Well half the year is gone…. I don’t know where it went, what I’ve done. I swear I just did this last month lol. Anyways, let’s see if I’ve improved from last check in (here if you’re curious). Last time I did this check in I thought I had done poorly, but then turns out I was doing well. I haven’t look at this at all since… so let’s see how this goes lol.

Goal 1: Goodreads/StoryGraph Reading Goal

This one is fairly simple: I want to read 150 books by the end of the year.

So I’ve upped this… now I’m aiming for 200 books by the end of the year. I’ve just did the same thing I did at the beginning of the year to figure out my goal for page count (200 x 350 pages). I’m falling a little behind (in comparison) as far as pages go, but I think a couple of big books will catch me up. Halfway through the year, more than halfway to reaching my goal – I’m very happy with this.

Goal 2: Use StoryGraph to track reading stats

I love the graphs that StoryGraph has so I want to use it specifically for tracking what I’ve read. I also want to use the challenges in it: Buzzword and Little Inkling Year Long Readathons.

I’ve been good at keeping this up to date, except for tracking the Reading Challenges. I seem to only update those as I do these check ins. Not great, but at least I’m eventually tracking it (unlike my spreadsheet lol).

Goal 3: Track Instagram Numbers

Last year I really focused on my Instagram account and I would have loved to see the growth, but I never thought of tracking it when I was just starting – never thought of this until year wrap-ups started.

Ok so I haven’t been keeping track of these numbers at the end of each month at all. I know it’s going up, which is what we want lol. I’m happy with my account growth considering I haven’t been pushing as hard as the later half last year. I’m hoping to join a couple follow all’s if I feel I want to do another big jump. I’m curious if my growth will continue this way (a little higher growth each quarter!!). I’m a Unplugged Subscription Box Rep for the Summer (use code NINE5 to save at checkout) so I’m hoping that’ll grow my account – and if nothing else I’m having a great time! I’m really hoping to reapply come Fall (they sound like a lot of exciting books and merch to come!).

Again, for my numbers people:
January: approx. 2,300
April: 2,579
June: 2,821

For those of you who are curious, I’m at 2,579 when I’m writing this and I believe I was closer to 2,300 when I started the year.

Goal 4: Improve Netgalley Ratio

My Netgalley Ratio is out of control! I went years with asking for everything then forgetting to read/review them so now I’m at 25% and it will take large numbers to start increasing that. Right now I’ve got a three milestone goals for this one: 30% (approx. 20 ARCs), 33% (approx. 25 ARCs), and 35% (approx. 35 ARCs).

I have officially abandoned ship and created a new Netgalley Account. I’m using my old account for Tours because I get a lot each month as part of the TBR and Beyond Tours team. This new one will be used for ones I’m really excited for and Read Nows. Hopefully I can keep this one up-to-date.

As of right now, it’s not very good: 13% (2/16). Not great, BUT I’m planning on reading a lot to catch up over the summer 🤞

Goal 5: Buy Less / Read from My Shelves

I’ve said this before, but I’d really like to focus on what I already own. I own way too many unread books. I’m working on getting the exact stats on this before I can be specific, but I would like to have my TBR be mostly books I already own – 65% sounds like a realistic number considering the number of ARCs I’m hoping to get to. Hopefully I can give better breakdown numbers by April.

I went a little crazy with my spreadsheet and figured out a ratio formula so I can now compare Borrowed/KU to Owned/ARCs – I’ve decided not to split into new and previous right now – maybe next year now that I’ve decided again that I want to track this lol.

Owned : Borrowed Ratio 77:33

OMG! 66.7% baby! I’m so happy I managed to reach that random 65% goal I gave myself lol. Even if it is just a little bit, especially since I hadn’t made it last quarter – and it’s a great surprise because I learned this right as I was making the pie chart and ratio formula lol.

Goal 6: Finish 15 Series

Going with the idea of reading from my shelves, I want to finish more series this year! I’m co-hosting a group that focuses on finishing old series. We’ll read one book a month until we finish a series, then pick a new one. So at the very least I will finish whatever we pick for those, but I also want to finish more – I have a list of 10 series I want to start/finish this year that I’ll share later this month.

I’ve colour coded each quarter to keep track of what has been completed by Quarter 1 (blue) versus Quarter 2 (purple) and forward.

