I don’t talk about books often on this blog, but I love reading! Last year I wrote a blog called 2019 Reading Challenge Review and figured I’d do the same this year. Every year I set a couple of reading goals, so this is the place where I talk about those and whether I’ve achieved them.
If you want to know why I set reading goals, I explain that in this post.
Would you like to read more blog posts about the books I read? Let me know in the comments!
My original 2020 goals
I’ll just start by explaining which goals I set and why.
Read 25k pages total
Just because I want to read more! I didn’t want to focus just on amount of books, because focussing on a page amount makes me read longer books.
Read books that fit all 50 promps of the Popsugar Reading Challenge
This is the 3rd time I’ve done the Popsugar Reading Challenge. I mostly read it because it makes it easier to pick which book I want to read next.
The previous times I’ve done this challenge, I gave myself the option to “double dip”. This means 1 book can go towards 2 challenges. This year I challenged myself to only let 1 book go towards 1 challenge.
Half of the books I read should be on my “to read” list before 2020
I set this goal to make sure I’m not just reading new books, but also read books from my TBR (list of books to be read).
Read 15 non-fiction books
Last year I set the goal to read 10 non-fiction books, this year I upped that to 15. In the end I read way more nonfiction books than this, so I don’t know if I’d set this goal again. I think I’ll still continue reading nonfiction if I remove this goal.
Read 15 books by Dutch authors
I read most books in English even though I’m Dutch. I think of all goals, this is the last one I finished. I don’t think I’ll include this goal next year, because I ended up reading books I’m not necessarily interested in, just because they’re Dutch.
Read 15 “own voices” books
These are books that have a main character who is part of marginalized group, where the writer is part of the same marginalized group. This is another goal I might not include next year, because I’ll also read enough diverse books without needing a seperate goal for it.
Read a book with 1000+ pages
To make sure I’m not just reading short books because they’re easy to finish, I’ve included this goal.
Read or remove all books that have been on my TBR list for more than 5 years
If I haven’t read it while planning to do so for 5 years, do I even like the book/am I gonna miss it if I just remove it? This goal makes me focussed on not just reading “new” books, but also read books that have been on my to read list for very long.
How did it go?
So how did it go?? Even better than last year: I read a total of ONE HUNDRED books in 2020!
Of all of the extra reading challenges I set, I hit most pretty fast.
25k pages total was hit mid September and I ended up actually reading more than 33k pages total, so I smashed this goal
50 prompts of the popsugar challenge were finished at the end of October. I could have finished this earlier: I had 40 prompts ticked off in the first half of the year. But the last few prompts always take the longest and I knew I had plenty of time, so I took that. Next year I’ll again be participating in the popsugar reading challenge because I love how it diversifies your reading.
Half of my books should have been on my TBR before 2020 and at the end of the year, 59% of my books were on my TBR before 2020. My TBR is still almost 200 books, but at least it’s not getting any bigger! Next year I’ll definitely include this goal again.
15 non-fiction books were my goal, but I ended up actually reading 40 non-fiction book. Next year I will not have this goal anymore, because it’s too easy to achieve: I finished this goal on June 1st.
15 books by Dutch authors was the prompt I struggled the most with. I have so many books I wanna read, it’s just that not that many of them are by Dutch authors. I ended up reading some books I otherwise wouldn’t have read that I also did not enjoy, so I will not have this goal again. In 2020 I ended up reading 16 books by Dutch authors.
15 ‘own voices’ books was another goal that I will not include because it’s not a challenge anymore: I read 35 of them this year.
Read a book with 1000+ pages was also achieved. I read Pillars of the Earth and World Without End this year, both by Ken Follet, both just over 1000 pages each. The popsugar reading challenge of 2021 actually has a prompt “The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list”, so there will definitely be another 1000+ paged book in 2021!
Read or remove all books that have been on my TBR list for more than 5 years was my last goal and this was the only one I didn’t get. I still have Dune and Anna Karenina on my TBR from 2015. I started with Dune but didn’t get into the story, so I stopped reading after a while and will try again later. Next year I’ll try to finish these, as well as the 5 books from 2016 I still have on my list.
And that was it for 2020! I hope 2021 will also be filled with lots of great books – happy new year!