It’s hard to believe that we are already half-way through this horrible year, but we have! And now it’s time to see how I’ve been doing with my goals for the year. To be fair, while things have been crazy in the world, my reading has been amazing, other things in my life, not so much.

When the year began, I chose RESIST as my word of the year, and that has proven to be one of the biggest focuses so far. I haven’t been able to make it to an in person protest (yet), but I have been active in other ways, supporting my local Indivisible organization, sharing important information, and boycotting problematic companies. I’ve also been emailing my representatives, though I’m lucky enough to have reps in my area who support the people and who have been standing up and fighting back.

Reading

As I mentioned above, my reading has been amazing so far this year. I set me reading goal at 150 books, with a stretch goal of 200 for the year. My highest reading year to date was 2024 with 187. So far this year (as of this writing), I’ve finished 122 books, averaging about 20 books per month.

As for the other reading goals I’ve been tracking, here is where I stand:

Daily Reading- I have read at least one chapter every day but one, which I think is incredible.

Focus- I’ve been reading from my 4 focus areas~ ARCs, my 1000 Books Project, Series, and Diverse books

Feedback Ratio- I briefly got my Net Galley feedback ratio to 50%, but then I got a bunch of tour ARCs (and other ARCs), so I slipped back down to 49%. This is still up from the 47% that I started the year with, and a major improvement over the 34% I was at 18 months ago.

Diversify Even More- My goal was to increase my diverse reads from 40% of my total reads to 50%, and I’ve kept that up since the start of the year. I’ve also been able to add more chronically ill, neurodivergent and disabled representation to my reading, which was a goal.

Tracking- I’ve been keeping up on my digital trackers and recently updated my paper tracker as well. I should be able to give a much more detailed breakdown of my reading at the end of the year.

Challenges- I post an update on these every month.

Blogging

I think I’ve done well with my blogging goals for the most part. I’ve been posting consistently and focusing on mostly bookish content, though I do talk about my mental health and the state of the world as well (because I think it’s important).

I am looking at making some changes, however. I am kicking of my personal Happiness Project this month and my first monthly focus will be on the blog. I am committing to working on the back end issues that need fixing and plan to put together a newsletter and social media campaign.

Social Media

I really struggle with my social media presence and have not been successful with the goals I made in this area. I’m not sure what my block is, but I am still committed to working on it.

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On the whole I am really pleased with my personal journey this year. Yes, there are some things that are not going great (like my job search and continued unemployment), but as far as my reading and blogging life, things are good, and I expect them to remain that way through the remainder of 2025.