 Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel. I hope you're good. Welcome back to my channel. Or welcome if you're new. And today we are gonna be going through my 2021 reading goals. That's quite dramatic. Now, I think there's a tendency on Booktube because we do this like reading goals in the year video to like make up shit. I just feel like there's a tendency to like come up with goals. And I just need my reading to be realistic this year. So my goals are things that I think I'm kind of gonna do anyway, but also there's a few things in there that will push me a little bit. We're back in Leeds by the way. I'm having to get used to the awful lighting situation in Leeds basically. Oh my God, shut up. So nasty and so rude. In my flat here in Leeds, that whole wall is a window and you may think Megan that's great for lighting. Apart from, it's like facing where the sun is. And so if the sun's behind a cloud, it's like, oh my God, lovely diffused lighting. But if the sun is like straight out there, like if the sun is not behind anything, I can't have the blinds open and film because I will not be able to see. So we're just having to use other lighting. So I think the title of this is going to be something like reading less this year. Very dramatic. And so the amount of books I want to read this year are... Don't read anything. If you don't read it, it can't harm you. 100 books. 100 was my goal last year. I think if my reading keeps going the way it is right now, it's a nice goal to have. I did end up reading 131 books last year. And I think there's a tendency on BookTube to always want to read more than you have already, especially for me as someone who's like made massive gains in how many books I read every year so far. So in 2018, I read 15 books. In 2019, I read 80 books. And then in 2020, I read 131 books. So that's a massive increase each time. And so part of me is like, what if I read like 180? I'm really interested in having that conversation. I have to tell you that. But it's just not going to be realistic for me. I am going to be in my final year of uni this year. Let's not talk about it. Well, I already am in my final year, but it's going to amp up how busy I am in these kind of first few months of the year from like January to May. I just think I'm not going to be able to read as much as I have been reading. And then after that, do I find a job? But like, what? I know a lot of things, but I don't know about that. I'm not sure why. Obviously the kind of job climate everywhere is awful at the moment because of COVID. So I don't know what the world and my life is going to look like beyond June onwards really. So I don't think I even want to try and go that much about 100 if we're being realistic. Even if I scrape 100 by reading like four graphic novels on the 31st of December, I'm happy with that. A big, big goal of mine this year is to read more new releases as they come out. So I don't think I'm very good at this. I don't think I read that many new releases last year. I don't know, I didn't end up tracking my reading, which we'll get onto. However, I feel like as a Bookshoe channel, you kind of want to hear about new releases from me. The problem with this lighting is I look a little bit like a ghost. Hang on, I'm going to try and fix this. Just come over this way a bit. Then you just see my radiator. Oh my God. Right, we're just going to live with it. What's fair? Right. Life's not fair. Basically, I feel like as a Booktuber, I have a responsibility to tell you about new releases that are coming out and review them. And that's what I want to do. I just never end up getting round to it. So this year, I'm going to try and not really buy many backlist books, apart from if it's like series that I'm currently reading that I want to make progress in. Other than that, I'm really going to try and not buy too many backlist books. And I'm going to try more so and buy just a few new releases every month. I don't want it to be like crazy. I don't want it to be unmanageable. But I would say I'm going to try and get like two to three new releases a month and fit them into my reading somehow. So yeah, trying not to buy too many backlist, reading more new releases this year. Tied into that, I actually want to track my reading this year. I've said in the past that I want to do it and then I'm going to do it and then I never end up doing it. I'm going to be using Allie from Hardback Hordes spreadsheet which she has amazingly made. I would really recommend if you want to track your reading to go check it out. It's such an amazing way to track your reading. So I'm going to be using that like I actually need to do it this year. Wishful thinking. Yeah. You're a dreamer. You dream a lot in your sleep. No, not really. Yes, you do. Like I actually want to do it. I always say I'm going to do it and I never do it. So I need to start the year strong. I need to put my first couple of books in there soon. Then just every time I read a book, just put an end there rather than like letting 10 stack up and then never doing it. And then this will allow me to fulfill my next couple of goals. The first of which is in terms of genres. There's two genres I want to read more of this year. The first is romance and the second is horror. I think I read maybe like three each but I want to read more of them. I want to be a romance horror. So bad. But I don't think I actually own any romance with horror. I got a lot for Christmas. So I'm really excited that I'm like set up for some good horror reads. But I don't think I actually own any romance books. So let me know your recommendations down below for anything I'd enjoy. I have, I think it's his Beauty by Jack Harbin. I have an e-arc of that which I need to read. But that's it. That's all I have. So please give me recommendations for romance books you think I'd enjoy. They're just two genres I don't read much of and if you know me, you know. I love to read like loads of genres. Like I like to dip my toe in pretty every, pretty much every genre. I feel like that just keeps me excited to read and makes me look forward to reading. So yeah, I just want to read some more of them. So let me know if you have any recs for either that you think I'd enjoy. They will be going straight on