 Hello my loves! Welcome back to my channel today! I'm excited! Today we're going to be reacting to my 2022 reading goals, seeing if I completed them. Spoiler alert, don't think I did for a lot of them but I think I got close enough that we're gonna be okay. It's not gonna be like, oh my god I'm the worst method ever! And then we're gonna set my 2023 reading goals. So this kind of bookends any kind of reflection that I have left on 2022 and brings us into 2023. I love a new year. I've always said, my whole life I love the beginning of a new year. So I get very excited to set goals. I love setting goals. I love a new beginning. You know, I love the start of a month. I love a Monday. Right? I know a lot of people don't love Mondays. It's getting weird. I love Mondays. I love any fresh beginning, any chance to start again. I love a morning. So I'm a morning person. So yeah, we're gonna be reacting to last year's goals. I cannot remember for the life of me what they are, if I'm honest. I have an inkling but I cannot remember what a lot of them are. There'll probably be a few that I completely forgot about and then we'll chat about the few goals, reading goals and YouTube goals that I have going into 2023. So let's just get into it without any further ado. But before we actually get into the video, I want to take a moment to thank the sponsor of today's video which is Magic Spoon. Magic Spoon is cereal reinvented. It is so, so cool. Their variety pack comes with four delicious flavours, cocoa, fruity, frosted and peanut butter. I love frosted. Frosted is by far my favourite. It is so tasty. Magic Spoon cereals have 0 grams of sugar, 13 to 14 grams of protein and 4 to 5 net grams of carbs in each serving and only 140 calories in each serving. They are also keto friendly, gluten free, grain free and soy free. In 2023, I know we're talking about goals in this video and one of my goals has been to add more protein into my diet and Magic Spoon has just been such a great way of doing that in like a delicious way. Cereal, but it has protein in it. And yeah, I've really been loving it to up my protein. So start your new year off right with Magic Spoon. Make sure you guys click link down below to grab a variety pack of Magic Spoon and to try it out today. Be sure to use my code MegwithBooks at checkout to get $5 off of any order or go to magicspoon.com forward slash MegwithBooks and something that is so great is that Magic Spoon are so confident in their product they have 100% happiness guarantee. So if for any reason you don't like it they will refund your money, no questions asked. So click the link down below and use the code MegwithBooks for $5 off or go to magicspoon.com forward slash MegwithBooks to save $5 today. Okay, I've got to find the video. Just keep scrolling, just keep scrolling, just keep scrolling, scrolling. Got it. Okay, I want to read 150 books this year. I've been thinking about it, I've been thinking about it and I was like, I think I can do it. Okay, why? That didn't happen. I did not read 150 books in 2022. I read 132, which was the most I'd ever read in a single year. Before that, the most I've read in a year was 131. I spoke about this numerous times in the past couple videos, but basically I just had a rough start to 2022 and didn't read a ton. I think for the really the first half of 2022, I didn't feel like myself. I was struggling a bit mentally. I was struggling with YouTube. So yeah, I'm happy with 132. I changed my reading goal to that in like September time because I accepted defeat that 150 probably wasn't going to happen. But I feel like my reading has gotten pretty consistent now and I'm personally in January, I'm actually not aiming to read loads actually, but I say that I am now going to read loads. But I did tell a bit of a lie there. For videos, I haven't got a ton of reading vlogs coming out in January. I'm trying to focus on my health a lot more in January. It's something that I didn't prioritize as much as I wanted to, both physical and mental health in 2022. And I'm hoping that if I give it a lot of focus in January, that focus would just naturally continue into the rest of the year. So I wasn't going to be reading many books. I was probably going to be reading like one, two, hang on, maths. Seven books. I was planning on reading in January, but I'm now probably going to be reading the whole The Way Which Holden series in a couple weekends maybe. Like a buddy read thing that I'm doing. But yes, no, I'm not upset that I didn't reach 150 books now because I already accepted defeat many months ago. This year is going to be the year of finishing series. I thought, what is realistic? What's realistic? I've decided my goal by the end of the year is to be in the middle of 26 series. Wait, what? Wait, what? Wait, wait, wait. I've got that I set the goal to 29. What did I say in my series wrap up? Did I say 26 or 29? What did I say was the goal? I thought I, maybe