Summary of 2021 Reading + 2022 Reading Goals – Let’s Talk Bookish

So, a very funny thing happened.

It’s not actually really funny, but you know, it sounds better when I say that a funny thing happened.

I dropped off the face of the blogging realm right before finals started, and stayed off the face of the blogging realm until today. Kind of almost a month and a half of complete radio silence.

I think that’s the longest ever that I’ve gone without posting something on here. Usually there’s at least one post, like sharing the topics for LTB, or something I’d prepared long beforehand, that makes sure my blog isn’t completely dead for too long.

And now I’m back, determined to do something about this…three days before the start of the Spring semester. When I had an entire month of winter break, I didn’t do anything. It’s not until three days before the semester that I finally decide to do something.

You guys. My brain constantly baffles me.

I don’t know what the future of this blog is going to be, and I am writing a post trying to figure out that future if there is going to be one. But for now, I’m just here to talk about my reading goals for 2022.

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme hosted by me and Dani @ Literary Lion where we discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts. Today’s topic is 2022 reading goals. Join in on this meme by writing your own discussion on the topic, and sharing your link using the inLinkz available here.

Without further ado, let’s get started!

Summary of 2021 (Reading-Wise)

My first bookish goal for the year was to:

• Read 70 books

Halfway through the year, I was at 64 books already and decided to up my goal to 100 as it was pretty feasible to read 36 more books in 5 months. However, that didn’t go quite as planned.

I think once uni started, my will to read kind of died with each passing month. I read 3 books in September, 7 books in October (one of which was for a course I was taking), 4 books in November, and 5 books in December.

The spike in October was because I was just really tired of school and life in general and needed some positive cheesy contemporary in my life. So I just borrowed a bunch of contemporaries that were available to read and got some much needed serotonin.

The rest of my uni months though were pretty sad reading-wise, considering that I was averaging about 10 books per month during the first half of the year. I think another problem was that I didn’t have any more books that I wanted to read, and didn’t feel like searching for new ones that I could enjoy.

I have exactly two books that I would love to read on hold right now, and they have been on hold for months and will continue to be on hold for several more months (I’m looking at 14 weeks for one, and 16 weeks for the other. Like seriously, so longggg). But besides those two, there’s nothing else that I have lined up to read in the meanwhile, which means I will probably not read that much this month either.

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My second goal had been to:

• Try to read 10 books out of my usual genres

This meant trying to read more memoirs, nonfiction, etc. I think I ended up reading two? One memoir and one non-fiction book that was for a course I was taking.

However, I kind of still see this as a mini success because I cut back on reading fantasy, and read a lot more diverse contemporaries which I’m really proud of. If y’all remember, I wrote a post with 26 books that I wanted to read over the past summer, and that’s where I did the work and found all those diverse contemporaries to read.

I loved that experience so much, I really love exploring new cultures and their customs & foods, so I’m really glad that I did do that.

Reading Goals for 2022

I’ve set my Goodreads goal to 90 books. I have never hit that 100 book mark in my three complete years of blogging and keeping track of my books, and I’m just going to make it 90 this time. If I hit that 90 with enough time to spare to get to that 100, then I’ll increase it at that point.

But for now, 90 books is going to be my goal for this year.

I’ve also come to enjoy writing reviews, and I know I only did three of them last year, but I genuinely loved and enjoyed putting them together.

I think my reviews have gotten much longer than they were in the past (I mean, I did write over 8000 words in my last review…) and I’m really focusing on just writing how I felt about the characters and the plot, and in some cases the worldbuilding in general.

Mini Side Tangent

That 8000+ word review is possibly my favorite post of 2021 because I put so much effort into it, and I enjoyed writing it so. so. much. Being able to let out all that grief that Sophia gave me was so. satisfying. you have no idea. And I love how I styled the post, and the fact that it was so long that I was linking to different sections of the review within the review. Like !!!

Lol sorry, back to the discussion.

My old review format was split into The Good, The Bad, and The Wrap, where I had bullet points talking about stuff that were good/bad and then doing a summary of my thoughts. Having those bullet points meant that my reviews had to be very concise because my thoughts on one aspect of the book couldn’t be more than a paragraph for design purposes.

No one wants to read a bullet point with no line breaks that is half a page long.

However, with my current style where I just talk about the characters and the plot in sections, I can write as much as I want since I can have line breaks and images to break up the text. I can explain as much as I want, go on little side tangents (if they’re relevant enough), add hidden spoilers, etc, and it makes the experience of writing them so much nicer.

Yeah, there is the potential that I could start talking toooo much about the book and maybe I need to be a little more concise, but I don’t care? I like this style for now and it makes me want to write more reviews, which is the point anyway.

So, another goal for 2022 would be to write at least 5 or 6 reviews. That’s probably a ridiculously small number compared to so many other people, but I want those posts to be ones that I really loved writing, and I think it would be more feasible and natural for me to write 5 or 6 reviews over the course of year without me starting to stress because I’m not reaching my goal. That would just take the fun out of it, so 5/6 reviews it is.

Some questions for you:

• How did you fare with your 2021 goals? What are some goals (bookish, blogging, or personal) that you have for 2022?
• I am sorely in need of some recommendations, preferably contemporary, mystery, or fantasy. If you have any, please do share!
• Do you like my new style of reviews, or do I tend to talk too much? I genuinely would love any feedback!

Share your thoughts in the comments below!