2016 Blogging and Bookish Life Resolutions

I’ve never done Blogging/Bookish Life resolutions before, but after I saw that Bella was doing them, I realized what  an awesome idea it was!  I try and do resolutions every year, but this year I was more systematic and categorized my resolutions by topic.  This made it naturally easier to separate resolutions relating to my blog/bookish life, and inspired me even further to share them.

I didn’t spend a lot of time in 2015 thinking about audiobooks (I was sort of running around the whole time like a chicken with its head cut off).  However, I am fond of audio books and would like to listen to them more!  Now that I have my license, I have a drive twice a day with the perfect amount of time to get into a book.  I’ve been meaning to listen to The Raven Cycle in preparation for The Raven King‘s release in 2016.

Blogger envy has never been  a super huge issue for me, but I’m determined to not let the bug catch me in 2016.  I love being part of the blogging community, which means that I love supporting other individuals that might get bookish perks that I don’t have in my life.  And honestly, its okay.  I know that I sometimes get things that other people don’t get and in the end, we’re al just trying to support authors and the book industry (as well as cultivate our undying love for the written word).  All of this aside, I LOVE becoming inspired by other bloggers/bookstagramers/booktubers.  Grace | Cait |  Alexandra are some of my most inspirational favs right now.
I read a lot of blogs.  I really do.  And I often have things to say, but rarely do I take the time to write a comment.  I want to really work on this in 2016, not only because I know how meaningful it is to receive comments, but because I think it’s an important and fun way to support the community.
I found out in December that my mom and I will be attending #BEA2016.  (If you don’t know what BEA is, here’s more info).  This is going to be the biggest blogging event that I’ve ever attended, and certainly more on the professional side than the more consumer based events I’ve participated in before.  This is a big moment for me personally; not only and I’m super stoked about the whole thing, but this sort of makes my whole blogging/book reviewing thing feel more real.  Sometimes its hard when almost all of my blogging communication is done online, but this will be an opportunity to connect in person with people across the industry.  I’m beyond excited.

This was not a major focus of mine in 2015, but its a big professional step that I want to work towards as the year goes on.  I want to focus on books that I’m really excited for in 2016, and think that this is a fun way to do it.

For a long time I made it an important part of my blogging identity to not keep track of statistics because I didn’t want to focus on the numbers.  However, as I grow more professional in my blogging/reviewing are an important part of presenting yourself as reputable.  Bottom line though, the numbers really DON’T matter.  Content is the most important thing for me, and I don’t think that stat tracking is going to change that.

I’ve got a pretty sprawling list of ideas in my journal right now of things that I want to write, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.  Some of them are things that are ready to go, others need a little more brainstorming/planning.  I want to spend some time in 2016 cultivating and organizing this original content and mix it amongst reviews/memes.

I revamped my blog about a year and a half ago and overall am quite happy with the changes.  However, I’m itching for something a little more personalized.  Luckily, Hazel of Stay Bookish opened up her shop again (with some very affordable prices).  If I redesign, I’d like to do it before BEA so that I can have an even more professional front, but that’s actually quite soon.  I need to think the whole thing over in my mind some more.

I buy a lot of books.  They are pretty much my favorite thing to buy.  However, this (expensive) habit means that lots of tbr books are sitting un read on my shelves.  I want 2016 to be a year that I work on reading more of those.  This way I can purge some to a local Little Free Library and make room for new books, although I’ll probably end up keeping most of them.

Part of my #7 involves some awesome ideas for collab posts, which I’m really excited to develop.  Lara and I are continuing our monthly #epicrecs recommendations which are super fun (as always).  I’m planning on doing more Let’s Have Dinners and cultivating the evolution of that feature.  In addition, I want to spend some time in 2016 dreaming up even more ways to collaborate with other bloggers, because I think it’s just SO fun.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I read a lot of YA contemporary.  It’s pretty obvious, even with just a glance at my Goodreads 2015.  But the problem is, contemporary is NOT my favorite genre.  Yes, some of my favorite books are contemporaries, but I prefer other genres.  Some circumstances or another have caused me to (lately) be reading way more contemporary than I’d like to, so I want to make a conscious effort in 2016 to read other genres.

I claim to be a huge support of #weneeddiverseya, but I don’t really make an effort to specifically read Diverse YA.  When I do, it always is a big deal for me but I want to make more strides to seek it out in the YA genre.  This is an easy way to spread the movement and share diverse YA with others.

This resolution is inspired by Lucy’s discussion post about reading records.  I sort of do this sporadically on Goodreads, but I want to do this more.  I haven’t decided if Goodreads is the perfect medium, I might end up just writing them down in my journal.  Needless to say, it will be a fun new thing to include in reviews!

This has been really fun, but now you all are responsible for keeping me on track with all these goals! 😀  What are your 2016 resolutions?