My reading bucket list for the New Year

This year has been a bit of a mess for those of us who set yearly goals. When we were writing out new years resolutions none of us could have predicted what was to come. I don’t know about you, but I’ve completed less than half my goals because many of them, like doing a 10K charity run, simply couldn’t happen due to safety concerns.

This got me thinking when it came to plan my goals for 2021 and what type of goals would be even feasible with the current state of the world. Then there was the question of are goals even the right thing to me making for the new year, can my mental heath handle that added pressure? After a bit of thinking and talking to those who know me the best, I’ve decided to set as little goals as possible and instead create bucket lists of things I’d like to do next year. Sure, there will be some goals being made, I’ll still have financial ones, business ones and even an updated Goodreads challenge, but there won’t be many. Life is too unpredictable right now for big set targets.

The idea is that bucket lists take off some pressure that a goal would do but still gives me some form of direction for the year. They also feel far more exciting and intimate than a big end of year goal. I’ll also get more satisfaction by crossing off many small activities over the year, I think that will help keep me motivated.

So, in the name of all thing bookish I’m going to share with you my reading bucket lists for 2021. I’ll still be doing the Goodreads challenge throughout the year, but I haven’t decided if I want to aim for 25 or 30 books this year, I struggled enough with 20 this year.

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2020 reading challenge – mid-year check in

Well we’re past the half way point of 2020. Congratulations, it’s been quite a year so far.

Like many book lovers I decided to take part in the Goodreads reading challenge. It’s the first year I’ve ever participated with the challenge, I’m slightly ashamed to say that until December, Goodreads wasn’t even on my radar (not sure how I managed to miss it).

I set myself the goal to read 20 books this year. I fully understand that this may seen low for a book blogger and to start off with I was pretty ashamed about it. I’ve seen many bloggers who have 50-70 books as their goal, and then there’s me with a measly 20. However, over the year I’ve began to lessen some of the insecurity of it. At the end of the day I’m dyslexic and have Irlens… I can’t exactly read fast.

Anyway, with us past the mid year mark now is a good time to reflect on how I’d doing reading and if I’m on track.

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What I’ve been up to during lockdown

How are we call doing this week? At the moment I am well and truly swamped with Uni work. I have all of my end of year portfolios due in on Friday, so things are a little mad on this end. I’ve been working on some of these pieces for months now and no matter how well I planned everything, it stills feels like a mad rush to get them finished.

Due to the volume of Uni work I have at the moment I haven’t been able to get all that much reading done, so no new reviews this week. Rest assured though I’m very close to finishing my current read and I fully intend on writing a post about my thought on it very soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that. But for today’s post I thought it’d be nice to share some of the things I’ve been up to in the past weeks during lockdown. Hopefully it may inspire some of you if you’re feeling bored and want to try something new to pass the time.
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How to get out of a reading slump

We’ve all been there; you want to sit down with a book and relax but somehow, you’re just lacking the drive to. You feel unmotivated to read and nothing seems exciting anymore. You have a look at your bookshelf and there’s so many books that you’ve been meaning to read for ages, but you just can’t bring yourself to. If you’re feeling like this, chances are you’re in a reading slump.

Most readers will go through this at some point, even I experience them, and I love reading. With the current situation around the world, many people are returning to their books. I know many people (myself included) who have set reading goals at the moment. But like most things, we start strong but eventually the excitement runs out and you get into a reading slump. Thankfully they’re not impossible to overcome and I compiled a list of my favourite ways to get out of a reading slump.

If you’re struggling to get your motivation back for reading, give these a go and see if they help. Continue reading “How to get out of a reading slump”