this is just something I thought today. I don't know if this is a misconception I've had today. You'll know that a big goal for me this year was to get my number of series down, currently reading series down to 26. You don't think you said all this stuff? Hold on, let Candy talk. Your asses don't take stand. No, maybe it was 26 I said it to you. Well, obviously it was 26. And here's what it is. I think I ended 2022 on 33 series currently reading in the middle of, so I didn't reach it. But in that video I spoke about how the goal did what I wanted it to where I really changed my habits around with series with just reading the first book in a series and then not continuing. I started so, so many less series last year and finished so many more than I ever have. So yeah, on the whole, again, I'm not upset with this is what I'm saying. I didn't reach that particular goal, but it's fine because I kind of did what the goal was asking me to do. I made that habit change, which I think is what you can ask, right? It's just an arbitrary number that I made up. It doesn't really mean anything. The habit change is what means something. So I have got another series goal this year, which we'll chat about later. I want to talk about it, but I know I'm getting ahead of myself. And then I just have two kind of mini goals around genres. So nonfiction, right? The past two years, I have set the goal of reading one a month, one a month minimum, so 12 a year, and I have failed it. So this year, I've decided to up it. And I want to read 15 nonfiction books this year, 15. Oh my god. I thought I said it to 12 again. I thought I said it to 12 again that year. I might exit this conversation now. Turns out I said it to 15. I didn't. I think I read 11 nonfiction books. Which isn't terrible. Again, I would like to up it. I've said many times, if you've watched my videos, I feel like I'm broken record, but some of you are new, so I have to repeat stuff. God. When I started reading, I would read one fiction book, one nonfiction, one fiction, one nonfiction. I read so much more nonfiction back when I started reading. And I love nonfiction. It's just that, A, I feel like not as many people are interested or might not as much my audience are interested in nonfiction. And it's like fitting it into videos is sometimes tough. But I would like, I haven't got a nonfiction goal, like definitive goal this year, but I would like to again read probably about 15 nonfiction at least, at least. Oh my God, I can't believe I said it to 15. Didn't happen. But 11 isn't too far off, right? I feel like that's more than I read in years previous. So again, setting a higher goal, even though I didn't reach it, helped me up it. And then my last goal is to read six classics. So in 2021, I did not read a single classic. How did that go for you, Megan? How did that go for you? How did that go for you? How did that go for you? All right, so in 2022, depending on how you want to class it, I think I read two or one classics, right? I read Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, which was definitely a classic. And if you want to count Perilla Endhouse by Cathy Christie as a classic, then I read two. If you don't want to class that as a classic, then I read one. So I was going to start a video series in 2022 that would involve reading a lot of classics and I didn't do it. I would like to still do that series. Maybe I'll start in 2023. I just never started the series because I kept putting it off because I kept off putting reading classics, right? It's just my problem, okay? I can admit it's a problem. Yeah, I want to be a classic reading girlie. I want to be reading Pride and Prejudice. I want to be reading Sherlock Holmes, Little Women, but like they're long. I don't have the time. Get your ass up and work. Okay, then I think I set some YouTube goals. So let's see what they are. I also, okay, let's just say these next two goals together. We'll chat about them in conjunction. I want one video that gets over 25K views, and I want to push myself to take more risks in the videos I'm making. Okay, so I do feel like I took more risks with some of the content that I made this year. I was really proud of a lot of my videos I made this year. I don't want to shout any videos out because like, you know, a bit awks, but on the whole I would say I'm really happy with the content that I made this year. I'm really proud, especially I'd say the second half of the year I really started like getting into it again. I feel like the first half of the year I was in a personal funk. I was in a YouTube funk. It just wasn't going great, but there's some videos in the second half of the year, especially that I'm really proud of that I made. There was one in particular that I got no views. It was a history of celebrities writing books, but I loved that video. Like I thought that video was so much fun. I loved the video where I tried to solve a murder mystery and