Top Ten Goals of 2014

Thank you to The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday. This week looking at goals for 2014 book related or a combination. I was not sure if I could get 10 book related goals but I think I managed to get a good combo!

1. Read new-to-me  authors

I think because a lot of the books I read are parts of series I end up reading a lot of books by similar authors. I am hoping that at least half of the books I read this year will be by new authors I have not read before. I am of to a good start with reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. 

2. Read 80 books

I was thrilled to be able to read 70 books last year. Now this does include my 7 re-reads  of the Harry Potter series but the rest were all fresh to me. I would like to aim to 80 books. This would probably include Harry again so that would only actually be a total of 3 new books to me. I am tempted not to follow my tradition and forgo the re-read this year but it genuinely makes me sad thinking of stopping. 

3. Step Outside the Comfort Zones

I am well aware of my natural lure of fantasy fiction.  I have not escaped this genre in my reading of Young Adult fiction and I have found that a lot of the books I read are heavily fantasy based. This is restricting me from recommending different styles of books to my students so I am hoping I can read a few more different genres. I am going to try do this by reading books featured on award lists. 

4.  Review all the books I read

This one is more for me. I don't mean I will blog every review, I just want to keep a record of all my opinions on the books I read over the course of the year. For one thing it gives me easy access to a cheeky blog post if I need on in an emergency. 

5. Stop getting library fines

Yes.. I admit it and hold my hands up. I am a terrible library customer even though I am a librarian. I am currently aware that my fine at my local library is the sum of £15 and I have been too afraid to pay it off. So I plan to march in there pay it off and then borrow books to my hearts content whilst returning them on time!

6. Make more exciting food

So this one as you can tell is not reading related. I will have to read recipes in order to construct these meals. I just want to be able to cook more tasty meals and now I have finished my degree I should (fingers crossed) have more time to whip up some yummy creations. 

7.  Begin to run again

Last year I wanted to run two half marathons. In total I ran a grand total of 0. I struggled to maintain my running with all my recurrent tonsillitis and my general lack of motivation. So I have signed up for one this year and have already begun training. I hope that I can keep up with running after the half takes place. 

8.  Watch less TV

Since being made redundant I found myself watching alot more TV then I would normally. This annoys me as half the time it seems to be just repeats and reruns as opposed to anything new. So I am hoping I can keep the TV time down a bit now I am back at work. 

9.  Blog at least twice a Week

I have really enjoyed watching my blog do better since I starting committing to it more. I have really enjoyed reviewing books prior to their publication and would like to do this more regularly. Hopefully I can maintain blogging at least twice a week. 

10. Improve my Reviews

I want my book reviews to be of a much higher standard. I want my readers to actually get a true sense of the book from my review and feel inspired to pick it up. I don't want to fall back on over used 'book reviewer' phrases so hopefully with some work my book reviews will be fresh and creative.