2020 in Review & 2021 Resolutions: Yearly Wrap-Up

Firstly, I’d like to wish you all a happy 2021! 🥳

Also… GUYS, I READ 110 BOOKS THIS YEAR!!!???? I know for some book bloggers that’s like the norm. But for me it’s HUUUGE! I literally started this year by saying, if possible I’d like to aim for a book a month this year, and see where that goes… Like, for real, my original Goodreads Challenge was 12 books! TWELVE. BOOKS.

It had been honestly a long time – longer than I’d like to admit! – since I had really read more than a book or two in a year. But at the end of last year I experienced something that made me sit up and really question if I was prioritizing the things in my life that really mattered to me.

That’s when I decided I wanted to start reading more. I used to LOOOVE reading when I was a teen… but I lost that love somewhere along the way. So at the start of 2020, after having read a total of 2 books the previous year, I decided I was going to start reading again.

And, boy, did that really take off! 😅

In a lot of ways 2020 has been one of my best years. I kind of got my life together. I’m in a better place now than I’ve been in a very long time. Longer than I think I realized.

It’s also been one of my worst. It’s the first year I haven’t seen my family or closest friends AT ALL. Not even once. And that’s been hard. I’m so grateful to my partner, but living in a place where all of my support system is far away is HARD. I can’t wait until I can finally see them again and give them all a great big hug. 💕

But overall I think I’ve been extremely lucky this year. And really, I’m just so grateful to that. I hope you all have managed to have the best 2020 you could possibly have had given everything going on in the world right now. You absolutely deserve it. 💗

My 2020 Reading Challenge:

My New Years Resolutions:

1. Read 50 books in 2021.

I know I managed to read 110 books in 2020, but I’m a little hesitant to aim for more than 50 books in 2021. 2020 was a really unusual year – I doubt I have to tell you that – and if it’s taught me anything it’s that you can never, and I mean never, really know what the future will bring. So for now I’ll aim for another 50 books, and if I wind up doing really well I may up that number to 75 books in a few months, but if not, I also won’t be disappointed!

2. Start requesting ARCs from actual publishers!

2020 was the year of bookish firsts for me! Not only was it the year I published my first book review, but it was also the year I started requesting e-ARCs on sites like Netgalley and Edelweiss+! I’ve had so much fun reading and reviewing upcoming releases – an even more shocked that publishers would grant me permission to read and review so many of those upcoming titles! 😱

I want to challenge myself this year (and my “make no waves” personality) to really put myself out there and contact publishers to request – physical! – ARCs for books that I believe I would really connect with. I know that my likelihood of getting approved for physical ARCs – especially since I don’t live in the US or the UK – is much smaller, but wish me luck! It’s more about the attempt than the result anyways. ☺️

3. Up my bookstagram game 📸

I’ve been on bookstagram for around 7 months now! …And I still don’t really feel like I know what I’m doing lol. 😅 To be fair I’ve never been very good at making an ✨~aesthetic~✨ instagram feed. But this year my goal is to try! I like what I’ve done with my bookstagram feed so far because it’s clean and simple. But I think I need to find some way to zhoosh it up a bit! Maybe find some cute props to go along with my book covers or something like that… 🤔

4. Participate in a readathon!

I had never heard about a “readathon” until I joined the online bookish community. At first I found them kind of intimidating – I am a mood reader after all, and waver between reading almost nothing and reading EVERYTHING often. But this year I want to try one out anyways and see if I like it! It sounds like such a fun way to get to know more people in the bookish community, which is something I would really love to do (especially given how much of a shy, introvert I am when it comes to meeting new people online). 🙈

5. Organize (and follow-through on) a buddy read.

Similar to the last resolution, this is another bookish thing I’d like to try that I had never heard about until joining book twitter! I have tried to do buddy reads before with my IRL friends and family… buuut it never seems to work out. I’m hoping that by organizing one with a fellow book blogger we might be able to have a bit more success! So if you’re looking to do a buddy read yourself next year, definitely count me in! I’d love to participate~ 🥰

What about you? Did you achieve all your 2020 reading goals?

What are you hoping to accomplish in 2021?

Let me know!