had a whole crime board and I loved a lot of the normal vlogs that I did this year as well. Now in terms of having a video that reached 25k views, this is an interesting one. So I will try and I'll screen record on my laptop and show you some of this data. I would say I did reach this. So my most viewed video ever is now my where to start with murder mystery books with 27,000 views. So that's above 25, obviously we all know numbers. That technically I did upload in 2021, but I think you'll see the numbers on the screen. I'll show you, but I think at the beginning of 2022 it only had about 5k views. It hadn't really picked up. It had been really just like it got its views when it came out and then hadn't got many more views. And then it really hit the algorithm and the search I think particularly like murder mystery books, YouTube search, and it's now got 27k. So I feel like that does count. Technically it was uploaded in 2021, but I did have a video reach over 25k views in 2022. So I feel like it counts. Also the most popular video that I uploaded this year, well there's two actually, my top 10 murder mystery books of all time. Oh that's reached 25k views. Oh great, okay. That's great. I did upload that in 2022, my top 10 murder mystery books of all time. And then the video that is very soon going to become my most viewed video of all time is my reading the top 10 mystery thriller books of 2022, The Goodreads Choice Awards nominees. That's got 24k views in three weeks. So that's definitely going to hit over 25k in the coming days, weeks. So I think I've reached that goal. You know, my most viewed video, it got most of its views this year and then we've got those other two videos that I don't know if my top 10 murder mystery books of all time ranked quite got 25k in 2022. That's the only thing I'm not sure about. But like I feel like across those three, we've reached that goal. You know. Okay so that was our 2022 reading and YouTube goals. I'm pretty happy. Listen, classics, nonfiction. I don't think I reached a single reading goal. Cut the cameras. But like I said, it's not terrible and this is just for fun, right? And I feel like every year I'm getting better at knowing what reading goals I'm actually going to reach and setting better ones. We're slowly getting there, right? I've only been setting reading goals for like two years maybe. So I'm slowly getting better at actually doing attainable things. So let's chat about the few YouTube and reading goals that I have for this year very quickly. There's not many and they're not very interesting. I'm going to tell you right now. So in terms of books, in terms of the amount of books I would like to read in 2022, I'm setting my Goodreads goal to 100 books, okay? I discovered I do not do well with negative feedback. I need positive affirmation, okay? So Goodreads ever telling me I'm one book behind schedule. I'm five books behind schedule. That does not motivate me to read more. That motivates me to read less because I get panicky. I get anxious. I hate it. So I'm setting it to 100 so that it keeps telling me, oh my God, you're doing so well. You're so ahead of schedule. But I would, in the back of my mind, I would really like to reach 150 books for the first time ever this year. Barring, touch wood, anything going wrong in my life. I feel like I can do it. I feel like I've been reading pretty consistently like 11 to 14 books the past couple months. How many books do you have to read a month on average to like reach 150? 12.5, that's what I thought. So I've been reading around and about that for the past couple months. So I think we're gonna do it, okay? But I'm setting my goal to 100 and if it's over 100, I'm happy. I mentioned series and my goal this year with series I mentioned in the series wrap up video is just to have a net negative with how many series I'm starting and finishing. So I'm starting the year on actually 34. I didn't add this to last year's statistics but I realized that was a series I wasn't counting. It's the sanatorium. I don't know where the sanatorium is. I hadn't added this to the series spreadsheet but I have read the sanatorium by Sarah Pierce. This is an arc that I got and I have now got, I got it for Christmas, the retreat by Sarah Pierce. And this is like individual murder mystery thriller books but following the same detective, following the same character is a series and I hadn't put that on there. So that takes us to 34 starting the year. So in 2023 I would just like to get to at least 33 series currently reading. That's all I'm asking for. It won't be a flop. I'm confident. I want a bit more freedom with being able to start a few more series this year not being so strict on it but I want to keep finishing series. I want to keep that goal. I will still do maybe a few series wipeout videos this year where I finish a whole series in a vlog because I really did enjoy doing those. So yeah I feel like that goal is very attainable and something that I will still have to keep my eye on. I can't just start books and series with reckless abandon but I feel like I have now solidified the habit of finishing series rather than just starting loads and that goal is just to kind of keep me accountable in that. I'd say probably my biggest and most difficult reading goal coming this year is I want to get my physical TBR to under 200 books and I know that sounds ridiculous because I remember when I started my channel I think I had like 30 books, 30 physical books and I was like that's so much. I'd like just bought loads of books and I was like 30? 