2021 Reading Plans

When inspiration hits, I feel like I just have to write. So, here I am. Good (very late) evening from me.

Last year I went into my reading year with a few specific goals in mind, and I also have a few for the current one. I like to do this to challenge myself every year and it is always satisfying to check the boxes of what you have completed. 

My 2021 reading goals... I cannot really say they are much less ambitious than last year's. 

1. Read 130 books

Okay, I think the first one already is a bit of an overkill because last year I could get away with it since I read a lot of manga. But who knows, maybe I'll resort to reading short fiction this year as well. Haven't thought about that very thoroughly yet. I did complere roughly 130 books for my Goodreads challenge last year and I would like to push for a higher number each year but I do not see this happening really again. Therefore, I set the Goodreads goal at first to just 85 books as you can see on the sidebar of my blog. I do like using some of those swanky widgets they offer. 

2. TBR (to-be-read) list down to at least 80

This one might become a bit of a challenge as I currently own around 140 unread books in English on my shelves (not including Estonian as these are the ones that my family can actually read as well, the English ones... not much interest). But, if I focus hard on reading my own books rather than getting new ones to add to the pile, over the year, the goal could be accomplished. 

3. Finish unread TBR

Now this one's interesting. I have used my bullet journal and reading journal simultaneously for years and I always write my reading plans at the start of the each month which includes a full list of about 3-6 books that I would definitely like to get to. Sometimes those plans fail and the leftover books get added to a longer compiled list of 'unfinished TBR'. This is what I would like to continue to tackle in 2021 because I have read a good chunk of the books within last year and I have been keeping up with each month's own TBR very well in 2020. This should be pretty achievable as there are about 15 books left on it, plus a 30+ volume manga that I think I'm actually considering DNF'ing (did-not-finish).

What I have in mind with this list currently: 

The Wrath and the Dawn by Reneé Ahdieh | American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis | Minu Tokyo by Maarja Yano | I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson | The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss | The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin | A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara | Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey | The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood | Attack on Titan vol. 9-... by Hajime Isayama | The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger | Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë | Beloved by Toni Morrison | White Teeth by Zadie Smith and Kurjus by Jan Guillou.

Quite an ambitious list since there are many series starters here and once I start a series, I intend to finish it as soon as possiblle not to leave a gap between reading the books. I also am not a very good friend of classics, so I have no idea how I will read all of these in this list. So we'll see how this will actually go. 

4. Buy wishlist/anticipated/sequels only

I must keep myself under control with this one. The good thing is that I am focusing on reading everything I already have and reading the dozens of series I have completed. So, for as long as I can, I will be on a book buying ban, unless I decide to get some backlist read books that I just wnat to own and reread someday. This almost never works because I have this cursecd goal every year and I do break it every year once I peek at a shiny new release or a sale. I should just be banned from going to book stores or thrift stores...

5. 5 for 1 challenge

This one ties in with the last goal. 5 for 1 challenge is, simply put, a challenge where you may buy 1 book only after you have read 5 of your owned books. This has been working for a good portion of the year for me in the past but then I fall off of the challenge and suddenly buy more books than I read. Sad truth, but it happens. I will try and keep up with this really hard this year. 

6. Finish 2015 owned list

I do own unread books that I have purchased in 2015, as well as some that I have received even earlier and I am honestly getting a little sick of my own self for not reading what I own as fast. So, I have made it my absolute mission to get to a bunch of books that I have owned for a long while. I have kept tracking what I purchase in terms of books every single month for at least the past six years, so it is pretty easy for me to track what I still have left unread on my shelves. Currently, there are 23 books on the list left - what I have purchased before 2016. Embarrasingly enough, most of it is young adult dystopia from around 2012, the paranormal/dystopia phase where everyone and their mother came out with a dystopian trilogy or series. In 2015 I found a bunch of these series I once had been interested in at a thrift store and apparently could not leave without them, so now I need to read them or get rid of them once this year ends. 

Let's give a shout out to my specific list here, too, shall we? 

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas | Robert Langdon series 1-3 by Dan Brown | The Shining duology by Stephen King | The Mara Dyer trilogy by Michelle Hodkin | The Mistborn series 1-4 by Brandon Sanderson | Gone series 1-2 by Michael Grant | Fallen series by Lauren Kate | Carry On by Rainbow Rowell | The Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness | The Penryn and the End of Days trilogy by Susan Ee | The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson.

A long list of men and fantasy. Wow. We'll see how I'll get on with this in 2021 but I will probably be reading most of my fantasy from 2015, I am determined. 

7. Finish collections

This ties in with the challenge of buying wishlist books as I do collect some authors' works fully and I do have a couple missing books, or some that I have not had the chance to read yet. 

Of course, after compiling this list, I have many more things in mind that I could include, such as reading more diversely (which I desperately want to and need to do) and reading more translated works. I always want to broaden my horizon with reading, but currently I sadly have this hurdle of my own ginormous stack of unread books that I need to get through first. However, I do want to get to some genres or books that I rarely read, a couple of which I own. Who knows, maybe 2021 will be the year of poetry or crime fiction? 

So yes, as of January, these are my reading plans. As to what I am currently reading, which I have not touched upon yet at all... I'm finishing The Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare. I am a very late bloomer to reading these, but Clare's books haven't been that interesting for me previously... The Mortal Instruments was pretty much a total bust for my reading taste even a long time ago. This one, however....a fun, fantastical little series that all urban fantasy lovers have probably read, especially those that read YA. I am a big YA and fantasy reader, but I do want to delve in to some other genres this year once I have cleared the YA section off my shelves. Clockwork Princess is really fun, clearly not a literary masterpiece but I am having a grand ole time reading this. 

Who knows when I will be posting next. 

Love, 
Eke