What better way to open the new year, than with a booktag that was meant just for that. Originally created by Bookables, the New Year’s Booktag seemed like a great way to share some of my 2019 reading-plans with you. If you’d like to do this tag, consider yourself tagged: I’d love to hear your answers for these questions as well.
How many books are you planning to read in 2019? In 2018 I set myself an honest challenge of 50 books, but ended up destroying that goal by reading a ridiculous 100. Although I love the idea of challenging yourself to read more and more each year, I won’t try to best that. Instead I’ll keep my goal at 50 book, as it’s the perfect amount for me to be able to reach comfortably, without being intimidated by it. I contemplated whether I actually wanted to set a reading goal, that is measured in a number of books at all this year. Reading is primarily my hobby, and I the last thing I’d want to do is make it feel like a chore. I’m perfectionistic to a fault and instead of feeling obligated to reach an arbitrary numbers-goal, I want to focus on enjoying the journey towards it.
Name 5 books you didn’t get to this year, but want to make a priority in 2019? - The Muse of Nightmares – Laini Taylor - The Book of Strange new Things – Michel Faber - Bridges of Clay – Marcus Zusak - A Conspiracy of Stars – Olivia A. Cole - The Hero of Ages – Brandon Sanderson
What kind of books do you want to read more of in the next year? A second reason for keeping my reading goal reasonable is that I’m hoping to read some more big books this year. In 2018 I’ve noticed I tend to be intimidated by books that are 600 pages or over, and put off reading them because of that. I really want to challenge myself to get over this intimidation, as some of my most anticipated books are bigger ones. Additionally, I’d like to get back into reading fantasy a little more in 2019. Whilst it’s one of my favorite genres, I didn’t read as much of it in 2018 as I’m used to. As fantasy novels tend to be on the larger side, these two goals compliment each other nicely.
Are non-book related goals for 2019? As many of you know, I’m a medical student, currently doing my residencies. My primary goal for next year is to continue doing the best I can in all of them, and continue working towards my mastersdegree. Outside of work, I’d love to make an effort to continue freeing up time to spent with family and friends. I hope to make a lot of new memories in 2019, and I’d love for them to be included in them.
What’s a book you’ve had forever, that you still need to read? The book, that has currently been on my Goodreads-TBR the longest is the first in a series I’ve been wanting to read for years: The Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch. I’ve read the first book, The Lies of Locke Lamora, quite some time ago, and would have to reread it in order to continue. I remember very much enjoying book one, although I struggled to get into it at first, and have heard amazing things about the series as a whole. I don’t know why I haven’t started this series (again), but would love to do so in 2019.
All this being said, there is one message I want to stress over any other: in this time of goalsetting and feeling like you always have to be working towards bigger and better things, I think we can all benefit from taking a break from time to time. As cliché as it sounds; stop and smell the roses for a while. In the end it’s the journey that counts even more than the destination. This is something I personally want to keep in mind throughout this year, both personally, professionally, but also in my reading.
I wish you all the best for the new year and hope to see you back soon. Until then: smell those roses (or in this case: book pages...?) and happy reading!
Love Renée
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