Top 5 Wednesday: 2019 Reading Resolutions

Top 5 Wednesday is a group on Goodreads hosted by Sam from Thoughts on Tomes on Youtube.

So on Monday I took a look back at my 2018 Reading Resolutions and I was very pleased with my success.  So now it is time to set my 2019 Resolutions.  I plan to continue building on my resolutions last year, now that I am building some better habits with them. 

1. Borrow More Books: I have a really bad habit of buying any books I might want to read and honestly that is just not economical and an expense that should be so high! Also, my shelves are out of room, even double stacked and sideways.  I want to get in the habit of borrowing books from the library and only if I really think it needs to be added to my collection actually purchasing it. 

2. Purchase Less Books: I know this sounds a little redundant after the first resolution but I really need to have it written down and check on the progress regularly.  I purchased 219 books last year! That is crazy, and to think it was even less than the previous year, Yikes! So I need to purchase less books, I have plenty on my shelves to read.  So to help me with this goal I am going to follow Harriet Rosie's Book Balance Sheet method.  Each month I must have 5 less books to be read than the previous month, whether it is through unhauling books or reading more than I purchase.  The only exception to this rule is if I read a book over 700 pages that month, since they can take so long to read and they take up so much space I am going to give myself a waiver and a reward for reading a big book. I am also going to limit the number of books I am allowed to pre-order to 3 a month. 

3. Read Big Books: Boy does this sound like the same goals as last year?! Last year I challenged myself to read 12 books over 450 pages, and I blew past that with a total of 15.  This year I want to push myself even more, I want to read 10 books over 500 pages. I have some seriously chunky books on my shelf just waiting to be read and all of my top books this year were up in that page count so there is no reason to be scared of them!

4. Re-Read More: I have so many favorite books that I don't even really talk about here because I read them prior to blogging.  I really want to revisit many of them but feel like I need to keep up with the new releases more so I can chat with more people, but I am going to give myself the okay to re-read those books this year! I would like to re-read at least 15 books this year.

5. Put Less Pressure & Stress on Myself for a Hobby: This is one that will affect not only my reading but also the posts here on my blog.  I am constantly under a tremendous amount of stress, my schedule and days do not allow for downtime for my body and mind to decompress. Normally reading has been my one thing that I do for me, but looking back I have really put a lot of pressure on myself to have enough reviews done to share here. I have worked insanely hard to post nearly every day. Pushed myself way outside my comfort zone to bring you new books, author content and giveaways.  While I have loved every minute of it and am thrilled to see you all enjoying it so much, I need to bring it back to an enjoyment level where I do it for fun and don't put that added pressure on myself. So you may see less of me this year, I will not be going away, I will still probably be posting several times a week but it may not be consistent.  I will also not be hosting big month long events anymore.  I will not be having an RI Author month any longer, I have decided I will shoot to feature a RI Author once a month, maybe more if I get around to it, but that project alone was a huge one. I hope you will all stick with me and bear with me as I work on this goal. I hope you will also appreciate that the times I do post it will be because I really want to share something with you instead of just having something posted every day. This will be my hardest goal to work on but I know it is something I really need to do for my own health.

So there are my reading goals for the year. After last year, I really liked having general goals to work on as opposed to specific targets to meet, it made me change my habits rather than just check off something on a list. 

What are some of your reading goals for the year?