Beneath the Moon : Reflection and 2021 Bookish Resolutions and Reading Goals

Now that 2021 is here, it’s time to look back and look ahead!

Reflecting on 2020 Bookish Resolutions/Goals

Looking back, I was very naughty when it came to purchasing books. Of the books I read, only five (5) of those books were books I owned prior to 2020. While I did borrow some books, the rest I had either purchased or preordered through the year.

Naughty Veronica! Unfortunately for my wallet, that’s what happens when I’m stuck indoors and bored in lecture. Every psych lecture, I somehow managed to find my way into an indie bookstore’s website, Bookshop, and/or B&N. Usually though? I would just browse. But every so often I’d do the thing and buy a book or two (2). Whoops?

At least every book I bought came from an indie, Bookshop, or B&N. There’s a day to discuss how hard I fall into consumerism and what not, but that’s for another day. I was just glad to be able to support these bookstores, but especially the independent bookshops around me in my borough.

Despite this? I did meet some of my resolutions/goals.

I was able to do frequent unhauls where I went through my shelf and gave away books I didn’t care for or didn’t need anymore. I also utilized my library as much as I could but with school, it ended up that I wasn’t able to read a lot of the ebooks I borrowed. Additionally, I was able to meet my goal of reading/listening to one (1) book a month.

But what am I going to try to do this year?

2021 Resolutions/Goals

First and foremost: what is my reading goal?

Reading goal → 50 books.

Fifty (50) books for 2021 is a fair goal to aim for. Can I aim higher? Definitely! However, I also want to be realistic. Although I am no longer in the nursing program as I graduated in December, I am in the process of studying for the NCLEX, currently in an RN-BSN program, and will be looking for jobs. Furthermore, I have orientation to be concerned about once I do find a job. I don’t want to be in a position where my anxiety is triggered because I’m behind on my reading challenge.

This is a doable challenge. Obviously, I won’t be able to reduce this number at anytime but I can increase it.

TBR?

I grew up with the midst: read whatever floats your boat. Even as a kid, I was always the type of reader who read books based on my moods/cravings. Let’s just say I had trouble dealing with school reading assignments. Sure, I read the books and did enjoy a few of them. But finishing them in a timely manner? Oh, that was rough.

Thing is? Every reader I knew — from teachers to librarians to my mom — encouraged me to read whatever I enjoyed. If that meant me reading five Nancy Drew books in a row? Then so be it! What was more important for all of the educators that encouraged me to read was that I was reading at all and that I could grow to love it. They wanted me to be able to read, enjoy, and talk about a book as much as they wanted me to be able to analyze it.

And I did. God knows my mom used to have to drag me out of B&N when I was little. My Catholic grammar school had this little library that I would love going into because they had books I could borrow. And yeah, I used to frequent my local library a lot even back then.

Still, while I won’t have a set TBR for 2021, I do want some sort of target to aim for this year. The important thing here is that these are not set — at least that’s what I tell myself. Rather, these are guidelines; they’re a list for me to fall back on should I find myself in need of ideas for books to read.

Series to start — and maybe complete:

• The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski
• Mistborn (Era 1) by Brandon Sanderson
• Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo
  

Books to hopefully read:

• The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives
• The Secret History by Donna Tartt
• Catherine of Aragon by Garrett Mattingly
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  

I also want to try and reread a few books:

• The Bone Witch trilogy by Rin Chupeco
• The Never Tilting World duology by Rin Chupeco
• Young and Damned and Fair by Gareth Russell
• Sailor Moon by Takeuchi Naoko

On that note — book donations/unhauls every three months.

Even though I live relatively close to places where I can donate books, I rather have a scheduled time when I go. Although this means that I’ll be carrying more books at a time, it also gives me time to edit my spreadsheets so I know what I donated.

Books that qualify for donation:

• Books I DNF’d
• Books I read but don’t want to keep because I don’t care for them
• Those lovely books I read and enjoyed, but have no plans of ever rereading them (and even if I do — there’s the library to help)
• Books I got via loot boxes that I don’t plan on reading
• Older books that I haven’t read at all even after all these years of owning them —
  • The only reason to keep those older copies is if I can’t find said book or edition anymore for reasonable prices

How about ARCs?

I wasn’t really able to read any ARCs last year due to school and time constraints. This year? If there’s a blog tour for an author or series I really like, I will definitely throw my hat into the ring to try and be a part of the blog tour. Otherwise, I don’t think I’ll be signing up for blog tours or requesting ARCs this year.

This sort of brings me into my next point: reviews.

I want to write reviews for all books I read and post them here, on GR, and StoryGraph

You may be wondering — Veronica! Isn’t this something you should do already?

Yes, you’re absolutely right! However, I haven’t been consistent with posting reviews on every site I post reviews on these days. While I post something on GR, I usually end up forgetting to post them here and on StoryGraph. I want to change that.

These reviews don’t need to be long. You may have seen my flash reviews already. However, most important thing is that I write something and post them on the above mentioned websites, especially StoryGraph since I want to slowly make the switch this year.

MOON & COFFEE will continue to host all my full length reviews, but I also want to make sure I post my flash reviews here as well.

Post at least twice a week on Instagram

I’ve never really been the most creative person when it comes to aesthetically pleasing images. But I try anyway because it’s fun and a bit of stress relief in a way. I want to try and post something everyday, however I know that is probably not going to happen.

Instead, I want to try and post at least twice a week on Instagram. Are there going to be those weeks when I can post more? Absolutely! I’ll be taking those opportunities whenever I can, especially if said bookstagram post can help drive more people to check out a full review on this blog.

Finally? Library vs Owning — borrow or buy?

I have incredible privilege to not only be able to afford books but also to be able to borrow books from three different library systems (not including my own university’s library). Living in NYC has many perks and NYPL, Queens, and Brooklyn libraries are one of them.

I want 2021 to be the year where I borrow more books from the library.

I made the attempt last year but I wasn’t really successful. I was incredibly impatient which lead me to buying books rather than waiting for holds to come in. Why? It was faster to ship books to an indie bookstore and to order books from B&N and Bookshop’s websites to be shipped to my house.

Are there some books I’ll want to own? Absolutely! I actually already have a few books in mind that I want to own for various reasons: mainly series (especially ongoing series), but there’s also a few history books that I would much prefer to own.

However, my goal here is to borrow the following kinds of books:

• Standalone novels
• The first book in an older (and hopefully completed) series I’m not sure if I’d like
• Novels that are less than 500 pages
• Books that I’m on the fence about either because I read another of the author’s novels before and didn’t like it OR it’s a genre I don’t read too often

Thank you so much for reading and I’ll catch you guys in my next post!