My Insane 2014 Goal

2014 is my GET IT DONE year.

As 2013 comes to a close, so does my terrible habit of not posting as often as I regularly do. It’s been a ghost town over here but 2014 is going to be a big year for the blog as I’ll be posting reviews almost everyday and getting back to interviews among other things. I was gearing up to post like crazy earlier this fall, warming up to the new year and then there was a death in the family and then NaNoWriMo happened and now here we are in December. So. I have a handful of posts coming up this month. But only a handful. After I catch up on the Courtney Summers Read-Along and post a few reviews, I will be 100% focusing on posts for 2014. Scheduling memes, organizing my TBR pile, gearing up for my crazy goals that all come down to one…catch up. Simple. Right? Hahaha. No. But the bottom line is…

I am tired of my TBR pile sitting there and my kindle purchases rising (darn you daily deals) without making a dent in my kindle challenge. I’m tired of my never ending Netflix queue which I have finally started making quite a dent in. I want to read books and watch movies as they release and not be behind. Period. Everyone’s goal but can it be done? Can it be achieved? I’ll soon be on a mission to find out.

Brad doesn’t know it, but having read 394 books this year with a goal of 400, he’s inspired me to tackle my TBR pile like never before. His goal was 400 though mine will be lower. As of right now, there are 707 books on my TBR list. That’s not including sequels and such which I don’t add to my list until I’ve read the first book and decided if I will go on. So. If I make my goal to cut my TBR pile basically in half and read 355 books next year, that will probably end up being 300 books and 55 graphic novels and novellas. How in the world I will read 355 books, keep catching up on my Netflix queue, and so on…I have no idea. But..

I plan to document my progress EVERY SINGLE WEEK.
So. This is going to be interesting. To achieve my major goal I plan to break it down into mini goals. I am still organizing my plan of execution but it’s shaping up like this:

For Books:
* Read YA stand-alone books on my TBR list
* Read YA trilogies on my TBR list
* Read YA series on my TBR list
* Read the entire catalogues of certain authors on my TBR list
* Read adult fiction on my TBR list
* Read memoirs on my TBR list
* Read nonfiction on my TBR list
* Read graphic novels on my TBR list
* Read classics on my TBR list

For Netflix:
* Watch movies in series I need to finish
* Watch movies that are on my list but were indecisive picks
* Watch movies that are adaptations, after reading the book first
* Watch Made for TV Movies on my list (I’m a sucker for these. Haha.)
* Watch TV Shows that I finished & never started
* Start watching TV Shows that I never started & always wanted to (This goal will start in 2014 but will not finish for some time)

Stay tuned next week for a handful of reviews but really stay tuned for the ridiculous challenges I have set forth (numbers forthcoming). While I have found that read-a-thons don’t work well for me, if you know of any read-alongs happening in 2014, are planning one, or want to plan one, let me know! Read-Alongs are my thing! If there are already any annual book challenges out there, for example, a stand-alone book challenge, that I can join to complete my mini goals, let me know! Otherwise, I’ll be leading my own. Feel free to join in if you want!

To recap…yes, this is crazy, yes, I don’t get out much at the moment but that is in an effort to save up and move back to Los Angeles so don’t cry for me. I’m excited to see what stories await for 2014 and hope you’ll be along for the ride!

4 comments

  1. Those are somewhat insane goals for sure, but I love how structured you are being about it! And it really helps reviewing your stats every single week, both to make sure you stay on pace, and also to hold yourself accountable to yourself and your readers 🙂

  2. wow I don't know how it's humanely possible to read 400 books in a year, but I wish I could do it!! (That's more than 1 book per day!!) Anyway I hope you get to read everything you plan to… Sometimes my never ending TBR frustrates me to no end!

  3. Omigosh, 400 books in a year? I thought I was doing well with over 150! I wish you the best of luck with your goals. Structure and weekly checking-in sound like a good way to stay on track. I think one of my goals is going to be to prune both my TBR list and my Kindle freebies down to something I can actually hope to get through. Which won't be easy, since my combined TBR lists are around 1000 books right now, and I keep adding faster than I can read and cross off.

  4. Thank you! Yes, structure and accountability are definitely key for attempting a challenge like this!

    I have no idea how Brad read 396 going on 400 books this year but he sure has inspired me to read close to that! After organizing my TBR pile some more, it looks like my goal will be even lower than my initial 355 goal…it's looking to be around the 325 mark. So less than a book a day. Barely. I hope I can do it!