Our 2019 Blog + Reading Goals

If you close one eye and then the other eye and also forget the past month, it’s basically the beginning of January, which is when Mandy and I were supposed to put our blog and reading goals up. So what do you know, we’re right on time!

Putting this list together was a combination of seeing what other bloggers I admire are aspiring to in the new year, and looking back on what I accomplished in 2018.

Truly and honestly, Mandy and I have both been pondering hard how we want to up our blog game this year, since we’re embarking on Year Two of the Mandy and Sha Show. Which is why it took us so long to come up with just the right goals! So without further ado, let’s see what we hope to tackle in 2019!

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SHA

BLOG & SOCIAL MEDIA

💻 Join three read-a-thons.
This one is straight-forwards. I loved participating in the 1 (ONE) read-a-thon I did last year. It was a great way to tackle my TBR/backlog and connect with other bloggers. 

💻 Increase Twitter followers to 2.5K.
I still feel like a complete newbie at Twitter, ever since Mandy entrusted the account to me back in October. What is subtweeting, I don’t know. But it’s been another awesome way to connect with book lovers and the mental health community there is something I’m slowly diving into.

💻 Do four collab posts with other bloggers.
I only did the one collab last year but it was sooo much fun, generating post ideas with someone else and getting to chat about mutual book love. I want to do more, either general book chats/discussions or buddy reads.

💻 Hold a contest or giveaway.
Yeah, I barely have money to buy my own books (NetGalley is seriously a saviour for me in more ways that one) but I know I’m not the only one in that boat. I want to hold another contest/giveaway even if it can’t be money-based to share books with other readers/bloggers.

READING & LIFE

📚 Read 70 books.
In 2018, I actually managed 95 books. But I like to lowball with goals sometimes, because if they’re too high, I overstress and take it all too seriously. Do I think I can read more than 70? For sure. But I don’t want to see myself devour great books with a high Goodreads goal in mind and then forget half the plot. This goal is just to have one, tbh.

📘 Read 3 non-fiction books.
I see non-fiction and run the other way. But some advice from fellow blogger Rebecca has given me courage and I’ll be making attempts this year. I’ll take recommendations!
📘 Read 10 books about mental illness
As someone with diagnosed mental illnesses (still not comfortable talking about them, but we’ll see) I like to read books with MI/MH rep. I really want to read more in 2019.
📘 Read 12 books with POC protagonists
For this I mean books with a non-white character as a lead.
📘 Read 5 books with LGBTQ+ protagonists
Part of this goal is finding LGBTQ+ protags in books that are less than 40% romance. (I’m not a romance fan.) I’ve got a working list, but also taking suggestions!!

📚 Attend one book convention.
Kind of speaks for itself. I’ve never been to a book festival and Mandy’s trip to YALLFest last year gave me all kinds of jealousy. (Even though she was the most stellar BFF and sent me tons of swag and ARCs.)

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MANDY

BLOG & SOCIAL MEDIA

💻 Join three read-a-thons.
I stole this from Sha, because I liked it so much. I really enjoyed doing our own readathon last year along with Short-A-Thon in December. I’m ready to bring on more of them. There is just something so exciting about finding the perfect books to fit the prompt and knock off books on my TBR that I might not usually get to right away.

💻 Grow our Instagram account to 1000 followers.
I’MMA COMING, INSTA. Sha has sorta trusted me with Instagram, and I do enjoy taking a good picture. I like having a goal, and I want to get there.

💻 Create a schedule to have more frequency in blog hopping and actually commenting back in a reasonable amount of time.
If you haven’t noticed, I’m not quite the best at getting back to comments and blog hopping as good as I once did. It’s a bit a struggle. I definitely need to spread it out a bit better, and a schedule will help with this.

READING & LIFE

📚 Read 200 books this year.
I somehow managed to read 200 last year, so I’m hoping to keep it going since this should neatly kick my TBR’s butt and allow all the epic 2020 releases to go on without stress.

📚 Finish all books that are on my physical TBR (>75 books currently).
I AM DETERMINED. I have completely run out of room on my shelves, and with my track record, I will most likely not enjoy most of them. Therefore, I will donate, and then I will have more room! Look at me go.

📚 Reread all those are on my favorites shelf to confirm they are favorites (that weren’t from 2018)
I am ridiculously selective of my favorites shelf, and there are a few books on there that I don’t even recall anything going on. Since I love to torture myself, I am determined to go back through and read them to make sure they really were my favorites and deserve to be there.

📚 Do 1 buddy read with Sha at least every other month
Buddy reads are one of my favorite things since Sha and I either fangirl or bicker to the extreme about how different we felt about books. I definitely want to keep this going.

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What are your blog goals for this year?