my goal of 90. I was four or five books ‘behind schedule’ for awhile, so I’m pleased with this result. There were a few months where I wasn’t reading much. Notably, those months do not coincide with the months I wasn’t blogging. When I wasn’t blogging, I made sure I was at least reading!

2019 Reading Challenge Results

Tolkien

• 5/7 books by or about J.R.R. Tolkien (not including rereads) – Not my best number, but I did read through the three volumes of The History of Middle-Earth that I wanted to tackle.
  • Tolkien, Race and Cultural History by Dimitra Fimi
  • The Return of the Shadow (History of Middle-Earth Vol. 6) by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Treason of Isengard (History of Middle-Earth Vol. 7) by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth by Catherine McIlwaine
  • The War of the Ring (History of Middle-Earth Vol. 8) by J.R.R. Tolkien

Indigenous

• 6/6 books by Indigenous writers, including three women or gender non-conforming authors and three authors I’ve never read before – Complete! I added the note about gender diversity and new-to-me authors when I realized in 2018 that I only read male authors I was previously familiar with. I actually read 9 books/graphic novels that meet the criteria of this challenge, but I counted some of those titles towards other challenges.
  • Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley (Ojibwe)
  • Starlight by Richard Wagamese (Ojibwe)
  • A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott (Haudenosaunee)
  • From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding my Way by Jesse Thistle (Métis-Cree)
  • Surviving the City by Tasha Spillett (Nehiyaw) and Natasha Donovan (Métis)
  • Ghosts by David A. Robertson (Swampy Cree)
  • Titles by Indigenous writers counted towards other challenges: I Can Make This Promise by Christine Day (Upper Skagit, middle grade), The Ghost Collector by Allison Mills (Ililiw/Cree, middle grade), This Place: 150 Years Retold ed. by Alicia Elliott (graphic novel)

Middle Grade

• 43/52 middle grade fiction – I didn’t quite achieve one middle grade book a week because of my reading slump, but I’m pleased with the effort I put in the last two months of the year to achieve this number.
  • Not listing them here because that’s too many…check out my middle-grade shelf on Goodreads.

Rereads

• 2/10 rereads – Ehm…well, we book bloggers know how hard it is to prioritize re-reading.
  • Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
  • Middlegame by Seanan McGuire

Graphic Novels

• 10/8 graphic novels – As I noted last year: “I used this goal to knock off some graphic novels that had been on my TBR for awhile. I don’t count graphic novels or comics in my Goodreads challenge, so having them as their own mini-goal motivated me to tackle them.”
  • Hicotea by Lorena Alvarez
  • My Brother’s Husband Vol. 1 and 2 by Gengoroh Tagame
  • This Place: 150 Years Retold anthology, foreword by Alicia Elliott
  • Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
  • The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill
  • Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët
  • Glitch by Sarah Graley
  • Click by Kayla Miller
  • Pilu of the Woods by Mai K. Nguyen
  • Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

In total, I read 64 out of 83 books on my personal goals lists. With an overall goal of ‘only’ 90 books, I knew that reading 83 books for specific challenges was unrealistic. But I set those numbers as reminders and motivators, and I think they served their purpose well.

Personal Reading Goals

I will be keeping my personal reading goals largely the same this year. I think I have hit a good stride with them. I have also decided to sign up for a few official challenges.

• 7 books about/by Tolkien (not including rereads)
• 10 works by Indigenous people
  • Can count graphic novels
  • Must include five works by women, trans, or gender non-conforming people
  • Must include three authors I’ve never read before
• 52 middle grade fiction novels
• 8 graphic novels
• 10 rereads (not including the usuals)
• 129 posts (3 posts/week, with nine weeks grace for any major life changes or vacations that I may take)
• 100 books books read

Community Participation

Challenges, events, readathons, readalongs – these are the ones I’ve officially decided (so far) to participate in:

Ongoing Reading Challenges

• Go Big or Go Home – Hosted by Annemieke @ A Dance with Books
  • The official challenge is to read one book that’s 500+ pages/month, but I’m aiming for five.
• Turtle Recall – Hosted by Annemieke @ A Dance with Books
  • My goal is to finally read The Wee Free Men. Therefore I’m aiming for level one.
• Here & Queerathon – Hosted by Mel @ Cotton Candy Book Witch.
  • Low-key challenge to read books with queer rep. I’m aiming for 10-25.
• Virtual Mount TBR Challenge 2020 – Hosted by Bev @ My Reader’s Block
  • Read books you don’t own. I’m aiming low (I hope lol) for Stormness Head (60 books).

Everything Else

• Sea of Ink and Gold Readathon (Jan. to Mar.)
• Off the Grid Readathon (Jan. 17 to 19, with three more events in 2020)
• Latinx Book Club – On hiatus in January, but I will be keeping an eye out to see which titles I might be interested in participating with.
• Witch-a-thon (Mar. 12 to 19, with three more events in 2020)
• Dewey’s 24 Hour REad-a-thon (Apr. 25)
• Wyrd & Wonder (May)
• Spooktastic Reads (late October, ending at Halloween)

I will also keep an eye on Bout of Books, Bloggiesta, and 24in48.

General Bookish Goals

I set a few goals at the start of 2019 that I completely disregarded… I want to revive some of those. I also touched on a number of points in my book blogger reflection series, which I’ve linked the first point below:

• Be mindful of the goals I created in “Developing a New Review Style“
• Share my reading goals progress in my monthly wrap-ups (Once again thanks to Destiny @ Howling Libraries for this idea. Hopefully I’ll actually implement it this year 😅)
• Keep a Twitter thread of all the books I read in 2020
  • I’ve started it here!
• Stay on top of things by creating/revising my posting schedule every month

2020 starts off with uncertainty for me. My work contract goes to the end of January. I’m not sure what will happen next. 😬 I know do know, at least, that with a full year without any studying or major travel plans ahead, I can prioritize reading and blogging.

How was your 2019 reading year? What goals or challenges are you undertaking in 2020?