It is hard to believe we are already into Q3 of 2022. Where has the year gone? It seems every year goes by quicker than the last. In an attempt to savor the rest of the year, I am laid out some reading goals for myself. Maybe in reading these it might inspire you to adopt a few of them or even to create a few of your own. I hope you do both really, but please share in the comments below what some of your reading goals will be. If you like reading and that is why you are following this blog, then most of you have probably been reading the entire year by some reading goals you created. If so, please do share. I am always looking for ideas.

So, let’s get into it. Here are my reading goals for the rest of 2022:

1. Read one book (at least) every two weeks until the end of the year (or December 31). If you are wondering, yes I am somewhat of a slower reader when reading fiction books. For most of my life, I read mostly Non-Fiction books until the past few years. So I can read non-fiction books must faster, but I am trying to expand my reading genres to include lots of fiction. I have found getting lost in a story is a great escape. I also am a note-taker when I read books (I’ll get into that more later in this post), so it tends to slow me down some. Every two weeks, is a reasonable goal for me. If I end up reading more, the more the better. By reading one book every two weeks for the next 12 weeks, would be 6 total books to the end of the year. That sounds doable.

2. Read two hours every day. I already quite a bit everyday, but I want to be more diligent in reading 2 full hours everyday. I mostly read at night in the bed. The bad thing is, I read until I fall asleep. Some nights that is 30 minutes to an hour, and some nights just 5 minutes. So something I have started doing in the past week, is reading for 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes to an hour in the evenings while we are watching TV, and then when I go to bed. Reading is by far my favorite thing to do, but it seems like I am always putting it off until bed when I know it will be quiet. I get distracted when I try to read with the TV on, but I want to get over this, and the only way to do that is to practice.

3. Read one book at a time and finish what I start reading instead of stopping and switching to another book. I am real bad about starting a book, not being able to get into it, and moving on to another book. I have found though, if I push on to the end of the book, I usually really like it (I did this with the last book I read). I don’t know if I get bored or what, but I want to train myself to finish a book before moving on to another one. Now mind you, if I really don’t like a book or there is nothing but vulgarity, I will put it down and probably not return to it. I don’t like really nasty and vulgar books. So this goal is to read one book at a time, and finish it to the end. (Unless of course it is too nasty and vulgar–in which I usually don’t even start reading those books anyway).

4. Read a variety of books, both non-fiction and fiction. In striving to read a wide range of topics, I want to be more well-read. Also because I like changing book types once I have finished a book. For example, I just finished a novel yesterday, so today I started reading a cookbook. The next one will probably be a fiction, then another non-fiction. Here are a few of the genres or types of books I have on my list to read (because I really like mixing it up):

• Fiction (love story, drama, suspense, mystery, young adult)
• Autobiographies
• Cookbooks
• Health books
• Home design
• Decluttering/Organizing
• Business
  
  

5. Keep track of the books I read on Instagram Stories and create a permanent Highlight for my IG page. To hold myself accountable, and to keep a record of everything I’m reading, I’m going to post it on Instagram Stories and then create a Highlight for those stories to live.

6. Keep a reading journal. You know how I said before in Goal #1, how I am a note-taker when I read; well, I want to house all those notes in a pretty little notebook. I like to keep quotes I really like, ideas, and just my thoughts on what I think about a book. I’ve never really been consistent with putting all my notes in one notebook, but I want to start doing this. I think it would be neat to look back on. I remember my mom did this when I was a kid. She had a red hardbound book(I think it was red–she always had it with the book she was reading at the time) that she wrote quotes and stuff in. I have never read her little red book, but I asked her once what it was, and she said she puts quotes and things in it that she really likes and want to remember. **A little side note, when my mom and dad moved away several years back, I was devasted because I would be six hours from them. My mom compiled a little book for me that I hold close to my heart, of poems and things she wrote, and some quotes out of her little red book. I read it again a few months back and just cried. I love my momma so much. Most of my hobbies, are from my momma. She is my rock and my best friend. Ok, well back to this post. I could go on and on about my sweet momma, but back to the topic here. So I want to keep a journal of things I read just like my momma.

7. Read more and scroll less. Like everyone in this day and age, we can all get lost in mindless scroll on social media. I get kind of lost in scrolling sometimes. So to break my scrolling time down, I want to read more and scroll less. A huge chunk of time can be lost and never gotten back in mindless scrolling. Now I am not saying I won’t scroll at all, but I want to set a timer or something where I scroll for only 15 minutes or something instead of an hour. I heard there is an app that is a timer that I might try out. Let me know if you have any ideas.

8. Read more of what books I already have from my own bookshelf. I usually go to the library every week. It’s my Friday ritual. However, by always reading something from the library, I don’t read what books I need to read on my shelf that I have actually bought. So I am going to read 6 books that I already have and if I have time to add a few more, they might be library books. But I have a ton of books on my bookshelf I have never read.

Well, I hope you enjoyed and got inspired by my reading goals and are looking forward to creating some of your own. If you do create some goals of your own, please share in the comments below.

Have a beautiful week!

Libby