Hello I'm Holly and today we're going to
be seeing whether I'm achieving
my 2020 reading goals. So at the
beginning of
2020 I created some reading goals, some
booktube goals, and I thought now that
we're almost at the end of August,
there's about four months left of the
year, I thought why not look at my goals.
See how well I'm doing and what books I
need to read by the end of the year
to achieve those goals.
Now I know that some of these
goals I have failed absolutely miserably
on and I'm just gonna give up
on them but there's quite a few that I
think if I really tried in the
last bit of the year to achieve them
I could, so this is me trying to hold myself
accountable and I thought it might be fun
for you to see how well I'm doing with my
goals. So yeah!
Let's just get into it! My first goal is
obviously my Goodreads goal. How many
books do I want to read in a year
and every year I set it at 52. That's quite
achievable for me.
It's not really kind of a challenge. It's
just really so I can track the books I
read each year
and already this year I've read 73 books.
So I've achieved my goal. According to
Goodreads I've achieved it by 140%
and I'm 41 books ahead of schedule. So I
think my stretch goal
is probably 100 books and I think I'm
still on track for that. So that's about
27 books left. I've still got the end of
August. I've got like two weeks left
and then all of September, November. No
September, October, November, December.
So I think I can get to a hundred and
then my second
major reading goal is that 50% of the
books that I read I wanted them to be
from my owned TBR.
So all the books I had before 2020.
I have a lot of books on my owned TBR. I'm
pretty sure it's about 200 books
and I wanted to cut that down. So like I
said I've read
73 books this year. 41 of those books are
books that I owned which means that 56%
of my reading this year is from books I
already owned.
However eight of those books were rereads
and that's not really my owned TBR. Is it?
I've read those books.
So in actuality I've read 33 books from
my owned TBR if you don't include
rereads and that is 45%. So I'm almost 50%.
Hopefully if I achieve these other goals
that will be
50% or more. So I think that I'm on track for that goal
but I'm on that line. Can I get to 50%
by the end of the year? And then my third
bookish goal was to get more involved on
Booktube. So this was to start a Booktube channel
and to comment on more videos, to
interact with more booktubers
and obviously I've started a Booktube channel.
I don't know how many videos I've done.
Almost 100 I think at this point which
I'm very proud of
and I have been trying to comment on a
lot of people's videos. I feel like that
has trailed off in the last couple of
months. I think I've just been a bit stressed.
I do need to get better at commenting on
people's videos. I absolutely
love when people comment on my videos
and actually that just reminded me that
i just hit 400 subscribers
which is small compared
to you know the big channels but for me
that just
feels so great. So everyone new to this
channel thank you for being here.
Honestly it makes me feel so happy that
people are watching my videos because
a lot of the time - I don't know if anyone
else feels this - but I make the videos
and I'm like they're so rubbish. No one's
gonna watch
them but actually people do watch them.
They like them and they comment and
honestly even if your comment is just
like a heart emoji or something
that still makes my day. So I'd love if
you could give me give me like a
random emoji that you've been loving recently
as a comment in today's video just to
say that you're here.
Thank you to everyone who's new to my
channel or who's been here from the
beginning. It really does mean the world to me. So
Booktube. I think that I'm ... I think I've succeeded on
that goal.
Unless I just like fall off the face of
the earth for the rest of the year which
I don't think is gonna happen,
I think I've achieved that one but then
that leads into the goal
that I haven't achieved. That I have
failed miserably on
and that was reading the Goodreads
choice awards in the fantasy categories
and the young adult fantasy and sci-fi category.
So I was intending to do the top ten
in each of those and when I say the top
ten a lot of them were say like the
third book in a series so in my head as
long as I just read the first book in that series
it was a success but so there's 20 isn't there?
20 in the top 10 of each of those lists
and I've read seven and a few of those
seven are ones that I read
last year so I've read less than seven
off that list and I think the main issue that I had
with doing that goal
is that the libraries were closed
because of the pandemic
and I cannot afford all the books in the
world and I just ... I didn't want to buy
these books that I didn't even know if I
would like. So I was intending to use my library a
lot and I couldn't do that
from March. I hadn't got access to my
library and I still don't really feel comfortable
using my library right now. I know
they're open and I'm sure they have
loads of procedures in place
but just I'm not taking ... I'm not taking
my chances,
so that's just not gonna happen. It's
just not gonna happen
and I'm giving up on that goal. I think
it's still a nice way to kind of see
the books that are coming out each year.
I think I am going to still keep a track of them
each year but maybe not set it as a goal
because it's just ...
it's just not gonna happen. Then my next
goal was to finish
five series and I actually think I've
done quite well on this
so far. So technically this year I have
finished five series. I finished the
Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.
I then finished the Six of Crows duology
by Leigh Bardugo
and I also recently finished the Farseer
trilogy by Robin Hobb
and then I re-read the entire Hunger
Games by Suzanne Collins
and I also reread the Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory duology by Roald Dahl,
so technically I have finished five series but
two of them were rereads and I don't
want to count that
because that's not ... it's not reading the
series. Is it? It's not completing the series,
so I would quite like to finish at least
two more series this year
and the two that are my major
priorities right now
are to finish the Court of Thorns and Roses
series or the first like
trilogy within that major world. So I
want to read A Court of Wings and Ruin.
This is quite big but hopefully I can do
it and then I would also like to finish
the Monsters of Verity series. So I would
like to read Our Dark Duet by V. E Schwab
or Victoria Schwab.