my wish list, straight on my TBR. Anyway, so I'm in control but I'm out of control and I'm also controlled. So in a way I'm everything. And then my second tracking goal is I want to be reading at least 50% non-white authors a month. There were some months I was doing this in 2020 but I just want to make this a sustained thing. I just want to be reading as diverse as possible and I think there's so many amazing stories out there that we need to speak about. And I think as a booktuber as well, I want to be promoting diverse stories to all of you guys. I also want to read more LGBT books this year. I don't think I read enough of them. Oh, and I, sorry. I forgot I have one other genre goal and that is to be start picking up non-fiction again. I love non-fiction. Like I love it. I love it. I mean, I'm so passionate about it. I used to read 50% non-fiction, 50% fiction before I started my channel. And then because I do themed reading vlogs, they're just hard to fit into them. And also I think on booktube there is just a pressure to just read fiction. However, I love it. I love non-fiction so much. I love learning. I love educating myself. I love reading about different things. And so I just want to try and get to one non-fiction a month at least. And then my last reading goal is to try and read 80 pages a day. I think on average, I do tend to read like if you top up all of my reading for a month. I usually average out about 120 pages a month between 110 and 120 pages a day. But I just want to start reading a fair amount every day. This previously hasn't been the way I read. I will often read like nothing for two days and then read like 300 pages in one day. That's just the way I've read. But I want it to be more sustained. This hasn't started off well the start of the year. I've been in a little bit of a mini slump at the start of the year. I don't really know why. Just this first week of the year. It's nothing major. Like I have read two books already this year. But I'm finding that I can only really pay attention to audiobooks. Like I'm really struggling to read physically. I don't really know why. Hopefully I'll get over that soon. Delusion, convince yourself. I do have a couple YouTube girls. I understand this isn't gonna be stuff everyone wanna watch. You can check on out if you want. Like I'll get it, I'll get it. My first YouTube goal is my subscriber goal. Now I feel kind of weird setting these. Like we're at a point now where my head can't really wrap around the number. And I know like it's not that high. Like I know people have like a lot higher on YouTube but like just even 9,000 people. By the way, I haven't said thank you on here. I do tend to say thank you like on Twitter. But like 9,000 is crazy. And honestly I can't emphasize through enough how much Booktube has like changed my life and doing Booktube and all your support and engaging with you. I feel so lucky, like 9,000 of you. I just can't wrap my head around it. So thank you for just hitting 9K, just reaching 9K. So like subscriber goals are always a bit, I always feel too hopeful. Like I always feel ridiculously hopeful setting them. Last year my end of year goal was 5K. And then we ended up hitting almost 9K by the end of last year. Like I think we hit 9K maybe five days into the year. This year that was crazy. Like my channel grew so much last year. So my goal for this year for subscribers is 15K. And like my head like past 10K, like the fact that we're only 1,000 away from 10K. Like I can't really compute it. Like I can't really imagine that many people. So 15K is a bit of an arbitrary number but I would like to sustain growth on my channel. I think that's normal. I'm just putting it out into the universe. You may say I'm a dreamer. I do want to get better with my branding. Like this is so boring. This is like none of you will care. No one will care. Clap if you care. Clap if you, clap if you care. But I wanna like, you don't understand how to redo my header, my channel header, my video intro and my end screen has been on my to-do list for four months every week. Like every week I do a weekly to-do list. It's been on there every week. Does it ever get done? No, because I'm terrified. I need to just do it. I hate them. Like I hate them so much. I made them in like 20 minutes when I started my channel a year and a half ago. And I think they're ugly and they're basic. Like I don't like them at all. But I just never get round to redoing them. So I wanna have a bit of like a branding overhaul. This is so boring. But I just wanna take the time to find fonts I really like and just create a cohesive branding for the channel for editing purposes, for thumbnail purposes. Like I just think I need a bit of an overhaul in all of that. Cause I just feel like it's looking a bit stale. She was looking a bit crunchy, a little bit dusty. I feel like. And my last general like create-ish, create-ish? Negative. Creative goal is I wanna start using Bookstagram again. I don't use it. But luckily a lot of you follow me over there. So I feel like I should start using it again and engaging with you and like posting stuff. I get overwhelmed at the thought of taking photos. Like I get really overwhelmed because there's some people on Bookstagram obviously who create these like works of art. And then I'm over there like. How does that work? This is not for me. No. That's like a general goal. I wanna stop being afraid of Bookstagram and I just wanna start doing it. So that was all of my 2021 reading and bookish and creator goals. Let me know what some of yours are down below. I would love to know. If you've reached the end of this video, what's a random emoji I like? Hang on. Oh, put the like fingers crossed emoji. Cause we're like hoping it's gonna happen. I'm hoping I'm gonna actually do all these goals because I don't think I did all my goals last year. I'm not reacting to it. We're not looking at that. We're not looking at that. I'm hoping these are goals I can actually stick to. So put the fingers crossed emoji and let me know what some of your reading goals for this year are down below. I'm so excited for this year together. I can't wait. We're gonna have so, so much fun. We have the best time. And thank you so much for watching. I will see you very soon. Bye.