The Quiet Concert: Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2014

Jan

2014

Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's Top Ten list is "Top Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2014".

Have fun.
For a while in 2013 this blog was taking over my life. I was easily intimidated by the more successful blogs and I wanted to do too much too fast. But I've relaxed considerably over the past few months and now have a much healthier attitude about blogging. I hope to keep it that way in 2014.

Develop good review-writing practices (I don't have these currently).

There are two things I really want to get in the habit of doing. First, I want to write reviews closer to when I actually finish the book. I am really bad about this. Second, I want to consistently keep track of my thoughts while reading. I might buy a reading journal to help with this. I might also adopt the post-it-note method because I used to love including quotes in my reviews and I've done that less and less lately .

Write personal posts, in addition to opinion posts.

When Ashley and I started our Thoughts for Thursday feature we wanted it to be our outlet to talk about anything, but so far we've kept it mostly bookish. In 2014 I will definitely be writing some personal posts. I love reading these kinds of posts on other blogs and getting to know the bloggers better. So this year I hope to do the same for our readers.

Visit more blogs.

Invest time in new ideas.

Over the past year I've had some ideas for features or discussions but never brought them to fruition for one reason or another. This year I want to invest more time and energy into these ideas to see if they are actually worth something.

Keep up reading while balancing wedding planning and life.
I made a reading goal this year to read 100 book and I barely made it. Planning a wedding and moving in with my fiance has change my reading schedule just a bit :) So my goal this year is to keep up my reading while also still managing moving, wedding planning, and a wedding!

Vary my words/vocabulary in my reviews

I was reading a opinion post about word choice and using the same words all the time in review. I started to think about and noticed that I sometimes do the same. So this year I would like to just improve my writing.

Write more posts on Thoughts for Thursday.

Nicole came up with the idea for Thoughts for Thursday and it has been fantastic so far. I want to contribute more and think up more discussion and personal post for Thoughts for Thursday. This can help with goal #2!

Actually finish the Castor Chronicles this year.

Read the books Nicole says I must read because I will love them :).

I am going to buckle down and actually read the book Nicole recommends to me :) haha I promise!Included in that list : Sanctum, Throne of Glass and Slated.

Comments (9)

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Goldie · 586 weeks ago

Nice goals! Ashley, congratulations on your upcoming nuptials! :) I'm going to wait for your take on Castor Chronicles. It was nice, and I enjoyed it but I don't particularly love it as much as others did. But I did like the first movie! Hi Nicole, what I do is just type on my phone or tablet my thoughts, which definitely helps with remembering my thoughts about a book! I don't always write a review immediately after reading, and sometimes, even though I want to write a review, I just forget my thoughts about it, ergo, no review.

Happy 2014 :)
My recent post Review: Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure)

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jamielee841 22p · 586 weeks ago

I love the "have fun" one! Definitely always been part of my blogging manifesto that I made for myself in the beginning and has kind of guided me throughout! So I like that one! :)

I like #5 also because I have a notebook full of PAGES and PAGES of ideas for my blog from the past 3.5+ years and I just don't ever put a lot of them into fruition like I should. I mean, obviously I have put some into action, but not like I should be and in the process some of my ideas have kind of been done and, even though I know I won't have copied them bc I did HAVE the idea, I feel weird about it haha.

OMG I so need to vary what I say in my reviews and stuff. SO BAD. Esp after being at this for this long I'm like WOW...self...get a thesaurus.

As someone who planned a wedding while blogging and working full time , I will tell you YOU CAN DO IT. Yep, my blog did suffer a little bit. Especially in the couple months leading up..I posted a little less than usual but it was okay and nobody fled and all welcomed me back with open arms. PLUS you have a coblogger so that helps! And, while I dedicated a whole temporary feature to it with Wedding Wednesday, you could on occasion post about things for the blog? People really enjoyed those posts and helping me with opinions on things like color schemes, music, or the occasional wedding planning rant :) Even maybe a post asking others how they handled something huge and life changing like that while blogging?

Good luck with your goals ladies! I'm so glad I met you guys (yay for physically meeting you guys!!) in 2013 and I'm excited for a new year! :)

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Kay · 586 weeks ago

You both have some great goals and pretty much all that I can relate to. Nicole, I always put off writing reviews after I finish the book and I don't know why, it just makes it that much harder for me to write the damn thing later. Ashley, congrats on the wedding and know that your readers will understand if you don't blog as much since you are planning a wedding, it is kind of important. :)

Good luck to both of you in 2014! I can't wait to see what you bring to the blogging community this year... more awesomeness I'm sure.
My recent post TTT #16 : My Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2014

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Jessica · 586 weeks ago

These are great goals girls! I really like #2 Nicole. I try to discipline myself to where after I read a book I won't let myself start a new one until I've written my review. This gets difficult at times because I want to jump into my next read, but because I don't keep a journal or anything to catalog my thoughts I find myself taking longer to write reviews! I like the idea of a reading journal, but it's hard to stop reading to take notes once I start! :D Ashley, good luck with wedding planning! I'm sure that can get stressful! I like the idea of being more conscious about varying your word use and vocab! I'd like to do that too! Great list you guys!

My recent post Top Ten Tuesday #33

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mel1704 86p · 586 weeks ago

You won't regret reading Throne of glass, Ashley :D And yes, having fun is so important!

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greadsbooks 8p · 586 weeks ago

Nicole's goals are very similar to my own. I think it's important to remember to have fun with this. As someone who is embarking on her fourth year of book blogging this year, I can honestly say that my blog has never felt like work. I think other bloggers get burned out and discouraged when it becomes work to them. Keeping it fun & exciting is so, so important. I look forward to y'alls personal posts on Thoughts for Thursdays! Best of luck in the new year, xo.

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readaholic31 19p · 586 weeks ago

I can definitely relate to some of these. I've not had my blog long but I did feel for a while there that it was taking over my life a bit. So far this year and I know we're only a week in, I've been much more relaxed about it so I'm hoping that will continue!
My recent post Crown of Midnight: At last a sequel that doesn’t disappoint!

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tempestbooks 21p · 586 weeks ago

Haha yeah I really need to finish the Caster Chronicles, too. Only the last book left to go! I actually really didn't like the second and third ones, so that's why I've been kind of putting the fourth one off. But I feel like I NEED to finish the series at this point, since I'm so close, so I hope to pick up the last one soon.
My recent post The Titanic {Historical Fiction Spotlight}

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Pam@YA Escape · 585 weeks ago

Nicole, I agree with you about just having fun, that was similar to one of mine. If it's not fun, I'm not going to do it. And yes, I want to write my reviews closer to when I read the book. A lot of times I'll finish a book and instead of jotting down a quick review (I could always go back and make it sound better) I just pick up a new book. Then days go by, I've read more books, and a lot of times I just don't end up even writing the review. So I really need to change that.

Ashley, I feel the same way, that I'm just using the same words and same descriptions over and over again and I already feel like my reviews are stale. I need to work on that. And good luck on the wedding planning! ~Pam
My recent post Book Review: Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder