2018 Wrap Up and 2019 Bookish Goals

Happy New Year Bookworms!

We are officially over a week into the new year which means it’s time for a reflection of 2018 and goal setting for 2019. I have a ton of new and exciting things planned for the upcoming months that I am very excited to share with y’all today!

What I Accomplished in 2018

2018 was a record year for reading. Going into the last year, I thought I wasn’t going to be able to read very much due to a heavy workload in my final semester of nursing school and preparing for the toughest test of all to get my nursing license. But somehow through it all, I was able to go above and beyond in accomplishing all my career goals while slashing my yearly reading goals.

Last January, I set out with the idea that 35 books would be a good number that I would hit by December 31st. But after graduation in May, I had this urge to bump that Goodreads goal to 60 books when I realized that I was reaching 35 books rather quickly.

With my nursing boards still ahead of me, I rationed my time between my love of reading and the gruesome studying schedule I had created for myself, and after passing the test, moving across states, and starting my brand new job, I was free from the burden of school allowing reading to become the forefront of my free time (which I had a lot more of).

Can you guess how many books I finished in 2018?

In the last 12 months, I was able to hit a new record of 106 books!!

Crazy, right? If you were to have told me that I was going to be able to hit 75, I would have thought you were crazy. But nope! I was able to read a ton of great reads, and some not-so-great ones that I have been excited to share with y’all through this blog!

My 2019 Bookish Goals

So what are my New Year Resolutions??

You may have seen a few of my bookish goals floating here on my blog or over on my Instagram (which I post more day-to-day reading/bookish updates).

The first major change that I am bringing to my blog is exciting if you are a fan of the Adult Romance genre.

As I grow in my reading, I have decided to take a slightly different approach to what books I will be exploring in the nest 12 months, including a new genre: Romance.

But don’t worry, I will still be featuring and reading YA books (because how could you not?) while also adding more Adult Romance books into the mix.

I am excited to read some of these books, and I have already begun to compile a list of Adult Romances onto my TBR. But since I am newer to the genre, if you have recommendations of authors or specific books, please feel free to share them with me!

Another new addition to my blog is sort of a spin-off of my first announcement. I will be joining in on the fun with a new, year-long read-a-thon: Romanceopoly!

If you haven’t heard of this reading challenge before, it’s pretty much a spin-off of the classic Monopoly game where instead of places on a board, you will find over 30 reading challenges surrounding the world of romance!

To learn all the information on Romanceopoly, click HERE to visit their site! There, you will find all the challenges along with print outs of the board and the instructions on how to play.

I hope that using this read-a-thon, I will be able to discover a ton of new romance authors and books! If you’re like me and have no idea where to start looking for books to fulfill each challenge, the two creators added a huge list on their website to help steer you in the right direction.

And for my final reading goal for 2019, I want to be able to read over 125 books along with thinning down my physical TBR pile on my four bookshelves. Currently, I would estimate that I have only finished less than 25% of my collection, so I will be striving to go through my shelves and finally finishing most of them.

I am super excited about these bookish goals, and I hope I am able to share a ton of new and amazing reads with y’all throughout the year!

What are your bookish goals for 2019? Do you have any genres you would like to explore this year too? Any adult romance recommendations you can share my way? Let me know in the comments below!

Stay tuned for all of the book reviews and bookish posts coming in 2019! Don’t forget to subscribe below for instant links to each of my posts and help share the love of reading YA books!