Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2014

Hosted by The Broke and The Bookish

Is anyone else in denial that the new year has started? It does not quite seem possible to me that 2013 has come to an end and we are already one week into the new year. At the same time, there is something energizing about it though--weird huh? This same post was my first Top Ten Tuesday I participated in last year. Funny how I am kicking off the new year with this one again. :-)

Here is my list of bookish goals for 2014: 

1) Spend less on books by waiting for sales or using coupons What can I say, I know it is not realistic to say I won't purchase books, even as a librarian. I do get the bulk of my books from the library--for one thing it supports my job. :-) There are just the books though that I want to own for various reasons. I just need to be smarter about when and how I purchase them. I do know that authors do depend on us buying books for them to keep being able to do what they love though too. So there is definitely that balance.

2) Explore New Authors I want to try new authors. I have a goal of 12 new authors this year. You could say that equates out to be one new author a month but I am not being so strict to say one per month or even per genre, etc. Without trying new authors this past year, I would never have known how much I would have loved Fangirl, Dare You To, Pushing the Limits, Shannon Stacey or Bella Andre. New authors can breathe life into normalcy and energize you or pull you out of a reading funk--at least that is my experience personally.

3) Do a better job at staying on top of writing reviews--even if they are short & simple style I got so busy and bogged down that my stack of to be reviewed would pile up that I would skip over them. This year I am striving to stay up on my reviews. Feel free to offer any good tips in the comments below that you find useful for this. Along with this, be more consistent in posting reviews.

4) Cataloging my personal collection of books I had it on my list last year, but I did not get it done this past year. They are much better organized now that we have moved, which has helped but I am still questioned whether or not I have a specific title or not. I need to do it formally and also create a list either in my Evernote account or even as a GoodReads shelf so when I am out I can cross reference it.

5) Overflowing Shelves I have accumulated quite the collection of books and I really need to make more of an effort to read them. I am participating in the 2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge (hosted by the lovely Bookish blog) to get my butt moving this year on them. I have physical copies as well as eBooks I need to read. 
6) Moving on out of my comfort zone I want to continue to branch out more--I think it is one of the best ways to grow as a librarian, reader and reviewer.

7) My inner child is calling me I need to make sure I am make more of an effort to read tween/youth materials this year. I usually read a lot more than what I did this past year.

8) Not getting bogged down by others I think this is something that can afflict us all at one point or another--when we get a wee bit (or in some cases a lot) envious of what others have--being it ARCs, traffic, comments or (insert whatever other measure you hold highest). I am doing my own thing here at Love. Life. Read. and I hope that I can continue to connect with others. All I can do is focus on things here and be thankful for that. 

9) Comments! I have majorly slacked off on commenting this past year on blogs. Actually, visiting blogs in general has been down as I have been just so busy but I am going to make an effort to try to take segments of time each day to read AND comment on my fellow blogger's posts.

10) Writing I want to take more time to write. Both professionally and personally, I have projects I have pushed off onto the back burner to simmer that I want to pull off and bring to a boil this year. I am going to start blocking time off on my schedule--even if it is only 30 minutes to an hour at a time.

So there are my Top Ten Bookish Goals for 2014. Do any of mine align with yours? Make sure you leave me your link to your Top Ten post so I can visit your post so I can cheer you on. Let's make 2014 a fun and productive year!!