Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014!

Happy 2014! Hope it's a delightful year for everyone. 2013 had its ups and downs for me but I definitely ended the year much happier than I started it, so I'm excited to see where 2014 takes me! However, I didn't blog anywhere near as much as I wanted to in 2013, especially in the latter part of the year. One of my goals for this year is to get back into regular blogging, bring back some of my features, create new ones and review every book as soon as I've finished it! At the moment I'm about 14 reviews behind, eek! So expect a lot of reviews from me in the next week or so because I really want to catch up and start off on a good foot.

I did a lot better on my 2013 challenges than I did on the previous year. Still not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with my progress:

• Aussie Author Challenge: Aimed to read 12 Aussie authors, and I read 20! Yay!
• Australian Women Writers Challenge: Aimed to read 10 books by Aussie women and I read 17. An improvement on the year before.
• TBR Reading Challenge: Aimed to read 36 books from my 2012 TBR pile, and I got through 20. Not awesome.
• Goodreads Reading Challenge: Aimed to read 75 books, and I finished 71. So close!

All in all I think I did well. The key for me seems to be not doing too many challenges. So this year, I'm focusing on:

Aussie Author Challenge, hosted by Booklover Book Reviews.

Aim: "Kangaroo" level.

- Read and review 12 titles written by Australian Authors of which at least 4 of those authors are female, at least 4 of those authors are male, and at least 4 of those authors are new to you;
- At least 6 fiction and at least 2 non-fiction, and at least 3 titles first published in 2013 or 2014.

Australian Women Writers Challenge, hosted on its own dedicated page.

Aim: I want to read 20 books by Australian women this year. 

Audiobook Challenge, hosted by Hot Listens and the Book Nympho

Aim: "Stenographer" level.

-Listen to 10-15 audiobooks.

New Release Challenge (a personal challenge)

Aim: Keeping up with the Publishers 

-Read at least one new release a month, a total of 12 books published in 2014.

Goodreads Challenge

Aim: Read 75 books.

Here's to blitzing goals this year!

Top Ten Bookish Goals For 2013

1. Read more than last year. My goal for 2012 was to read 100 books, and I failed miserably. This year I'm aiming for 75, but I'd like to at least read 52 - one per week, and one more than last year.
2. Blog regularly. The first half of last year was taken up with wedding planning and then the actual wedding, and then it was hard to get back into a good blogging rhythm. But I feel like I'm off to a good start this year, and plan on posting at least five times a weak, as I did when I first began my blog.
3. Stay up-to-date with reviews. A big problem with my blogging last year was getting behind on reviews. At one stage I was nine books behind! It created unnecessary stress and made it harder to actually write the reviews when I finally got around to it. This year I intend to write reviews on the day I finish the book. So far, so good!
4. Ignore the drama. I feel like 2012 was the Year of the Drama Llama in the book blogging community. I've made a conscious decision to step back and ignore it all (although hopefully it doesn't happen this year!). It just sucks the fun out of blogging.
5. Read more classics. Back in my uni days, the classics took up the majority of the books I read. Some of it was for my English Literature major, but a lot of it was just for fun. When I started working full time I had much less time on my hands and found myself drawn to quick and easy reads. Now I want to get back into reading the classics, so I'm aiming to read at least six this year. That's only one every couple of months - I think I can do that!
6. Finish all of my challenges. I signed up for waaay too many challenges in 2012 and failed most of them. This year I'm only doing four and I intend to complete them all. That means reading at least 12 Aussie books for one challenge, 10 by Australian women writers for another (obviously these will overlap), knocking at least 36 books off my TBR pile, and, as stated above, reading 75 books in total.
7. Buy less books. I have a bit of a book buying addiction. There was one stage last year where I was getting packages nearly every day, and half the time I couldn't even remember what I'd ordered. Indeed, I ended up ordering multiple copies of a couple of things! This year I need to make sure I read the books I already own and...
8. Use the library more (and get books back on time). I finally joined my local library last year after living in the area for four years. I used it quite a bit at first but then I racked up some heavy fines and have been too chicken to go back since. I need to square off my debts and get back into it. That, or sign the husband up for a card and use his. Mwahaha.
9. Read books I've been meaning to get to for ages. Like those in last week's Top Ten.
10. Reread some of my favourites. I've only reread one book since starting my blog, because I'm inundated with new books I want to read all the time, but I really miss revisiting some of my favourites - like Jane Austen, for instance. I've also been contemplating reading some of my childhood faves, like The Babysitter's Club, but I think that would be a bigger project that I need to plan out and right now I'm just concentrating on getting my blogging mojo back.

What are your bookish goals for 2013?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.