30? I was like what is going on? Yeah now I have, I started 2023 on 227 currently owned physical TBR books and I would like to get that under 200. Now I know that sounds easy it's only like 27 books but I'm constantly you know buying new releases, we'll chat about that in a second hauling new releases so there is constantly new books coming in so yeah I hope to get it under 200. I would really like to get it closer to like 150, I don't know if that is realistic like 160, 170, like something around that. I would really like to just get it lower. I feel like the sweet spot for me was when I had like about 120 on my physical TBR, we're over 100 over that so I would really like to like get it slowly down to that kind of level if we can. Don't know how realistic it is, I feel like under 200 I can definitely do but anything lower than that we are pushing it but I would like to get it as low as I possibly can but that involves buying less books and reading a lot more. The more that I read the closer we get to it so and then my final 2023 reading goal, I told you there was not many I'm trying to keep it really realistic. My final one is to read more 2023 new releases than I read in 2022 so I feel like I'm getting better at reading new releases when they come out but I'm still not great at it. I see some people, some booktubers read like a hundred 2022 releases last year. I read I think 33 which isn't terrible, you know I read 130 books, 33 of them were new releases but I would like to do more so even if it's 34 again I'm happy. All I'm asking is one more because yeah I would like to read more new releases when they come out and I think it's fun to read new releases when they come out and when you're excited or when your pre-order comes in and when like everyone's hyped for it you know. Some of my favorite memories of reading this year are when I read new releases as they came out and everyone was talking about it and you guys were just reading it, we got to read it together and I know I want to read new releases when they come out so that you guys know what you should be picking up and what you might enjoy that's coming out so that's the aim. Don't know how I'll do it, no I really think I can do it. I really think all these reading goals are realistic. Is it forward to me in like 2024? 2024? Oh my I'm gonna be 24. My god. We are going to pretend we didn't hear that. My birthday's on January 28th and I'm gonna be telling 23 and I'm like you can always tell how old I am by what year it is and I'm like oh yeah it's like getting old. It's getting serious guys. I've got to be an adult and I feel like I'm not an adult. Anyways 2024, saying 24 just gave me like a little bit of a crisis moment there. Yes I feel like these are all realistic and I won't be here in 2024 telling you oh I didn't reach any of them. I feel like they're all stuff I can do. YouTube I don't have any massive goals. I guess a goal this is something that we can necessarily like quantify but I would like to try and make more videos that the wider YouTube audience would want to watch. That's the goal. I feel like I started doing it this year. I feel like sometimes the videos I make are a bit niche and the kind of stuff that like people who watch a lot of booktube are gonna want to watch but I want to be better at tuning into what like the general population might con as like the occasional book video. Do you know what I mean? So that's my goal I would say this year. That's not quantifiable but I would really like to achieve. So yeah those are my goals for this year. I told you they weren't very exciting but I love setting goals and I feel like these are all ones that are attainable, keep me accountable but still a little bit of a challenge. Let me know some of your goals either your 2022 goals and whether you achieved them or not or let me know what some of your 2023 reading goals are. I would love to know. So I hope you have a good rest of your day. If you got to the end of the video comment the heart hands emoji. That's a new favourite one for me. The heart hands. Whoa. I comment the new heart. It's not new but it's not on my laptop so I view it as new. What am I even saying? Comment that down below if you got to the end. Thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you very soon in another video. Bye!