I’ve finished these so far this year:

• Girls of Paper and Fire trilogy by Natasha Ngan
• Thousand Worlds duology by Yoon Ha Lee
• Convenant by Jennifer L Armentrout
• It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

• The STEMinist Novellas by Ali Hazelwood
• Fright Watch by Lorien Lawrence (I think it’s only a duology, but I’d be happy to be wrong)
• The Oddmire Trilogy by William Ritter

I’ve caught up on these:

• Spoiler Alert trilogy by Olivia Dade (need Book 3 now!)
• Warward Children by Seanan McGuire
• Crescent City by Sarah J Maas (another series I’m impatiently waiting for the next book)
• From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout (more!)

• Veronica Speedwell Series vy Deanna Raybourn (no clue when the next ones are coming)

Even though I didn’t finish as many as the first quarter (and I started and continued but didn’t finish a few too), I’m very happy with my progress. Finishing 7 series and catching up on another 5 incomplete series is amazing for just 6 months! I would love to finish off more series I have on the go and even better if I started finishing the ones I picked as priority series lol (progress on that to come).

Goal 7: Read more Subscription Box Books

I have a bunch–way too many– unread subscription box books that I really want to focus on finishing this year. I have a list of 5 books I want to make sure I read this year that I’ll share later this month.

I’ve added a new section in my Tracking Spreadsheet for Subscription Box Books (which again I need to update because I’ve gotten a few new ones since) so I’ll be way better at tracking what I’ve read. This year I’ve managed to read a whole 2 books 😒 I have one on my TBR this month and another for next month though so progress? As for the 5 on my Must Reads of 22, I’m managed 1.

Wow… I only read another 2 books from my subscription boxes – and I’ve added even more to the list of unread ones! I don’t know if I’ll ever catch up – because I just don’t seem to prioritize them and I don’t know why. Oh and neither of the two that I’ve read were from the list of 5 from my Must Read of 2022 (why do I do this to myself?).

Goal 8: Use my Little Inkling Planner more

I’ve bought a Little Inkling Planner this year – this will be the third one – and I want to make sure I use it more than just on the month calendar page. I’m hoping setting this time aside will be relaxing.

I’ve failed on this a little bit. I’ve abandoned tracking my daily reading and I haven’t been keeping up with printing covers for when I finish. But I have been using it to track what blog posts are going up and keeping track of what I need to do in TBR and Beyond Tours. I’m hoping to make using it more of a habit over the summer when I have a little bit of time.

I’m just not using it the way I was hoping to. When I should be doing these, updating and listening to an audiobook at night. But by that point I just want to zone out and focus on reading. Do you have any advice on how to get me to prioritize this more often – or maybe I should just give up and just get a normal agenda for tracking Tours and plan blog posts.

Goal 9: Get to know my reading better

My hope that using StoryGraph will give me a better idea of what I like in books. I’ve done years where I throw out random genres that I want to read more, but this year I want to see where I naturally gravitate towards. I also want to take into consideration my ratings. I may read 50 YA Fantasies, but that’s only good if I’m enjoying the majority.

Honestly, I haven’t been keeping track of this. I’ve glanced at the pie chart on StoryGraph, but haven’t really looked at it. I probably wont until the midway mark or just the end of the year. I’m hoping this helps more with next year’s reading plans/goals.

I’ve been mood reading more and more this year. I don’t know if this is getting me to know my reading more, but I’m reading more than just YA Fantasies all the time lol. I do check the StoryGraph pie chart, but I don’t know if it’s helping me exactly – other than I’m reading a lot of adventurous (usually middle grades and fantasies), emotional (hard hitting contemporary), dark (horror, thrillers, dark fantasies – basically all my dark moody reads), mysterious (well that makes sense from thrillers and mysteries), and lighthearted (romances). I don’t feel like that’s surprising, but does show what I’m gravitating towards in my mood reading. I think this will prove more useful once I have a couple years worth of pie charts.

Goal 10: Post Regularly and Plan Breaks

I actually think I’ve stayed pretty close to this goal. There have been a couple weeks where I posted little or nothing, but one of those was when I was having a hard time at work and was allergic to computers lol. I’m happy with how the blog has been growing with my consistent posting and same with my Instagram account. I have to start thinking about my summer schedule because we plan to start doing some home renos and I know that’ll take up a lot of time.

I’ve been posting regularly and haven’t had a break – unscheduled or otherwise – other than at the beginning of the year and I think I posted less than sometime in April because of the end of the school year.

I’m really happy with my progress and I think where I’ve failed I think I’ve thought of a better goal (or will just remove all together) – which I guess is helpful overall!

How are you doing with your goals so far this year? Let me know in the comments!