Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! I think for some of you, cheapest its the New Year already, visit this site but here in California, its a bit past noon and there’s still about eleven hours til the clock strikes midnight, and I turn into a pumpkin or something.
Last week, I did a Tuesday Top Ten of my very favorite books of 2013. It was incredibly hard to narrow down to ten, and in fact, I actually narrowed it down to eleven, and not ten. I cheated. I tend to do that and I hope you forgive me for my utter lack of respect for the rules when it comes to math.
Moving on though, this week I’m going to do a short post about the sort of bookish, bloggish, nerdish resolutions and goals I’d like to keep for myself for this year.
2013 was an incredible year for myself, and for this blog. I can’t imagine it getting any better than it already has been this year. But I know it can and will and I look forward to it.
Look for a post soon about the awesome that was 2013 for What a Nerd Girl Says.
For now, let’s dive into my New Year’s Resolutions, What A Nerd Girl Says style.
10. Get to BEA!
This is a ginormous goal for me. I had never even HEARD of BEA until all the bloggers that I was starting to meet this year were gearing up to go. I stayed in tune with it the entire weekend, and came out of it feeling incredibly jealous. Book Expo America. Its the perfect convention, not only just because I’m a book blogger, but because I’m a book lover. All KINDS of authors go, and sign books and talk about books and there are agents and publishers there talking about the publishing world, and you go home with a suitcase just full of books (and most of them are ARCs). It just sounds like the most wonderful time ever. Its in May, in New York City, but I’m determined to get there. Its going to happen.
9. Read More Adult Novels
Before I started blogging, I think I read a lot more adult novels than I do now. I definitely enjoy YA more than most adult novels, but I do like certain authors and I’ve just let my general fiction reading fall to the side, and I’m a little saddened by that. I started my blog in the hopes of defending YA lit as a viable source of literary material and then I just lost myself in the world of YA. I have plans to finish the Song of Ice and Fire series, and Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy, and a few other adult novels, so I’m hoping to bring more of that to the table on my blog.
8. Expand My Blog: More Nerd!
When I started my blog, I took FOREVER coming up with the name, because I’m picky and I wanted it to be cute and catchy and I wanted it to be something that people remembered. When I settled on What A Nerd Girl Says, I took that as, I’m going to cover all things nerd. I started off really well, but lately, I’ve let that slide a ton. I love writing about books and YA because that’s my main passion but I want to get back to write more about movies and TV shows and video games and stuff like that. I want to stay true to my name and do “nerd”, not just “book”.
7. Hit 150K Views by The End of 2014
I want to expand my viewership. I’m currently at….about 70K so hitting 160 by the end of the year is totally doable. But I also don’t want to be obsessed with the numbers either. I want to reach more people, write more, do more nerd and less book (although book will NEVER go away), have more contests, and be more out there in the social media world. I want to Tumblr more, and Instagram more, and maybe even build myself up to a Pinterest (although maybe I’m getting old, because Pinterest baffles me). I just want to continue to make this blog bigger and better than ever, because its something that I’m really passionate about it, and its something that makes me incredibly happy so I’m always looking for ways to work on it and make it better.
6. Only Ask for ARCs that I Know I Will Read
I have stacks of books that I haven’t read yet, and I have even more on my Nook. I want to make sure that I’m only buying books or requesting ARCs for books that I know, 100%, that I’m going to read. I feel bad when I get these ARCs and my reading piles up and I don’t get to them. I feel awful about it. So I’m trying to restrict myself to books that I’ll ACTUALLY read. I think I can do that…maybe. I definitely want to do that with ARCs. I can’t guarantee that I’ll buy less books. I work at a bookstore. That’s asking for trouble and I gladly ask.
5. Cosplay More!
I want to be in costumes more often! I am a completely uncreative person when it comes to costumes (I can write, that’s really about all I have when it comes to creativity), and I want to wear more costumes. I want to have a full jedi outfit, and I want to cosplay Arya from GoT, and I want to be Sailor Jupiter. There is SO much I want to do but I think about all the work it takes and I’m like “meh”, or I get overwhelmed and turn to mush. So I don’t do it. But my brother has been cosplaying lately, and my best blogger friend/parabatai, Sylvia, is a ROCK star at the creative stuff, so we’re going to make it happen. I will cosplay.
4. Condense My Book Reviews/Posts
I talk too much. I have always known that and I’ve begun to tell my friends and such to tell me when I’m talking too much or interrupting because I feel bad and I don’t realize that I’m doing it. And this year, I discovered I do it while I’m writing too. Whoopee! So my goal is to be really more concise and to the point when I write reviews and posts. I mean, I’m still going to me! The whole difference of my blog is that I don’t take myself seriously and I get a little wacky and off topic. But I’m going to try to do that in a shortened version…because I really do talk too much.
3. Concentrate More On Reading for Fun and Less on Reading for Goal
This is a HUGE one. I set the goal of 200 books for the year, not really knowing how much I actually read in a year. Because I pushed myself, and pushed myself, I did reach 200. As of this post, I’ve read 203, unless I finish Grasshopper Jungle today, then I’m at 204. So I definitely can do it. Do I want to? I don’t think so. I want to concentrate on reading more for my enjoyment and less on the actual number of books read. I can’t remember a lot of details of the books that I’ve read because I read them back to back to back and they all sort of end of a huge blur. I’m not a fan of that, so this year, I’m slowing down.
2. Read 150 Books
That being said, I am setting a goal for 2014 on GoodReads, but I’m cutting 50 books off. I know to some people that 150 is still a TON of books but by cutting those 50 off, I really give myself the chance to relax and enjoy what I’m reading. If I go past it, great, but its more about the quality of books and the time that I take to enjoy it and less about racing to the finish line.
1. Finish my Novel
I RACED through words during NaNoWriMo and then after November ended, I’ve written about…maybe 5K words this month. That makes me incredibly sad. I’d like to say it was because it finals or Christmas or I started a new job, and while those are true, it was mostly just a lack of motivation and determination to finish it. And that’s sad, and shouldn’t happen again. I’m determined to get back to writing in the New Year, in order to finish this novel, get it edited and perfected and then track down an agent to sell this book for me. Its going to happen. I believe it. I love Another Chance for Summer and A Little Less than Famous immensely but I have this soft spot for The Reawakened and I think it could be “the one”. So its going to happen. I’ll finish it.
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So those are my goals for the year. Not bad right? I think they are very doable and its much better than saying “Oh I’m going to run a marathon this year” or “lose 25 pounds” or I don’t know. Not that those are great goals! They just aren’t for me :)
What sort of goals did you set for yourself this year? They don’t necessarily have to be book/blog related! Share them in the comments!
And Happy New Year!
