An Update on My Blog Goals of the Year

Greetings readers!

At the beginning of 2018, I decided that I wanted to set down some goals for myself. I never thought that this blog would become such an active part of my life, but now that it is getting bigger, I figured I should put down some regulations to keep myself in check.

Now if any of you know me, I stink at meeting goals.

I make excellent lists, I write whole blog posts about them, but can I actually stick to them? That is another thing entirely. So I decided to check in on my goals and see how I’m doing. I’m writing this intro before I even dare to check, so we’re going to be experiencing my failure or triumph together! 😉

Time for Total Recall!

What were my goals? Excellent question! I actually have a fuzzy recollection of what they were, so it’s best that I go read about them in a blog post that I wrote way back in January.

If you want to check that out, I shall leave a link here. But if not, I will give you the quick rundown as I go.

1.  Read My Shelves
– Read books that I have had on my shelf before the start of 2018. Minimize the number of unread books I have bought in the past months.

My Progress:

OKAY HERE ME OUT. *Wow Rendz, we are starting with excuses? SMH*

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Because blogging has been going so amazing lately and I have had insane luck with giveaways I have required many, many, MANY books to add to my shelves.

That being said, I’ve still been able to read some of my shelved books…

And my grand total is….14

BUT…6 were rereads…..and one of them was borrowed from the library.

Conclusion: I’VE REALLY BEEN SUCKING ON THIS GOAL and I need to read the books on my shelf now more than ever!!!!

2.  Read Debuts
– Read 25 2018 debuts

My Progress:

I have had my luck with ARCs these past few months, so I think I have definitely done a good job of keeping up with this goal! I know there are so many more exciting debuts coming later this year and I cannot wait to read them!

Since January I have read….6 2018 debuts.

S.T.A.G.S. by M.A. Bennett
Blood and Sand by C.V. Wyk
The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw
The Calculus of Change by Jessie Hilb
Sleight by Jennifer Sommersby
Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian

Okay I swear that number was way higher in my head…

Conclusion: Keep working at it! I know I have quite a few debut arcs sitting on my shelf right now so I am definitely going to get to those and I also have a finished copy of a few!

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3.  Gain those 1000 Followers
– Interact, self-promote

My Progress:

Yeah I already knew this one is not my best.

Current number of followers: 613 WP + 7 Email followers

That’s a total of 620/1000. Not exactly the closest number, but if we are rounding to the nearest thousandth I totally did it.

Conclusion: Interact!!! I hit a huge blogging slump in the middle of the year and I have been terrible at reaching out which I really blame on school. But I am hoping to get on a better blog hopping track and meet more awesome bloggers that I know are out there!

4.  Manage My Book Money Better
– Try not to have to many splurges!

My Progress:

As mentioned, my luck with giveaways has been insane and publishers have been LOVING Rendz so I think this is my best category! I know I’ve visited Indigo quite a lot, but I haven’t spent much and while I browse BookOutlet almost everyday…I haven’t filled my cart (yet).

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5.  Expand My Genres
– Read at least three books from each of the following genres: Thriller/Mystery, Contemporary, Historical Fic, Romance.

My Progress:

Thriller/Mystery:

2/3 – S.T.A.G.S., The Little Dog

Contemporary:

5/3 – Broken Beautiful Hearts, The Calculus of Change, A Prom to Remember, Save the Date, Tell Me No Lies

Historical Fic:

1/3 – Blood and Sand

Romance:

1/3 – Crazy Rich Asians

Conclusion: So it’s not bad. I have been killing it in the contemporary section! But my Hist Fic and Romance sections have really been suffering. I mean the books I put under them barely even count XD! I need your recs people and I need to actively search for more books under that genre! I have six months to do it!

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Okay…so I still have quite a lot of work to do. Thankfully I have six months to do it. But if I’m 100% honest, I’ll probably forget about these goals again and have to do a final showdown in December to get them all done XD

Let me know what you think! Do you believe I can achieve these goals? Did you make reading goals this year? Have you been able to keep them?

Happy reading!

~ Rendz