I think it's different whatever country
you're in. So yeah if I can do that then
I will have done five series. My next
reading goal is to read I think it was
10 books off this
poster that I have which is '100 books
that you should read in your lifetime'.
It's kind of like a scratch-off poster.
So so far this year I have read
four off that list. I read Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep? or Blade Runner
by Philip K. Dick.
I read Northern Lights by Philip
Pullman, The Odyssey by Homer; translated
by Emily Wilson
and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
So there was I think it's six. I think I've got
six left that I really want to get to this
year but I don't know if it's gonna
happen. You ... you'll see which one I don't
think is gonna happen.
I would really like to read The Subtle
Knife and The Amber Spyglass
to complete the Dark Materials series by
Philip Pullman. I really enjoyed the
first one. I would love to continue this
series and complete it and if say I
don't get to finish those other series
that would be like another
completed series. So hopefully I can do
this. I think it's a good thing to read
in like the winter months
so maybe like November, December time.
I can get
this and then I also really wanted to
complete the Lord of the Rings trilogy
this year. So I need to read The Two Towers and The
Return of the King.
I don't know if I'm gonna do this
because I didn't love the first book
but if I can put them on TBRs and try
maybe I could get this done this year.
We'll see. We've got to be hopeful and
then another book
I wanted to read was Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
and then the book that is probably not
gonna happen. I'm not gonna lie
is Les Mis by Victor Hugo or Les
Misérables. Do you see how thick this book is?
I have just read the - what's it called? -
Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb and
that's over 800 pages.
This is even longer. The writing is even
smaller and it's a classic.
I just don't know if
this is gonna happen.
It stares at me every year. It asks me to
read it every year and every year I'm
like I'm gonna do it and then I don't.
We'll see. We'll see what happens. It
might happen. It might happen.
We'll see. Another of my goals this year
was to haul
a maximum of 60 books. So this is like
buying. I can borrow more books than that
but last year in 2019 I think I bought
120 books which is just ridiculous.
I cannot read that
so I thought I would have a cap this
year of 60 and
so far I've bought 37, so I think I'm
doing really well on that goal. That does
give me a few that I can buy at
Christmas
and any that I need for book clubs or
anything. So yeah I think I've done
really well on this goal
and then the final group of books are
from another video. So this wasn't in my
reading goals video.
This was a video that I think came out
at the beginning of March
and that was my five star predictions.
So these are books that I think I'm
absolutely going to love. I'm going to
give five stars
and I did kind of want to read them this
year but you know it hasn't gone that well.
I haven't read that many. If I don't read
all of these this year it's okay because
I could leave it till March next year if
that makes sense. Leave it a whole year
and then do my five star predictions in
March. Like have I given them five stars
or something.
Out of the 13 books on that list I have
read five or technically I've read four.
I'm in the middle of Middlegame
right now. So the five that I've read are
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson,
This Savage Song by V. E. Schwab, Call Down
the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater,
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil
Gaiman and then like I said
I'm currently reading Middlegame by
Seanan McGuire. So I have read a few
but then there are still eight books on
that list that I haven't got to
and they are Our Dark Duet by Victoria
Schwab, Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder,
The Starless Sea
by Erin Morgenstern, Muse of Nightmares
by Laini Taylor, Stormdancer
by Jay Kristoff, Red Sister by Mark Lawrence,
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and
then The Beast Player by Nahoko
Uehashi. I'm sorry if I pronounced that
name wrong but yeah
so those are the books that I still want
to read that I think I'm going to give
five stars. I know right away that I haven't given
them all five stars
so hopefully I'll give them five stars
but I'm very picky
with the five stars that I give out. So
we'll see what happens
and like I said I don't need to read
these by the end of the year. It'd be
nice if I could get through quite a few
of them but yeah I've still got like January,
February and March next year
that I could read them. Then there are a
couple of books on the end that I just
wanted to mention
that I would also love to read by the
end of the year. The first one
is A Dream So Dark by L.L. McKinney. This
is the second book in the
Blade so Black series. Is it the
Nightmare-verse series? I can't remember
the series title but that is the second book in the
Alice in Wonderland kind of retelling
that I absolutely loved. I read that in
August. Then I also want to continue in
two series that I started by N. K. Jemisin.
So I want to continue The Broken
Earth series with The Obelisk Gate and
then I want to continue the Inheritance trilogy
with The Broken Kingdoms. I love that
Broken Earth, Broken Kingdoms.
So yeah two N.K. Jemisin books. Hopefully I
can get to them. I've loved both of the
first books in these series so I'm very
excited to continue in them.
Then I would really like to read Aurora
Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.
This is the second book in the Aurora
Rising series
and then finally I want to get to The
Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by
Suzanne Collins.
This is just ... it's just watching me
like it's beady eye. I bought this.
I pre-ordered this book and I don't
pre-order books. I know that it supports
authors and when I do have more money
that is something I want to do more but
I pre-ordered this book. I got the
exclusive Waterstones edition. It's yellow
and I haven't read it. How many months
has it been? Was this May
and now we're in August, almost September.
I've gotta read this. I've got to read
this by the end of the year.
I know it's had some mixed reviews but I
want to experience it myself.
So those were my goals. Do you think I've
done well? I feel like I'm on the way
to completing some of them and then some
of them like the Goodreads choice awards
it's never gonna happen. Is it? What were
your 2020 reading goals?
Are you achieving them? I hope you've
enjoyed. Thank you for watching and to
everyone out there, stay curious, bye.
